If you are not already a member of Touch of Modern, you really should join up. It is a site that highlights cool designs, furnishings, clothes and toys, and offers them on sale for a few days. There is new stuff on the site every day, and the sales only last for a couple of days. We have highlighted a number of watch realted sales on the site, and I found three recent ones that I thought were worth mentioning. Tavannes Watch Company has three versions of their skeleton watch up for sale; Catorex has 18 Swiss watches and pocketwatches on the site; and Rapport of London is selling a variety of watch winders and display/storage cases.
The Tavaness Watch Company options are for three version of the skeletonized Swiss mechanical watch, a 42mm stainless case housing a rose gold colored movement, or the same case with a silver movement and either a red or silver chapter ring. The watch comes on a genuine crocodile leather strap with a deployment buckle a sapphire cystal (up front at least, no info on the exhibition caseback), and is water resistant to 5 ATM.
The watches are on sale for $1,099, down from a list of $1,375. I can”t find out what teh movement is in the watch, other that “Swiss Mechanical.” There is one spot on the Tavaness web site where they use the term “automatic,” but the rest of the writing is a bit poor, so I am not willing to rely on that one mention. The watches do look attractive though. tavanneswatches.com
Catorx is another brand I had not heard of, and they are also producing Swiss Automatics for very reasonable prices. There is the Voyager 3 (above) a GMT in a 41mm stainless case and bracelet, a sapphire crystal, and 100M of water resistance. ToM does not identify it, but eh Catorex web site lists the movement as an ETA 2893-2.
The watch is offered with either an orange or yellow 24-hour GMT chapter ring for $999, or you can order the orange on a calfskin strap and save $100. The watches are highly discounted (60% off) from the list price, but they may be available elsewhere at prices in between the list and ToM sale. At $2,500, I think they would be overpriced, but at $1,000, I think they are well worth a look.
For #349 to $399, you can pick up one of the “Attractive Wrist Automatic” 3-hand watches in one of 6 variations (the 7th option on ToM is sold out). It is a 40mm stainless steel watch with an unidentified Swiss Automatic movement. Since the other Catorex watches have ETA movements, this one might as well, but I just don”t know.
At this size and price, I think it would make an excellent entry level automatic watch and is worth considering for anyone looking to move up from quartz or looking for an option against a Japanese or Chinese movement. If you are looking for something from a simpler time, ToM also has three hand wound pocket watch options.
Also from Catorex is a a 3-eye chronograph with the ETA 7750 Swiss-automatic movement, on sale for $1,549. Of the various options from the brand at ToM, I think this represents a solid value, with a proven automatic movement at a very attractive price. The watches have a brushes and polished stainless 42mm case and matching bracelet, and you can get the white dial with silver or black chapter rings for the eyes or with a black dial and silver accents. It is only water resistant to 10M, but it is an attractive, simple chronograph with an excellent movement, if the most water I can get on it is when I wash my hands or get caught in the rain, that is not a big deal for me. gevrilgroup.com/catorex-watches
The last of this crop of sales is not for watch, but for watch winders and cases. At the high end, the Optima Time Capsule Single Watch Winder is more expensive at $1,699.99 than any of the other watches on sale (though the sale on Hublot watches is going through noon Pacific on August 6). It is an exhibition piece in its own right, so I am guessing that anyone tempted is going to have some pretty nice watches to go inside. But there are 6 other watch winders, including double and a quad winder, as well as a basic cube on sale for $299, a $10 savings from retail.
If you don”t need a winder, Rapport of London also has several options for storage on sale, starting at $149 for a two watch roll and going up to $699 for a studded leather case that holds 4 watches. I know for myself, I am getting to the point where I either need to dedicate a drawer to watch boxes or chain together several watch winders for my automatics and a get a small case for my quartz watches just to keep them organized and off my bedstand. These options from Rapport on the site are one way to go. rapportlondon.com
