DUNHILL WATCH

To quote Alfred Dunhill, my experience in the motorists’ trade has convinced me that, if one can exactly meet the desires of a good class of public, time alone is necessary to make the business profitable. Compared with quality, price is relatively unimportant”.
These sentiments still shine today in all Dunhill products and watches. It is the vigilant focus on quality that separated Dunhill watches in his day, and continues to do so in the present.

In the year 1906 Dunhill Motorities was in full swing. Alfred Dunhill had father's saddlery, and the modern man of the world could find everything here to warm the heart of any automobile enthusiast, making transportation on four wheels an absolute joy: from newly developed signal horns and goggles to clothing providing protection against the elements, all bearing the brand name of Dunhill, naturally. After all, the street mongrels of the time didn't show any respect for the strange new vehicles, the streets themselves were unsurfaced and accordingly dusty, and new means of transportation did not for the most part features a sensible chassis.

In this year, Alfred Dunhill offered his customer a watch for the first time which was, of course, tailored to the needs of the motor car enthusiast. It contained a stopwatch with whose help it was possible to time laps during increasingly popular automobile races.

Dunhill, who had in the meantime established himself as a tobacco specialist in the fashionable St. James quarter, subsequently built his watches into artistically decorated cigarette lighters, ashtrays, pipe accessories, and even into belt buckles and brooches. In line with the current trend, his first wristwatches were introduced at the end of the 1930s, among which was the Faceted Watch.

The classic Dunhill watch models are also at the forefront of 2002's line, and for the first time Dunhill has ventured out with above-average creations sporting interesting mechanical movements. The Facet Darkar, for example, is outfitted with a specially prepared hand-wound movement by Jacquet with the subsidiary second dial at an unusual position (8 o'clock)

The brand, at home within the Richemont group, is trading a more individual path in terms of distribution as well. The Dunhill Flagsship Store was recently opened in London's noble Old Bond Street; and as during Motorities times, offers its discriminating clientele everything their hearts could desire - provided it bears the name of Dunhill.