Watches in the Wild (Daylight Savings Blues, Volume 27)

Disclaimer: A busy day ahead.

This is the twenty seventh in a semi-regular digest of cool watches I happened to see this week.

Past posts in this series have been hashtagged to #watchesinthewild and you can click through for  part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 23, part 24, part 25, and part 26.

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.

After weeks of frenetic travel, crazy rainstorms (though those haven't really stopped), and an archaic time change that serves no purpose, this week we had the first blush of characteristic Northern California spring weather here with temperatures in the 60s F (15-18 C) and plentiful sun.  I got to spend time with my kids and in the office and generally have been bumbling about, thinking that normality is severely underrated.

Of course, after three bank failures in the past week (with two in my neck of the woods) and massively volatile capital markets, I would say that.  I digress.

I suppose by comparison, Northern California is a little sparser and less diverse than London in terms of watch spotting.  I saw no fewer than four stainless steel Submariners and three stainless steel Explorer 1s out there in the past week and a half. 

I did manage to talk to the owners of those Rolexes and most of them claimed they were relatively new (some within the past few weeks) with short waits.  One even claimed that he was able to get his explorer at a discount (I don't know that I believe that one).  One thing is abundantly clear, if you want that stainless steel sports Rolex, now is the time.

Still, despite the slimmer pickings, I did see a fair number of very cool watches over the past couple of weeks.  The best are below.

IWC mark XVI

Seen during a fire drill in a crowded elevator.  No conversation.

I admit, I have a bit of a tough time distinguishing between the modern IWC Marks on the fly.  The look is so distinctive for them (probably the nicest flieger any of us has ever seen) but the differences are subtle in terms of dial and case shape.  The Mark XVI is the one with the standard date display at 3 and a missing 9, an aesthetic choice that bewilders me to this day.

I mean, I totally get what they were thinking.  You balance the dial by taking out hour numbers, right?  Except the date placement means that visually it just looks even more unbalanced, like there's an empty space that ought to be filled on the otherwise.  They remedied this problem with the Mark XVIII and the color matched date wheel with the date in white, and why I view this (along with its near clone, the Mark XX) as the most attractive of the Mark Series by a significant margin.

There are other small differences too.  The bracelet on the Mark XVI, is a pretty uninteresting five link engineers bracelet with a mostly hidden folding clasp (lacking the awesome on the fly micro adjustment of the Mark XVIII and XX, though with smaller links so it's perfectly possible to get a good fit).  It's shinier too and oddly blingier with a lot more angles, a raised 2nd and 4th link, and, I believe, a somewhat finer brush than other IWCs.

The whole package comes off as dressier to me, oddly enough for a real deal tool watch.  I ultimately can't complain that much.  I love the way the IWC fliegers look and this is yet another take on it.  But compared to the near perfection of the Mark XVIII/XX, it feels wanting.

Seiko Prospex SPB153 "Prospex willard" in green

Purchased by a watch friend as a birthday gift to himself from Gnomon. I got to fiddle with this one for a bit and I like it very much.

I've mentioned this before a couple of times, but it is worth repeating.....I don't really like divers much.  I've been trying to overcome this extraordinary deficit as a watch collector and a human being but I simply find that dive watches don't fit my lifestyle.  I live a soft and indolent life and while I have been known to recreationally dive from time to time, I do so with a dive computer, not a watch.

But it must be said, the Willard is both a kooky and remarkably attractive watch.  As with many Seiko divers, it just nails the dial.  I think I might prefer the subtle texture of the grey dial but the camo color of the green dial is subtle and good looking.  The hands are among my favorites among the Seiko catalog, echoes of the Marine Master 300 in the hours and minutes and the red dot seconds hand if the MM200.  I even love the hour markers and the characteristic Seiko split chevron marker at the 12.

The case is unlike any other watch out there, save for perhaps the Turtle with the short and rounded lug profile.  And even then, the unique crown guards give it an organic, limpet like look on the wrist, aided by how flat it wears.  It straddles that line between adventurer and military and does so with panache.

It has the same old Seiko niggles of course: a tight bezel with softer clicks than I'd like, occasional alignment issues, and a competent bracelet that looks like it belongs to another watch.

