The 2022 SOTC report and Season's Greetings!

Greetings, Crunchers!

Although I’ve lately been busier than I’ve been in years, I decided to make time for a “SOTC” report – a practice adopted in recent years by many a collector, which reveals to be, as I’ve suspected it would, both quite time consuming and highly enjoyable.

2022 was the year during which, after much deliberation, I became much more serious about watch collecting and all things watches in general. I knew I had to let myself explore timepieces in a rather “freestyle” fashion, if this process was to evolve into something substantial, and therefore refrained from binding decision making. Almost nothing was ruled out, and – at the same time – nothing was considered a “must have” either. The only ground rule I laid out was financial – I will not spend more than 1000 USD on any watch.

Having some idea of what my personal taste is, and taking into consideration my very non-sporty lifestyle, I wasn’t surprised to be quite often drawn towards dress watches. I did however discover that I also like complications a lot, and that occasionally, I could also be tempted by a military style, or some other tool of field watch. I’ve discovered that I am blessed with a rather versatile wrist size (a tad over 7.5”), and thus able to wear watches whose diameters range between 35cm to 44cm with relative ease. I’ve yet to find a diver to my liking within the price tier I decided was relevant for me. Maybe next year?

As the end of this one nears, the collection, clearly revealing my infatuation with microbrands, consists of 19 timepieces. Five of which are kind of “everyday” GADA pieces, which one can wear with whatever cloths, and with which one can engage in most activities (except, in one or two cases, swimming). The majority are, however, dress and/or complication watches. Most of my watches are automatic, although there are a couple of Quartz ones and three manual winding ones in the collection. They are made in many different places, but their movements are mostly Swiss.

So, here it is – my collection going into 2023:

1.      The Smith Military, powered by a manual winding Sellita SW210, is highly legible despite being one of my smallest watches. It’s (very well) made by Timefactors, highly praised for their Everest watches, and actually quite resembles them.

2.      The Tapferkeit Vermachtnis is without any doubt the most oddly named watch in my collection, unless you speak German (and then you’ll know that Tapferkeit means “bravery”, and Vermachtnis means “legacy”, which I had to look up). Surprisingly, it’s made by a British producer. Why so Germanic wording, then? A simple glance at it clarifies it – it is designed (beautifully, in my opinion, especially its case shape) in the German Bauhaus style made immortally famous by Junghans and Max Bill. Inside, an (often condescended upon) automatic Miyota 8215 keeps time very well and gives me no reason to complain.

3.      The U-Boat Darkmoon 44 was described somewhere as a “poor man’s Ressence”, which is partly true since it, too, is filled with oil. On the other hand, it has the unique design somehow characteristic to all U-Boat watches, which, I believe, can be more easily associated with the style exhibited by other Italian timepieces made by Panerai or Anonimo than with Ressence. It is a Quartz watch, powered by a Swiss Ronda 712.3 movement, and it gives me sheer fun.

4.      The Universal Geneve La Classique was a NOS find in an Athens shop. It was made ~25 years ago, and remained in perfect shape thanks to professional storage and a very reliable movement – the ETA 2482, called UG62 by its manufacturer. It’s size (35mm) and light weight make it wear extremely comfortably – it’s the kind of watch you forget being on your wrist (unless, of course, you want to know the time).

5.      The Yema Flygraph Pilot M2 is not a typical pilot watch, mainly because of its 300 meters water resistance. This French watch is somewhat of a spec-monster. Its high legibility, very good loom, and Yema’s Yema 2000 in-house automatic movement make it, when it’s on promotion (and it is promoted often), a fine bargain.

6.      Christopher Ward’s C1 Grand Malvern World timer is a watch that leaves no one indifferent. The finish level is top notch, the ETA 2893 is enhanced by a CW module (and therefore the movement is called JJ03), the design’s compelling, and the information on the dial – plentiful. A watch I like to look at very much, from one of the best revitalizers of fine British horology.

7.      The Dunhill Centenary was part of a range of four watches that were produced a couple of decades ago to commemorate the brand’s anniversary. Powered by the manual winding ETA 2660, it’s a classic dress watch – a small, dashingly elegant two hander, that I also enjoy wearing sometimes in very casual situations.

