We can’t pinpoint the official first wristwatch to ever be invented — one camp will claim it’s the Cartier Santos Dumont (1904) and the other, the Girard-Perregaux watch donned by German naval officers (1880). However, both timepieces commonly possess the no-frills sensibility we expect in today’s age when life’s pace is quicker and technology gets smarter — they need to be able to tell us the time upon first glance.

Watch aficionados might laud the merits of complications in watches (like a counter chronograph or annual calendar) but these five are winners in our books for one reason — they tell time, simply.

Photography: Long Fei.
Art Direction: Jeremy Ang.

Bell & Ross BR03-92 MA-1
This Bell & Ross number pays homage to the MA-1 flight bomber jacket without the heaviness of the latter — casual best as its finest.

Hermès Arceau 78
The bezel is sandblasted, its face numbers are inspired by the galloping of a horse and it comes with a handsome calf leather strap — If these doesn't sound sexy, nothing else is.

Montblanc Heritage Automatic
Pleasingly vintage-looking without the hang-up of being passé, the Heritage Automatic is also aesthetically handsome.

Rado True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier
One eye into the past to celebrate famed architect, Le Corbusier and one eye into the future with its high-tech ceramic, Rado's new watch is the latest face of the Swiss horology house.

TAG Heuer Autavia Isograph
The birth of the Autavia saw them on the Kenyan and Argentine air force, and fast forward a few decades later, they're the rugged watch for the everyday man.