October's Friday Watches - Now with extra charts

[Wimm]

Well, counting has finally finished on a long and dramatic month of watch wearing. We have had contention over "fake" Friday threads, we have had recounts where the initial numbers couldn't be believed, we have had big names falling to new lows and small names hitting new highs. The top two candidates were neck and neck, swapping the lead each week until the eventual winner won by a comfortable margin. At least US presidential elections only happen every four years.

October was a five week month so the numbers were always going to be on the large side. We hit a new high of 836 watches at a respectable average of a shade over 167 per week. 133 brands were represented, amazingly another 20 of which were new to the year. We are now at a total of 364 brands for the whole year so the big 400 is in sight. If we keep producing new brands at the same rate as we have done over the past couple of months we should be able to make it. Disappointingly there are still no Qs.......

So what of the top three? Make sure you are sitting comfortably as it was a bit of a roller coaster. Seiko started the month strongly, taking first place with Rolex and Omega following behind. The following week Seiko slipped to 3rd with Rolex taking the top spot. On the 16th Seiko recovered, coming second only six behind Rolex, before recording a stonking thirty one to beat Rolex (twenty) into second place on the 23rd. This was the same day that Omega hit a new low, recording only five watches in a day, sinking to 7th place that week. A recount was ordered to verify the result and to ensure nothing untoward had taken place but it only confirmed the surprising result. All this drama and we still had one week to go. The 30th dawned with not one but two Friday threads. Hackles we raised and the tensions rose to levels last seen when someone suggested wearing a brown leather NATO on a black dialled dive watch. However the two gentlemen at the centre of it admitted their mistakes (or, in one case, tiredness) and the forum went back to posting pictures of watches. In the end Rolex lead the way with thirty and Omega, recovering from the previous weeks abysmal performance, stormed to second with twenty one leaving Seiko in third again with only seventeen.

Before I give the final numbers, and to give you the opportunity to catch your breath, I will run through the other highlights of the month. Sinn, off the back of becoming only the ninth brand to score ten or more in a single week, had their best month on record rising to fifth with a total of thirty two. Bell and Ross also had their best month equalling their weekly best twice in the month to give them nine overall which was enough to push them to 16th position. Tag Heuer saw a weekly high of 4 however that wasn't enough to take them to a new monthly high. We saw our first Enicar since April and only our second Olma this year. New arrivals included Mr Jones, Iaxa, Breil and Raymond Weil.

After all of that I expect you are all keen to see how it all translates into numbers and positions so here they are:

1 Rolex 127
2 Seiko 112
3 Omega 73
4 Timefactors 45
5 Sinn 32
6 Tudor 31
7 Panerai 27
8 G Shock 24
9 Breitling 15
10 Grand Seiko 15
11 Zenith 15
12 IWC 13
13 CWC 12
14 Damasko 12
15 Squale 11
16 Bell & Ross 9
17 Blancpain 9
18 Citizen 9
19 Vostok 9
20 Bremont 8
21 Steeldive 8
22 Apple 7
23 Newmark (Modern) 7
24 Tag Heuer 7
25 Hamilton 6
26 Longines 6
27 Ming 6
28 Patek Philippe 6
29 Fortis 5
30 Heuer 5
31 Moser 5
32 Oris 5
33 Dornbluth & Sohn 4
34 Hanhart 4
35 MkII 4
36 Vacheron Constantin 4
37 A. Lange & Sohne 3
38 Christopher Ward 3
39 Doxa (modern) 3
40 Eterna 3
41 Glycine 3
42 Jaeger-LeCoultre 3
43 Linde Werdelin 3
44 Scurfa 3
45 Smiths 3
46 Steinhart 3
47 Yema 3
48 Armida 2
49 Audemars Piguet 2
50 Bulova 2
51 Corum 2
52 Eberhard 2
53 Geckota 2
54 Glaschutte Original 2
55 Ingersoll 2
56 Junghans 2
57 Le Jour 2
58 Nomos 2
59 Ollech & Wajs 2
60 Orient 2
61 Timex 2
62 Tissot 2
63 Traser 2
64 Tutima 2
65 Universal Geneve 2
66 Aision 1
67 Alexander Shorokhoff 1
68 Armand Nicolet 1
69 Artya 1
70 Ball 1
71 Baltic 1
72 Breil 1
73 Brellum 1
74 Caravelle 1
75 Cartier 1
76 Casio 1
77 Corgeut 1
78 Crepas 1
79 Dan Henry 1
80 Davosa 1
81 Dennison 1
82 Douglas 1
83 Dubey and Schaldenbrand 1
84 E M G 1
85 Edox 1
86 Enicar 1
87 Garmin 1
88 H Kauffmann 1
89 Halios 1
90 Helgray 1
91 Helm 1
92 Helson 1
93 Hugo Boss 1
94 Iaxa 1
95 J W Benson 1
96 Jean Richard 1
97 Konstantin Chaykin 1
98 L L Bean 1
99 Le Monde 1
100 Lemania 1
101 Limit 1
102 Luch 1
103 Maurice La Croix 1
104 MIH 1
105 Mr. Jones 1
106 Muhle 1
107 MWC 1
108 Nautica 1
109 Nixon 1
110 Olma 1
111 Pagani Design 1
112 Pinion 1
113 Porsche Design 1
114 Pulsar 1
115 Rado 1
116 Raymond Weil 1
117 Record 1
118 Revue Thommen 1
119 Rover and Lakes 1
120 Samsung 1
121 SarpanevaUhrenFabrik 1
122 Schofield 1
123 Siduna 1
124 Sterile 1
125 Titoni 1
126 Tomtom 1
127 Tourby 1
128 Ulysse Nardin 1
129 Unimatic 1
130 Ventura 1
131 Vratislavia 1
132 Vulcain 1
133 Wolbrook 1