But slap an AliExpress FKM strap on there (or an Artem Sailcloth if you're a fancy sort) and you have the stylish tool watch contender, worthy of a scuba dive in crystal clear water or a tropical journey into the heart of darkness.

Hamilton Khaki Field Officer Hand Winding in green

Seen at the playground on the wrist of another parent while trying to referee my daughter's disagreement with said parent's little boy.

Anyway, there was no way I was going to ask about this watch given that my only entry would have been

"Hey, I think my kid might have made yours cry and I'm really sorry about that and by the by, that's a really cool Hamilton you have there. Can we be friends?"

Have you ever worried about your kid's capacity for being a Bond supervillain? My eldest daughter is showing a remarkable talent for psychological warfare.

Anyway, I used to own the black version of this watch, purchased because some YouTuber told me "that every watch enthusiast should own one of these."  Any time I've ever followed this moronic piece of advice, I have ended up hate flipping the watch purchased.  This time was no exception.

That doesn't mean I regret owning it.  Indeed, I think I learn more from the watches I don't like on my wrist than the watches I do like.  Among the lessons learned were....

1. I just don't really care about the military heritage thing.  You might and that's super cool.  But it's not really my thing.

2. Long straight lugs relative to a small light case just make me sad.  Any watch with them slips all over my wrist.

3. Manual winding is great for dress watches I wear occasionally.  For a daily, I find it immensely frustrating.

Now, I don't want anyone to think I hate the Hamilton KFM at all.  It's a lovely looking watch in that bead blasted kinda way and I even tend to prefer this slightly more subtle dial with the less prominent minute markers and more prominent Arabic house numerals.  The winding action is smooth with a good amount of friction to it.  It's pretty strap monster-y as these things go.

And you know what, the green looked good on the guy's wrist.  But not mine.

But the KFM will forever remind me of the importance of one's personal watch journey (paging @Aurelian to lampoon me later for using the word-that-shall-not-be-said).  Listicles comprised of watches that every collector should own are just for the birds.

A trio of lady's watches

Cartier Tank Francaise

Lady Datejust

Omega Constellation brown dial two tone

All seen at a convocation of ladies who lunch. Conversations were attempted and were remarkably unsuccessful. I'm afraid I still have horrifying flashbacks from when I bought my wife a watch a couple months ago so I'm afraid that you'll have to do with some quick hits.

Does anyone else think that the new Tank Francaise looks worse than the old Tank Francaise?  I find it very strange how they're trying to make it sportier with an all brushed finish and the strange integrated lug.  Also, the weird applied numerals and not my thing.  There's a beautiful art to the way that Cartier prints their numerals, with beautiful rounded height to them. Even though they're printed, they're also three dimensional almost like a molded enamel.  Not a fan.

I've always wondered why Rolex stopped making quartz movements, especially for lady sized watches.  They clearly can do it (and do it well) given how remarkably well my old Oysterquartz operates.  I wonder if their lady sizes would be more popular if they did.

The brown dial Omega is an absolute stunner in person.  Its a two tone with Sedna Gold (which is a beautiful Omega branded red gold. I liken it to a chemically inert and vastly more expensive bronze that doesn't patina. I'm sure I've insulted @thekris somewhere with this line of thought.).  I think the brown dial probably requires a certain sort of personality to want to pull it off, but I did actually find myself vaguely browsing the Omega website the other day to see if they did a 39mm mechanical version.  They do, but it looks worse (probably due to the busier dial and the slightly unfortunate date window ringed in gold).

Le sigh.

Black Bay 58

Seen on the wrist of a gentleman carrying an armful of flowers from his car into my office building.  No conversation.

For how beloved this watch is by the watch nut community, I am surprised that this is the first time I can recall seeing it.

I don't know what I could add to the conversation about it aside from the fact that it is as nearly a perfect vintage diver as it gets save for two small niggles.  The faux riveted bracelet still feels silly and those snowflake hands on the round hour markers just make me sad.

The rest of it is just about perfect: size, design, and quality.  As I've mentioned to others in passing, it is the sort of watch that I wished I encountered earlier in my watch collecting life, perhaps when I had fewer opinions about what I liked and disliked. 

What cool watches did you see this week?