8.      The Echo/neutra Averau is a very original watch. Essentially, it’s a field watch with fantastic legibility and very decent water resistance (100 meters), that’s as tough as they get. Its originality mainly derives from the double moon phase complication at the 6. I must admit that although I like the esthetics of moon phase complications a lot, I find it to be one of the most useless complications for me… But I do like that it’s there, along with the engraved Averau (a Dolomite mountain, picking at 2,649m) on its back case. There’s something very masculine about this watch, that is all the same completely non-macho.

9.      The Emotion 3391 is one of (no less than) three Epos watches I own – I just love this hidden gem of a company, which is Swiss, privately owned, and for some reason seems to do reasonably well in some specific markets while being almost completely absent from most others. Powered by an automatic ETA 2892-A2 equipped with a DD 9000 module, this is a beautifully finished, high quality full (although not perpetual) calendar watch, that I love wearing.

10.   Skeletonized timepieces are often rightly associated with either extremely expensive, and equally difficult to read, luxury watches such as Richard Mille’s, or with cheap Chinese watches with fancy German names. This Epos Originale 3420 is nor the one, neither the other. The skeletonization was meticulously achieved here, as even the (very thin, which adds to the piece’s elegant) Sellita SW300 caliber’s rotor underwent the process. Legibility is of course not the main goal here, although telling the time is not difficult, but who needs legibility in a dress watch?

11.   Knot watches are often a modular affair, as you are encouraged, while purchasing one online, to mix and match at will watches, straps (or bracelets, or NATOs), and clasps. This small Japanese producer, while offering mostly Quartz and Solar watches which I have not handled myself, also has a more premium range of automatic Miyota powered watches. It takes pride in its many partnerships, cooperations and links with and to Japanese artisanal products and producers. This is strongly expressed by their limited-edition watches, released under the “Japan Collection” range and showcasing traditional Japanese decoration techniques. The 2021 edition was fitted with a slightly gold dusted Bordeaux Urushi dial…

12.    …while the 2022 edition features two watches – a three hander with date and a chronograph, whose dials were decorated with a hair thin “Kanazawa” Platinum leaf. The watches cases are polished using the Zaratsu technique made famous by Grand Seiko. Both are powered by Miyota 9015 movements.

13.   Kronos, which has been making Swiss watches since 1930, is a very little-known Spanish brand. One cannot find much originality in its pieces’ designs – au contraire, it often perfectly executes the production of very classically designed watches. That is the case of this 38mm ETA (Valjoux) 7750 chrono, looking extremely fancy in real life and assuming effortlessly the role of a dress chrono – the kind I am most likely to own and wear.

14.   A lot has been happening in recent years in Louis Erard's world: a new, ex-Jaquet Droz (if my memory fails me not) charismatic manager, a slew of régulateurs (some of which made in collaboration with brands and designers such as Massena Lab and Alain Silberstein), stunning Métiers d’Art timepieces showcasing precious material dials or masterfully hand-made guillochés ones, and above all – a very successful PR campaign that makes all of it quite topical right now. This makes it an ideal time to purchase, if one dwells, as I do, in the more affordable watches’ realm, an older Louis Erard, such as this stunning, manually wound (ETA Peseux 7001 is the caliber) dress watch from their 1931 range. The quality, now serving more lucrative and better advertised timepieces, has characterized LE watches well before the brand’s truly exciting present, and bargains abound.

15.   I’ve been eying the Mido Belluna II Heures et Minutes Décentrées for months before “pulling the trigger” on it, and frankly, I don’t really know why I’ve waited that long. Mido seems to be a brand suffering from positioning uncertainty, and maybe the lack of a clear, or at least global, strategy – it’s crowded in the Swatch Group world, and not every brand gets maximal attention. Was I effected by all that? Maybe. But I shouldn’t have, since Mido watches offer, in terms of design and finish level, astonishing value, and this beautiful, probably German-inspired, watch, is no exception. It is striking, has the look and feel of a much more expensive piece, and – thanks to the ETA 2825-2 movement – keeps time very accurately.

