Blue Dial Watches in Albania: Which Blue to Buy

Blue is the dial we are asked for more than any other, and it is not one colour. On our counter it runs from a pale ice blue that reads almost white indoors to a navy so dark it looks black until the light hits it. They photograph nothing like they look, which is the whole problem with buying a blue dial off a screen.

Why a Sunburst Dial Never Looks the Same Twice

Most of the blue on this counter is a sunburst finish: fine lines brushed outward from the centre so the dial catches light in a fan. Turn your wrist and the blue moves from bright to near-black across the same dial. That is why a photograph of one is a lie by omission, because it freezes a single angle out of the hundreds the dial will give you. A painted blue dial holds one shade all day instead, and the sunburst is what people mean when they ask for a blue watch.

The Pale Blue

Navimarine NMM1011 at 60 euro (5,800 L) is the slimmest watch we sell and the palest blue on the counter: a minimalist steel dress watch with an ice-blue dial and applied baton indices. No date window. Under a shop light it reads almost grey-white and outdoors it comes up blue, so nobody at work will call it a blue watch.

Deep Blue Sunburst: The Blue Most People Mean

Philippe Lauren Steel Crystal Blue at 52 euro (5,000 L) is a ladies' dress watch in steel with a crystal-set bezel in two rows, a deep blue sunburst dial with crystal indices and slim polished baton hands. No date window, and the dressiest Philippe Lauren on our counter.

Daniel Klein Blue at 64 euro (6,200 L) is steel with a deep blue gradient sunburst dial, a coin-edge bezel, a date at 3 and a red seconds hand. The red is the detail that sells it: one thin line of colour against the blue, and it stops the dial being polite.

Navimarine NM001404 in blue at 75 euro (7,300 L) is the sport-luxe shape, a faceted case with an integrated bracelet and a deep blue sunburst dial with a date window. Integrated bracelets normally start much further up a price list.

Navimarine Steel 5ATM Blue at 75 euro (7,300 L) is the classic: deep blue sunburst with Roman numeral hour markers, a date at 3 and a printed 5 ATM rating. It is the blue dial that travels most by courier.

Navimarine NT0021-1 at 75 euro (7,300 L) is the practical one: blue sunburst with a day window at twelve and a date window at six, and 5 ATM. Legible at arm's length, which is more than a busy dial manages.

Navy Under a Bezel: The Sport Blues

Navimarine NM181-03 at 70 euro (6,800 L) is the dive-style one: a rotating blue bezel over a navy dial, luminous round markers, a yellow seconds hand and a date window. The yellow hand against navy is the loudest thing on the counter, and it is deliberate. Our guide to bezel types explains what a rotating bezel is for.

Daniel Klein Exclusive Chronograph at 89 euro (8,600 L) is the other bezel watch and a real chronograph: deep blue sunburst under a rotating dive-style bezel, three working subdials, luminous baton hands and a date. Daniel Klein is rated 3 to 5 BAR depending on the model, so ask us the figure for this one before it goes near water.

Blue With Subdials, and What They Do

Navimarine NT0029-2 at 85 euro (8,200 L) is a steel multifunction, not a chronograph. Blue sunburst dial, three subdials showing the day, the date and 24-hour time, and nothing on the watch times anything.

Philippe Lauren Steel Sport Blue Dial at 72 euro (7,000 L) has a deep blue sunburst dial and subdials, and that is where our description stops. We have not tested what its subdials do, so we do not say. It sits on neither list in our guide to chronographs and lookalikes and stays off both until somebody here has pressed the pushers.

Blue With Sparkle

Navimarine NM268-06 at 85 euro (8,200 L) is the most jewellery-like watch we stock: a women's two-tone dress watch with a curved case, a crystal-set bezel and a blue sunburst dial with gold-tone Roman numerals. Philippe Lauren Steel Crystal Blue at 52 euro (5,000 L) is the same idea in plain steel. Crystal-set means cut glass stones fixed into the metal. It does not mean diamonds.

What We Will and Will Not Say About Water

Blued Hands Are Not a Blue Dial

A few watches get sent to this page by mistake. Daniel Klein Premium Roman at 69 euro (6,700 L) has blued hands on a cream dial, and Premium Gold Tonneau at 75 euro (7,300 L) has blued hands on a wave-textured silver dial. Blued hands are a dress-watch detail, deep blue on the hands alone against a pale face. They are excellent watches and neither is a blue dial.

So Which Blue Should You Buy?

• The blue everyone means, built for a summer. Navimarine Steel 5ATM Blue at 75 euro (7,300 L), printed 5 ATM.
• A day and a date you will actually read. Navimarine NT0021-1 at 75 euro (7,300 L), also 5 ATM.
• Blue, cheap. Philippe Lauren Steel Crystal Blue at 52 euro (5,000 L) or Navimarine NMM1011 at 60 euro (5,800 L).
• The sport look. Navimarine NM181-03 at 70 euro (6,800 L), or Daniel Klein Exclusive Chronograph at 89 euro (8,600 L) for a stopwatch under the bezel.
• Blue with sparkle. Navimarine NM268-06 at 85 euro (8,200 L).
• The integrated bracelet. Navimarine NM001404 in blue at 75 euro (7,300 L).

Turn it under the shop light before you decide, or order it and turn it at your own door before you pay the courier. A blue dial is the one thing on this counter a screen has never told the truth about.