Watches in the Wild (Keep Calm and Hype On, Volume 29)

Disclaimer: Inspired to switch this to leather by @HotWatchChick69

This is the twenty ninth 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, part 26, part 27 and part 28.

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.

***Beginneth Rant*** My news feed tells me thst there is a watch event of some sort going on somewhere in central Europe and I can't for the life of me remember its name. Horology and Humblebrags? Toffs and Timepieces?  I'm sure it will come to me sooner or later.

I kid because I love, but over the years as Baselworld and SIHH have evolved into Watches and Wonders, I've grown increasingly burned out with both the releases (which look real samey after a while) and the coverage (which tries very hard to tell me just how exciting and different this years releases are compared to last years).  It strains credulity.

Rolex replaced a dress watch line that no one bought with another dress watch line that I suspect no one will buy and put an open case back on a chronograph that no one will able to buy.  

Tudor added on the fly adjustments to some watches and took the rivets off the bracelets of some but not all of their divers.  

Grand Seiko remixed a couple of dials on slightly different cases, most of which are limited and not going to be seen in stores or on wrists for 12 months or more.

Tag released a couple of chronographs that I'm almost positive they've released before and decided to add some colors to dials (I actually kinda like the new Carrera colors, so I'm not sure what I'm complaining about here).

And to be clear, I am not at all against this sort of important quality of life improvement by watch companies.  But I do wonder....Did we need a hundred million dollar trade show and thousands of hours of breathless coverage in order to get it?  @Porthole and @Aurelian I'd like to turn in my candidacy for inclusion on the WC mount Rushmore of grumps.

It goes without saying, my passion is seeing watches on people's wrists and W&W is just a bit too focused on the hype pieces that are destined to live life as safe queens and "investment" pieces.  That's not why any of us find watches fun.  I will stick to my sojourns out here in the wild.

***Endeth Rant***

This was an interesting week actually.  A couple of re spots, some modern divers, but more notably a ton of very cool quartzes that I haven't honestly seen too often.

I hope you enjoy!

Cartier Roadster Chronograph XL (black)

Hublot Big bang black magic on leather

On the wrists of two brothers at a children's museum.  I thought I heard Hebrew but couldn't find an opening to talk to them and was with my children in any case and wasn't really there to talk watches.

I've talked about versions of both these watches before and my opinions on them haven't changed much.  I tend to like them more than most but they are large fun watches with a lot of personality.  You like fun don't you?

Well unless you're a certain vintage obsessed Statler and Waldorf.  At which point, feel free to lampoon everyone and everything ;)

Omega Seamaster 2255

Seen in a coffee shop while at a meeting.  No chance I was going to abandon a business meetup for a watch conversation but there's a part of me that wishes I had.

I tend to think of it as the looser, cooler version of the endlessly classic but somewhat sterner 2254.  The black bezel on black dial has been replaced with a steel bezel on electric blue dial that really highlights the subtle wave in the background.

I have mentioned it time and again but I love this era of Omega divers.  They're effortlessly neo vintage cool, with what I view as the most classic of the Seamaster aesthetics: sword hands, scalloped bezel, and subtle dial wave.  They are quietly revolutionary movement wise as well, sporting the first generation of the increasingly legendary coaxial escapement in a heavily modified ETA 2894.

If you can't tell, I've had this watch on the mind for a while.  I've largely concluded that it's a watch for me to look at, rather than own for myself but I greatly appreciate whenever I get to see one.

Seiko Safarnie 

Seen on a watch friend's wrist with an Ali-Express FKM strap instead of the Seiko standard.  He mentioned that he didn't like the metal keepers very much because they kept  on slipping.  To my great chagrin, I mistook this for a Tuna at first. Somehow I missed the two other crowns and completely misread the dial layout (that's what years of the watch spotting hobby gets you I suppose) so five points subtracted from Slytherin and let's get on with it.

I actually think this is a quietly attractive watch.  No, not the case.  Terminator Banker would love it (h/t to @Fieldwalker for that joke) but I actually rather like this dial.  It's a departure from the Old Arnie (With the SKX face) or the tuna (with the circular prospex applied hour markers) but instead the super angular, patinated hour markers painted on.  I think it suits the handset really well, acting almost as an extension of the slightly too short hour and minute hands.

It still wears a lot like a 47mm hockey puck, but a nice light hockey puck with the colors of a field watch and the capabilities of a diver.  The bezel has that soft vintage Seiko clickiness and a general charm about it that I can't explain.

I'm not a quartz guy but I rather enjoy this watch.

Mondaine Stop2Go (probably 33mm?)

Seen on the wrist of my kid's dentist.  It took me a little bit to recognize it.  Mondaine makes what I would generously call a bog standard minimalist watch and I think narrowing down the universe of white faced watches with red seconds hands is not really possible.

But the stop2go is one of those complications that once you see it, it's pretty recognizable.  This begs the question, what is the stop2go movement?

Put simply, it is a sweeping (4 hertz or ticks per second) quartz movements with two independent motors for the hour and the seconds  hand.  At 58 seconds on the minute, the seconds hand stops for two seconds to allow the minute hands to advance.  The complication was based on the clocks of the Swiss Railway system as a way of making sure that trains left the station on the full minute.

I honestly love stuff like this.  There's a bit of heritage, a bit of cool complication, and a lot of visual interest for a comparatively simple quartz watch.  

I don't know if it's high horology or just a neat party trick, but I frankly don't care that much.  It's fun and the watch world could use more of that these days. It's a shame they discontinued it because I would infinitely prefer this to many a quartz Instagram special.

Breitling SuperOcean (last generation)

Seen in the lobby of my building while waiting for a fire drill to finish on the wrist of a well dressed gentleman.  I offered a compliment and we chatted a bit about the merits of the different generations of the SuperOcean.

I find the new SuperOcean...odd.  The dial feels overwhelmed relative to the bezel and rehaut.  That minute hand is....divisive.  I get that there's some history there being based on the SuperOcean Slow motion, a unique chronograph design with a 1 hour timer.

But they did the same thing that Seiko did with the SPB127 and the Seiko Crown Chronograph from 1964 and created a three hander inspired by a chronograph with the look but not the function.  It just feels like a weird letdown.

But one generation ago of SuperOcean, that's a beautiful watch.  I think I enjoy the giant numerals and the, by comparison, cleaner dial.  The bracelet is comfortable with the slanted oyster links.  Sure I'd prefer a no date (what watch nerd wouldn't) but all in all, it's a tough good looking watch that was overpriced the day it came out but has since settled into a much more attractively priced steady state.

Bulova Computron 1976 Reissue

Seen on the wrist of a tattooed gentleman late at night in a restaurant in San Francisco.  I offered a quick compliment but it was loud and I guarantee he didn't hear me.

I'll admit, there was some frantic googling to figure out what this watch was which might have included the following terms.

"Hamilton PSR"

"Blue LED pyramid watch"

And my personal favorite.

"Cylon watch"

I know nothing about this watch or it's history aside from a brief Hodinkee article.

But man oh man, this was was crazy fun to look at.

What cool watches did you see this week?