Watches in the Wild (Dive Watch Central, Volume 40)

Disclaimer: A Soko for the sunshine.

This is the fortieth 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.

A delayed edition from a couple weeks ago. We've been fighting off all sorts of gross preschool diseases here but everyone is on the mend. Thanks for the patience and well wishes.

Summer is coming on full force here in Northern California and all the little pleasures and annoyances to go along with it.  Pool time has been a must a long with sunburns and with summer camps out for the week of July 4th (which I totally get and also hate), I've been to every kid centric attraction from here until Eureka.

I am occasionally asked where the best place to spot watches is, with the expectation on my suggesting the country club on Old Money Lane or some other hallowed place.

I assure you, I am not that fancy.  In my vanishingly small free time, you'll find me at a kids ball game, a children's museum, the local zoo or a ballet recital.  And it is in those places that I do my very best watch spotting.  People wear watches in the wild, you just have to train the eye to look.  But I would say that my experiences are probably not the average ones and I suppose I might just be an insane crank who sees watches everywhere.  There are worse ways to live I suppose.

I hope you enjoy!

Moonswatch Sun

Seen at a science museum.  Have these jumped the shark already?  I'm told there's a strawberry handed moonshine gold one now.

Perhaps the less is said about these the better but it did look decent on wrist.

Seiko SLA041 Tuna

Seen on the wrist of the guy doing novelty photographs at the science museum.  Forgot to ask about it but I wish I had.

I've occasionally remarked that the only sort of person who looks at a Seiko Tuna and wants to wear it has to be a watch nut.  I think a normal human looks at this prison tracking bracelet of a watch and wonders who needs a watch that big and bulky.  

The Tuna is of the same design brief as the Omega Ploprof and Rolex Sea Dweller (not to mention the latter day Tudor Pelagos and Omega 300m). Which to say is, how do you deal with the helium gas problem?

When saturation diving (as most of us watch aficionados do regularly), helium gas builds up in even air tight watch cases.  Under pressure, this is not a significant issue.  But as the diver rises to the surface, the ambient pressure falls and the pressure of the excess helium gas inside of the watch case can pop the watch crystal right off.   An unnecessary pop off is bad form, not to mention likely fatal to the watch in question.

Most brands approached this by offering a helium escape valve on their deep sea dive watches.  A good solution if uninspired.

Seiko on the other hand reengineered their dive watches entirely, with the end result being the original Tuna, a watch that even under significant deep sea pressure, lets virtually no excess helium into the case.   

Japan - One

Switzerland - Zero

Seiko also pushed their high beat 10 hz automatic movement into the first generation of Tuna divers and then a crazy durable super quartz after.

Japan - Two

Helvetia - Zero

Oh and just five words.  First ever titanium monocoque case (I think).

And Fondue-land goes down for the count.

This modern SLA041 is the heir to that incredible tradition, with the insane Ever-Brilliant Titanium monocoque, with the might-as-well-be-a-Grand-Seiko 8L35 movement.  It also has all the original's ridiculous size at 17mm high and 52mm diameter.  The old Tuna was a hyper watch, so too this current one, ready all the way to a kilometer down.

Wait, what do you mean you don't saturation dive daily?  And you still wear the hockey puck?

Maybe the Muggles have a point...

Rolex Submariner No Date (probably a 124060?)

Seen at the children's museum.  A unicorn this one. I chatted with the owner briefly and he definitely preferred the cleaner look of the no date ceramic. If that isn't a watch nerd talking, I don't know what is.

I confess to not having a ton of other thoughts on ceramic submariners. They are among the most ubiquitous luxury watches I see on a daily basis.

But the nerd was notable and worth a mention.

Panerai Pam 113

Seen at the zoo. I complimented the watch and got a friendly grunt in return , but nothing else of note.

For whatever reason, I think of Luminors exclusively as black watches.  Panerai, for the extremely little my opinion is worth, seems like a colorless brand to me. Not uninteresting, but all of the interest is in the case, the crazy over engineered crown guard and gasket system, the oversized cases the bold lines that scream  "I am a Panerai!!!"

