Sands of time

Desert bashing is all the rage right now, but what about if you need a fancy wristwatch to match?

- RICHARD HOLT

IF YOU NEED A VEHICLE TO HIT THE desert and look good doing so, you can't go wrong with a MercedesAMG G63 6x6. Prices have already nudged past the million dollar mark, so there is that to think about. But what watch would you take?

Nothing says you love dunes more than a watch with actual sand in it. The Ressence Type 9 (see top) is a very unusual watch to begin with. Instead of the standard arrangement of hands going around a face, it tells the time via two rotating discs, with the subdial moving hypnotically clockwise around the main dial.

It was made for a UAE based retailer, and has a dial covered in real sand, with a little bit taken from each of the seven emirates.

The sand is glued to the rotating titanium discs and the dial of each watch varies slightly according to the spread of coloured grains.