Welcome back to our weekly installment, where we have a quick look at some interesting watches and articles that have popped up over the last week, as well as taking a second look at what some of our more popular articles this week year were. Yes, that’s right – since this is our last edition of the year, I thought I’d cast a little wider net.
First off, let’s take a look at what some of our compatriots have been writing about this week. This time of year is certainly no stranger to seeing watch roundups posing as gift guides. What I’ve not seen until recently, though, is a roundup of roundups – which is precisely what this article over at WatchTime has for you. Pulling from a variety of different sources, you end up with 24 different watches you can consider, from such categories as “Top Watches Under $1000” and “Mechanical Watches Under $2000”. You’re likely not shopping for watch now, but it’s interesting to see what gets grouped together. And yes, the Seiko Monster does show up.
Over at my other watch-blogging home, aBlogtoWatch, Ariel Adams covers the latest crowd-funded watch from VincenTerra, the Luna. What drew me in with this watch are the very realistic globe and moon phase indicators present in the lower portion of the dial. Are they practical? Not in the least – but then again, if you’re looking at mechanical watches (rather than digital), some measure of practicality has gone out the window already. I think it just presents a unique look, and I can only imagine it would be quite fun to see these orbs in motion.
And finally, I’m tossing in a bonus item here (we’ve normally only got two from other sites), as it’s something I hadn’t heard of before, and I happen to really like the color blue. Over at WatchReport, they’ve got a writeup on the NOMOS Blaugold. Now, when I first saw the pictures, I just thought it meant it would be the blue dial housed in a white gold case – nice looking, to be sure, but not enough to get in this wrapup. However, reading the article further indicates that the blue dial is itself galvanized blue gold, and it’s housed in a stainless steel case. It’s an interesting use of gold, for sure.
Now, let’s turn our focus to our own pages. While there were a lot of popular posts from previous years that made it into top rankings, I wanted to limit things to just what appeared in 2013. To be fair to them, we’ll go in order of appearance. Showing up almost a year ago, we have our review of the Hamilton Khaki X-Patrol Auto Chrono. Overall, I liked the piece, but I wasn’t sure how practical (at least for me) the mechanical slide rule would be. All told, though, it’s a compelling chrono coming in at under $1800, with a price befitting the materials, movement, and finish.
Next on down the calendar, we’ve got a much more affordable watch – the HMT Pilot. This is a fun little watch (it’s only 35mm in diameter), and it’s coming in for a crazy affordable price – I picked this one up for right around $35 shipped. For that cash, you might expect a stripped down watch, and definitely not expect a mechanical. But this little manual wound watch definitely hits above it’s price point. While I don’t know that this is an everyday watch for me (given it’s smaller size), it’s worked quite nicely as a dressier piece to pair with a suit. You also get some great “old school” feel to the watch as well with the hand-painted luminous on the dial. All in all, this by far my most affordable purchase of the year.
Next up, we’ve got another Hamilton, this time the Intra-Matic Auto. This watch has a great vintage feel, with the front side being just about all-dial, thin hands and indices, and an overall thin package. Unlike a vintage find you might grab somewhere, though, this modern take is powered by the ETA 2892-2. For a watch under a grand, I think this is a wonderful option for the guy (or gal, I suppose) who’s looking for a classically-styled two-hander with date.
And last, but certainly not least, we’ve got one of my favorite new releases of the year – the Omega Speedmaster ’57. The Speedmaster lineup is one that I’ve been paying more attention this year, and I’ve begun to understand why people are so drawn to it and all of its iterations. For me, though, I wondered what it would look like with a white dial – and that’s what we got to see with the ’57. While you can still get the classic black dial / steel case, we had some other dial (white, blue) and case material (gold, titanium) thrown into the mix. Those elements aside, I just plain like the dial layout of the ’57 the best of what I’ve run across – it works well, and is logical. If you’d like to read a hands-on review of this model, I did one of those right here.
And that’ll wrap up this edition for this week (and year). Thanks again for reading along with us, and showing your interest in what we’re writing about. If there’s a brand or model you think we should feature, you can always drop me a line, and we can look into getting a review sample in, or at least writing up a news piece. I know what interests me, but I’m also curious to hear what you, our readers, would like to see more of.
Thanks again, and we’ll see you next year.
