Watchonista’s Complete Guide To Cigar-Inspired Watches, Part One and Part 2

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Today, Watchonista presents part one of a two-part series about the niche category of cigar-inspired watches.

Aaron Sigmond
BY AARON SIGMOND
Contributor

Watch collectors tend to be cigar enthusiasts, and – perhaps even more so – the converse is true. It’s akin to the way watch collectors and cigar aficionados gravitate toward wines, whiskeys, Michelin-starred eateries, bespoke suits, slippers with cheeky embroidery, and vicuña scarves: If that person sounds familiar, it should, because it’s likely you.

And you, my friend, are a member of a group that possesses a polymath’s approach to connoisseurship, with a keen appreciation for the finest of creature comforts. These intersecting interests, happily, prompt collaborations, especially in the case of partnerships between watches and cigars. Such pairings have been around since the 1930s, when “Tobacco Specialist” Alfred Dunhill of London sold various luxury goods, including wristwatches, side-by-side with his famed “tailored” and standard pipe-tobacco mixtures, as well as fine Havana cigars.
 

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This two-part series will survey the world of cigar-inspired watches. But perhaps it’s best to start with the LVMH Swiss watch bran Zenith – which has lately taken center stage within this niche watch category thanks to its current partnership with Habanos S.A., the Cuban cigar export-and-marketing entity.

Zenith X Habanos (Cohiba, Trinidad, Romeo y Julieta)

In 2016, Zenith and Habanos kicked off their (relatively) long-running and, candidly, somewhat surprising affiliation with the debut of the Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 1969 Cohiba Edition at that year’s El Festival del Habano – the Cuban-cigar equivalent of Watches & Wonders – with a gala dinner and auction capping off the annual festivities.
 

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Timed to celebrate the marca’s fiftieth anniversary, the El Primero Chronomaster 1969 Cohiba Edition was a 42mm chronograph with a tobacco-brown dial that featured the Cohiba livery in two vertical stripes down the right side. Powered by the Zenith El Primero caliber 4061 automatic movement and its 50-hour power reserve, it was limited to 50 pieces for the 18K rose gold case and 500 examples of the stainless steel version. But that was only the start.
 

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This past month saw the debut of the Zenith Chronomaster Open Cohiba 55th Anniversary Edition at a virtual version of the all-things-Cuban cigar fête Habanos World Days (which is thematically similar to the festival mentioned above).
 

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This 2021 iteration, which simply screams “Cohiba,” comes in steel only. And this 42mm chronograph is powered by the El Primero 4061 automatic movement and will be available at Zenith boutiques and select retailers in October. But to ensure that one fully appreciates the epicurean connection, each watch will come with a set of five Cohiba cigars in a co-branded porcelain jar. With only 55 timepieces offered with the cigars, this version will likely sell out before its actual delivery date.
 

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The 2016 El Primero was followed a year later by the El Primero Chronomaster 1966 Legend of Cohiba Edition. Sequentially thereafter came the 45mm rose-gold-cased Pilot Type 20 Extra Special Cohiba-Maduro 5 Edition with an extra-large crown (2018); the Pilot Type 20 Chronograph Trinidad Edition in rose, yellow, and white gold (2019); and the 2020 Romeo y Julieta Elite Moonphase – a his and hers timepiece pair celebrating the 145th anniversary of the Shakespeare-inspired marca.
 

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Despite how impressive these sub-collections are, the Zenith X Habanos limited-edition timepieces were far from the first to boast a cigar association. For the origins of cigar-inspired watches, one must look much further back.
 

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Alfred Dunhill

As previously noted, watches and cigars were sold together at Alfred Dunhill Tobacco Specialist, at 30 Duke Street in London’s posh St. James’s District, as far back as 1932 – the year Alfred Dunhill Ltd. patented its first wristwatch. (Dunhill pocket watches had debuted in 1903; watches and clocks set into cigar and pipe lighters followed soon after.)

 

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Dunhill continued to sell timepieces into the 2000s. Lamentably, however, its horological heritage – which included partnerships with Universal Genève in the 1940s and Jaeger-LeCoultre in the 1960s – came to an inauspicious end in the autumn of 2012. That was when, with little pomp or circumstance, the men’s luxury and fashion house quit offering watches altogether. (It had begun to phase out of cigars a few years earlier.)
 

 

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Watchonista’s Complete Guide To Cigar-Inspired Watches, Part Two

Watchonista presents part two of our two-part series about the niche category of cigar-inspired watches.

Aaron Sigmond
BY AARON SIGMOND
Contributor

Part one of this series on cigar-based timepieces (those inspired by hand-rolled puros and/or offered by noteworthy tobacconists) chronicled four brands: Alfred Dunhill, Cuervo y Sobrinos, Davidoff, and the recent Zenith x Habanos collaboration.

What these four luxury houses and cigar-inspired watches had in common was that they were (intentionally or otherwise) made for a European and Asian clientele. That is because the cigar world has been bifurcated since 1962 when John F. Kennedy imposed the U.S. trade embargo on all Cuban goods. Meaning no Havana cigars, no Cuban tobacco, and no rum have been legally imported to the United States or its territories for commercial sale since then. And sadly, the embargo remains in effect to this day. As such, a powerful vacuum resulted, given that the U.S. was, and remains, one of the world’s largest premium and ultra-premium cigar markets.
 

