I’m convinced that a watch chooses the right arm, rather than the other way round. While looking for a within-budget Christmas present for myself earlier this week, I found numerous suitors – too many, in fact. But then I found a Rolex GMT Master in yellow gold from 1979, the year I was born. I’ve now made a pact with myself that, every Christmas, I’ll buy a watch from that year; many car collections are themed on a specific decade, and the idea works for watches, too.
Looking at my slightly indulgent Christmas present glistening with the reflections of fairy lights, it made me realise what a cool decade the 1970s were for the watch world. Not only were the legendary Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus revealed in that period, but the manufacturers became a lot braver with colour. We’ve selected some of our favourite 1970s watches below – and, who knows, one of them might even inspire a little self-indulgence of your own.
