There are literally dozens of Movado Bold watches to choose from. The point of the collection is to modernize and hip-ify (just made that word up) the classic and iconic Movado Museum Face watch. Bold watches share a few things in common. First is color – as most of them are colorful. Second is design and material. Bold watches are designed to be less expensive Movado timepieces and so the case is made of a high-quality plastic (some also seem to be in aluminum). Movado calls it polymer or high-tech composite.
Movado’s major claim to fame was the adoption of the Museum Dial (in the 1970s when they bought the rights from Horwitt) watch and making it really popular. The artistic minimalist design is indeed very attractive, but a good example of form over function. Movado continues to play with the Museum Dial design, but since it became super mainstream in the 1990s through today, it is more a continuation of an existing good design than something fresh. So here comes the Bold, a watch that freshens up the often predictable look of the most of the Movado watches we are familiar with. There is an image of one in the article for comparison purposes.
Even though the classic Museum Dial watches aren’t my style, I would happily wear a Bold. I really love many of the designs and the (yes, I will say it) bold color schemes. There are two sizes for the Bold available at this time. They are 42mm wide and 36mm wide. The pieces wear large due to the expansive dial. I like how Movado was able to retain the stark look of the pieces while adding textures and other visual interest. There is even a chronograph version in the 42mm wide size.
Available on black or while leather straps, there are also bracelets coming as well. You can see that the chronograph is set on one. The primary colors of the collection are black or white with some other tone as an accent. Though for 2011 Movado is getting more interesting by spicing up the Bold collection considerably. There is no point in discussing all the available models and colors as I think there are at least 30 different ones available. When looking at the watches and wearing then, the term “fun” keep coming to mind. These are lighthearted pieces with a designer look and fashion-forward feel. For men or women, the bold collection has something for everyone it seems.
Compared to the original Movado went back to the first Museum Dial watch as the inspiration for the Bold collection – but this isn’t the first time they did that. Many Museum Dials that you know of have dauphine style hands, but the original clock has these type of baton hands that fit the look of the face better. This is also the case with the “sun” at 12 o’clock. The original had a larger flat circle rather than the smaller shiny domed ones that popular most of the 1990s models.
The 36mm wide models are just $295, while the most expensive models go up to $350. Not sure about the aluminum models. Crystal are K1 mineral crystal and inside the watches are Swiss quartz movements. As long as Movado stays under $500 for the Bold pieces I think they will do wonderfully with these ‘likely to be highly popular’ watches that mix classic looks and modern fashionability smoothly.