The Annual Friday Watch Awards Ceremony 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to what has rapidly become THE premier warm up event for the watch collecting worlds social season. Yes that annual retrospective of the watches worn on Fridays - the TZ-UKFWT awards. Please sit back with a tipple of you choice and maybe some snacks as this will be a long read.
Stymied by last year's invitation fiasco and frustrated by our inability to get into the Dorchester in previous years I was desperately hoping that we would be able to have an in person event this year. So you can imagine my joy when my head of events ran up to me bursting with pride to inform me that he had managed to get a great deal on a Michelin starred restaurant for the night. He went on to explain that, in response to his inquiries, a gentleman with a heavy French accent had been been in touch, offering a one time only offer for booking the whole of Le Gavroche. Using his initiative he had paid the whole fee upfront to secure the deal. Now image my joy when we arrived there this week to start making arrangements to find the doors locked and bolted and no lights. I have since let him know exactly what I think of his "initiative" and sent him off to use it to find a tin of tartan paint. He should be out of my hair for a while.
So what can I offer you instead of a few Michelin starred souffles and scallops? As ever a rollercoaster of laughs and exceptional talent.
The now traditional swag bag has some treats for you. Stainless steel Rolexes are still plentiful so we have thrown in one for each of you. For your journey home this evening there is a copy of Evo magazine to peruse and some Panini football stickers from the early part of the millennium to trade. However the piece de resistance is an arse. No not the person heading up your ignore list but a real arse. Twenty of you will get one of the original, sterling silver models of Kylie Minogue's perky bottom (from circa 2005). However as it was only a limited edition I needed some more to make up the numbers. I got in touch with the original silversmith who was more than happy to do a re-release however the cost was far more than the team could afford, especially following on from the debacle with the venue. So I approached a number of Chinese manufacturers and agreed terms with one to create an homage. Lacking the original model I had to quickly come up with an alternative. So the lucky majority will get a scale model of my own, not so perky bottom in silver plate. My wife has acted as Quality Control and, having inspected them closely, has said the likeness is remarkable and correct right down to the last fuzzy detail. I think you'll agree that the workmanship is something else. In anticipation of your gratitude of for such a unique swag bag there is also a envelope for donations to the fundraiser so please dig deep, if only to assuage that lingering guilt of "forgetting" your contribution after that big sale you made a few months ago.
This year I feel that, considering some of the recent goings on on the forum, we would all benefit some etiquette training. So instead of a guest speaker we are having an etiquette bootcamp delivered by a team of crack trainers who will make sure you all sit up straight, eat with your mouth closed and be civil towards each other. Only once the training is complete will alcohol be served. Anyone who's behaviour does not meet the high standards will be given a swift clip behind the ear. If the offender's behaviour does not improve they'll be made to wear the Sandals of Shame (don't worry the puveyour of the orignal pair has supplied additional pairs in case we need to apply the punishment to more than one of you).
For the interlude the team has decided to resurrect a once popular charity format. No, not a community nude calendar (shudder) but an homage to (or is that a direct rip off of) Forces Wives, my talented Enterntainments officer has succeededed in pulling together a choir drawn from the large pool of wives (and other significant others) of the forum regulars. So please welcome to the stage WIS Wives with a selection of songs which reflect their "appreciation" of our hobby. Drawing from the great American Song Book they'll charm us with such songs as "Crazy she calls me", "Big Spender" and "These foolish things". Some songs have been especially adapted like "What a difference a day-date makes", "Someday My Prim Will Come" and "My Baby Just Cares for Maen". As an encore they will remind us not to forget them with "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", "Come Fly with Me" and "Shall We Dance?"
Did I say rollercoaster? Perhaps I should have said carousel.
Anyway, I know you are only here for the statistics (no not vital statisitcs, it isn't THAT kind of event), so lets get down and dirty with this years figures (didn't you hear what I just said? Get your hands of the waiting staff!).