16.   Rado’s Centrix UTC was the product of a long and excruciating search. As 2022 was the GMT year, I decided at some point to join the game and get myself one. However, I had my terms – I wanted it to be a “true” rather than a “caller” one (although I really don’t think it matters all that much), not to surpass 40mm in diameter, and of course, abide by my budgetary watch buying policy. I would have probably not undertaken this task had I known how rare this combination is, but all is well that ends well. It is found, and wound, and even also kind of dressy, which makes it all the better for me. With its Rado 771 movement (which is basically the ETA C07.611), it is also the most powerfully reserved watch of the collection – packing some very impressive 80 hours of being alive while motionless.

17.   Conscious readers may recall that I mentioned, a few watches ago, owning three Epos watches. Well, here comes the third one, in disguise, as – while being made by Epos – it is labelled “Pierre Châtelain”. Who was Pierre Châtelain is not fully clear to me, although some reference is made to him being an elderly merchant that commissioned and sold timepieces made by third parties under his label in Italy years ago. However, this is clearly the Epos 3157 with its Peseux 7046 movement – a truly beautiful relic from the days Epos was making many watches for many producers, some of it quite famous (I was told of Alpina, Davosa and Almanus, just to name a few). As I am very fond of them, it is my first, but probably not my last, régulateur.

18.   What watch collector does not know Cartier’s Tank, or JLC’s Reverso? Both iconic and forever related – as Cartier is to be credited with coming up (as early as 1917) with this immortal design pattern, and JLC (or more precisely, part of what later became JLC) for using it in creating the benchmark “flipable” (no such word, I know…) timepiece of all time in the early 1930’s. Far less known was Cartier’s reaction to the Reverso – the Basculante, launched a year later. As far as I know, it would take many decades, and a Reverso re-launch, for JLC to come up with the two-faced dial version, while – again, to the best of my knowledge – a two-faced Cartier Basculante was never produced. Why am I telling you all these things that you probably know? Since very recently, this sumptuous Reverso-Basculante heritage has inspired Singapore’s Vario watch microbrand to produce its VERSA Dual Time Reversible Watch. This brilliant piece is actually made of two very thin Quartz watches, powered by Swiss Ronda Slimtech 1062 movements, and showcasing what an homage should be, and how one has to go about it. While not being specific copies of anything in particular, the sector dial is very Cartier, while the two-tone dial (blue, green and red ones were made, 100 of each color, all sold out) is a bit more JLC. Likewise, the flip mechanism takes its clear inspiration from the Basculante, while the existence of two different dials is more in Reverso fashion. However, having said all that, this timepiece(s) manages to have its own identity, character and charm, and is very well made.

19.   Yonger et Bresson was founded in the 1970s by two brothers named neither Yonger nor Bresson, attracted briefly some attention thanks to a comical TV ad campaign, and deteriorated into making cheap watches equipped with movements that were far from the best China could offer. The course changed when it was bought by the Ambre group, proud owner (and resurrector) of Yema, manufacturer of high-grade in-house movements, and a French operator rivaling its Swiss neighbors with no inferiority complex. Where does it want to take Y&B is unclear, as all hands-on deck clearly focus on Yema. Y&B did successfully kickstart a skeletonized watch range designed by the Franck Muller design team a couple of years ago, but seems to have mainly been busy dumping older watches ever since. Yours truly, being a bargain hunter, was there to collect: this truly beautiful automatic dress watch, with its lavishly decorated in-house automatic movement, its 40 hours power reserve indicator, its off-white elegant textured dial and overall, its very posh looks, at less than 300 Euros, was simply a no-brainer.

What’s in store for 2023? I have plans, thoughts and dilemmas, but they may deserve their own post. I do wish it to be a happy, healthy and prosperous year for all of you, and that it will follow a very merry Christmas during which you will all be blessed with the warmth, love and joy of friends, family and other loved ones.

Lastly, I would like to thank Max for creating this platform where we can all become wiser and more educated, and you, my fellow crunchers, for your companionship and priceless inputs into the fantastic world bringing us together.