Racing watch owners rejoice: Dents driving gloves are a dream come true

Ricardo Sime

Driving gloves and a racing watch. It’s a combination that gets the blood flowing of any watch collector who dreams of being Steve McQueen in Le Mans or Paul Newman in his actual day to day life. Even I’ll admit the image of slowly tightening your gloves before accelerating off the starting line comes to mind every time I’m in the presence of a racing chronograph.

With that said, if you’ve ever actually worn a racing watch and a pair of driving gloves, you’ll know reality doesn’t quite live up to fantasy. Either the watch is only legible because you’re wearing it uncomfortably high on the wrist. Or the gloves are covering it and you constantly have to pull them up to check the dial. A dangerous task on a highway, let alone a racetrack.

Dents, one of the oldest leather glove manufacturers in the world, is one of the latest to present a solution with their ‘Geneva’ gloves. As many might have suspected from the name, these driving gloves do not treat wristwatches as an afterthought. Instead, they are designed to frame a timepiece on the wrist. This, thanks to the a large keyhole (the hole on the top of the wrist above the fastener). Within this larger than standard sized hole, a watch head can sit comfortably. Forgoing the need to wear the watch higher on the wrist or to fiddle with the gloves while driving.

Beyond making many weekend race warriors/watch collectors happy, the Dents Geneva is an interesting offering. As Dents Chief Executive Deborah Moore states, these gloves were created as a direct response to customers asking for a glove that fit their watch-wearing needs. Which makes me wonder, if more clothing/accessory brands listened to this subset of customers, what other watch-centric designs would we get? (Microfiber inner cuffs anyone?)

If you’re not interested in travelling down this road of what ifs, here’s what you need to know about the Geneva. It comes in four sizes: small, medium, large and extra large. The only colour option (for now) is black. And finally, it’s priced at $119.00 USD.

For those interested in purchasing or getting more information, give Dents website a visit.