WOTY 2014: Victorinox Inox

Before Basel 2014 if someone had asked the WatchPro team to describe the aesthetic style of Victorinox’s watch collection we would have struggled.

While there are some nice individual pieces – the Alliance springs to mind – there was nothing to connect the dots, no overarching design language; in a word no flagship product.

The Inox changed all of that with a single design. Unashamedly inspired by the bold, structural work of Gerald Genta in the 1970s, the Inox answered a complex design brief with a deceptively simple, undoubtedly handsome steel watch.

With lugs that extend no further than the caseback itself, stamped dial features and a recessed sapphire crystal, the Inox will take a licking but keep on ticking. The Inox had to be capable of withstanding a barrage of 130 endurance tests from which it needed to emerge functional, rather than unscathed.

The Inox took them all in its stride, whether that was being driven over by a 64-tonne tank, dropped 10m from a building, set on fire or being spun on a two hour, 90c cycle in the washing machine. All the more impressive when you consider this was achieved by watch that retails for £329.

The Inox also sets a quality and style benchmark for all future Victorinox watches to live up to.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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