The Summer Dial Edit: Seven Luxury Watches Worth Wearing This Season

For decades, colour in watchmaking was governed by rules. Pastels for women, bold bezels for men and everything else in black, white or silver. But the conversations building ahead of Watches & Wonders Geneva 2026 suggest those rules are finally being retired. With enamel dials, vivid lacquered hues, and dials that shift character in different light, colour is the whole point in 2026, especially when it comes to summer watches.

We’ve put together this edit with one brief in mind: no gender assignments. Not because sizing doesn’t matter. It does. But the more interesting question is: what a watch does for the person wearing it, instead of who it is for. A 36mm purple Rolex on a man’s wrist is a statement, and a 41mm turquoise Rolex on a woman’s wrist is another. Both are worth knowing about. So, here’s diving into seven select pieces and exploring seven different answers to what colour can mean on a dial this summer. This edit brings together some of the most compelling summer watches of the season.

Explore The Seven Watches

1. Rolex Oyster Perpetual
2. Grand Seiko Elegance
3. Tudor Black Bay Harrods Special Edition
4. Grand Seiko Heritage
5. Rolex Oyster Perpetual
6. Chopard Happy Sport
7. Zenith Chronomaster Open

Rolex Oyster Perpetual

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual 124300 with its vibrant dial, a rare expression of colour within Rolex’s otherwise restrained design language

If you’ve ever wondered what Rolex looks like when it decides to have fun, this is your answer. The turquoise “Celebration” dial is one of the most talked-about Rolex references in recent years, and for good reason. It is bold without being loud, colourful yet intentional. In person, the dial has a depth to it that photographs simply cannot capture.

The colour isn’t just a style choice, either. It draws direct inspiration from the legendary “Stella” dials of the 1970s Rolex Day-Date. Collectors now pay extraordinary sums for these rainbow-lacquered pieces. The 124300 brings that same energy to a more accessible, everyday steel watch. Inside, you get Rolex’s calibre 3230 movement with a 70-hour power reserve and a level of accuracy that very few brands can match at any price.

Grand Seiko Elegance

The Grand Seiko “Skyflake” features a dial that shifts between ice and sky

Grand Seiko occupies a curious position in the watch world. It’s revered by collectors but overlooked by everyone else. Made in Japan, finished to a standard that rivals everything coming out of Switzerland, and still priced below what comparable Swiss watches would cost, it is one of the watch world’s most compelling arguments. The “Skyflake” is a good place to start understanding why.

The dial texture — called the Snowflake — is inspired by the birch forests and deep snow of the Nagano highlands, where this watch is made. It’s hand-finished, which means no two are identical. Among modern summer watches, few pieces balance colour and versatility as effectively as this. The blue shifts between something closer to ice and something closer to open sky, depending on where the light hits it. It’s genuinely one of those dials you keep finding yourself looking at. 

Tudor Black Bay Harrods Special Edition

Tudor Black Bay Harrods Special Edition: defined by its distinctive green accents and a story rooted in one of London’s most iconic institutions

The green-bezel diver has become one of the defining watch aesthetics of the decade. But not all green bezels are equal, and this one has a story that sets it apart from the crowd. In 2016, Tudor collaborated with Harrods to produce a special edition Black Bay finished in the department store’s exact shade of institutional green. The bezel, the seconds-hand tip, and the dial text all carry that specific colour. The depth rating is listed in feet, a deliberately British flourish. The caseback carries the Harrods “H” and an individual serial number. It is, in the best possible way, a very particular piece.

Underneath, it’s all business: 200m water resistance, a 70-hour power reserve, Tudor’s own manufacture movement. It wears beautifully with earth tones, cream linen, indigo denim, most things you’d reach for in an Indian summer.

Grand Seiko Heritage

The Grand Seiko Heritage, a dial inspired by drifting cherry blossom, rendered with depth, light, and precision

There is a Japanese word, hana-ikada, that describes the sight of cherry blossom petals drifting on the surface of a river. It has no English equivalent. Grand Seiko’s craftspeople have spent their careers learning to put images like this onto a dial, and the SBGA413G may be their finest attempt.

The result is a pink that is nothing like what you might imagine. It’s soft, and the texture catches light from different angles, so the dial seems almost in motion. It looks handmade because it is. And while pink might not be a colour everyone immediately reaches for, this watch makes an impression hard to ignore. The case is high-intensity titanium, which makes a real difference when wearing a 40mm watch all day. The Spring Drive movement and 72-hour power reserve make it a technically serious watch with an exceptionally beautiful exterior.

Rolex Oyster Perpetual

With a rare purple dial, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, brings subtle individuality to one of Rolex’s most enduring designs

Purple is an unusual decision for Rolex, which is precisely what makes it interesting. It sits somewhere in between loud and safe, which makes it all the more compelling. It stands out as one of those summer watches that approaches colour differently, almost from a playful allure to a restrained appeal. The 36mm Oyster Perpetual is otherwise exactly what you’d expect from the reference: the movement, the dial and the bracelet done as well as they can be done, with no complications or embellishment.

At 36mm, the case sits neatly on most wrists. It’s small enough to feel refined and large enough to be taken seriously. It’s Rolex doing what it does best, building a watch that will look exactly as good in 20 years as it does today.

Chopard Happy Sport

The Chopard Happy Sport, defined by its signature floating diamonds

In 1993, Chopard designer Caroline Scheufele had an idea the industry considered borderline absurd: take five loose diamonds and seal them between two layers of sapphire crystal, so they would float freely and move with the wearer’s wrist throughout the day. Thirty-three years later, that idea remains one of the most original things anyone has ever done to a watch dial.

The Happy Sport has been copied more than almost any other women’s watch. The copies don’t quite get there because the original is built around a precision that’s hard to replicate. The diamonds catch light constantly, unpredictably, throughout the day. It is the kind of watch you look down at mid-conversation and smile. At 30mm, refined and compact, it works as well with evening wear as it does with everyday fits.

Zenith Chronomaster Open

The Zenith Chronomaster Open, exposing the El Primero calibre through a dial that balances colour, function, and mechanical clarity

Every other watch in this edit uses colour on the dial. This one goes further by using colour to show you what’s happening inside the movement itself. Three windows are cut into the dial, letting you see the El Primero calibre at work beneath. Through them: the balance wheel oscillating, a silicon escape wheel in vivid blue and purple shaped as Zenith’s five-pointed star, and the running seconds register. Colour, in this work of art, is information; everything you’re looking at has a function.

At 37mm, it wears more like a refined daily watch than a complicated chronograph. The movement beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour, which is faster than most Swiss movements, allowing it to time events to 1/10th of a second. For anyone genuinely curious about how a mechanical watch works, this is the most honest and beautiful answer available.

A Season In Colour

The Grand Seiko Sport: a bold expression of colour, shaped by the brand’s distinctive approach to dial-making

Request An Offer

The one idea that ties all seven watches together is that colour, when considered, becomes one of the most honest expressions a dial can offer, especially in summer watches. It transcends the concept of trends and becomes a choice that reflects the person wearing it, especially in a season where colour feels most at home. At Second Movement, this is how we approach every piece we curate. Beyond what a watch is, we consider what it might mean to the right collector. And often, the piece that stays with you is the one worth returning to.