Watches For The Hols

With thousands of design variations and colours, Swatch watches are not just time tellers as they're also style on your wrist. In the spirit of gift-giving this festive season, Swatch has come up with its annual Seasons Collection.

The latest Gents range in gold and silver are accompanied by a Season's Special in white, presented in a limited edition of 7,777 pieces. It comes complete with a delightful, winter-inspired special packaging. Winter Sun is the golden Gent watch, outfitted with a golden fabric strap, a solid golden plastic case and shimmering golden dial.

The shimmering surfaces of holiday ornaments illuminate this golden Gent. This dazzling model was inspired by the gold of a winter sun with an all-golden silicone strap and loop plus a golden plastic case and buckle. The sun-brushed golden dial takes up the seasonal theme: striped silver hour indexes mark all hours and in the absence of numerals, silver hour and minute hands with superlite white highlights and a slim, silver seconds hand mark the time.

Its partner for the season is Winter Moon, featuring a silver strap, silvery solid plastic case and shining silver dial. Snow Dance, the third of the Seasons Collection offering, comes with an ornamental transparent plastic "snow-dome" and a special packaging evocative of outdoor ice skating in New York City.

This sparkling New Gent timepiece takes up the season's ornamental theme with a silvery silicone strap and loop and silver plastic case and buckle. The sun brushed silver dial evokes the season's complementary colour with golden hour markers at all hours. Golden hour and minute hands with white highlights and slim, golden seconds hand mark the time.

For a touch of quirk, the designers lend a playful touch to the sparkling star of this year's Seasons Collection. The Snow Dance watch evokes the glistening cold of ice and snow and the laughter of children at play outdoors. The white fabric strap and loop lead the eye down a snowy path from the clear plastic buckle to the clear plastic case. The sun-brushed pale golden dial has the air of an aura surrounding a finely drawn white star on the dial. A single, pale golden crystal shimmers in the heavens at nine o'clock, evocative of the season and its traditions. Tapered, faceted golden hour and minute hands, accompanied by a slim white seconds hand, indicate the time of day.

Recalling the playful side of the holiday season, Swatch presents Snow Dance in an appropriately festive box. Perched upon the watch glass is a diminutive, clear plastic dome. Inside are two tiny children, dressed in winter clothing and wearing ice skates, reaching out to touch each other as they dance over the ice. The packaging frames the playful pair with a wintry scene that looks like the very heart of New York City - the outdoor skating rink just a few minutes walk from the Swatch Store in Times Square. Ice and snow and warm winter clothes, skates and the festive atmosphere make this a memorable Season's Special.