Lex’s 2024 New Year’s Watch Resolutions: Waiting Patiently Like A Leopard In A Tree For Tasty Creatures From Omega, Citizen, And Grand Seiko
If I had stuck to my 2023 watch resolutions, I would be either wearing a Breitling Spatiographe or a titanium Girard-Perregaux pour Ferrari chronograph while writing this. I’m not. That’s because I didn’t buy either of those watches. Instead, I bought other ones, and that taught me that I shouldn’t make any resolutions about buying specific watches. Instead, I’m going to be like a leopard in a tree. I won’t actively search; instead, I will patiently wait for my “prey” to pass under my tree. My 2024 watch resolutions are based on patience, opportunism, and a thoughtful approach. It’s a seemingly paradoxical combination, yes, but I will try to explain how it could/should work.
You could say that my 2023 watch resolutions were a failure. Neither the Breitling Spatiographe nor a Girard-Perregaux pour Ferrari chronograph have materialized on my wrist. But I still consider 2023 to have been a great watch year. The Omega Speedmaster Replica 3594.50 made my watch year with considerable help from the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 “Ice Blue.” Both these watches came along quite unexpectedly, and I pulled the trigger based on a gut feeling while keeping a close eye on the budget. This also meant that both the Breitling and the GP were benched. Last year taught me that watch collecting is something that happens while you’re making other plans.
Lex’s 2024 watch resolutions: I will be like a leopard in a tree
Sure, 2024 might be the Year of the Dragon according to Chinese astrology, but I have another animal in my mind when I think of the year in front of me. It’s the stealthy leopard. One of this big cat’s hunting techniques is to sit perfectly still on the branch of a tree in the savanna grasslands of East and Southern Africa, patiently waiting for something tasty, like an impala, to jump on. And that’ll be my approach when it comes to “hunting” watches in 2024. In the back of my mind, I have a budget and an idea of what might be of added value to the watches already in my possession. And with that notion, I will just calmly wait until the right “impala” comes along.
Opportunistic yet thoughtful
What I probably won’t pounce on this year is a chronograph. The Speedmaster with the Broad Arrow handset that I acquired last year pretty much ticks all the boxes. A neo-vintage GP chronograph doesn’t seem to make much sense to me anymore. But what does make sense, for instance, is a GMT watch. I don’t have one, but I do like quite a few. There’s Grand Seiko’s Evolution 9 GMT SBGE285 “Mist Flake” from 2022. That one is still playing a very active role in my watch brain. If, by any chance, it were to make an appearance on my desk, I could very well be tempted to grab it and not let go. That sounds a bit like what happened when I saw a picture of the Grand Seiko Tough Quartz SBGX341 back in 2021 and instantly knew that it was going to be mine.
In retrospect, then, my resolution for 2024 was already subconsciously implemented in 2021. And in 2023, pretty much the same thing happened, but it was just a little less impulsive. I bought both the ice-blue PRX and the neo-vintage Speedmaster Replica/Relaunch because I had already experienced them before they appeared on my radar. I knew that after jumping on them, the landing would be soft and safe.
GMT watches in the back of my head
Last year, we witnessed a steady stream of new GMT watches, and I’m guessing that stream is not going to dry up in 2024. On the contrary, now that superior flyer GMT movements are becoming more and more widespread — please read the article “GMT Watches 101: Caller Vs. Flyer (Or “True”) GMT Explained” for all the ins and outs — you will see ever-growing numbers of these practical travel watches appear.
You can expect a stream of GMT watches from the different Swatch Group-owned brands that can use ETA calibers but also brands that use other sources. Let’s also not forget Rolex and Tudor. Both brands will most likely present new travel watches during the upcoming 2024 edition of Watches and Wonders — a GMT-Master II in a new colorway and a Pelagos GMT with the Kenissi-produced caliber MT5652 inside, perhaps?
And then, of course, there’s Citizen. Last year, the Japanese brand put out the Series 8 GMT equipped with its caliber 9054, an automatic flyer-style GMT with a 50-hour power reserve. I wasn’t a big fan of the 2023 colors, but if the brand does something that is to my taste, the roughly €1,200 price will smoothen the decision-making process.
Speaking of Citizen, the flyer-style Miyota 9075 from within the Citizen Group is available for other watch brands and affordable to boot — it beats inside a Traska that I’ll mention later on. Also, Seiko and Grand Seiko will undoubtedly be launching noteworthy GMT watches in almost every possible price bracket.
Seiko Prospex SPB439
There’s a GMT for me
My watch collection — or, as I should say, “watch accumulation” — doesn’t have an overarching theme. I’m not a Speedmaster collector, for instance. Instead, the watches in my possession have little in common. It’s an eclectic bunch of timepieces, so to speak. There’s something for almost every mood…just not every purpose. The thing is, I don’t have a GMT watch. Since I sold my white-dial Explorer II, I have been without a proper travel watch. As you can tell, I’m looking for excuses to buy myself a GMT in 2024. But which one? Well, since my crystal ball doesn’t exactly show what will come out in 2024, I will patiently wait to see what will pass under my “tree.”
Image: KRLYUZH on the Omega Forums
In the meantime, I can contemplate recent launches, such as the Grand Seiko “Mist Flake” that keeps haunting me, but I can also consider watches from the past. There’s the Omega Seamaster “Great White” GMT 2538.20.00, for instance (a shark is hardly a savanna creature like an impala, but still). The “Great White” got axed from the Omega catalog in the early 2000s, but with its bold looks and great functionality — the automatic caliber 1128 inside is, in essence, a modified ETA 2892-A2 outfitted with a flyer GMT module — it seems to be pretty timeless. This is a well-proportioned 41 × 13.5mm watch that shows there’s a significant gap in Omega’s Seamaster Diver 300M collection. Because of its roughly €3K price on Chrono24, this neo-vintage watch is also a very interesting option to at least fill the gap in my collection.
One criterion, a balancing act, and a “warthog”
I have one functional criterion: it must be a flyer GMT. The 38.5mm Traska Venturer GMT in charming mint green is proof that this functionality doesn’t have to cost the world. Though this color is sold out, Traska does still sell other variants of this Miyota-equipped watch for a reasonable US$720. Maybe Traska will bring out another version in a dial color that I can’t resist. I kind of hope that happens because it will please both the heart and the brain. And that brings me to a more general resolution for 2024 — to try to perfectly balance matters of the heart and the mind. Since this is a watch website, not a self-help forum, I’ll spare you my goals for personal growth. Instead, I’ll leave you with my opinion that, in 2024, I will most likely acquire a watch that both my heart and bank account agree on.
What GMT watch will be the impala that I’ll sink my claws into? I can’t tell you yet. And since I can’t rule out a certain degree of opportunism either — watch leopards are instinctive predators, no matter how hard they try to be rational creatures — pouncing on a large “warthog” in the shape of a Panerai Radiomir PAM00249, Radiomir PAM00425, or Radiomir 1940 PAM00736 is also a possibility. Man, I’ve sure worked up an appetite now.
Featured image: WearingTime Luxury Watches
