Two-tone watches have been out of fashion for a long time. Many people see them as the province of golf dads and used car salesmen.
In the 90s and 2000s these watches, usually Rolexes if we’re being honest, felt more at home at a midwestern steakhouse bar than in a serious collector’s safe.
In the 80s however, it was a different story.
Miami Vice ruled the airwaves and Don Johnson, as vice squad detective Sonny Crockett, was the king of cool. Johnson speeding through the Miami night in a Ferrari Daytona with a Rolex dripping from his wrist is an iconic image from the period. Patrick Bateman, the archetypal yuppy from Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, wears one as well. The mixed metals watch is a perfect metaphor for the optimism and consumerism of President Reagan’s America.
Now that we are into the 2020s, it’s time for the return of the two-tone. It’s hot vax summer and everyone is ready to party. The steel sports watch trend is starting to feel tired and intrepid collectors are exploring what the British call bi-color. These watches look great on many skin tones and give the pizaz of gold without being as fragile as a solid precious metal piece.
They are perfect for someone looking to be different. Below are the best two-tones available right now.
OMEGA SEAMASTER 300m
This dive watch is my personal favorite, in fact I recently purchased one from the Omega boutique in the Miami Design District. My choice was the black face two tone in Sedna gold on a Rubber strap.
With the specs the seamaster is perfect for Florida summer. The Sedna rose gold is not as in your face as yellow gold and looks perfect against tan skin. A rubber strap does not get funky with sweat and effortlessly makes the transition from the boat to the beach to the bar.
And it all comes with Omega’s insane attention to detail. These watches pass the METAS test (The Federal Institute of Metrology) to receive the master Chronometer Certification. This means that the watch has been certified twice, and has passed 8 different tests related to the quality, durability, and accuracy. The in-house Co-Axial movement is very reliable and worth admiring through the display case back.
Holding and wearing the timepiece, the quality is self-evident. The black ceramic dial has subtle waves carved to it and the skeletonized hands are refined yet masculine. 42mm is perfect for my large wrists and the watch has a surprising low profile which is great for a shirt cuff, letting the ceramic and rose gold bezel peak out.
Cartier Santos
The only character more 80s than Sonny Crockett or Patrick Bateman is Gordon Gekko. Insider trading Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in Oliver’s Stone’s film Wall Street, flashes a dressy Santos as he evangelizes his greed is good philosophy.
Like this belief system, two-tone watches did not hold up well when the 90s arrived. Dress watches have done even worse as the Royal Oak Offshore, then Panerai, changed the size game. The financial crisis caused a fetization of utility at the expense of pieces like the Cartier Santos.
But times are changing. While bitcoin millionaires and Reddit Robinhood traders may not take to the power suit, they can be seduced by the two tone dress watch.
Despite being considered a dress watch today, the Cartier Santos Dumont is in fact a pilot's watch, giving it a fig leaf of sporty respectability. Elegant gold hands that match a refined gold bezel look perfect against a black dial. Personally I would go for a black leather strap, but a Gekkoesque bracelet is available.
An in-house, manually wound Cartier movement keeps the case thin and streamlined.
This is the perfect choice for an 80s inspired dress watch.
Rolex “Root Beer” GMT
First released in the 60s, The “root beer”, named after it’s soda colored bezel, is not the most iconic two tone Rolex. That honor falls to the venerable datejust. This version of the GMT, however, wins the award as most distinctive.
It certainly caught Clint Eastwood’s eye. He wore this watch throughout the 80s and made of point of using it in several of his films. While it didn’t get the status of a Newman Daytona or a McQueen Explorer, the Root Beer has a venerable Hollywood royal pedigree all its own.
With the current version, Rolex really nailed it. When it came out in 2018, after a long hiatus, the new Root Beer GMT was the first watch to combine Rolex’s proprietary everose gold with oystersteel. It is equipped with a new version of the GMT II movement that takes advantage of Rolex's Chronergy escapement and offers improved efficiency.
Many aficionados were at first skeptical. The brown, gold, and black color choices of the new version did not precisely map onto those of the historic model and Rolex fan boy’s are not known for their love of change. Opinions on the colors are in the eye of the beholder, I for one love them. The color on the ceramic bezel particularly stands out to me.
To help the old guard swallow the slightly bitter color pill, the watch maintains the classic 40mm rolex GMT size.
GMT watches, which display two time zones, are some of my favorite complications. This watch is perfect for the globetrotting bon vivant nostalgic for the days of the Concorde but happy for modern horology.
Let It Drip
The two tone takes a certain sprezzatura, Italian for studied carelessness, to pull off. There is a maximalist quality to two tone that requires a certain jovial irony, you have to let it drip.
When sizing your watch, leave one more extra link than the jeweler advises or let the leather strap ride on hole looser than you would normally. The watch should bounce around your wrist, even occasionally float on the palm side. This goes for your shirt as well, loose one more button than you’re normally comfortable with.
The point is to show that you DGAF
You may have a fancy watch but you don’t take it too seriously, the point of two-tone is to have a good time. Neither as functional as steel or ostentatious as gold, it’s a relaxed alternative to everything stuffy. It’s been a difficult year and we all deserve some fun in our lives. It’s time to relax and embrace two-tone.