Stowa

I've bought quite a few expensive watches over the years.  I must admit I'm addicted to them.  But my favourite these days is the Stowa Flieger Chrono.  OK, it's German rather than Swiss, and it's much less expensive than most of my watch collection, but I like it for several reasons:

- It looks great!
- It bears no brand name.  It's fun to watch people in City meetings try to work out what kind of watch it is.
- It has no second hand.  Even watches with highly regarded automatic mechanisms (eg IWC) don't keep perfect time.  Stowa have recognised this and have simply done away with the second hand.  If you need to count the seconds, it has a second dial for this purpose.
- It's big, but no so big as to be ridiculous (as so many watches are).
- It's unusual.

Overall - classic, enigmatic, rugged.