Sometimes they do funny stuff with lume. Sometimes they do crazy stuff with their movements and the random modifications thereof. But in reality it's just the case, the case is where the interest is.

And so when confronted with a Panerai thathad a white dial, I first found my brain unable to compute and then began frantically googling Luminors that had white dials and thus found this. Pam 113.

As befitting my love for offbeat watches from iconic brands, I do really like this watch. I love how it flips the classic Panerai formula on its head with the white dial and stark black numerals. The dial itself has a touch of an enamel look to it which adds a delicacy to this beefy and brawny sports watch.

The unusual small seconds location and the general weirdness of the watch are just cherries on top.

I wish I was cool enough to wear this watch and I definitely want to try one on when I next get the chance.

Seamaster 300 Ceramic Black

Seen at the zoo.  Definitely a respot (first described in volume 4 of watches in the wild) and seen many times afterwards.

Whenever I see a watch that I've spotted again, I often revisit what I wrote about it way back when.  I mostly hate repeating myself so I often try to see if I have a different take.  Have my thoughts changed?  Have I learned something new?  Do I have something further to add to the conversation?

This is what I wrote about a nine months ago.

Modern Seamaster 300ms are easy to identify, even from a distance so I won't belabor the point but the scalloped bezel, shiny multi link bracelet and ceramic bezels are pretty big give aways.  

I think this is as good a time as any to note that Omega vexes me.  

Technologically, I think they are best in class, really only rivaled by Seiko.  In terms of movement innovation and quality, novel materials implemented at manufacturing scale, Omega might be unmatched.  The co-axial escapement is the biggest technological leap in mechanical watchmaking since the automatic rotor.  The watch geek in me lusts after Omega.

And yet, Omega is a watch maker that I feel is searching for a soul.  My biggest critique of Omega is the fact that their watch designs have simply waffled too much over the years.  The Seamaster of today bears little resemblance to the seamaster of 30 years ago which in turn bears little resemblance to the Seamasters of 50 years ago.  

Contrast to Rolex/Cartier/Blancpain/Breguet, whose watches are unmistakable regardless of whatever period of time they're from.

It seems sad that Omega, which potentially has as much powerful horological history as any of those watch brands, does not call from its history as much as it could and should.  Instead we have the increasingly awkward explosion of watch lines and watches within watch lines.   The Seamaster is ground zero for this problem.

Example: A Submariner is a dive watch that looks a very specific way.  A Tank is a rectangular dress watch that looks a very specific way.  

A Seamaster is 

1) a casual dive watch with ceramic bezel (Seamaster 300M), 

2) a dress casual watch with a plain bezel (Seamaster Aqua Terra) 

3) a professional dive watch with a ceramic bezel (Seamaster Planet Ocean), 

4) A vintage dive watch (Seamaster 300), 

5) A MORE professional dive watch (Seamaster Ploprof), 

6) A dress watch (Seamaster City editions/1948 edition)

7) Whatever the heck the Seamaster Railmaster is

Every single one of these is a great watch.  There's such promise. I just wish they'd pick a lane and stick to it. 

Yep, nailed it.

Omega Planet Ocean 39.5mm in Blue

Seen at a county fair.  No conversation.  Okay maybe I do have more to say about Omega.

When I was a younger and svelter man of 25 (oh so very long ago), as the senior analyst of my fund, I was given coverage responsibility over the European luxury industry (including Richemont, LVMH, Swatch Group, Kering, Hermes, and Prada).  I was watch curious at that point (instead of being a complete degenerate like I am now) and took to the task of understanding a new industry with enthusiasm. 

Whenever I am in the position of learning about a new industry or company, I find the fastest way to get up the experience curve is by trying to talk to industry participants (company executives, suppliers, major watch and jewelrg authorized dealers, etc.). Many of these companies are publicly traded , so there are channels to arrange contact with even some pretty hoity toity types ( I recall a lovely conversation with George's Kern while he was still a Cartier man and a significantly less pleasant one with his boss, Johann Rupert).

