Hopefully this is just in time to peruse over a spot of afternoon tea.

I apologise now for the brevity of this monthly roundup but I seem to have spent quite a lot of time watching Squid Game. Spoiler alert: disappointingly it isn't about talented squid showing their prowess at boardgames (but it is well worth a watch if you haven't seen it (I'll even admit to shedding a tear at the end of Episode 6)).

Soooo, what about watches? Well, not wanting to overdramatise it, September was another month which rocked the analysis to its foundations. Numbers continued to plummet, falling further than last month's all time low to 521 watches and matching last years lowest number of brands for the month (112) even though 10% of those were new.

As ever Rolex topped the rankings each week and ended the month with 79 (equalling last month's record low). Omega ignored the memo about falling numbers and reached 57 watches, building on its trend of rising numbers which grew out of June's low.

I think it was June when I made a prediction that Timefactors would be challenging Omega four third spot on the rankings. What I should have said was Seiko instead of Omega. Yes, Seiko. They had a dreadful month, scraping to 41, only nine ahead of the house brand. They failed to break in to double figures on the 10th, being beaten into 4th by TF. On the 17th they fared even worse, only scoring 7 and being beaten in to fifth by TF and Tudor. Even their Grand cousins were snapping at their heels on 5. They managed to scrape to 11 on the 24th which, coupled with their 14 on the third, just about secured them a third place for the month.

Unsurprisingly the declines were not just limited to the higher reaches of the table. Patek had their worst month since March (to be fair last month's 11 was an abnormally high month). For the first time this year we didn't see any Mings in a month and also Zenith had their worst month this year with just 6.

As ever there were a few brands who had good months. September was the best month for Grand Seiko since May and Casio hit a new monthly record of 6. CWC bounced back from their worst month this year with a strong 11 which pushed them into September's top ten.

Again the membership demonstrated their abilities to dig out new brands. Seven previously seen brands made their return. These included Brellum, Konstantin Chaykin and Hamtun. Four brands made their first appearance on the Friday thread including the much discussed Seestern and, sticking with the nautical theme, a U-Boat.

As Eddies Reincarnation of the Caribbean continued to adorn the Friday thread we saw an original in the form of ed335d's lovely Philip Watch. Other watches to catch my eye were Rajen's rather large Crepas Hydrographer, Caruso's Nixon Dork and Toshi's stunning Favre Leuba Deep Blue which made a welcome re-appearance. I know it is a regular on the thread but I want to mention Gladders' Moser Streamliner. Although it does polarise opinions I do quite like it, especially that green dial. As I like a good Moser I'll also throw in Berty's Moser (I think it is an Endeavor but I am happy to be corrected).

And so to the numbers:

1 Rolex 79
2 Omega 57
3 Seiko 41
4 Timefactors 32
5 Tudor 26
6 Panerai 22
7 Grand Seiko 19
8 Sinn 16
9 Breitling 12
10 CWC 11
11 G Shock 10
12 Damasko 8
13 IWC 8
14 Doxa (modern) 7
15 Citizen 7
16 Zenith 6
17 Squale 6
18 Casio 6
19 Heuer 6
20 Bulova 5
21 Scurfa 4
22 KMK 4
23 Certina 4
24 Dan Henry 3
25 Tissot 3
26 Steeldive 3
27 Christopher Ward 3
28 Longines 3
29 Muhle 3
30 Bell & Ross 3
31 Patek Philippe 3
32 Audemars Piguet 3
33 Jaeger-LeCoultre 2
34 Victorinox 2
35 Cartier 2
36 Hanhart 2
37 Oris 2
38 Rado 2
39 Hamilton 2
40 Moser 2
41 Enicar 2
42 Hamtun 2
43 Sterile 2
44 Breguet 2
45 Fortis 2
46 Movado 2
47 Blancpain 2
48 Synchron 2
49 Garmin 2
50 Newmark (Modern) 2
51 Anonimo 1
52 Apeks 1
53 Apple 1
54 Audaz 1
55 Bernhardt 1
56 Brellum 1
57 Dekla 1
58 Favre Leuba 1
59 GWS 1
60 Ingersoll 1
61 Lemania 1
62 Pulsar 1
63 San Martin 1
64 Schofield 1
65 Shanghai 1
66 U-Boat 1
67 Vacheron Constantin 1
68 Aevig 1
69 Ancon 1
70 Aquastar 1
71 Autodromo 1
72 Ball 1
73 Crepas 1
74 Ebel 1
75 Furlan Marri 1
76 Glaschutte Original 1
77 Helson 1
78 Marathon 1
79 Seestern 1
80 Swiss Watch Co. 1
81 Tactical Frog 1
82 Tutima 1
83 Wolbrook 1
84 Zodiac 1
85 Alexander Shorokhoff 1
86 Bertucci 1
87 Eterna 1
88 Invicta 1
89 Konstantin Chaykin 1
90 Linde Werdelin 1
91 Marina Militare 1
92 MWC 1
93 Nixon 1
94 Phenix 1
95 Philip Watch 1
96 Precista 1
97 Timex 1
98 Traser 1
99 6B 1
100 Franck Muller 1
101 Heimdallr 1
102 Helvetia 1
103 Jacques Le Mans 1
104 L L Bean 1
105 Le Monde 1
106 Lorier 1
107 MkII 1
108 Nomos 1
109 Ollech & Wajs 1
110 Orient 1
111 Poljot 1
112 Stowa 1


I do have enough time to throw in a graph. A question was asked last month weather last month's low was just due to the holidays so lets have a look through the round window and see what the monthly stats tell us:

, on Flickr

In answer to the question yes August does seem to be a a low month but this year there was no pick up in September. What the graph also suggests is that the lock down could have boosted numbers as there was a a significant increase in April last year followed by a distinct drop off after April this year. If I wanted to make more work for myself I may dig out Animalone's records to see what sort of baseline those numbers give us.