12 Of Our Favorite Sector-Dial Watches, From Affordable to Luxury

As their name implies, sector-dial watches are recognizable for their vintage-inspired dial layout, with radial lines and concentric circles dividing the dial’s essential visual data — the hours, minutes, and seconds — into distinct segments. It’s a style that first made its way into watch design in the 1930s and ‘40s, the heyday of Art Deco, and at the time was almost certainly aimed at delivering an instrument-like legibility rather than any kind of stylish ornamentation. Today, however, the sector dial is enjoying a bit of a quiet renaissance mainly for aesthetic reasons, on a diverse array of timepieces. Whether the watch it adorns leans more toward “military tool” or “dressy accessory” in its appeal, the sector dial’s streamlined, subdivided look has proved to be anything but dated. Here are a dozen of our favorites on the market now. 

[toc-section heading="Seiko 5 Sports SRPH29"]

Price: $315, Case Size: 39.4mm, Thickness: 13.2mm, Lug to Lug: 48.1mm, Lug Width: 20mm, Crystal: Hardlex, Water Resistance: 100 meters, Movement: Automatic 4R36

Seiko’s 5 Sports line takes its cues from a classic model from 1963, the Seiko 5 Sportsmatic, whose five named attributes include automatic movements, day/date displays in a single window, water resistance, a recessed crown at 4 o’clock, and a case made of durable materials. The value-oriented series speaks to military mavens and aviation enthusiasts with the SRPH29 model, which straddles the line between a vintage flieger pilot’s watch and a field watch (two genres that are historically linked) with its 60-minute/12-hour dial combo, wide syringe hands, and 12 o’clock orientation triangle. The model offers a 100-meter water resistant steel case and the in-house, automatic 4R36 caliber, which packs a 41-hour power reserve and which can be admired behind a clear caseback.

[toc-section heading="Baltic HMS 002"]

Price: $428.40 Case Size: 38mm, Thickness: 13mm, Lug to Lug: 47mm, Water Resistance: 50 meters, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic Miyota 8315

Paris-based Baltic, a microbrand best known for its Aquascaphe collection of vintage-inspired dive watches. serves up a more elegant style of timepiece with the HMS 002. The model is distinguished by its sector dial with gilt lines and typography, sporting a grained finish in the center and a radial brushed surface on the minute track. The steel case measures a modest 38mm in diameter and 12mm thick, re-creating the restrained dimensions of the vintage watches that inspired its design, and is topped with an acrylic box-type crystal. Aiding and abetting this watch’s eyebrow-raising value proposition is the movement inside, an 8-series Miyota automatic caliber which brings a bit of Japanese craftsmanship to the watch’s proudly French character.

[toc-section heading="Nodus Sector II Field Titanium"]

Price: $500, Case Size: 38mm, Thickness: 11.7mm, Lug-to-Lug: 47mm, Lug Width: 20mm, Water Resistance: 100m, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic TMI NH38

Nodus, an American microband founded in 2017, designs and assembles its watches at its HQ in Los Angeles, from imported materials, including Seiko automatic movements from Japan. The Sector Field II Ti model, a titanium-cased version of the original steel model, is offered in an array of vibrant, gradient dial colors, including the Marina (blue), Shale (gray) and Sequoia (green) pictured here. The watch uses grade 2 rather than the more common grade 5 titanium — the former is more matte and glare-free, as befits a field watch — and features the classic 24-hour military time track inside an outer ring of legible Arabic hour-numeral appliqués. The case offers a robust 100-meter water resistance and comes on a Hybrid TecTuff rubber strap equipped with a titanium clasp. 

