Perhaps a bit late to the game, but Arnold & Son has just thrown its hat into the integrated bracelet game. Not that we needed more options in this already very crowded space, but it’s always interesting to see how various brands approach the concept, especially for a brand that has exclusively made dress watches (however impressive). To be sure, the closest thing to a sports watch Arnold & Son have made is the Nebula, and that only seems sporty because it has a chapter ring, blockier lugs, and is offered on a bracelet; it’s still not really a sports watch. That’s all changing with the introduction of the Arnold & Son Longitude Titanium.

When A&S doesn’t use a precious metal for its cases, it usually opts for steel, but for the Longitude, it’s titanium all the way. The case measures 42.5mm and has the familiar silhouette of integrated bracelet watches, with a flat middle and sharply descending lugs. The flanks get a polished finish while the top of the case is vertically brushed. The bezel is crenelated — a tip of the hat to John Arnold’s marine chronometers — with a blend of polishing and brushing, most notably the sunray brushing that contrasts with the straight vertical brushing of the case. The 12.25mm-thick case has 100m water resistance, a pull-out crown, and a box sapphire crystal. You may observe there are no straight lines to the case. There is a certain angular feeling about it, but close inspection reveals that each hard line has at least a gentle curve. Even the links of the titanium bracelet have a soft curve, while the bracelet itself features a quick-release mechanism and a folding clasp. The blue and green models are delivered with an additional color-matched strap in texturized rubber with pin-buckle closures.

Typically, Arnold & Son can be expected to dazzle with a revealing openwork dial or some dimensional element that captivates the wearer. With the Longitude Titanium, the brand presents what is arguably its most restrained dial to date. Three options are available: a limited-edition Kingsand gold and non-limited fern green and ocean blue. All three dials feature vertical brushing and their colors are achieved through PVD coating. A small seconds is sunken at 6 o’clock with snailed finishing, while a sandwich cutout power reserve display is at 6 o’clock. On the Kingsand, these accents are highlighted with blued elements, while the blue stays simple with silver tones and the green gets what the brand calls “golden finish.” Also new for the brand are the lumed hands and indices, rhodium plated on the Kingsand, and blue “golden finish” on the green. Not only is the handset and index design entirely new, but so too is the use of lume, which is Super-LumiNova in this case.

The one place on the Arnold & Son Longitude Titanium where you won’t find surprises is the sapphire caseback and the movement it displays. The automatic in-house A&S6302 is new for the brand and is COSC-certified with a 60-hour power reserve at 28,800 vph. It has a solid gold skeletonized rotor with engravings that echo those of a sextant, another nod to the brand’s namesake, while the shape of the rotor’s arms is meant to suggest the bow of a frigate. The brand says the movement is “developed, produced, decorated, assembled, adjusted, and cased up” at its manufactory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and the movement features A&S’ signature “Rayons de la Gloire,” dramatic radiant striping that makes even the nicest of Côtes de Genève seem boring. Further accents include anglage, perlage, sunray finishing, and blued screws.

This is a hard right turn for Arnold & Son, but we’ve seen A. Lange & Söhne do the exact same thing when it introduced the Odysseus a few years ago. Whether this will be met with as much fanfare is unclear, and the field has only gotten wider in the years since the Odysseus appeared. Based on the timing and the divergence of this offering, I have to wonder whether it was in direct response to existing fans of the brand as much as it was in response to the market (That was the claimed case with the Bremont Supernova, though the radio silence on that model doesn’t bode well). In any case, the only potential complaint with the Longitude Titanium is that it’s just another luxury integrated bracelet design. It’s beautiful but may not do enough to differentiate itself (especially from the Czapek Antarctique and the Christopher Ward The Twelve, both of which are strikingly similar in overall design). The Arnold & Son Longitude Titanium is priced as CHF 21,500 (incl. VAT) for the non-limited ocean blue and fern green models and CHF 22,600 (incl. VAT) for the Kingsand gold model, which is limited to 88 pieces. For more information, please visit the Arnold & Son website.