Watches in the Wild (Enter the Dragon, Volume 57)

Disclaimer: Fooooormex.

This is the fifty 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

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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https://youtu.be/mCdbIDiib5U?si=1hEe7zql3YHP5LmI

Gong hei fat choy!  Xian nian kuai le! And happy Lunar New Year everyone!

I spent much of the Chinese New Year week and week before in a swirl of meetings, very few of which resulted in actual interesting (to me) watches.  I understand the use case of an Apple watch or a Garmin or a Samsung watch (I even bought my Dad a Fitbit and my mom an Apple watch) but they do little to incite my imagination.  They just don't tickle the pickle.

Still, being the sort of horological bringer of joy that I am, I did manage to deliver a more interesting watch (to me) to someone.  More on that later.

Oh, and another thing...my kiddos are all down with stomach viruses and doing their best impressions of the demon girl from the Exorcist.  I sense a number of delayed columns in my immediate future.

Allez cherie, encore en fois.

Enjoy!

Seiko 5 GMT "Batman"

Seen at my doctor's office while getting my daughter her vaccinations on the wrist of a first time father of a young infant.  I complimented and he slowly turned to me, with all the sprightliness of a man who has slept no more than three hours in the past week.  There was a feeble attempt at conversation but it ended with me saying I hope he got some sleep soon.

I am so very glad that I saw one of these in the wild because I can now talk about how this is probably the most consequential Seiko release since the SKX.  I remember a couple years ago, at the end of 2022, when someone put up a thread here on WC, soliciting opinions on the most important watch releases of 2022. Some chose the green SMP or the Grand Seiko Kodo or the extra thin AP Royal Oak or the Moonswatch. 

With all due respect to my esteemed colleagues, they're all horrifically wrong.  It's the Seiko 5 GMT and I don't think it's particularly close.

Why you ask?

Because to me, a different dial variation of a luxury diver, two unattainables and a plastic (sorry, bio ceramic ) quartz marketing gimmick don't count as progress.  They are at best novelties and at worst indulgences.  A great watch lives on beyond the watch itself, manifest in the influence it has in future watches.

Why is the AP Royal Oak important?  Though it doesn't move me design wise, it is the watch that saved mechanical watch making by transforming the act of watch ownership from mere time telling to act of luxury.

Why is the Rolex Submariner important?  For better or worse, it is the archetype of the modern dive watch, so much so that virtually every modern diver borrows design elements from it.

Why is the Seiko 5 GMT important?  Much like it's design forerunner, the SKX, the Seiko 5 GMT redefined how much watch we should demand for our dollar.  

Does anyone remember 2021 (ten million years ago I know) and the insane arguments we all had about whether it was possible to get a decent (caller or flyer) GMT watch below $1000? The only movement options we had were Swiss (either a Soprod C125 or Sellitta SW330 with a modular GMT function).  Islander watch was poised to act as a major price spoiler in the market, with its republic GMT retailer for a then unheard of $895.

And then Seiko dropped a bomb with the SSK series priced at $475 (and falling by the day) and the world was never the same.  A hundred microbrand GMTs launched in the weeks ahead, powered by the Seiko's NH34 movement.  Nodus, RZE, Vaer, Boldr, and Spinnaker all dove in, building robust and well designed GMT watches for under $600.

Perhaps more tellingly, the price of Swiss powered GMTs plunged.  The much anticipated Republic GMT got a $200 discount (to $695) almost immediately on launch.  Secondary market prices for Montas, Christopher Wards and others dove.

The GMT watch, once a complication for well heeled watch snobs, suddenly became one for the Everyman, a latter day version of a date complication.

Now, saying all this might lead you to believe that I'm talking up the personality of an unattractive watch. Except you have eyes and you can see that the Seiko 5 has every bit of that old SKX charm.  Perhaps a touch tall (13.5mm) but a 43mm case is masked with that typical tight Seiko lug to lug (46mm).  It wears a dream.

Some day Seiko will discontinue these and watch literati are going to pine for the good old days when Seiko 5 GMTs went for just a couple hundred dollars.  Consider yourself forewarned.

Rolex Explorer 2 Arctic (either a 216570 or a 226570)

Seen on my broker's wrist at a business lunch.  We didn't talk watches but he stared at my Daytona the entire time.  I like my broker a lot so I mostly found it hilarious.

I often think how interesting it is that modern Rolex, a watch brand that built its entire image on how its watches do these amazing things, actually doesn't have many truly toolish watches in its collection anymore.  This, I am sure, is a very hot take.

But think of it.  Half the collection has polished center links (Daytonas, GMT Masters, Datejusts, Yachtmasters) which definitely don't wear well under strenuous circumstances.  But even the most toolish Rolexes, like Submariners, Air Kings or Explorer 1s have white gold markers and hands which give even an largely brushed case a definite business casual vibe.

This is not to suggest that Rolex doesn't make excellent and capable watches (it does). But I think this is a reason why so many people like Tudor.  These small design details do make a difference and Tudor is the closest thing to the old toolish Rolex as it gets these days.

There is but one exception I can think of to this overall aesthetic, the Rolex Explorer 2 in Arctic which is the closest thing that Rolex has to a tool watch these days.  Rough and tough brushed case, unapologetically big numerals on the steel bezel, and (in contrast to most Rolexes) black border for the hands and indices, a toolish touch that pushed it truly into professional watch territory.

Even then, I think this may be an endangered species.  In the most recent iterations, Rolex made the explorer 2 dial out of enamel for a bit of shine.  The last of the Rolex tool watches may be extinct soon.

Vero Smokey Bear 64

Seen on the wrist of a watch nut friend.  When I asked about the watch,  my buddy said his cousin had given it to him for Christmas, in honor of his grandfather, a wildland firefighter descended from a line of wildland firefighters in Michigan. Amazing.  

