Friday Watches - January 2022

[Wimm]

I am not angry, just very disappointed. I give you one simple decision to make and you can't even do that. Fair enough, as an adult, I'll hold my hand up and and admit my mistake. I shouldn't have made the poll binary because, like any good binary poll, the result was close. However, this time there weren't even 3.8 percentage points in it. The result to the poll to decide this year's bit on the side was a dead heat (the cynical part of my brain thinks it was deliberate and the last voter decided to level it up, but nobody here would do that would they?). Out of frustration I was sorely tempted to spite you all and impose a different result. However I will honour the original poll and cast the deciding vote. This years BoTS will be complications and it is already looking quite interesting, but more about that later.

January wasn't far off being momentous, well in the world of Friday watch threads anyway. Something happened that only ever happens in April. But, just like Mr Curta, I am going to make you wait just a little longer to find out what that was.

As with previous Januarys we have started the year strongly with a total of 624 watches working out at a weekly average of 156, such heights we haven't seen since May last year. The 28th saw 173 watches posted which is the the highest weekly total since the 16th of April last year. A steady 129 brands were represented.

We had to wait a whole seven days for the the first Friday of the year but it didn't disappoint. The top brands came out hard from the bell and were butting in the clinches from the start. Seiko and Rolex ended up equal on thirteen and Timefactors and Tudor only one behind on twelve each. This pushed Omega into fifth on nine. A weekly later Seiko were the first to break into the twenties with just that, Rolex came second on seventeen and Omega took their usual third spot with twelve. Timefactors trailed in in ninth with a lowly four, most unlike them. Omega took the honours on the twenty first with eighteen, Seiko followed with fifteen with Rolex in third with thirteen. TF made enough of a recovery with ten to give Rolex something to worry about. The final Friday of the month saw Seiko scream into first with twenty five (a high they haven't reached since the twenty eighth of may May last year (hang on, that's a little spooky), Rolex tried to keep up but fell three short and no prizes for guessing where Omega came. Yes third, on nineteen.

Now those of you who have been doing the sums through the last paragraph will already know the answer to the earlier mystery. Yes Seiko beat Rolex, not for the first time, but for the first month that isn't April. The margin wasn't big, seventy three as opposed to sixty five.

To round off a very good month for the Japanese manufacturer Grand Seiko not only exceeded ten in a week for the first time but also hit a new monthly record of twenty eight. Baltic hit a monthly high of three and Timex, riding the nostalgia wave hit a new weekly high of three. JLC also had a good month with ten being worn, not having been in double figures since July 2020. We also had reappearances of a couple of brands after long periods of absence. The prodigal brands included Sternglas (last seen in June 2020) and Uno (not seen since January of last year).

Out of the 129 brands shown this month we managed to dig out another nine brands that had not been shown on the Friday Thread before. These included our first non TF Sewills, a rather English sounding Allenby (which is actually French) and the Franco-Italian sounding Jaques Bianchi.

January was notable for the large number of fabulous vintage watches that you wore,(anyone up for Vintanuary? No, I thought not). Tazmo61's Sewills have already been mentioned as has sish101's Allenby (I now can't say that without a French accent) but Wallasey Runner has managed to track down a fine example of a Australian military Smiths De Luxe GS which isn't something you see every day. Something else you don't see every day is Wolfie's Rodania Waterman. Among many other vintage watches we had alslater's 62MAS, 11erv's lovely vintage IWC Ingeneur and Levkov's Defy.

Enough of my whittling on, here are the numbers:

1Seiko73
2Rolex65
3Omega58
4Timefactors38
5Tudor30
6Grand Seiko28
7Sinn21
8Panerai19
9Breitling17
10CWC12
11G Shock10
12IWC10
13Jaeger-LeCoultre10
14Zenith9
15Citizen7
16Hamilton7
17Blancpain6
18Damasko6
19Heuer6
20Bulova5
21Garmin5
22Oris5
23Patek Philippe5
24Audemars Piguet4
25Bell & Ross4
26Certina4
27Christopher Ward4
28Hanhart4
29KMK4
30Newmark (Modern)4
31Tag Heuer4
32Timex4
33Tissot4
34Baltic3
35Bremont3
36Doxa (modern)3
37Helson3
38Longines3
39Ming3
40Muhle3
41Serica3
42Sewills3
43Smiths3
44Zeno3
45A. Lange & Sohne2
46Anonimo2
47Armida2
48Fortis2
49Glaschutte Original2
50Moser2
51Movado2
52Rado2
53Squale2
54Steeldive2
55Tutima2
56Vostok2
57Zodiac2
58ZRC2
59Allenby1
60Alpina1
61Aquadive1
62Archimede1
63Baume et Mercier1
64Baylor1
65Boschett1
66Breguet1
67Brellum1
68Cartier1
69Casio1
70Corum1
71Cyma1
72Dacor1
73Dekla1
74Dornbluth & Sohn1
75Doxa (Vintage)1
76Dubey and Schaldenbrand1
77Dufa1
78Dunhill1
79Edox1
80Elliot Brown1
81EMG1
82Enzo Mechana1
83Eterna1
84Evant1
85Favre Leuba1
86Frederique Constant1
87GWS1
88Halios1
89Hublot1
90ILW1
91Incipio1
92Jaques Bianchi1
93Junghans1
94Kronos1
95Le Jour1
96Lorier1
97Luminox1
98Marathon1
99Marnaut1
100Mido1
101Molnija1
102MWC1
103Newgate1
104Nomadic1
105Nomos1
106Oakley1
107Obris Morgan1
108Orient1
109Pagani Design1
110Pinion1
111Pontus1
112Precista1
113Raketa1
114RJ1
115Roamer1
116Rodania1
117Samsung1
118SarpanevaUhrenFabrik1
119Schaffen1
120Scurfa1
121Seestern1
122Steinhart1
123Sternglas1
124Swatch1
125Titoni1
126U-Boat1
127Uno1
128Vacheron Constantin1
129Wempe1

