Chris: I suppose a lot of this will be down to personal preference, but it is tiring seeing a constant stream of
“What should I buy?”
or
“is this a good watch?”
I could list 100 watches, or 10 watches, of various sizes and budgets, but it’s subjective. Esquire’s “best watches for under £2000” they just released is exceptionally dull.
Regardless, there are probably some choices I would offer you that would make you question my sanity. You like what!?
So… here is a Rogue’s Gallery of watches I like that I probably shouldn’t…
Mondaine Helvetica
Swiss brand makes a watch based upon a ubiquitous Swiss font. It’s clean, it’s understated, and looks relatively versatile as a quartz GADA (ugh!). There is a “design” version in beige that really should not work, but it lives rent free in my mind. Am I mad?
Hugo Boss Yachting Timer II
I remember the first incarnation of this model over a decade ago with the silver/white/orange combo with the rubber strap. The second incarnation with its lime/black getup is also very funky with the branded Boss rubber strap. I love this watch, it’s a fun piece that I think you could pull off on or off a yacht. Maybe not with a suit… reserve that one for the metal strap version.
Gucci G-Timeless Le Marché des Merveilles
I have long been an admirer of the embroidered gold bee within the green and red nylon-dial. Fine, it’s an expensive quartz-powered luxury fashion watch, but it has a bee. Who doesn’t love a bee? Gucci have a lot of bee options, and this one is my favourite. I like bees.
Bees.
Who else wants to chip in before I commit more horological crimes?
Greg: Who doesn’t like bees? Nobody, that’s who.
I will stay in the dreaded “fashion watch” category. Here is the merging of “fashion” and “high horology” (whatever that is). My guilty pleasure the new Louis Vuitton Tambour. Integrated bracelet, check, $18,000, check, not comically thick like previous versions, check. I probably wouldn’t even if I could, but I do like it.
The second guilty pleasure is the Marloe Tay. I think that this is meant to be their women’s watch at 35mm. I wear smaller every other day. I have looked at it on their website at least three times this month. So, sue me.
The last is the simple Citizen Garrison. It would be the perfect weekend watch, the beater for hikes and gardening, for changing diapers and spark plugs. Except, (brief pause) Citizen thinks that we are all giants who want large dinner plates on our wrists. So, too large for me and out of the cart again. Re-imagine it at 39mm and maybe I take a flyer.
What should I buy?
Kaysia: It’s funny, because while you guys shy away from your guilty pleasures, I tend to embrace (and buy) mine.
Check out this very sexy Roberto Cavalli.
I don’t think I’ve bothered posting about this on the forums because I know it will be of zero interest to the majority of watch folks, but I find it endlessly amusing that if this had ‘Bvlgari’ on the dial people would be Oooing and Aaahing, regardless of what lay under the hood.
I personally think this is a very sexy watch, but there is one very good reason I shouldn’t like it… sperm hands. I think it’s supposed to be a snake, but all I see is sperm. It makes it a hard watch to wear now.
When I think about watches that I feel I really shouldn’t like, but do anyway, these tend to be watches that I just overthink.
Should I like cheap Ali Express watches made in China?
Should I like expensive luxury watches that are just peddling social signalling?
When I get too lost in these thoughts I just scroll watches on eBay till I feel better.
You mention Gucci, Chris. I too have a soft spot for them, and it confuses me why they don’t get seen more amongst the watch folks in YouTube land. Well… no, actually it doesn’t confuse me.
For example, check out the Gucci 25H and the tourbillion version. Is it really that different to other integrated bracelet watches flying about at the moment? But you’ll never see a mainstream YouTuber reviewing it because showing a fashion watch in your collection is like drinking from a poisoned chalice of pariah-dom.
Greg, I really like the Louis Vuitton! Definitely buy that one!
Chris: Definitely another +1 on the LV. I quite like it.
The Gucci options on the integrated bracelet are very nice. There is an element of the Bvlgari Octo to them, and the Tiffany blue dial combo just screams “buy me”.
Fashion watches are an easy target… if I move onto “high horology”, I am equally going to shock with some of my choices.
Corum Bubble.
I am a die-hard fan, and an owner of a non-chronograph original run of the Lucifer. This is a fun, but completely impractical watch. It is also built like a tank, as a doorframe in a Devonshire inn would attest to. The cumbersome dimensions make for unhappy accidents, and the crystal tore through the frame like tissue paper. If I wrapped it around my knuckles “Bond-Style” I would probably not need to source a replacement.
Bvlgari Ergon.
Bvlgari seem to be a mixed-bag for most; the Octo gains plaudits, and the Diagono is a classy affair, whereby the Magnesium or Aluminium are not talked about, and the Ergon all but forgotten. The E40S has a lot to offer, solid ETA movement, with a clean black dial, mother-of-pearl numerals, and smooth, ergonomic (see what they did there) steel case. It is a wonderful integrated type affair about 20 years ahead of the trends. It might suffer from post-90s “jobbyness”, which may be why it’s never mentioned. If you find one with the bracelet know that it is a work of art. The leather strap version is very comfortable as well, I can preach about that. Cost me sweet f.a. as well.
Tag Heuer Kirium.
As 90s as it comes, this is one of the poster-boys of 90s “jobbyness”. It is supposed to be inspired by liquid mercury, but all I see is a design team who think futurism peaked using Deluxe Paint on the Amiga. It screams rave flyer and early demoscene graphics with OctaMED tracker files. It’s not the worst, I think Citizen’s 1481010 D400 range of digital watches might be the pinnacle of this design language. I am, of course, absolutely wrong.
Anyway, I’m just enjoying my Timex Q 1979 Malibu option with the pink dial… I love this watch.
Greg: If you look at what I actually own you would not see anything like the Nodus Sector Sport, especially in yellow. Oh, I have come so close. Came close with the light blue too. The Sector Sport is a 3-6-9 that doesn’t borrow from you-know-who. It is just a cheerful thing in its own right.
I quite like the Moels and Co. off center thing, like the Thunderhead. I am put off by the marketing, but I can’t fault them for taking risks. That case shape is exactly the stupid kind of gamble that many watches took in the 1970’s. So, I like stupid.
My last is the Douglas skin diver. It reminds me of my first watch.
I am off to try to get a bond for a fellow who shot another fellow. Wish me luck.
Chris: Good luck indeed…
As if to really throw a curveball, look at this nonsense I just picked up for pennies on the RRP… I’m not sure anyone should take anything I say seriously…
The Escapement Room 