Watches in the Wild (Meetings, Volume 49)

Disclaimer: Roooooadster.

This is the forty 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.

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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Just a quick upfront this time.

Fall means business travel for me and so much of this missive has been written in airport lounges or during harried uber rides from meeting to meeting.  It's a life and a good one and, by way of minor benefit, I get to see a lot of watches on wrists in environment that my day to day would not allow for.

A good selection today and some griping about Rolex. I hope you enjoy!

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First some Rolex respots that I have beaten to death in past editions already 

So many steel Explorers, Datejusts and Submariners

If anyone needed any evidence of the ubiquity of these watches....

GS SBGW289

On the wrist of a watch collecting friend.  We didn't talk about this watch per se, though I did confirm the model.  He was on his way to picking up his Rolex Explorer from the engraver which is very cute and also the sort of thing that only a psychopath does because it absolutely kills resale value.  Think of the residuals man!

I kid because I love because this sort of thing is getting more rare in an era of increased financialization of our timepieces.  More attention is paid to retaining value than making memories and it's just such a damned shame.   

This friend has an absolutely killer collection. In addition to the Explorer, two Tudors, an Omega, a Nomos, a Halios, and an Oak and Oscar.  And this gorgeous Grand Seiko in breathtaking pale pink.

These are the sorts of Grand Seiko dials that I think are destined to be true future classics: subtle, beautiful, and refined.

In contrast to the over saturated pictures on the GS website, the pink in the metal is quieter, almost imperceptible.  In certain lights, it comes off as almost cream colored and just looks the pure business overall.  For those of you who like minimalist dials, this is sure to appeal.  Being a maximalist myself, I would honestly like a power reserve!

But this to me is peak Grand Seiko.  Beautifully finished, beautifully sized (36.5mm!) with a dial that is textured enough to be interesting but not so much that it runs the risk of falling out of fashion.

Rose Gold Daytona on Oysterflex (116515LN)

Seen at an outdoor restaurant on the wrist of a startup guy really trying to raise an angel round from a wealthy investor.  Having been there before (where I'm really jonesing to raise capital from an investor), it would have been very bad form to interrupt.  I hope it went well, though I might have chosen a different watch.

There's not much to say here.  I like Daytonas, I don't mind the bling, and I rather like the oysterflex.  But it brings to mind an interesting question that I occasionally see asked on WatchCrunch....how do I choose what watch to wear in a business setting?

In many respects, this is a silly question. No one cares what watch you're wearing.  But sometimes they do and I wonder at my own strong reaction to wearing a rose gold Daytona to a pitch meeting.

Perhaps this is my middle class roots showing but I often find that I am trying to draw less attention to my wrist when in a business setting.  "Fitting in" is the watch word of the day and I often dress to my audience.  A subdued steel dress or dressy sport watch tends to be my choice when meeting with institutional investors (often people investing in behalf of nonprofits or educational institutions).  There's just no percentage in looking like you're getting rich of fees.

With my Hong Kong high net worth investors, I tend to wear gold or two tone. This is fitting in of a different sort, because most of the time, they're wearing something that would make an oil sheikh blush (like a datograph or a patek perpetual calendar).

When meeting with management teams or out in the field doing research, I wear Seiko. I find that it is nice being able to slip under the radar while traveling and talking with people.  

And in the office?  Whatever strikes my fancy that day.  After all, who are we doing this for really?

As for our erstwhile startup guy, I might have gone for something a touch lower key.  San Francisco is an Apple watch city and I find angel investors tend to want you to be monomaniacally focused on building a business and making them money.  A gold Daytona isn't quite that.

But what do I know anyway?

Rolex Datejust 126333 (two tone Wimbledon dial)

Seen on the wrist of a friendly acquaintance, one of his favorite watches.  I roasted it in the way that I do so with friends, because this is my least favorite iteration of Rolex two tone save for perhaps the Yachtmaster 2 which thankfully has been sent to a watery grave. Some say that the dial is supposed to be evocative of the clocks that Rolex put at the All England Club for timing The Championships.  For the record, these are some of the clocks used at Wimbledon over the years

I mean, it's a dead ringer.....for a regular datejust.

But the worst offense isn't even the pointless mythologizing around the provenance of the dial design.  It's so much worse than that. The faint of heart should look away because this triggers me even thinking about it.

For context, this is normal datejust lume.

This is one of the rare Arabic dials. Just lovely.

And here is the Wimbledon dial.  

You will find corners of the internet defending this aesthetic choice as "balancing" the date window.  You must reject this hogwash for the Stockholm Syndrome backwards justification that it is because you can and should be treated better than this.  

Even by friggin Rolex.

Seiko Tank Gold

Seen on the wrist of the a lady at the airport.  No conversation.

Covered extensively before (and I won't subject you all to my preaching on how obsession with originality is a blight on the watch hobby or how I believe homages don't detract from but bolster the glamour of the original) but I want you all to know that I do very much so like this watch.

Orient Kamasu Teal

Seen on the wrist of a dad exiting my kid's school.  Complimented it but I don't think he heard me.

This is the first Orient diver I've seen in some months and I do love that it is this endlessly classic version of Orient's best entry level diver.  

For what it is worth, I don't think you can literally do better in mechanical watch land for $200 and yes, I'm including AliExpress in that assessment.  The design is original, the dial layout is attractive, and the hands are actually just fabulous with a hint of anchor.  This watch is up there with the Seiko 5 as my very favorite first watch for anyone whose wrist can deal with it.

And the teal version?  Chef's kiss

I didn't come across the rich tradition of Orient dive watches until quite a bit later in my watch collecting years and as such I never have spent much time owning or fiddling with these watches.

But the last time I got one on wrist, it felt well proportioned and sm as truly designed.  Definitely some budget compromises like folded end links and push pins but nothing that felt out of place or poorly conceived.  

I have a notion to pick one of these up used for a modding project.

Laco Flieger Clean Dial

Seen on the wrist of a tech CEO I had a meeting with.  I asked him which of the Flieger brands this was and he replied with the Laco.  We chatted watches for a bit and as it happens he's a budget watch nut (despite having a net worth many many times mine) with a collection in the dozens.  He humorously noted that most of his acquaintances don't really understand his collecting habits.  I feel you man.

It feels like a personal oversight that I have never owned a flieger before.  I couldn't really tell you why not.  I enjoy the classic flieger hands, I do like a highly legible dial.  There's just a lot to like.  I even circle around the Mark XVIII/XX consistently and wonder what it might take for me to pull the trigger.

I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that the flieger is so archetypal that I get serious decision paralysis whenever I see one.  It's not that I can't feel the differences in quality when I grab a high end one versus a mid tier one.  I can and there are justifiable reasons for the price differences.

But watches are as much visual as they are tactile and there's no denying that at first glance, all fliegers look pretty similar.  Laco even contributes to this problem with nearly identical watches with different movements at different prices.  It's all very vexing.

All of this is to say it's a great watch.  I just wish I wasn't quite so shallow.

What cool watches did you see this week?