Disclaimer: My watch of this week. Definitely not emblematic of watch industry conservatism.
A small introduction from the author. I am a long time watch collector that writes a series of semi-regular columns, crossposted at WatchCrunch.com.
This is the sixty eighth(ish) in a semi-regular digest of cool watches I happened to see this week.
Past posts in this series have been hashtagged to #watchesinthewild
As always, my general policy is that I never ask for wrist shots (because approaching strangers and distant acquaintances to talk about watches is already weird enough) so all pictures below are sourced from the internet unless otherwise noted. People are mostly cool, I try not to annoy them.
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With another Watches and Wonders and its yawn worthy releases around the corner, I suppose it is high time for me to mention the recurring theme here that watch companies are responding to slack demand by phoning it in. Being a business owner and a securities analyst besides, I understand this impulse. Revenues are down, therefore we must cut costs!
The things that have been released over the past couple of quarters…they have spoken to a deep conservatism about the future prospects of the watch industry.
The release of the Seiko Aquaracer, a watch that I literally can’t decide if I like the look of.
The Patek Phillipe Squatilus, a watch that I know I don’t like the look of.
BB black. Look ma, I’m a vintage Rolex!
A Blue Ingenieur, because teal wasn’t basic enough
An Omega 2254. Wait, a NTTD. Wait, I know, a cash grab! In truth I like the black on black variant of these quite a bit but it definitely feels like Omega is phoning it in a bit.
It almost drives a man to madness.
It is, then, ironic that it has been an amazingly fruitful time for watch spotting. Work has had a fair share of hype pieces (but also some very cool lower key stuff). To the extent that I have been able to tear myself away work and spend time with the kids, other parents have had really cool stuff on wrist as well.
The frosting on the cake happened at a kid’s birthday on Saturday, when someone complimented my watch.
I knoooooowwwww.
My new watch friend, Nick, spotted my PF and complimented it and we chatted modern collecting and the joys of watches to be found in the microbrand space.
I might have texted him immediately when my Mad1S dropped
I think I might have scared him guys….
In any case, I hope you enjoy!
Brew Metric Automatic in PVD
Written in honor of Nick, who has excellent taste in watches but, unlike me (a degenerate watch addict), has standards and restraint. He bought this as a beautiful tie in to his two money draining hobbies: watches and espresso.
Nick’s collection is very microbrand focused: Vaer and Brew and others of that ilk. He was considering grabbing a Retrograph as well (not a patina guy but that Alton Brown coffee stained collab is very good looking). I say do it! Another Brew to add to the collection is awesome and a worthy companion to this very cool blacked out watch.
I’m not much of a PVD guy in watches which is funny because I like the color. I wear a lot of black, I drive a black car, I have (rapidly thinning) black hair. It’s a @edge168n color if there ever was one.
But most blacked out watches trend towards tactical (I am anything but) and towards differential wear patterns over time (which just kinda makes me sad).
Oddly enough, this brew metric doesn’t hit any of those notes for me. The differential wear is going to happen but the finish is glossy (rather than matte) in a way that makes it feels lively rather than blacked out. The red/orange hands do the same. I dig it.
The interesting thing is that I’ve never seen this on the OEM leather strap. It’s a very good look and frankly the way I would personally wear it.
To the extent that you feel like the big watch brands are resting on their laurels and turning out ever more derivative versions of the same old watch, pay attention to what the micros are doing. More than ever, brands like Brew and watches like the Metric are paving the way for a true golden age for creative watch making.
CW Trident in Bronze
Seen on the cross Bay ferry in the wrist of a gentleman in a wheel chair. I really wish I’d managed to talk to him (is there any brand that screams enthusiast more than CW?) but it was not to be.
I have softened my views on both divers and bronze watches over the years. I am the reasonably happy owner of a Cartier diver and have been fiddling around with aging a bronze watch case to see if I’ll end up liking the patina (survey says no…it just looks dirty to me). But curiosity is the first step to enjoyment and I am trying very hard to be curious.
This CW diver is an OG, something out of the days when CW was renowned for making the very best watch you could get for under $1k. It was a wild and woolly era for microbrands back then but CW was among the very best, providing both value and quality at staggeringly low prices.
Inflation has since taken its toll and maybe we ought to revise that to the best watch you can get below $1500ish.
Maybe this is some rose tinted glasses here, but I find the design of these old CW divers charming. The full very off center logo, the kinda cathedral handset without the stained glass window motif in the middle. I even like the Yacht Master esque bezel.
Mind you I didn’t find them charming enough to buy. When I search my heart as to why I never really bought one of these Tridents, I think it comes.down to that seconds hand. I can abide a fair bit of whimsy in my watch designs but man do I think that Trident counterweight looks dumb.
Is there no sign that your brain is afflicted with the watch virus that a seconds hands prevents you from buying an very cool looking watch.
Seiko SJE093
Seen on the wrist of a fellow 1st grade parent. Knowing the rarity of these, I raced across the school yard to ask the gentleman about it. I mentioned that when I heard about the dimensions, I figured that it was going to be sold out very quickly but I harassed my AD about it snyway. He laughed and said he stalked his AD for weeks about it as soon as it was announced.
Could there be a more perfect vintage reissue than this? I mean, this is the release that Seiko nuts have been fiending over for the past decade. True to vintage sizing, true to vintage colors, and slim enough to be worn happily by wrists of all sizes. It’s just so obvious.
I’m not even hating here! My broken 62mas loving brain tried to get one of these when they hit the stores, the same brain that Thinks about the
A. Lange und Sohne 1815 White Gold Small Seconds
Seen on the wrist of a senior executive at a New York hedge fund in my offices. It was a business call not a social call but everyone should know that I desperately wanted to to ask him about itm.
Two thoughts.
1. I feel like this is a very low key finance guy watch. I do see Langes from time to time on finance guy wrists but mostly the super hype pieces (Zeitwerks, Lange Ones, Odysseuses). High finance, at least to my eye, has historically been a Rolex (and at the upper end Patek) dominated profession and, as such, watch spotting on Zoom calls and at televised conferences is dull, to say the least. As such, I appreciated this watch very much.
2. Is there any brand that embodies beauty in the details more than Lange? Like, this is a watch with 12 Arabic numerals, small seconds, and a railroad track…a Lange field watch as it were. We can find a hundred different watches that do this at every price point. Vaer has one at $999. Vertex does one at $3k. IWC can charge you anywhere from $6k to $20k depending on the make for the Portuguesier.
But the entry level Lange commands a $10k+ premium over the most expensive iteration of the IWC, perhaps even for good reason. Despite the fact that the IWC has some features that are widely considered more premium (like applied numerals), the Lange just blows it away with the details.
From the perfectly blued hands, to the diamond shaped counterbalance to the seconds hand to the capped pinion to trio of dots and a dash at 3-6-9-12. Even the printed numerals feel unusually premium, with a beautiful rounded height that is uncommon even in luxury brands.
This might be the perfect modern precious metal dress watch, especially in the modern 39mm sizing. I feel like I should get into the 1815 at some point in my ever spiralling watch degeneracy
What cool watches did you see this week?
The Escapement Room 