Thank you for another interesting post, Bill.
It took me a long time (years) to warm up to the Contemporaine, primarily because of the 40mm case and the great expanse of dial. However, I did eventually learn to appreciate the simple but elegant design. The large size just gives it the right amount of "presence" on the wrist but the minimalist design does not shout "look at me!" I particularly like the treatment given to the gold indexes (long 5-minute indexes, cabochons in between, and elongated arrowheads(?) for the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions) I think this adds a lot of class and character and keeps the watch from looking too simple to the point of being bland.
I got a boutique edition manual wind from the Geneva flagship boutique as a remembrance for my trip to VC and SIHH 2008. The watch has been seeing a lot of wrist time since my work requires me to do a lot of typing and the lightness of the Contemporaine is a big help.
I also got to see the boutique edition of the automatic which also looked very cool. The placement of the date window above 6 o'clock really gives the watch good symmetry and sets it apart from the usual positioning of the date at 3 o'clock. That said, I think I am more attracted to the automatic without date so it is a shame that this model will be phased-out.
It is interesting to note that the automatic versions first came out with a silvery (sunburst?) dial which gave it a somewhat antique look. I am not sure why VC decided to use a different dial stye in the first place, and why they decided to move back to the original creamy dial of the earlier manual winding model. Personally, I was not attracted to the silvery dial so the change was a welcome development.
Thanks again for the post. Please keep them coming.
HAGWE
Kazumi