A total of 6515 (sounds like a less popular vintage Rolex to me) watches were displayed over the fifty two Fridays of 2023, this is 10% fewer than last year which is a similar fall experienced between 2021 and 2022. The weekly average works out to be 125.3 so a fall of around 14 from last year. Friday the 29th of March saw the most number of watches worn in a week (147) and the fewest watches worn in a week was 99 on the last Friday of the year. This was a new record low. March, a five week month, had the highest number of watches worn in a month at 657. November, unsurprisingly a month of four Fridays, had the least number of watches worn at 408. Yes, you guessed it, a new record low.
Looking at brands there were a total of 352 represented which does echo the overall decline, however at only 5% not as steep as that in the overall numbers. This was bolstered by sixty four brands which made their first appearance on the Friday thread. This means that, over the last four years, we have worn a total of 651 brands, which is quite incredible. It would be nice to hit 400 in a year though. The maximum number of brands shown in a week was sixty six (31st of May) and the most in a month was 135 (March). No Records there. The fewest brands represented in a week was thirty eight (10th of November) and the fewest in a month was ninety two in August (a new record).
Before it gets too bleak we do have one metric we can celebrate which is diversity. The not so steep decline in the number of brands being worn means that our diversity for the year is 0.054, up from 0.051 in 2022 so continuing the steady increase over the last few years. We also recorded our best weekly (0.532, 1st of December) and monthly (0.243, May) diversities. The breaking of the 0.5 barrier is quite a milestone as that averages out to two watches for every brand represented. Difficult to achieve when two brands that week exceeded ten examples.
A very small selection of this year's Unworn includes Coutebert, Duckworth Prestex, Elgin, Geckotka, Lorus, Mondaine, Precista (the original), Raymond Weil, Sarpaneva Uhren Fabrik etc. etc.
And finally on to the prizes. We have struggled this year to recruit any celebs to present the awards. This might have something to do with the less than ideal career trajectory of Holly and Phil since they appeared here last year. So this year we have had to look elsewhere for assistance. Please welcome to the stage a group of people especially selected for their extensive experience of dishing out awards left, right and centre (but perhaps most recently to the right), yes you won't recognise them but they are all members of the Main Honours Committee. This should be fun.
The first award for the night is the most watches from one brand in a week - which, for the third time, goes to Seiko with 24, way back on the third of February. Interestingly twenty in a week was only achieved or exceeded four times last year.
The second award is the most watches from one brand in a month - no surprises here - Rolex with 79 in June. It seems the days of over a hundred watches from a single brand in a month are well behind us.
And the final award for quantities, the most in a year: Rolex again, with 740. Seiko were in second with 685, Omega reached 505, then a huge gap to Panerai on 310 and Timefactors only just behind with 305. A full breakdown of all brands worn this year will be shared below.
The Night Owl/Early Bird award is awarded to the brand which started the most Friday threads. This year thirty two brands started the Friday thread. Third place was shared by Rolex, Timefactors and Tudor with three starts apiece. Reflecting their storming year IWC started four however this years is a joint award as both Seiko and Grand Seiko started five Fridays each.
And now on to the Newcomer of the Year award. We saw sixty four new brands to the Friday Thread. As diverse as Thermidor, Orvis, Meraud and Isotope. Tied in third place were Di Milano and Bedat and Co with 6 appearances. It was a close run thing for first place. Upstart local brand Senraw appeared twelve times but, beating them by a single point was Singer Reimagined with thirteen.
Right, you'll be relieved to hear that we are reaching the final furlong of the ceremony and then you can disappear off to the various after-parties.
First up we have that celebration of perhaps the greatest decade of watch styling with the Unashamedly Outlandish Seventies Watch of the Year. Nominations were a little thin on the ground but martinzx looked in strong contention with both his Zenith Respirator and Seiko Chronograph, snowman had a go at making it two in a row with his big lump of a TV dialed Lanco. However Caruso stormed it this year with his Fortis Spaceman. Everything about it is so joyously seventies. Integrated bracelet, polished, asymmetric case reminiscent of a Dan Dare's helmet, datewheel co-ordinated with the seconds hand (a nice little detail). You might even call it Audacieuse!