I haven't finished the analysis of the BoTS but I will have a go this weekend and up date this thread with a nice chart. However, to keep you interested I thought I would lift the curtain and give you a quick peek behind the scenes. Below is the clean spreadsheet for this year. Strangely, seeing it bare, stripped of all numbers gave me an odd sense of satisfaction;

, on Flickr

[Norbert]

Thank you for all your efforts on this !
Very interesting as well as being very enlightening.


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[Wallasey Runner]

Thank you for an excellent piece of work.

As I was reading through, I was thinking I wonder if he separates the Timefactors watches from the earlier original Smiths, Precista and Sewill watches etc and checking the table at the bottom clearly you do, so well done for that.

Ken

[sish101]

Always a well-written piece of prose for the month watch round-up and oh the glory of a mention! I've never seen another Allenby either (is that a good thing) but the fact that it was a double whammy of rarity and vintage makes it especially pleasing.

For those who missed it the first time round, here it is in all its glory. If anyone has any history of the Allenby range I'd be very interested.

Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves

[jukeboxs]

Thank you once again! I love your enthusiasm, don't ever lose it. [I am particularly surprised only 1 Casio in 624 watches. But, perhaps people like to impress on the Friday thread.]

[MartynJC (UK)]

Superb work - both compiling the list and also the time to write the text as well. Thank you.

[Kamakazie!]

Seems like there is more variety in the early months of the year. All the interesting watches get a showing!

[Quality Man]

Thank again for this, great reading.


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[Sinnlover]

Entertaining write up as always Wimm. Thank you.

[snedboy]

I’m surprised to see only one Junghans. This place used to be awash with max bills and mega 1000s

[markrlondon]

Excellent, thank you for this. :-)

[Tetlee]

Always a well-written piece of prose for the month watch round-up and oh the glory of a mention! I've never seen another Allenby either (is that a good thing) but the fact that it was a double whammy of rarity and vintage makes it especially pleasing.

For those who missed it the first time round, here it is in all its glory. If anyone has any history of the Allenby range I'd be very interested.

Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves

Love the futuristic numerals on that one!

Thanks as always Wimm, great read.

[Wimm]

Well, as promised, the first instalment of the study into which complications we prefer. Before I get to the numbers I'll give a quick summary of the principals to which I am working.

I have tried to list as many complications as possible but I will continue to add to the list if any weird and wonderful ones appear. As well as specific complications I have also recorded the simple watches (two handers, three handers and three handers with sub-seconds) to give a bit of balance and to give us an idea of their popularity. There are two very popular complications, date and chronograph, which appear quite regularly either on their own or in combination with other complications. I decided to break them down further to count them on their own (date, chronograph) or in combination (date+, chronograph+). Obviously watches do come with more than one complication so I have counted a maximum of two. If there more than two complications I have chosen the ones which form the major function of the watch (other than telling the time) or which are the most rare. Although it can be a bit random.

The current list and January's numbers areas follows:

Two hander 8
Three hander 128
Three hander(sub) 30
Jump hour 1
Date 211
Date + 100
Day-date 49
Pano-date 4
Calendar 0
Annual calendar 3
Perpetual calendar 1
Chronograph 56
Chronograph + 54
Moonphase 4
Travel Time (all definitions) 44
Power reserve 12
Digi 11
Ana-Digi 14
Smart 6
Alarm 0
Equation of time 0
Yacht timer 0
Tourbillon 0
Retrograde 1

Those which were counted in January are shown in the doughnut below:

, on Flickr

It shows that we do like a date, mainly on its own but often in combination with another complication (usually a chronograph) However we do also like simple watches quite a lot too. Chronographs are the next most popular group and then there is a smattering of other complications, usually the more exotic ones.

[Mr Curta]

Excellent work, sir. That's the Mareoscope coming out of the box.

[markrlondon]

Wow, that's quite some pie chart.

No alarms! I am shocked.

[Quality Man]

Brilliant!


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[Wimm]

Excellent work, sir. That's the Mareoscope coming out of the box.

Excellent, I love a good Mareoscope.

[apm101]

Superb work.