Watches in the Wild (Burying the Lede, Volume 53)

Disclaimer: Lol.

This is the fifty first 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. People are mostly cool, I try not to annoy them.

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Last winter, in Northern California, we joked about the triple-demic, a beautifully dystopian cocktail of COVID, influenza, and RSV.  Nothing super scary for most folks, but perhaps a touch more danger for the little ones.  Still, more inconvenience not danger.

My family, being the hygienic people we are, managed to dodge all of it.  We washed hands, masked up as necessary, took all the necessary vitamins and outsmarted illness left and right.  I'm just better right?

For the past two months, I and my entire family have been struck down with each of the members of the triple-demic in a never ending panoply of sick day misery.  Except let's add a fourth horseman to the Diet Rite Cola and Southern Comfort cocktail of my college hangovers, rotavirus picked up from my children and which according to the CDC is transmitted primarily through the (and I quote) "fecal-oral route."

Whatever anyone tells you, let it be known that parenting is incredibly dignified.

Anyway, being sick means not much watch spotting, though if you know me at all, I still did manage to get up to some real watch shenanigans.

First a couple of respots of references that I've discussed before.

SuperOcean Heritage B20 in Gold

Seen on the wrist of a gentleman going down my office elevator.  I think he might have been the owner of the building.

I am pretty sure they only make the rose SuperOcean Heritage in the 42mm size but the somewhat slabby case sides in red gold make this thing look gigantic.  It might as well have been fifty mm, because it's all wrist presence.

Omega Constellation two tone

On an older gentleman.  Was this a super popular watch back in the 90s?  I see a lot of them out there but almost exclusively on men in their 60s.

Nomos Club Campus

Farmer's market spot, the same gentleman from some months ago.  I tried to talk to him again and failed.  

Sigh.

Tank Solo Mechanical on bracelet

Spotted at a Thai restaurant.  Tried for a conversation again but was shot down.

Am I losing my touch?

Seiko 5 Shadow on bund strap

Seen at my favorite local deli.  I asked about it and he replied that it was stock but he threw it into a bund strap.  It looked good!

And some longer notes....

Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas

Seen on the wrist of a mom at gymnastics.  No conversation.

Somehow, I expect that I will get flak for highlighting a quartz women's watch first. If I cared about such things.

I often reflect on the dirtiness of the term "fashion watch" among modern collectors.  Our Lady of Perpetual Hot Takes,  the-YouTuber-formerly-known-as-Watch-Gringa, singled out fashion watches as number one on her list of watches to avoid.  I don't mean to call Brittany Pierce out specifically, it's a common prejudice among watch types and is one of those rallying points that gets plenty of cheap applause.

I am generally of the opinion that almost all watches, aside from an atomic Casio, fail in some respect on what is the functional purpose of a watch, which is to tell the time as accurately as possible. Watches may have started as functional objects once upon a time but have evolved into design objects.  That is, Andy Warhol was right and we don't wear a watch to tell the time.  We wear thee tiny Rube Goldberg machines because they are the thing to wear.

And so we come to Bulgari, a jewelry house with horological aspirations and some truly ground breaking watches in the Octo Roma and Octo Finissimo. But instead of focusing on these watch nerd appropriate pieces, I'm going to talk about a quartz women's watch.

The history of the Serpenti Tubogas dates back to 1948 (so pre Submariner for those of you counting) when designers at Bulgari saw a coiled gas pipe and thought there's a cool industrial organic look. There's old symbology here.  Take a look at old Hellenistic statues of Aphrodite, Baroque depictions of Cleopatra, or the snake ring that Albert gave Victoria on their marriage.  Snakes coiled around women's arms are a thing.

I'm not certain when the evolution from bracelet to watch came along, but what is a watch but a mechanical time telling bracelet?

It is not what appeals to me in watches (not at all).  But there's underappreciated heritage and history here and attention ought to be paid.  I'm glad I saw it.

Jack Mason Strat-O-Timer "Dark Night"

A short term loan from the most gentlemanly Texan I know @valleykilmers

I've talked about this watch at length before but having it on wrist for two weeks has been eye opening.  I've never been the sort of person to pass this off as a GMT MAster II knock off but even now as I search for Rolex Batman on Google, this pops up in the Shopping tab as an alternative.

And yet, this feels all together different to me on wrist.

The GMT Master II, to me, is modern Rolex maximalism.  Everything is dialed up to 11, from the Super case to the deeply engraved ceramic bezel, to the cold blue lume.  It is a very good watch, no doubt, but it is a fundamentally modern one.

The Strat-o-Timer is vintage to the core with the cushion case, sloped green lume markers and the faded indigo and black bezel.  In many respects, I get a beautiful blend of vintage Seiko, Zodiac, and Longines from the dial and case combination with all of the creature comforts of modern watch making (on the fly adjustments, excellent winding feel, great on wrist balance, and no band stretch).  This is a great watch, maybe the best microbrand watch release of the past five years and blows away watches that are 3x the entry price (looking at you Seiko).

Oh and one more thing.  By far the best part of this watch was that it is owned someone on WatchCrunch who started out as an internet person to jaw with and may very well end up being a real life watch friend.  So maybe if you're looking for new year's resolutions, here's one for the road.  Go make a real deal (not completely online) watch friend to talk to and enjoy watch with,.  That's worth more than any watch I can think of.  #gooutsideandtouchgrass.

Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda GT Chronograph (NWA)

And the best (at least to me) for last.

I could talk about this watch for days.  About how the size specs really underrate just how comfortable this watch is on wrist.  About how much nicer I find it than the last Royal Oak I had on wrist.  About how cool I think annual calendars are and how much cooler an annual calendar chronograph is.  About how much I like panda dials, but slightly offbeat ones.  About how I've been looking at Parmigiani Fleurier for the better part of two years and trying to figure out which of their collection might fit into MY collection.  About how if you're into the independents like Habring, Parmigiani, or Moser, this might be the time to enter the market because secondary market prices have been absolutely smashed.

But that's all kinda boring.  Don't be a nerd.  

Instead, I want to talk about why I buy watches and why I keep them around.  I do have an impulsive streak in my purchasing (as evidenced by my sudden charitable raffles and auctions), but ultimately watch purchases to me are fundamentally emotional.  I don't tend to keep watches for any extended period of time unless there are emotions and experiences attached to them.  I'm a sucker for the milestone watch, especially one that everyone looks at and mostly shrugs at (especially my wife).  There's only meaning to me here/

So what occasion did I mark this time?  Ten years of being my own boss.  Ten year proving that my company had a right to survive in an intensely competitive industry.  Ten years of sleepless nights and stomach acid.  Ten years of dreams dashed and then reborn.  Ten years of remembering that maybe the greatest single ingredient to professional success is simply being too stupid to quit.

As for the next ten years, who knows?  Whenever I'm tempted to plan too far ahead in the future, I am reminded of the great biblical scholar Woody Allen and his dissertation on Second Hesitations.

"Whenever you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

And so, not too many plans, at least not today. But a watch for the milestone.  And for the journey ahead.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year everyone!  I'll see you all in 2024.

What cool watches did you see this week?