Next up is the Bonkers Watch of the year. A celebration of watchmaking for the sake of watchmaking and not sticking to the tired tropes of circular dials, metal cases, three hands or even telling the time easily. Only three watches came close to the, admittedly arbitrary, bonkers specifications. It does not appear easy to tell the time at a glance with bazza.'s Ciga Design Blue Planet. The same can be said for gunner's Gruppo Gamma Nexus. However this years winner has managed to shoehorn a material more associated with the largest structures in the world rather then small wristwatches. We are all comfortable with dials made from various exotic materials including precious metals, meteorite, mother of pearl, even some minerals such as malachite. But concrete? Really? Yes! And it works. Brilliantly. This year's Bonkers Watch is uktotty's Concrete Stair from 22Studio. Who specialise in making everyday items out of concrete (even fountain pens). They have some lovely looking watches too.
Right, this is it. The big one. The one you have sat through all of the pre-amble for. The Watch Counter's Watch of The Year 2024. So what could be up there with the likes of the JLC Master Control, the 6B Scramble MkIII and the Eberhard Mareoscope? As ever the competition was tight. There was a strong vintage contingent. MartinCRC's stunning Citizen Ace Parawater is an uncommon beast especially with the interesting lume cutouts on the hands. pacifichrono's Hamilton Bradford B has an elegant simplicity. Modern watches weren't ignored. Papa Hotel's Ming Moonphase 37.05 is a strikingly minimalist iteration of the complication but with just enough detail on the dial to keep it from being boring. At the other end of the style spectrum sits peterdo's Vacheron Constantin Perpetual Calendar Ultra Thin, which not only has the aforementioned perpetual calendar but a moonphase too, all wrapped up in only 8.1mm of gold case. So what could possibly have pipped these previous four watches to the 2023 WOTY title? Surely something truly special? Weeeeelllll....I think this one is going to be a little contentious. Judging by the fact it didn't sell when it appeared on Sales Corner I'm guessing this may not be for everyone (certainly the price isn't). This year's winner is gladders' Singer Reimagined x The Limited Edition Flytrack ‘On The Road’. For me it is a fine mix of simplicity and complexity. Outwardly the watch is simple restrained with a titanium helmet shaped case and a very uncluttered black dial with orange chapter ring and two hands. Strangely these are a seconds and minutes hand. The hours being indicated by a black ceramic ring rotating around the outside of the chapter ring with only an orange lumed triangle pointing inwards towards the indices. A novel idea which I like. Only the monopusher hints at the complexity on the inside. This is no normal chrono and it will come as no surprise to discover that it was developed by Agenhor. The Flytrack calibre allows the running seconds hand to zero and then start recording simply by pushing and then releasing the pusher once. A clever and effective achievement however, as it has no minute or hour registers, it can only time events for less than a minute which does seem somewhat pointless. But then this is a mechanical watch.....
