Interesting new movement from Miyota

[PhilipK]

Any particular reason why you've gone without a date, Eddie? It's the one thing that would put me off buying this as a travelling watch.

[rodia77]

Pretty design, but a GMT without date seems incomplete to me and an odd choice given the movement comes with date originally.

[swanbourne]

Any particular reason why you've gone without a date, Eddie? It's the one thing that would put me off buying this as a travelling watch.

For a date function to be really useful it should have two dates. For instance, if it was 6AM in London on 11 November, it would be 10PM on 10 November in California. The date would only apply to the timezone of the display on the main hour and minute hands. Besides, date windows spoil the symmetry of the dial.

Eddie

[swanksteak]

100% agree!

… date windows spoil the symmetry of the dial.

Eddie

[Dave E]

That looks really good.

[sweets]

I agree, and I also think a date window doesn't sit so well on a very traditional dial like this, effectively a design that looks like it comes from a time when date complications didn't exist.
No date looks great here.

[HappyJack]

I agree, and I also think a date window doesn't sit so well on a very traditional dial like this, effectively a design that looks like it comes from a time when date complications didn't exist.
No date looks great here.

Dave - what do you have against watches with dates? IIRC w had a similar discussion about the Mission Timer - a watch that I would definitely buy, if it had a date. I appreciate that the Vanguard has styling cues from 1960s watches such as the no-date Omega SM300, but when Rolex introduced the GMT it had a date.

A travel-type GMT is the one type of watch when you most certainly need a date. When you're travelling across time zones it's very easy to get confused about the date. For example, taking an afternoon or evening flight from London to Sydney, you'll be in the air on three different dates. It's useful to know what date it is, now. And, as a former professional but now unpaid Navigator, if you're using a watch like this for navigation, especially old-school celestial navigation, which I still practice when sailing offshore, you can't navigate without knowing the local date. Even for local navigation you need to know the date when checking tide tables, weather forecasts, etc.

If you're that concerned about symmetry, let's have a date at 6, like the Breguet XXI.

But, please, please, let's have a date.

[Planet Ocean]

100% agree!

I second that....