Ernst Benz was a pioneer in the world of aviation who designed aircraft instrument chronographs. The Benz Micro Aircraft Chronograph, that he designed in the 1960’s, became standard equipment on most of the light to mid weight aircraft of its time and beyond. The Ernst Benz watches stay faithful to their namesake. The watches are all automatic, are easy to read at a glance, and offer the traditional complications that suit the flying set.

This is not to say that the brand, despite its traditional roots, is averse to shaking things up a bit. The new Chronoflite World Timer goes off-grid and displays unexpected city names on its bezel representing the 24 time zones (Cairo instead of Athens, for example). Also on the bezel, and rarely seen, are indications of daylight savings corresponding to the zones that change the time with the season. This Daylight Savings time is indicated by a dash and an S next to the city name. The inner bezel ring rotates bi-directionally to make setting the watch easier and at 47mm it’s easy to read on the fly.

It’s not easy to be a start up in the watch world, full of 100-plus year old manufactures. The Swiss have a virtual lock on fine watchmaking, and Ralph Lauren wisely launched his new haute horologerie collection in a partnership with the Richemont group.

This is not to say that Mr. Lauren did not have his hand in every step of the process. He is according to reports an avid watch collector (he also owns some of the rarest automobiles) and of course has his own distinctive style and unwavering dedication to quality. It’s also rumored that he rejected the brown color of his watchbands several times until it was just to his specifications.

All of this hard work and attention to detail has borne a distinctive collection of three first models, the Stirrup, the Slim Classique, and the Sporting collection. Movements range from manual winds to automatics.

The highest complication is a World Time in the Sporting collection, that has a second time zone, 40 hour power reserve, day/night indicator, and date. The collection was introduced at the 2009 SIHH show amid great anticipation from retail. Historically many fashion designers have licensed their name to manufactures but this is the first “designer” launch that embraces the craft of watchmaking at its highest level.

Wearing Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master World Geographic may make you feel like you’re able to be in more than one place at a time.

With a 24 time zone display on the dial, it is easy for the wearer to instantly tell the time in any city on Earth. The names of 24 cities, corresponding to the 24 time zones, are displayed just inside the bezel. Thus it is aptly named the “Master World.” In addition, the date (of your home time zone) is displayed at 3 o’clock and a second time zone is in the 6 o’clock subdial.

There is a also a power reserve indicator, which is especially helpful when traveling with a self-winding watch.

The watch features an automatic movement which is unidirectionally wound. Most automatic watches are wound in both directions, but Jeager’s engineers have concluded that unidirectional winding is more efficient. It also has a crystal caseback, allowing you a great view of the movement.

Despite its myriad functions and efficiencies, even this extraordinary timepiece cannot actually put you in two places at once. But you may feel like the master of your own world when you wear it.