If you persist with your argument, the heading of this story alone will spark much debate around the bar or even fisticuffs at your local RedBar GTG. No one can deny the pure functionality of a watch date window, and we forget that it is an actual complication with a purpose. But in our world of having all the information at our swiping fingertips, the watch has, for many, become something else—a talisman, even a male piece of jewellery where the date is an unbalanced distraction.
We firmly disagree and embrace the still important and frankly necessary information a date window provides. Even if many of you only think it’s needed on a sun-drenched holiday when you forget what day it is. Because you don’t want to arrive at the airport a day late for your return flight, right? Some brands agree wholeheartedly with us and eschew the plain square opening at three for elaborate celebrations of this small but significant complication, while others attempt to hide it within complex open-worked marvels.
Date at 3 O’Clock
The most prevalent position of a watch date window is at three o’clock, where, in many cases, it supplants the Roman or Arabic numeral altogether. Its functional look has become divisive on pure tool watches and minimal dress pieces, but it doesn’t take away from its useful nature. Laurent Ferrier has gone against the current, making the actual window a strong part of its brand identity, and it works like a charm. With a slope starting from just right of the dial centre and its crosshair design, it widens to become a big part of the dial, with the crosshair becoming a pinstripe frame. You’ll find this delightful feature in their Sport models, spectacularly making a dressy cameo in the Classic Auto Sandstone Série Atelier VI this summer.
Big Date
The concept of a Big Date is mostly associated with the German watchmaking enclave of Glashütte, and grail watches like the A.Lange & Söhne Datograph Flyback Chronograph. This is a Godsend for date window lovers, as there is no mistaking the big twin-window display just below 12 o’clock. With twin date wheels synched as only Lange knows how to, a curvaceous serifed font fills the twin windows with a crisp black-on-white date. The big date’s prominence is needed when fitted to an immaculate dial in a weighty platinum case, as it will have its work cut out to catch your attention.
Circular Date
A pertinent question to the watch brands might be why most watch date windows are square when dials are circular. Being familiar with even the briefest design vocabularies, logic would dictate a square opening on a square dial and a circular cut-out on a round dial, right? Dior seems to have got the memo, to the extent that their Chiffre Rouge has smugly underlined its shape-matching perfection. Each watch in the range features a black aesthetic and a prominent bullseye date at four o’clock. With a healthy dose of French sartorial chic, each window is framed by three red circles, with a vivid red font for the eighth, which is Monsieur Dior’s lucky number.
Open-Worked Date
Hublot plays a strong open-worked game, with nigh-on 90% of their watches offering a tantalising glimpse into their inner workings. The Aerofusion Black Magic is a prime example of its stealthy splendour, boasting a scratch-proof black ceramic case that is part of the more restrained Classic Fusion line. You might have to search within its dark architecture, but the in-house HUB1155 self-winding movement features a skeletonised date wheel. It resides behind the sapphire dial and is shown in its micro-engineered entirety, with a white square behind the toothed wheel at six o’clock, implying today’s date. It’s not easy to combine an all-black aesthetic with a sense of clarity, but Hublot does it with dark-toned aplomb.
Subdial Date
I’m a big fan of the big 44mm IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar in its ice-blue version, despite its oddly asymmetric date window at 7:30, which throws the quad-circular design off its info-packed balance. Subtly rendered in a matching blue, it is a date window but not as we know it. It marks the year with four digits, while the day and date are shown within the twin opposed sub-dials at three and nine. They also include the running seconds and a seven-day power reserve, offering exemplary legibility.
Twin Date Wheels
Microbrand, Zelos is known for its playful designs and love of materials we normally see in much more expensive watches. In their titanium Spearfish Dual Time, we are treated to the German touch of a twin-wheel watch date window display at 12 o’clock with a difference. The dial is clear sapphire, which shows the machine-made perlage on the Swiss Sellita SW300 calibre with a TT651 Module. Its most prominent feature is seeing the small twin date wheels and their modern fonts as they meet under a small, framed window cut out of the sapphire.
Non-Date Date
If two words were not meant to be together, it’s these two. But back in 2023, Rolex threw caution to the wind. And they did so with a watch that made some of us sit up and notice, if only for its out-there design. The Rolex Day-Date Puzzle Dial smashed all preconceptions of the grounded brand with a puzzle-enamel dial and a thorough rethink of the traditional day and watch date windows. Consider it a cheeky nod to the fact that a solid gold Day-Date is perceived more as jewellery than a timepiece. The day window offers inspiring capitalised words like LOVE and the date window at three. Well, it boasts emojis rather than dates. Yes, an actual Rolex timepiece with a smiley, a ladybird and other symbols appearing under the storied cyclops, changing at midnight for your delight.
Abstract Date
Having been in conversation with half of the tech-watchmaking brand’s duo, Martin Frei, in Geneva, their ethos of innovation is clear. The UR-1001 is a great example of their big but wearable output, which we’re not sure we can even call wristwatches. The stealthy machine is perhaps their only model offering a date indication. Within an opening at 11 that offers a glimpse of the complexities within, a central star-shaped indicator has four months on each rotating arm, the current one acting as an indicator to a retrograde date display. And like all of Urwerk’s stealthy creations it has a beguiling blend of legibility and spacecraft-cool that’ll make you the talking point of any local RedBar GTG.
Oracle Time