Arnold & Son is another watchmaker, I’m sure, you’ve never heard of; I certainly haven’t. The company was started by John Arnold of Cornwall, England in 1764. I don’t think the company has been in continuous operations since 1764, but if it has, please comment below. Anyways, below are two of the latest watches to come out of the Arnold & Son workshop called the DBG and DBS (no relations to Aston Martin).
Both of the watches look very similar, except for the case finish, and are pretty elegant looking. The watches feature dual time and have a skeletonized bottom third of the dial, showcasing part of the mechanical movement. Both watches come in 44mm cases with sapphire crystal on the front, with AR coating, and the back, and leather straps.
Arnold & Son DBG Watches
These two watches may look alike but they have a notable difference. The DBG watches, which stands for “Double Balance GMT”, features two sub-dials on the dial that can show two different times (GMT feature) and each time can be set separately with the crowns on each side. Unlike most GMT watches, the different times can be set, down to the minute (GMT watches have times set down to the hour, i.e. 3:30 and 7:30. The only other GMT watch that can be set down to the minute is the MB&F Legacy Machine No 1, as far as I know).
The small sub-dial at the 12 o’clock position indicates AM/PM; the skeletonized hand on this dial corresponds to the left dial (which also has skeletonized hands) and the other hand corresponds to the right dial. The DBG watches are powered by in-house A&S 1209 mechanical hand-wound movements with 40 hour power reserve. The watches come in stainless steel cases, priced at 25,810 Swiss Francs (about $27,875 US) and the gold cases, priced at 39,420 Swiss Francs (about $42,575 US).
Arnold & Son DBS Watches
The Arnold & Son DBS watches, which stands for “Double Balance Sidereal time”, also feature a pair of sub-dials that show different times, but with one major difference; the dial on the left shows Sidereal time. You’re probably saying “what the heck is sidereal time?” It’s a unit of time used by astronomers, it’s measured based on Earth’s rate of rotation relative to fixed stars. A day is only 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.091 seconds long based on Sidereal time; I bet you didn’t know that.
To tell the two sub-dials apart, there is a star above the left dial and a sun above the right sub-dial. Like the DBG watches, time on each of the dials is independent of each other.
The Arnold & Son DBS watches are powered by an in-house A&S 1311 mechanical movement and they’re offered only in the gold version, with a hefty price tag of 42,600 Swiss Francs (about $46,000 US).
