Our goal, for the time being at least, is to publish one article per day here at WWR. Discounting the weekend posts, that means we cover on the order of 250 watches per year. Since we don’t cover every new watch we see, I would estimate that we see (collectively) well over 500 new watches a year, and that number is probably closer to 1,000; after all, we read a number of the other watch blogs as well. So this gives us a pretty good pool of watches from which to develop favorites. And that is what this post is all about, our picks for the WWR Top Watches of 2015. This post will cover my picks for the best watches that we have featured on this site, and Patrick and Ken will also chime in with lists of their own.
Earlier this year I was attending an alumni event and the subject matter turned to watches (how I turned it there I don’t recall). One of the group asked what I would recommend for her to get her boyfriend as a gift. My first question was how much money she wanted to spend. When she said roughly $1,000, I immediately recommended a Weiss. Her question also got me thinking about how I could organize the 2015 holiday gift guide. So for this iteration, I will recommend my favorite watch (or watch related gift) in each of several price ranges. Chances are, if I like it, especially if it under about $1,500, we have covered it in the past, since that is the kind of people we are; but there may be watches here (especially at the high end) that have not graced our pages.
Mokume-gane is a traditional Japanese metalworking technique where different metals are fused together in order to create a billet with a layered look, which is then worked into whatever shape is needed. This 17th Century technique was developed for ornate Samurai swords that were decorative status symbols. Now, this layered look is being used as a watch case in the H2O Kalmar 2 Mokume Gane Watches, available for pre-order on their web site.
I hope you all had a “safe and sane” July 4th (well, at least safe), and thanks for checking in with us for our weekly spin around the internet, Watching the Web, where we look a other watch sites, and recap our more popular articles. This week, I am going to point you to the Oris Big Crown ProPilot Calibre 111 Watch, an article about one of the first watches in space, and some common sense ways to spot a fake watch. From our own site, we have the Benarus Megalodon, the Mercer Watch Company Wayfarer GMT, the H2O Watch Hydra, and a monochromatic EDC.
Tool watch, dress watch, dress watch tool watch; what to wear, what to wear? H2O Watch has an idea that maybe you don’t need to decide any more, you can get a nice tool watch that is elegant enough to wear as a dress watch, and does not have the price tag of a Panerai attached. The H2O Watch Hydra is currently open for pre-order, letting you pick from case finish/material, dial color, bezel design, and even crown to create a watch that fits your style, from the boardroom to the beach.
Overbuilt dive watches are pretty easy to find, with depth ratings going into the 1,000s of feet territory, well beyond what all but the tinniest percentage of technical divers could ever hope to come close to needing. But watches that get into the 10s of 1,000s, that is getting in the rare air (or deep water to be more apt) of specifications. Two new models of the H2O Kalmar 2 watch do just that, with ratings of 6,000 meters (~20,000 feet) and 8,000 meters (~26,000 feet) respectively.
H2O Helberg CH5 03H2O Watches makes dive watches, ranging from the standard to the ‘out there’. Now, with the H2O Helberg CH5, they are moving into another popular design style, the military pilot watch.
I see a lot of crowd funded projects, and many of them state that the creator couldn’t find the watch they wanted, so they went off and created one. Some times the watch is fairly unique in an aspect or two, but other times I could easily find similar watches with minimal searching. But still, there is a desire to design something and make it your own. Which is what is intriguing about the H2O Watch business model, and the H2O Kalmar 2 which is available for pre-order. There is a full menu of options for the watch that lets you customize it the way you want, and still get a high performing dive watch.