Santa was listening! My latest timepiece - Mondaine A672 'Simply Elegant', a classic, timeless design statement (note the lack of date display). I love its simplicity and also as a memory of a rather fateful holiday in Switzerland this last summer. The trains ran on time (thanks to the famous Swiss Railway clocks) but my cycling prowess (well, lack of) resulted in a broken arm, which rather put the kibosh on the rest of the holiday in Italy and Corsica. My father wore a (home-made) metal watch-strap since the time when he had his watch cut off while hanging his arm out of a bus in Egypt during the war.

The new Mondaine '2 seconds to remember' stop2go watch (below) is also ultra cool. Imagine a watch where the iconic, red second hand stops for 2 seconds every minute, while the minute hand advances with a visible movement (like the station clock mechanism) - the second-hand then catches up. [http://www.mondaine.com]