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This void would be filled by the nascent (relative to the history of the Cuban cigar trade) tobacco farming and cigar industries of the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Ecuador, as well as the cigar tobaccos grown in Florida and Connecticut, U.S. This led to a host of new cigar brands, including American-market versions of historic legacy Cuban brands rolled with non-Cuban leaves. Two brands, Dunhill and Davidoff, departed Cuba; Davidoff would then expand greatly in the U.S.
 

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While those previous watches were more globally minded, the pieces featured in part two were created either with the American market in mind or were exclusive to the United States. (That said, the Fuente Fuente Opus X cigars, the first examined here, have an enormous international fan base.)

Hublot X Arturo Fuente & Fuente Fuente Opus X

Since 2012, watchmaking and cigar rolling have been entwined via an ongoing (yet periodic) collaboration between Hublot and premium Dominican cigar maker Arturo Fuente. Resulting in timepieces that often celebrate the limited-production Fuente Fuente Opus X range – the first-ever Dominican puro cigar.
 

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This alliance has yielded multiple limited-edition timepieces. The first was the 48mm Hublot King Power Arturo Fuente, crafted in honor of Fuente’s centenary and offered in both gold and ceramic, housed in a Macassar ebony humidor that Hublot commissioned specifically for this project.
 

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This outstanding debut was followed three years later by the 45mm limited-edition Classic Fusion Forbidden X – which, intriguingly and impressively, featured an actual cigar-tobacco leaf preserved in a proprietary epoxy on the dial and was even offered in a tourbillon version.
 

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After that came the 45mm Hublot Classic Fusion Fuente 20th Anniversary Special Edition in 2017. Like all its predecessors, it sold out.
 

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Made for America

Around 2007, Hermès released a very limited edition (10 pieces) tobacco-brown Cape Cod 1928 timepiece that came in its own humidor and was created to commemorate the opening of the Hermès boutique on Broad Street in Manhattan’s Financial District.
 

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Then, exclusively for the U.S. market, came the first “Cohiba” wristwatch made by Swiss watch manufacture Frederique Constant in conjunction with General Cigar Co., the maker of Macanudo and the U.S. versions of Partagas, La Gloria Cubana, and Cohiba Red Dot. (“Red Dot” to distinguish it from the yellow, orange, and black livery of the Cuban counterpart.) It was called the “Frederique Constant for Cohiba Limited Edition.”
 

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This 2010 limited-production watch (376 numbered pieces with 188 in steel and 188 plated in rose gold), launched at Club Macanudo in New York, came in a showcase humidor with a glass lid, stocked with 25 Dominican-made Cohiba (Red Dot) Crystal cigars.
 

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The most recent cigar-watch partnership is between the U.S. edition of Montecristo and French boutique watchmaker B.R.M Chronographes. It is a curious pairing, given that B.R.M is known almost exclusively for its automotive and racing-inspired chronographs, but Alexandre Dumas was French, though, so there’s that, I suppose. Frederic Gasser, President of B.R.M Americas, did comment, “It’s a great privilege to add [another] French name to that legendary cigar…” Still, seems tenuous, nonetheless.
 

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The new association, announced in May, yielded a 44mm B.R.M non-chrono timepiece finished in signature Monte yellow and red accents and housed in a in a Montecristo-branded humidor-cum-watch box in the same color scheme. The 32-piece limited-edition offering, dubbed the Montecristo B.R.M Humidor, is somewhat evocative of the aforementioned Frederique Constant for Cohiba Limited Edition humidor.
 

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However, unlike the Frederique Constant version, the Monte B.R.M features a built-in automatic watch winder and comes stocked with 40 edition-exclusive Montecristo B.R.M cigars. These cigars are 6-inch x 52-ring gauge – essentially a cañonazo vitola, though it’s officially called a “toro” – and manufactured by the Plasencia family for Altadis U.S.A., the manufacturer and distributor of the U.S. edition/non-Cuban versions of Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, and Montecristo.

 

On and On It Goes

Along the way, there have been other notable cigar watches. Such as the 150-piece 42mm limited-edition Blancpain Quantième Perpétuel GMT (Ref. 4277-3446-55B) in platinum with a tobacco-hued “Havana brown” dial and a Bell & Ross 126 XL Edición Limitada – both of which came housed in humidors as well.
 

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Even Swatch made a cigar watch with an image of a full-size cigar (a Swatch-branded Zino Mouton Cadet) running from one end of the strap through the dial to the other end. These were not necessarily made with the U.S. in mind per se, but all were well-received.
 

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So, what will be the next cigar-inspired watch? Time will tell. In the meantime, light up a Montecristo “A,” relax, . . . and wait.

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gillmiller Perlas

gillmiller

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Blue Zenith looks amazing. Curious if someone has it and where did you get it from? I would like to buy myself a proper gift for the 50th anniversary and consider Rolex Day Date II watches. But of course I am flexible and can check some different options instead. What is your opinion on this one? What kind of watch would you buy for yourself if you would have a pretty good budget ?

  • 4 months later...
joeypots Prominentes

joeypots

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On 6/26/2021 at 6:37 PM, El Presidente said:

Around 2007, Hermès released a very limited edition (10 pieces) tobacco-brown Cape Cod 1928 timepiece that came in its own humidor and was created to commemorate the opening of the Hermès boutique on Broad Street in Manhattan’s Financial District.

WTF does Cape Cod have to do with Hermes, watches, and cigars?

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