SOTC New Year 2024

Beginning 2024 my collection consists of these 15 pieces. Over the last year I added 6 watches and gave one away for a result of +5.

The Three Amigos

My everyday GADA automatics. The grey DressKX was an early purchase for 2023 and is my most worn piece last year. I quickly replaced the stock bracelet with this Super Louis-J from Strap Code and couldn't be happier with the combo. The Islander was added on a whim and is a really good casual diver pice. The Hamilton got a new Fluco leather strap last year and remains in my rotation as the first nice mechanical I ever bought. I wear it mostly to work when I wear khaki pants and my brown shoes and belt. I need to get it serviced this year since it's going on around 7 or 8 years since being maintained.

Quartz Alternates

This Seiko quartz chrono was my first GADA piece bought years ago after I got my first job. It will remain in my collection always given it's special history. The Timex Waterbury GMT is a very recent acquisition as an affordable GMT with the idea to use it when doing my ham radio hobby for logging contact times in UTC.

Dress Value

These budget Casio quartz pieces are value monsters. The silver dial on the right has been serving as my main dress piece for a little while. It came on the same kind of bracelet as its counterpart on the left but I got a cheap black strap for it. For me, a dress piece should have as few sporty elements as possible so the day and date complications as well as the printed minute chapter rings aren't ideal, so I think this will be the next area of my collection I shore up. But in the meantime, they look fantastic for the paltry $30 I spent on them.

Digitals

A pair of ubiquitous Casio digitals with the F-91W and A168 need no introduction. The T80 I added recently only because I've had kind of a crush on them since first seeing them. I do like the look of the T80 over the Casios although it is admittedly more expensive.

Timex Military Quartz Chronos

This set of military dial chronographs are occasional wears for me. The MK1 is worn more, as it's served as my beater watch for when I do construction projects with my Dad, which I've done several over the past couple of years. It's held up well. As for the Expedition Chrono, I classify it as my aviation/flieger style, even though Timex officially classifies it as a field dial. To me it has far more design cues of an aviation or flieger over a field dial. It came on a leather strap, but I've since moved it to a tan striped NATO strap.

Casio Quartz Divers

The Duro, of course, needs no introduction. The blue dial version is exceptionally handsome. The white dial cheapie on the right is probably the watch in my collection I'm most blown away by with respect to value-for-money. It comes in many colorways, but if I had to recommend one sports watch to someone new with only a few bucks to spend, this is far and away my recommendation - it is far better a watch than it has any right to be for its price. And if you want to pick one up, it's model is MRW-200H.

The Odd-Man Out

This strange Casio was purchased on a whim several years ago one day while passing the jewelry counter at Wal-Mart. I'm a sucker for silver dials and for whatever reason it caught my eye that day. It's probably my least worn watch, and has a strange set of sub-dials to show day, date, and 24hr time. It also has a sweeping seconds hand which is peculiar for a quartz. The second hand is also ludicrous from a design standpoint 😂This is the one piece in my collection that does not fill a design or style role and is just there. It's fun to wear every now and then.

Extra Photos & Model List

List of all model names and reference numbers, In order of picture top to bottom, left to right:

1. Hamilton Khaki Field Auto 38mm (ref. H704450)

2. Islander Bayport (ref ISL-122)

3. Seiko 5 Sports "DressKX" (ref SRPE51)

4. Seiko Quartz Chrono (ref SNDC81)

5. Timex Waterbury Traditional GMT (ref. TW2W22700)

6. Casio "black dress quartz" (ref. MTP1239D-1A)

7. Casio "silver dress quartz" (ref. MTP-1183A-7A)

8. Casio Digital F-91W (ref. F91WM-7A)

9. Casio Digital A168 (ref. A168W-1)

10. Timex Digital T80 (ref. TW2R79300)

11. Timex Expedition Field Chronograph (ref. T499059J)

12. Timex MK1 Chronograph (ref. TW2R67900)

13. Casio Duro Blue (ref. MDV106B-2AV)

14. Casio White Diver (ref. MRW-200HD-7BVCF)

15. Casio Sweeping Seconds (ref. MTPSW300L-7AV)