Unidentifiable 2

[Wimm]

Following on from last months focus on German watches this month we'll have a closer look at another country. Considering their important contributions to the horological world, and they way they have taken on the Swiss, this month we are off to the wonderful world of Japanese watches. Considering their position in the TZ not so holy trinity we will look at Japanese brands other than Seiko. However they do creep in at the end of the analysis.

, on Flickr

, on Flickr

As you can see G Shock are by far the next most popular brand after Seiko which is unsurprising when you consider the esteem in which they are held by many on the forum. From the beginning of the year their numbers increased steadily reaching a peak in May and then staying reasonably steady for the rest of the year. They have yet to fall out of the monthly top ten.

Next up we have Grand Seiko, which seem to be a niche favourite of the forum. Those who have them tend to sing their praises while those that haven't tend to feel that there is something holding them back from dipping their toe in. They have held reasonably steady scoring between eight and sixteen throughout the year. There is one blip, April, when numbers fell off a cliff. This was discussed at the time and some owners admitted to not wanting to wear their more expensive watches during lockdown. April also saw the only time that Seiko came in first so perhaps owners switched to the mainstream Seikos.

Citizen have been a bit of a dark horse. Starting the year in low numbers they rose in popularity over the spring and summer months before dropping down in September and October. Perhaps they are seen more as fun and rugged watches more suited to lockdown and holidays rather than suitable work/office attire. August was their best month during which they narrowly missed out on ten in one week by a single watch. Since then numbers have declined.

Casio and Orient have bumbled along at at the rear. Casio, usually in the form of Edifaces but an occasional F-91W, with steady numbers while Orient, with their love it or hate it crest, have been fairly erratic. At times challenging Grand Seiko, at other times not making an appearance.

And now time for the extra charts. Whilst putting together the data for this months closer look I got to wandering what proportion of the total watches did Japanese watches make? Well, with a little manipulation of the data it didn't take long to whip up a couple of extra charts. Without Seiko they form a small bit not insignificant proportion. If Seiko is included then, not unexpectedly, the overall contribution is more significant, always coming in at around 20% of the total.

, on Flickr

, on Flickr

[DigitalSeb]

Thanks a lot OP for the detailed breakdown and pretty charts - always a great read!

Much appreciated



S

[TonyAFC8]

Thanks OP, very interesting and some amount of work going into these


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

[Rinaldo1711]

Interesting - and fun.

[deepreddave]

Yep, good effort OP

[Chinnock]

Fantastic post and much appreciated.

[Murdoc]

Always enjoy reading these, thanks OP

[Derivative]

Fantastic work Wimm, thank you very much.
Interesting observation about Citizen: their range of affordable divers seems to make them a good beater / holiday watch.
Also looking at their back catalogue, it’s full of tool watches well suited for the warmer months.

[zenius]

Interesting how Seiko dominates other Japanese vendors here, which contrasts with availability on the high street shops.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[bambam]

I love the way you’ve written this up! Good work.

[SteveDSSD]

Great work, I love these summaries

[engrneil]

Agree.....thanks for all the work that went into this.

Great work, I love these summaries

Sent from my SM-G960U using TZ-UK mobile app

[Halitosis]

Great analysis OP - first time I've seen such and many thanks

[halfscrew]

As others have said it, allow me to add my thank you for your efforts.

[sish101]

Always an interesting read, thanks for taking the time to collate the info.

Just having a look back through the Friday posts for October to see what I was wearing.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[earlofsodbury]

Thanks once again OP - these threads please my inner geek very much.

Impressed how few watches remain unidentified out of the huge numbers posted

[alzone]

Interesting. First time I've seen this, I had no idea the vast majority of watches on here were from just 4 brands.