What is the essence of elegance" We compare three dress watches ? the Fre?de?rique Constant Manufacture Classic, Longines Master Collection, and Montblanc Star Classique Date Automatique ? that offer three very different answers. Read on for results, specs, and prices, along with original photos by OK-Photography.

Elegance is hard to define. It is a presence, a way of life. A design might be seen as elegant because it combines many functions within a small space. An object like a watch might be considered elegant when it?s reduced to its essential elements. Coco Chanel said, ?Elegance is refusal.? And Webster?s Dictionary defines elegance as ?dignified gracefulness or restrained beauty of style.?
Fre?de?rique Constant recognizes the appeal of a guilloche? finish and printed Roman numerals on the dial with its Manufacture Classic. So does Montblanc with its Star Classique Date Automatic: ?e dial is decorated with a traditional flinque? guilloche? pattern. And the three Arabic numerals and the hour markers are smaller and more delicate than on the other models in the collection. The Longines Master Collection was first introduced in 2005 and is an excellent example of elegance. The watch we reviewed from the collection is graced with Arabic numerals, blued leaf-shaped hands and a ?barley corn? finish on the dial.
The Montblanc has leaf-shaped hands, too, but in rose gold to match the dial?s numerals and applied markers. The Montblanc logo is placed on the ...