As far as wrist watches go, the Cartier Tank is the epitome of classic elegance. For more than a century the rectangular silhouette, flat vertical brancards and sapphire cabochon have come to represent effortless style and grace. Ironically, Louis Cartier’s watch design was inspired, not by some paradigm of rakish luxury discovered on Paris’ rue de La Paix, but by the gritty Renault FT-17, a World War I French military tank.
Of course, any Cartier Tank comes with a Cartier price tag and the most affordable men’s mechanical variant will set you back well over $5,000. A number of more affordable brands make rectangular timepieces, but our favorite watch dupe is Hamilton’s Boulton. It’s a watch alternative that offers some of the same style cues and mechanical time keeping, for less than a fifth the retail cost of the Cartier. Plus the Boulton features softer angles that makes it feel less like a carbon copy and more like a watch even snobs would be proud to own.
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The Boulton first appeared in the Hamilton catalogue in 1940 with Arabic numerals. Today the contemporary model features Roman numbers giving it more of a Cartier aesthetic. The stainless steel case clocks in at 34mm x 38mm, so it won’t overwhelm smaller wrists or get lost on larger ones. Plus at 11.2mm tall, it will glide under all but the tightest shirt cuff. Like the Tank, you can pair the Boulton with pretty much everything from a three-piece suit to jeans and a T-shirt. But as the watch is only rated to 50 meters of water resistance and comes on a cow leather strap, we wouldn’t pair it with a bathing suit.
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Inside, timekeeping is powered by the H-50, an exclusive caliber developed for Hamilton’s hand wound watches. The movement features an extended power reserve of up to 80 hours, so the time will still be correct if you take the Boulton off on Friday night and don’t strap it back on until Monday morning.
So if you’re in the market for a cool, rectangular, mechanical watch, check out the Hamilton for a bit of dress watch chic that won’t blow a hole in your wallet.
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