Watches - another OCD problem
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Watches and Wonders has just kicked off. So far we have.
A titanium A. Lange & Sohn Odysseus. Yours for €55,000, which is twice the price of the steel edition.
A smaller, Ceratanium IWC Top Gun chronograph.
And a bunch of Cartiers.
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Rolex, meanwhile, have gone mad and launched a left-handed GMT.
And a new Air-King, which is surely the watch that nobody asked for or likes?
(Well, apart from me. But I have dubious taste.)
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Grand Seiko have a number of new models, but ignore them and buy this Diver with the Black Stream dial.
My favourite TAG Heuer is the Solargraph, which has a solar-powered quartz movement sourced from Citizen and a luminous carbon bezel.
And Hublot have released a big, black square…
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Tudor BB Pro
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I like the Tudor ("riveted" bracelet aside), the Oris, and the bezel of the lefty GMT.
I like what TAG is doing design-wise with their divers these days, even if I feel the solar one looks cheap (which, if it IS cheap, is acceptable).
It is remarkable how I don't think I've ever seen a Hublot I remotely enjoyed. They're really good at designing watches I hate.
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I love the fact that Rolex was crazy enough to launch a lefty. It's going to be just as un-obtainable as the rest, but it's a fun thing.
I love the Cartier Tank Chinoise.
For me, the most unexpected new release is the Grand Seiko $350k constant force tourbillon. This is a very rare complication, which I have mostly seen made by super tiny outfits (Romain Gauthier and the like).
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Wow, +/- 0.5s / day on a fully mechanical movement. Is that a record?
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GS majorly leveling up there, @JDelage. I'm impressed. I was also sorry to see some colorful dials in the OP line discontinued at the 36mm and 41mm sizes.
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The lefty GMT seems unusually gimmicky for Rolex.
That Oris with the grey dial is fantastic, though I'm disappointed they aren't using their signature red rotor for it. Maybe with the full production models that will change?
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Very nice article on Hondinkee about Tudor BB Pro
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Yeah, that Black Bay Pro looks like a category (GMT) killer. Sub $4k for a true GMT with Tudor's pedigree, it's going to be hard to beat. It's too tall at 14.6mm, but it's very attractive when compared to the new Grand Seiko GMTs at $8k+ (though to be fair the GS are 1/2mm thinner and use Spring Drive). I also love the Explorer II vibe.
Speaking of Grand Seiko, they just released 2 small hand-wound pieces in light blue or dark green, sub $5k, which is getting rare for GS. They're available for order now and should ship next month.
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/grand-seiko-elegance-sbgw283gsbgw285g
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The Cartier is amazing–something novel, creative, but also attractive.
Hearing the Moon Swatches' straps are staining wrists
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Speaking of Grand Seiko, they just released 2 small hand-wound pieces in light blue or dark green, sub $5k, which is getting rare for GS. They're available for order now and should ship next month.
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/grand-seiko-elegance-sbgw283gsbgw285g
Those are beautiful…..
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I like the Cartier Masse Mysterieuse a lot too.
The other quirky complication that caught my eye was the Hermès Arceau Le Temps Voyageur Dual Time Zone, which has the subdial move around the main dial to indicate the time zone.
It's definitely cooler than the Rolex GMT-Master, and cheaper than buying one on the secondary market.
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That Hermes watch is very interesting. I've been looking for a good traveller's GMT and they're actually pretty rare, outside of Rolex & Omega (GS are of course excellent, but quite thick). I wonder how thick that Hermes is. It is not cheap in steel ($23k), but the premium for platinum is very low ($6k more to $29k). I wonder if it's because the Pt model is DLC coated and therefore doesn't require the finicky finish that Pt is known for.
I do like how the Paris time zone is shown as "24 FBG", which is for 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the address of the original Hermes boutique.
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There’s that fucking 6 again from Hermes. All else is concentrically oriented but that digit. I understand the ambiguity of that particular digit when upside down but it’s clear from the context of the surrounding numerals what it is, and the way they orient it it looks more like a 9 than a 6. Really triggers my OCD.
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@JDelage there's a video of the Hermès that Revolution posted, which might give a better idea. It also mentions that the only platinum parts of the black watch are the case back and lugs, hence the lower than expected premium.
I also saw this profile shot in Hodinkee's article. It does look a bit chunky, but maybe not too bad.
Depends if you can live with the ambiguous six or nine, unlike @mclaincausey!
I also like the IWC Timezoner in Ceratanium as a travel watch, but that's a shirt-unfriendly 15 mm thick. I got to try one on a few weeks ago.
