New Uniform Wares M Collection sports a superb titanium mesh strap

The Uniform Wares M Collection gets aesthetic refinements, high-precision quartz movements, and a killer new bracelet - a titanium mesh strap that's unlike anything we've seen before.

Uniforms Wares knows what it’s good at and keeps pushing itself to do that thing better and better. The company's basic watch designs are still very much in line with what they've been doing all along, but the parts come from higher-quality suppliers, the finishes on the dials and application of the markers are more artful, and the movements are as good as Swiss quartz movements can get.

It takes an immense amount of discipline to evolve a product line this way, rather than, say, dropping something flashy or purposefully different just to attract attention, and the results speak for themselves. The attention to detail is second to none, too – these are watches that look better the more you scrutinize them, rather than the opposite.

This week sees a major evolution of their core M-Line, which is the brand's most distinctive collection.

The new 'M-P' watches come in three familiar sizes – 37mm, 40mm, and 42mm – in the time-only M37-P, the time and date M40-P and the M42-P chronograph models.

Each is driven by an ETA PreciDrive movement, which are higher-frequency quartz movements that offer better accuracy. In fact, ETA themselves say that these movements are 10 times more accurate than their standard offerings, so it's no small upgrade.

In addition to the movement changes, the three models have been given small design updates, including new dial colors and finishes, as well as subtle tweaks to the cases to make the watches more comfortable and elegant on the wrist.

Beyond the watches themselves though, there's also a new strap – and for me this news is just as exciting (if not even more so).

The strap is made in collaboration with another London-based outfit, called Betatype, that typically works in the medical and aerospace industries. It's somewhere between a NATO and something like Apple's Milanese Mesh in terms of its profile and how it folds back on itself, but it's something else entirely.

The titanium mesh feels almost like fabric, it's so light and pliable, and its made through a crazy sintering/fusion process out of titanium powder.

The coolest part though is that the links are asymmetrical, so there's an integrated tab that slides right over the strap and locks it in place, almost like super strong velcro. The entire thing weighs just 10.5 grams and is one continuous piece.

It might sounds strange to get super excited about a watch strap, but this new titanium strap is seriously cool stuff. It weighs next to nothing, feels super soft on the wrist, is infinitely adjustable, and looks awesome.

You can't really ask for much more than that, but this one also comes with the cool materials-science backstory, and to me it takes the already great M-Line watches to the next level.

The new 2019 Uniform Wares M-P Collection is available for order now from the company's website with pricing at A$550-$1000 for the M37-P, A$800-$1200 for the M40-P and A$1300-$1700 for the M42-P.

Hodinkee

Hodinkee is the world's preeminent online magazine for watch enthusiasts, and is republished under licence by Executive Traveller.