And there we have it, 2023 all wrapped up. As usual, below are the numbers of the year so have fun looking for the one off brand which you alone were responsible for
1 Rolex 740
2 Seiko 685
3 Omega 505
4 Panerai 310
5 Timefactors 305
6 Tudor 277
7 Sinn 216
8 IWC 159
9 Grand Seiko 157
10 CWC 136
11 G Shock 136
12 Longines 97
13 Zenith 97
14 Christopher Ward 94
15 Breitling 90
16 Damasko 88
17 Citizen 85
18 Hamilton 69
19 Heuer 65
20 Universal Geneve 54
21 Tag Heuer 52
22 KMK 50
23 Oris 48
24 Swatch 45
25 Nomos 44
26 Bulova 42
27 Garmin 42
28 Audemars Piguet 41
29 Blancpain 38
30 Jaeger-LeCoultre 38
31 Yema 37
32 Patek Philippe 36
33 Fortis 34
34 Tissot 34
35 Glycine 33
36 Bremont 31
37 Doxa (modern) 31
38 Glaschutte Original 31
39 Casio 30
40 Farer 27
41 Squale 27
42 Tutima 25
43 Vacheron Constantin 24
44 San Martin 23
45 Sterile 23
46 Orient 22
47 Cartier 20
48 Pagani Design 20
49 Helm 19
50 Zodiac 19
51 Airain 18
52 Bell & Ross 18
53 Marathon 18
54 Ming 18
55 Certina 17
56 Eterna 17
57 Anonimo 16
58 Junghans 16
59 Steeldive 16
60 Gruppo Gamma 15
61 Muhle 15
62 Pulsar 15
63 Steinhart 15
64 Stowa 15
65 Credor 14
66 Smiths 14
67 Yobokies 14
68 Apple 13
69 Scurfa 13
70 Singer Reimagined 13
71 Synchron 13
72 Alpina 12
73 Borealis 12
74 Breguet 12
75 Girard Perregeaux 12
76 Seagull 12
77 Senraw 12
78 Timex 12
79 Boldr 11
80 Lorier 11
81 Vostok 11
82 Baume et Mercier 10
83 Victorinox 10
84 Zeno 10
85 Ball 9
86 Dornbluth & Sohn 9
87 Halios 9
88 Heimdallr 9
89 Moser 9
90 Aevig 8
91 GWS 8
92 Hublot 8
93 Mappin and Webb 8
94 Pequignet 8
95 Porsche Design 8
96 Unimatic 8
97 Zelos 8
98 Clemence 7
99 Davosa 7
100 Dubey and Schaldenbrand 7
101 Laco 7
102 Montblanc 7
103 Nodus 7
104 Rotary 7
105 Baltany 6
106 Baltic 6
107 Bedat + Co. 6
108 Di Milano 6
109 Lemania 6
110 Luminox 6
111 Mathey-Tissot 6
112 Rado 6
113 Ulysse Nardin 6
114 Wolbrook 6
115 A. Lange & Sohne 5
116 Aquastar 5
117 Breil 5
118 Corum 5
119 Deep Blue 5
120 Formex 5
121 Ginault 5
122 HGP 5
123 Maen 5
124 Newmark (Modern) 5
125 RZE 5
126 Schofield 5
127 Seestern 5
128 Studio Underd0g 5
129 West End Watch Co 5
130 WMT 5
131 Aquadive 4
132 Beuchat 4
133 Chronoswiss 4
134 Ciga Design 4
135 Dunhill 4
136 E C Andersson 4
137 Enoksen 4
138 Frederique Constant 4
139 Gruen 4
140 Helson 4
141 Huawei 4
142 Incipio 4
143 Isotope 4
144 Linde Werdelin 4
145 Nike 4
146 Nove 4
147 Spinnaker 4
148 Traser 4
149 ZRC 4
150 Aerowatch 3
151 Alba 3
152 Alexander Shorokhoff 3
153 Alsta 3
154 Ancre 3
155 Animal 3
156 Artya 3
157 Autodromo 3
158 Benarus 3
159 Buran 3
160 Cronos 3
161 Dacor 3
162 Dekla 3
163 Draken 3
164 Ebel 3
165 Franck Muller 3
166 Helvetia 3
167 Hermes 3
168 L U Chopard 3
169 Le Monde 3
170 Marloe 3
171 Merkur 3
172 Mido 3
173 Minase 3
174 MkII 3
175 MWC 3
176 Norqain 3
177 NTH 3
178 Ollech & Wajs 3
179 Oscar 3
180 Rdunae 3
181 Record 3
182 Sekonda 3
183 Sugess 3
184 Suunto 3
185 Tressa 3
186 Unidentifiable 3
187 Ventura 3
188 A-13A 2
189 Addiesdive 2
190 Aera 2
191 Archimede 2
192 Bamford 2
193 Briston 2
194 Bucherer 2
