Alfred Dunhill

Dunhill~ The power of Advertisement; A childhood dream came true.....

When I mention the word Dunhill, my guess is 90% of people will think about cigarettes. For me, Dunhill is "Style.... Quality..... Excellence...." That my friends, is the aftermath of million dollars advertising campaign and branding strategy. You have to give Dunhill marketing department full credits for so successfully branding Dunhill as an up-scaled living standard. 

During the 1980's,1990's and possible early 2000's, most governments have banned tobacco conglomerates from advertising their cigarettes on television or mainstream media. Most tobacco brands were very innovative in their approach to overcome this obstacle. Hence comes "Salem High Country", "Malboro cowboy or Malboro Motorsport", "Camel Trophy", "Peter Stuyvesant Travel".... Alfred Dunhill instead of promoting its tobacco products, concentrated on its luxurious goods like menwear, leather goods, lighters, pens and fine watches. Here is a Dunhill ad from 1986.....

 Gosh... during my teenage year, my young heart yelling "I want all those....." Dunhill watch, wallet, and belt with gold big D buckle, all is in my Wishlist.... too bad, Santa or my Mother God fairy is never kind to me..... I manage to google some Dunhill watch advertisements here....

This watch was presented to me as a gift by my watchmaker friend. This Dunhill watch sat inside his work bench for N number of years. Must be the time when the dinosaurs still rules the earth.... It is a leftover from his predecessor's era. Maybe the rightful owner brought the watch for servicing or replacing of battery.... and had never went back to collect the watch. No one really knows what happened... Dunhill watch is never cheap. I believe this model is among the earliest batch that was sell here. I estimated the watch to be from mid 1980's. Back then a watch like this was retailing for RM2000 plus. I do have a memory of an elephant when it comes to watches. 

This is a classic Dunhill dress watch with two tones (stainless steel and gold plated). I believe intially the watch came with stainless steel bracelet; and pretty much likes the one below..... The gold plating are nicely done. Even after 20-30 years the gold plated parts are still shining. Notice the crown is different. Mine should be an aftermarket replacement. The original crown is not round but with curved edges, it is called spinel crown. The original crown is gold plated and the gold worn off with age.  

The glass is made of mineral crystal. There are some scratches here and there on the case, but the simplicity design is way stunning. The white dial with black roman numerals and the black hands are in perfect condition. I believe this is the first batch as this dial does not have the word "Swiss" at 6 o'clock position. This watch uses the high grade ETA Quartz movement and there isn't any chop of Dunhill on the movement either. Could it be a fake? Nope certainly not, because during that era, the fakes were much simple and usually employ Japanese movement. 

Notice the word "Swiss" at 6 o'clock position from a later model above. A watch is considered Swiss whose movement is encased in Switzerland and whose final control by the manufacturer takes place in Switzerland. 

This watch is water resistant with a snap in case back. I love this watch mainly it has the iconic design of Dunhill watches of the 1980's. The watch is thin and light due to the fact that it is a quartz watch. Most serious watch collectors think there is little value in collecting battery operated watches and at best even with solid gold case, it is just precious metal only. I have to admit I am a bit stereotyping when it is a quartz watch too. However Quartz basically revolutionalized the watch industry, therefore, the importance of quartz watch cannot be neglected. So when I am wearing this one... am I stylish? full of great quality? am I excellence in any sense??? Hahahaaaaaaa you must be kidding me!

Revised higher resolution photos