Few designs are more storied, recognisable, or desirable than Cartier’s Tank. It’s an icon more than a century in the making, originally created as a symbol of the French maison’s gratitude for the role played by Allied tanks in keeping Paris from occupation during World War I. Cartier’s signatures are all here, too. In no particular order: the sword-shaped blue hands, the IIII numeral at four o’clock, the rail-track minute scale running around the dial, and the sapphire cabochon set into the crown. This broad-shouldered, steel, ‘Extra-Large’ model on a black leather strap is home to an automatic mechanical movement, too. As pure as they come, in other words.

For a time, the rough-and-tumble Ranger disappeared from view – but, earlier this year, Tudor reinvented it to time with the 70th anniversary of the British North Greenland Expedition, relaunching it with a crisp new design and upgraded ‘plumbing’. The new model’s spec list is explorer-proofed: a 39mm satin-brushed steel case (no glare), an in-house mechanical movement with a hefty 70-hour power reserve, chronometer certification, a black dial with high-contrast luminous numerals, and water resistance to 100 metres. It comes on a metal bracelet or a black leather strap, but for that extra whiff of the great outdoors, here it’s on an olive fabric strap. Given the relaxed sartorial codes of our age, the Ranger has terrific cross-over appeal too, for when the adventure moves from the sticks back into the city.

Sometimes, the simplest ideas are also the most powerful. In 1976, Chopard introduced the Happy Sport, a playful design that suspended so-called ‘floating’ diamonds between two layers of sapphire crystal over a watch dial. As the wearer’s arm moved, so too did the diamonds, spinning across the dial like pirouetting ballet dancers. The concept has endured, now expressed in numerous ways, including through this Happy Diamonds Icons model. It sends seven diamonds frolicking around the dial between two crystals, as if in suspended animation – hovering over the skin without ever touching it. In total, the watch is decorated with 1.29 carats of diamonds, all set into ethically sourced 18-karat white gold. A beguiling watch for a beguiling host.