The third Vero I've talked about here on this column (the prior ones being an extremely limited release one at a bespoke tailor in Portland and another limited edition, the Vero Safari Special).  Somehow, it feels noteworthy.  

I suspect I see Vero more often than the broader watch press covers them.  Part of it is because I am a West Coaster, which means Portlandia is a short hop away.  But I suspect part of it is that I appreciate the bold aesthetics of Vero watches, while also recognizing that they probably aren't for me.

As such, this is definitely one of the.moee conventional looking Veros, particularly from a case design perspective. Very standard field watch with the bead blast finish.  The dial is field watch busy with the deeply nostalgic slogan "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires."

***Beginneth Aside***

It used to be "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" right?  When did this change?

***Endeth Aside***

I confess to feelings of nostalgia (because smokey the bear y'all!) and immediacy because of the wildfires that raged through Northern California in 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.  There's nothing quite so disquieting as the sky turning blood red at noon because some knucklehead decided to play amateur arsonist or, you know, not maintain the stupid power lines.  I digress.

This is some good, clean, not terribly expensive fun for a well spec'd watch, some of whose proceeds go  to the US Forestry Service to protect our great American forests.  Vero nailed it.

Omega SeaMaster Professional 2532.80 

Seen at a kids birthday party on the wrist of a marine engineer on the local ferry system, formerly of the Coast Guard for 25 years.  His wife bought it for him as a 40th birthday present and he preferred to wear it on a single pass NATO rather than the bracelet, which he found chunky and clacked on the computer while typing.  He had considered a retirement Rolex GMT Master 2 on leaving the Coast Guard but found the AD games absolutely crazy, even though they offered to let him jump the line.  Good for him.

I have many thoughts about this watch and the stories behind it but the first and foremost thing on my mind is just how good the condition was.  Like, this is a 30 year old watch and it was in such good condition that I wondered if I'd missed a modern steel bezel SeaMaster reference somewhere.

I do love the nonstandard versions of these old Bond Seamasters.  The classic Bond Seamasters (both quartz and auto) are legendary watches that wear fantastically but for whatever reason they feel a bit flat to me.  Perhaps it is because of the overexposure in film or the simple fact that blue bezel and blue dial is just a lot of blue (itself a pretty neutral color).  But that bright steel bezel frames the blue wave dial beautifully and gives it a certain cheeriness.

I even approve of the decision to forgo the bracelet (a relic of the 90s) though I might have chosen a sailcloth instead.  At any rate, lovely conversation and a lovely watch.  

Sinn 104

Seen on the wrist of my brother in law on meeting him for lunch. Story later.

I've talked about my brother in law a couple of times, an accountant by trade but an archer by passion. He's a big tattooed teddy bear of a man and I love him for his foul mouthed sense of humor and his tenderness to my girls.  He's also deeply watch curious with a budget bent (with a largely Timex driven collection plus one quartz Longines).  I suspect a small nudge is all that is needed to push him over into full on watch degeneracy.

https://youtu.be/tzvY1OzoDbQ?si=aFDtOOJhZL2tNxNW

In my family, when we give watches, they tend to be milestone watches of a peculiar sort.  Graduating college and getting a job doesn't count but surviving the first year with two kids does. If you think this sounds incredibly random, it is but there is one occasion where watches suddenly arrive as gifts.  I come from a line of often unsuccessful entrepreneurs that prize independence over rational things like, you know, actual compensation.   My father, on being offered a university professorship post his medical residency, decided to move to the middle of nowhere and start a private practice, just as the physician private practice business began to disappear.  My mother was the founder of a remarkably unsuccessful medical gas supply business, a tremendously time consuming medical transcription business, and, as a side gig, a dental practice to boot.  And in the great family tradition, a decade ago, I left a job that I loved (and paid me entirely more than I was worth) to start a hedge fund a decade ago with too few resources, too much confidence and the tidal wave of passive investing just around the corner.  We are a stupid, stubborn people.

But true to form, the day I started my business, my mother dropped by my offices and gave me a 36mm silver dial Cartier Balloon Bleu, a quiet gift that spoke volumes on both pride and pity.  Pride that her son valued independence more than wealth. Pity that he was so incredibly dumb.  That Balloon Bleu lives on in the family until this day on my father's wrist.

Back to the Sinn.  A couple months ago, my brother-in-law confided in me that, in Grand tradition, he was thinking of quitting his well paid accounting job and teaching archery full time, having just received his Level 4-NTS certification putting him in contention to coach several Olympic hopefuls.

It's a big deal in his world and with a business about to be launched, my mission was set.  What is the "you're dumb enough to become a small business owner watch?"

Something rough and tough to handle the field but refined enough to talk to parents of athletes and the US Olympic committee.  Something with history, heritage and not a small bit of watch nerd cred.

Rolex is out. They haven't sniffed tool watch in years.

Omega is a toolish enough but somewhat stylized for his taste.

And as  for Cartier, the Santos is a business casual watch at best.

How could to be anything but a Sinn?  Toolish, well designed, rugged and classy.  Most Sinns tend to lean very hard into the brutalist design but the one I chose, the 104 (in the sunburst grey dial) is very appropriate regardless of the situation.

I think the 104 is broadly my favorite of the Sinn collection.  The polished chamfered case gives it a certain dressiness missing from the other members of a largely bead blasted family.  But true to Sinn, it's still fundamentally an incredibly capable watch.  200m WR, chronometer spec and that crazy bezel that turns on ball bearings instead of a click spring.  And lest we forget, built like a brick sh*thouse.

A tough classy watch for a tough classy man.