[toc-section heading="Circula ProTrail"]

Price: $989, Case Size: 40mm, Thickness: 12mm, Lug to Lug: 46mm Water Resistance: 150 meters, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic Sellita SW200

Germany’s Circula (the brand name refers to the circular shape of mechanical watch movements and their gears and wheels), traces its history all the way back to 1926, when it was founded by the Huber family in Pforzheim. The brand as we know it today came into being in 1955 and continues the historical legacy of making purpose-built tool watches. Among the most notable of these is the ProTrail, a robust field watch with a sector dial and a sturdy, scratch-resistant steel case. The 40mm case has a sandblasted finish, surface-treated for exceptional hardness of 1,200 Vickers, and is magnetic-resistant to 80,000 A/m thanks to a soft-iron inner cage. The Swiss-made automatic movement inside that cage is a Sellita with top-end Elabore finishing — even though it’s hidden behind a solid caseback with a trail-map motif.

[toc-section heading="Mido Multifort Patrimony"]

Price: $1,060, Case Size: 40mm, Thickness: 12mm, Lug-To-Lug: 47mm, Lug Width: 19mm Crystal: Sapphire, Water-Resistance: 50 meters, Movement: Automatic Caliber 80 (ETA C07.111),

The Mido Multifort Patrimony takes a host of mid-century vintage design elements and reinterprets them in a stylish way for the modern consumer while also paying subtle homage to the era that inspired it. The 40mm steel case features slender, scalloped lugs that lend both wearing comfort and vintage flair, while the wide, sector-style dial offers a very old-school element on its outer edge, a pulsometer scale of the type found on historical “doctor’s watch” chronographs, along with two syringe-style hands for the hours and minutes balanced by a date window at 6 o’clock. Ticking inside the 40mm steel case is the ETA-based Powermatic 80 caliber, which, as its name implies, delivers the Multifort Patrimony a lengthy 80-hour power reserve.

[toc-section heading="Hamilton Khaki Field Titanium Automatic"]

Price: $1,195, Case Size: 42mm, Thickness: 11.45mm, Lug Width: 20mm, Water Resistance: 100 meters, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic Hamilton H-10 (ETA C07.611 base)

The Khaki Field Automatic is directly descended from a 1960s watch that Hamilton provided for marines during the Vietnam War era and strives for a high level of authenticity in its period details. With a 42mm case made of titanium, and containing the self-winding Caliber H-10, which packs an impressive 80-hour power reserve, the model represents an impressive value proposition for lovers of vintage military watches. The cases have a matte finish to eliminate glare — a definite boon for an infantryman in the field of combat. A set of drilled lugs connect the watch to a nylon NATO-style strap with coordinating leather hardware. The military green tone of this model’s dial is more decorative than utilitarian, but it drives home the historical theme in an appealing way.

[toc-section heading="Alpina Heritage Automatic"]

Price: $2,240, Case Size: 38mm, Thickness: 10.15mm, Lug Width: 19mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 30 meters, Movement: Automatic AL-520 (Sellita SW200 base)

The newest model to join Alpina’s historically inspired Heritage series, the Heritage Automatic evokes the design language of Alpina watches from the 1920s through the 1940s — in the case of this model, one whose original dimensions were a very modest 25.7mm. Alpina doesn’t go so far as to re-create that dainty size in the modern version, but scales up the case up to a more contemporary but still understated 38mm in diameter and 10.15mm thick. All the watch’s dial elements are more or less faithful to those of its ancestor, including the sector-style minute track, blued Dauphine hands, printed numerals and indexes, and period-appropriate vintage Alpina logo. The notation “26 jewels” on the dial is a period-appropriate touch that references the movement inside, Alpina’s automatic Caliber AL-520, a no-date version of the base Caliber AL-525, itself a rebranded version of the ubiquitous Sellita SW200-1.

[toc-section heading="Maurice Lacroix Pontos Day-Date"]

Price: $2,250, Case Size: 40.5mm, Lug Width: 22mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 100 meters, Movement: Automatic Caliber ML143 (Sellita SW200 base)

Maurice Lacroix offers a distinctively stylish day-date model in its sporty Pontos collection, known for its sector-dial designs. The Pontos Day-Date, coming in at a midrange 40.5mm size, has applied baton hour markers surrounding an inner minute ring (in a contrasting color to the main dial), interrupted by a date window at the 6 o’clock position. Inside the circle, above the center point of the hour and minute hands, is a curving window displaying the day of the week, fully spelled out rather than abbreviated. The case’s stepped lugs connect it to either a three-link steel bracelet or a color-coordinated nylon strap.

