A watch?s seconds hand is most often staged in the center, playing third wheel to the hours and minutes. Here are a handful of watches in which the seconds display is decentralized and allowed to shine on its own.

IWC PORTUGIESER AUTOMATIC

Dating back to 1939 and a special timepiece produced specially for Portuguese clients, the Portugieser is one of IWC?s most enduring collections and arguably its most classically elegant. This 40-mm timepiece in an 18k rose-gold case and silver-plated dial makes that case quietly but emphatically, with applied gold Arabic numerals, leaf-shaped gold hands, vintage-style railroad minute track, and a 6 o?clock subdial for the running seconds, traversed by a blued hand. Behind its sapphire exhibition caseback is IWC?s automatic Caliber 82200, equipped with the manufacture?s signature Pellaton winding system and incorporating parts made of virtually wear-proof ceramic, including the pawls and the heart-shaped cam. The movement stores a power reserve of 60 hours and boasts plates and bridges decorated with circular graining and côtes de Genève. Price: $16,900.
IWC Portugieser Automatic (Ref. IW358306)

PATEK PHILIPPE CALATRAVA ?CLOUS DE PARIS? REF. 6119

Patek Philippe added some vintage flair to its flagship Calatrava collection of dress watches with the launch of the Ref. 6119, notable for its use of a guillochéd hobnail pattern known as Clous de Paris on the softly rounded bezel of its 39-mm-diameter rose-gold case. The silve...