The Traditionnelle Manual-Winding Collection Excellence Platine certainly has all of these things, but what strikes me most about it is just how darn understated the entire thing is. When you first encounter the watch you get that feeling that you’re looking at something special, but you’re not quite sure why. The case measures in at 38mm across and just 7.77mm thick, making it just about the sweet spot for a classically styled dress watch, though all that platinum does make it heftier than you’d expect. The platinum dial has a soft grained finish to it and a small “Pt950” hallmark down between four and five o’clock, noting the material of which it’s made. These platinum dials have tons of character to them and get better the closer you look.
The only visible metal components that aren’t platinum are the hands and hour markers, which are polished white gold. One thing I want to be sure to call out is the faceting on the hands – in basically any lighting conditions you get a sharp contrast, with half of each hand looking dark and half of each hand looking light. It gives the watch a crispness and sense of precision that I really love. This is one of those little things that takes an already good watch and makes it exceptional.