Watches & Pencils #22 – Christmas Special
Welcome to the last episode for 2016! A special laid-back episode, Christmas-themed. So put on your wool sweater and seat yourself nearby the tree.
Don’t crack under Pressure
As we all know, 2016 was a pretty amazing year with lot’s of ups and downs. The watch market is under pressure and we all experience it. Often we forget that the biggest (positive) changes are created and initialized during hard times. The way I see it, is that everybody involved gets a wake-up call currently and is being stimulated to become creative, inventive and open-minded again. I’m very curious to see how things will develop in 2017. Will it hold the metaphor I’ve created to visualize this: the ‘Watch cracker’. To name a few strengths of this strong wooden beast: bad sales numbers, no new designs, competition, increasing prices from suppliers/certification institutes.
2016 was great
But let’s stay positive: Christmas came early this year for some of us. We had a blast during the Speedy Tuesday Event in Bienne and it was great to meet so many “Speedy” enthusiasts. Did you miss it? Read all about latest Speedy Tuesday Event, while you’re not preparing the ultimate dinner. I wonder what Santa has in mind for 2017…?
The personalized caseback was the ultimate (early Christmas) present during the latest Speedy Tuesday event in Bienne.
Design Breakdowns and Discussions
People tend to say that there’s no accounting for taste and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Still, design discussions and aesthetic cases are hot. Everybody loves to say whether they like something or not, but often they are not accompanied by strong (proven/objective) arguments or theories. For example: you could love the color ‘red’ or not, but it is a better match with ‘yellow’ than with ‘green’. Got something to do with contrast and harmony. The same counts for proportions (for example, ‘Golden Ratio’). My goal for 2017 is to give you more tools I’ve gathered to define/breakdown good and bad designs and your own taste.
The Christmas Selection
Last year we’ve had a lot of new watches to review. I’ve made a personal selection of 3 watches which I would pick on Christmas. No complicated design arguments or talks about movements or history this time. Just 3 watches which would fit in a fireplace setting with a vintage Chesterfield and Nat King Cole’s “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”:
- Low/mid-range: Oris Divers Sixty-Five with green dial (ref. 01 733 7720 4057-07 5 21 02). The deep green color of the dial screams Christmas! Packed in a classic design and modestly sized (40mm) this is an affordable Christmas pick for 1850 Euro on a leather strap.
- Mid-range: Tudor Heritage Black Bay 36 (ref. 79500). An elegant watch with the heritage ‘Snowflake’ hour hand (wink to the cold Christmas days). With the ETA 2824-2 workhorse movement you’re sure to not miss any favorite movie. The sand colored strap matches perfect with almost any Christmas colored sweater.
- Top: Omega Globemaster Platinum with Burgundy accents (ref. 130.93.41.22.99.001). Christmas is the ultimate moment to dress up. A bit over-the-top is allowed. This Globemaster definitely suits a decadent dinner. With precious metal and topped off with one of the Christmas symbols: a star. If we look at the caseback we can imagine a deep red Christmas ornament with stars in the centered Central Observatory medallion. The annual calendar definitely underlines the 25 and 26th of December. There were many discussions about the script typeface (not FONT) which is used to indicate the months. Whether you like it or not, it fits Christmas perfectly. It’s a pity that this watch isn’t available before March 2017…
I’d like to hear your personal choice / top 3. Please leave your personal choice in the comments section below.
5 Things a WIS could do with Christmas
Christmas is often a lot of…. eating, sitting, watching bad movies. While Balázs published a nice guide for getting the ultimate X-mas Watch gifts I’ve made a list to prevent you from getting bored without spending money during Christmas:
- Create your wishlist/to-do list for 2017 (e.g. watches that need service, find specific watch parts, buy your grail). If you’ve already did set up some search queries and alerts try to evaluate 2016 and re-define/segment for better results where possible.
- Clean your watches. There are a lot of guides/tips online, but oftentimes I only use a soft cloth. If you have a dive watch with good seals you could give it a hand-warm bath during the cold Christmas days.
- The Christmas dinner is often quite lengthy… Time the duration of the Christmas dinner with your favorite chronograph and put it on Instagram.
- Match your watch (strap) with one of the obvious colors: deep red, gold or pine green. Ok, if you don’t have one, spend a very little money on an unconventional colored NATO.
- Spot watches in the obvious Christmas movies. If you find one we’re delighted to see you post it in the comments-section below.
All there is left is to wish you a wonderful Christmas and may all your wishes come true in 2017!