But sometimes, you have to pick up the phone and see if someone will talk to you. It was in that way that I got to talk to a man we will call Javier (a pseudonym obviously). Javier was the head of watch acquisitions at a very large global chain of jewelery stores and I was very interested in speaking to him about his thoughts on his partners.

You see I was diligencing Swatch Group at the time as a potential investment and set myself an interesting prompt.  Omega, which accounts for about 30% of Swatch Group sales and  the majority of Swatch Group profits, is a brand that should own the watch world.  Their history is nearly unparalleled in terms of history, technology, and iconography.  And yet, save for a relatively brief renaissance under Jean Claude Biver (who pushed to replace Rolex as the Bond watch), it is a brand that has largely underperformed its commercial potential. It's perpetually been number two to Rolex's overwhelming number one (and in 2022, even slipped to number 3 behind Cartier.).  If Swatch could turn around Omega and make it the real juggernaut it ought to be, then it would be an extraordinary investment.

It took, perhaps three weeks of voice.mails back and forth to finally schedule a call with Javvy (I believe he was based in Dubai) but we eventually set a time and hopped on a conference call together.

 I actually had to go back to my old phone transcriptions to find the actual words because some of this is too juicy to misquote.

On Rolex, "They dribble stock into us at random and it makes it impossible to plan.  I hate that we are so dependent on them for watch sales."

On Hublot, "I hate them and everything they are but they sell.  I will never underestimate a watch that has its people.  A Biver masterpiece."

On Cartier, "They have some exceptional product coming down the line but their brand ambassador game is very weak.  They have a wonderful brand and wonderful (men's) watches but no one knows them except for jewelry." (As it happens, Cartier did a very good job with this over the subsequent years and nailed it with the Santos and other brands)

But when I asked about Omega, he sighed and asked me if I'd seen a 300 in an AD recently.

"You see, my friend, Omega is all the things you say.  Technology, amazing. Design, perhaps not for everyone but excellent overall, it is the sort of thing where if the watch is successful then the design becomes iconic rather than the other way around.  It is actually a watch that did historical things.  None of the fake Rolex history like the Explorer not actually getting to the top of Everest.  The Speedmaster walked in the Moon.

"But the f*cking Hayeks can't get it through their thick skulls that the way to make the watch desirable is to make it less available.  Not a lot less available.  Just a little bit.  Make the customer wait a week or two for it and make sure they can't get it anywhere but the authorized dealer.  But whenever they have a watch that sells, they produce as much of it as they can and flood the market.  This is why you can find the Seamaster 300 at grey market at 60% of the sticker price and the gold watches at an even bigger discount.  They just stuff the channel and the weaker authorized dealers have to dump product.

"This is a big problem for me because then the customer comes in and demands a discount because the actual market price of the product is not clear.  But it hurts them too, because when they come back to trade it in, they can't get a good value retention for a watch they bought.  So the customer thinks it's a sh*t watch.

"But it's not a sh*t watch.  It is a great watch!  Omega just doesn't know how to manage its inventory and brand image.  The luxury customer wants what they can't have or at the very least to have to wait a little bit for it.  And they can have Omega every day of the week at a discount."

"This is not luxury, this is Aldi."

I ended up passing on the Swatch investment about 11 years ago, and the price of the stock is down about 25% since that time (even as it s competitors have surged with Richemont being up 300% in the same period and LVMH being up 1000%) , in large part because of the perpetual promise and then underperformance of its golden child.

And this 39.5mm PO is emblematic of that.  It is such a very good watch.  Well spec'd, staggeringly good looking, amazing sizing (and even on the thinner side for a 600m diver) wrist presence, the whole nine yards.  It even has the romantic anchor hands from Omega that I remember so well from the original Speedmaster but fit so much better here.  I Love this watch and many of its predecessors.

But it is hidden underneath the countless special editions, and even faces competition from the flashier but far less capable SeaMaster 300M. This is so much watch for $7,100 and yet it languishes (if gray market pricing is any indication).

In many respects, it just feels like an unforced error. So much missed potential.

What cool watches did you see this week?