More than a decade ago, I was the first person to cover Dietrich watches with a very interesting multi-strap timepiece Mr. Emmanuel Dietrich produced for skiing. A few timepiece designs later, I can easily say that Dietrich is one of today’s living masters of watch originality. He isn’t the only good watch designer working today, but in my opinion, he deserves a role in the pantheon of the greats. Today’s review is a longer-term look at the Dietrich Time Companion (TC) watch (originally reviewed on aBlogtoWatch here) — seen here primarily as the Dietrich TC-PVD-BLUE. As the name implies, this is a TC watch with a black PVD-coated case and a blue-colored dial.

The Time Companion is yet another good answer to the question, “What might a Royal Oak of today look like?” Popular Gerald Genta timepiece designs, such as the Royal Oak or the Nautilus from the 1970s, are so successful because they are more men’s jewelery bracelets than strict timepieces. Genta was the first to solidify the value of creating men’s watch cases and bracelets that visually integrate to form one cohesive composition, as opposed to a watch case matched with the strap.