[toc-section heading="Raymond Weil Millesime Small Seconds"]

Price: $2,295, Case Size: 39.5mm, Thickness: 10.25mm, Lug to Lug: 46.3mm, Lug Width: 20mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 50 meters, Movement: Automatic Caliber RW 4251

Raymond Weil took many watch connoisseurs by surprise when its Millesime took the coveted Challenge award in 2023’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Genève (GPHG), the watch world’s equivalent of the Oscars. In the short time since, that model has already become not only its own product family but also an acknowledged modern classic of sector-dial design. At a slender 39.5mm in brushed and polished stainless steel; with a vintage-inspired sector dial with contrasting finished surfaces for the hour track, minute track, and central area; and silver-toned sword hands sweeping over a recessed small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock, the Millesime represents a throwback to a style of elegant dress watch that few seem to be making any more. The movement, visible through a clear caseback, has an array of high-end embellishments and a signature “W”-shaped rotor, bonuses at this very accessible price point. I review the Millesime here.

[toc-section heading="Longines Heritage Sector Dial"]

Price: $2,950, Case Size: 38.5mm, Thickness: 10.9mm, Lug-to-Lug: 47.6mm, Lug Width: 19mm, Water Resistance: 30 meters, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic L893 

Longines was among the very first watch brands to devote an entire line of watches to resurrecting vintage and often highly rare models from its long history, anticipating the trend that is still popular today. The Heritage Classic Black “Sector Dial,” a mainstay of this now-sprawling Heritage collection, is a 1930s-inspired gents watch with a sector-dial layout that combines a brushed outer ring contrasting with a matte inner surface and an engine-turned, indented small seconds scale. The silver hour indexes are printed rather than applied, as per historical accuracy, and the stick-shaped hands sweep over a period-appropriate Longines logo. The steel case measures 38.5-mm in diameter, with slim, subtly curved lugs and a flat bezel. Longines has outfitted the model with its ETA-based Caliber L893, an automatic movement with a 72-hour power reserve and a very modern silicon balance spring.

[toc-section heading="Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Date"]

Price: $12,500, Case Size: 42mm, Thickness: 13.92mm, Lug Width: 21mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 200 meters, Movement: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre 899

Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the original Memovox Polaris in 1968 as the first diver’s watch outfitted with a mechanical alarm function. Its successor, introduced in 2018 and called simply the Polaris, leaves out the alarm but retains other notable elements from the original, including the case’s dual crowns, one of which is used to operate a rotating inner bezel. The lacquered, sector-style dial of the Polaris Date consists of three concentric circles with contrasting finishes: sunray in the center, graining on the outer circle with its vintage-inspired Arabic numerals, and opaline for the rotating inner rotating bezel flange. Ticking inside the 42mm stainless steel case is Jaeger-LeCoultre’s self-winding manufacture Caliber 899, which bestows the watch a respectable 70-hour power reserve.

[toc-section heading="Vacheron Constantin FiftySix Self Winding"]

Price: $14,300, Case Size: 40mm, Thickness: 9.6mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 30 meters, Movement: Automatic Caliber 1326

The FiftySix collection, introduced in 2018, has its origins in a vintage watch from Vacheron Constantin’s vast archives, the fondly remembered Reference 6073 from 1956. Like that timepiece, the models in the modern FiftySix collection feature a case design inspired by the Maltese cross, the longtime symbol of Vacheron Constantin, with each of the curved lugs representing one branch of this 15th-century badge of honor. Its classical sector dial, with alternating Arabic numeral appliqués and baton indexes, color-matched date window, and subtly differing finishes in each of the dial's concentric ringed sectors, will appeal to many, and the movement inside, automatic Caliber 1326, impresses with its 48-hour power reserve and stop-seconds function.