195 Doxa (Vintage) 2
196 Eberhard 2
197 Gevril 2
198 Habring 2
199 Hanhart 2
200 Heritor 2
201 Horloscaphe 2
202 Hrudoland 2
203 Lanco 2
204 Le Jour 2
205 Lucerne 2
206 M B & F 2
207 Margrette 2
208 Marvel 2
209 Maurice La Croix 2
210 Meraud 2
211 Nivada 2
212 Ocean Crawler 2
213 Ochs und Junior 2
214 Oriosa 2
215 Orvis 2
216 Revue Thommen 2
217 Rodania 2
218 Ryte Time 2
219 Schaffen 2
220 Signum 2
221 Skmei 2
222 Sturmanskie 2
223 Tactical Frog 2
224 U-Boat 2
225 Vantage 2
226 Vratislavia 2
227 Xeric 2
228 22Studio 1
229 6B 1
230 Accurist 1
231 Addidas 1
232 AK Geneve 1
233 Allenby 1
234 Alpha 1
235 Ancon 1
236 Android 1
237 Aquatico 1
238 Archive 1
239 Ares 1
240 Armand Nicolet 1
241 Atowak 1
242 Avia 1
243 Ballast 1
244 Baylor 1
245 Benrus 1
246 Benyar 1
247 Blumus 1
248 Bomberg 1
249 Boschett 1
250 Brellum 1
251 Bulgari 1
252 Caravelle 1
253 Carvel 1
254 Crepas 1
255 Cuervo Y Sobrinos 1
256 Dailos 1
257 Daiso 1
258 Dan Henry 1
259 Darwil 1
260 Debert 1
261 Delbana 1
262 Delcona 1
263 Dietrich 1
264 Dugena 1
265 Edma 1
266 Edox 1
267 Elliot Brown 1
268 Enicar 1
269 Evant 1
270 Favre Leuba 1
271 Felca 1
272 Fine Watches Berlin 1
273 Fit Bit 1
274 Fleux 1
275 Forzo 1
276 FWM 1
277 Geralch 1
278 Gigandet 1
279 Glorys 1
280 Guinand 1
281 Henry Archer 1
282 Hima 1
283 Hitori 1
284 Hugo Boss 1
285 Islander 1
286 Jaz 1
287 Kahuna 1
288 Kemmner 1
289 Kobold 1
290 Kronozuri 1
291 Kurono Tokyo 1
292 Le Cheminant 1
293 Le Forban 1
294 Leonidas 1
295 Luch 1
296 Major 1
297 Marnaut 1
298 Meister Singer 1
299 MGM 1
300 MHR 1
301 MIH 1
302 MMI 1
303 Morgenwerk 1
304 Moritz Grossmann 1
305 Nautilus 1
306 Newgate 1
307 Nezumi 1
308 Nite 1
309 Nivada Grenchen 1
310 Nixon 1
311 Nubeo 1
312 Ocean7 1
313 Oceanx 1
314 Octopus Kraken 1
315 Olivier 1
316 Olma 1
317 Orfina 1
318 Phosphor 1
319 Poljot 1
320 Prometheus 1
321 Pryngeps 1
322 Racer 1
323 RLT 1
324 Roamer 1
325 Robert 1
326 Safari 1
327 Samsung 1
328 San Marco 1
329 Schauer 1
330 Scubapro 1
331 Sector 1
332 Sewills 1
333 Siduna 1
334 Straton 1
335 Swiss Military Hanowa 1
336 Szanto 1
337 Tactico 1
338 Talis 1
339 Technos 1
340 Thermidor 1
341 Top Secret 1
342 Traska 1
343 Trebex 1
344 Undone 1
345 Vaer 1
346 Valimor 1
347 Valjoux 1
348 Vario 1
349 Vertex (Modern) 1
350 Waltham 1
351 Weiss 1
352 Welsbro 1
353 Wempe 1
To give a better understanding of how the top 135 brands performed compared to last year I have add the Movers and Shakers table comparing their 2023 results with those from 2022. It shows not only the change in position of the table but also the change in numbers. A brief glance shows that throughout the IWC and Longines were obviously having a better year but without seeming to make much effort Panerai managed to buck the decline by adding a massive 29% more watches to their 2023 total. I am sure that there are some other gems in there too.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cbaf2e30_o.jpg on Flickr
I might add a few other metrics as the weekend goes on. Let me know if there is anything. specific and I will see what I can do. Now go off and enjoy the after party. Or if you are like me, have an early night so that you can tune into the cricket.
