Friday Watches - July 2022

[Wimm]

July wasn't that long ago but it has already receded back in to the mists of time. So much seems to have happened since then. I vaguely remember it getting rather warm and also some bloke quitting his job but I forget who.

July was a five week month but we saw some pretty low scoring weeks (on the 8th and the 22nd) with the total for the month reaching (those of a superstitious nature prepare yourselves as you see fit) six hundred and sixty six watches (perhaps that is why the world seems to have fallen apart since then). The weekly average hit a paltry 133.2, only three above the all time low. The weekly brand representation wasn't bad but that disguised the overall lack of variety, a total of 110 brands were shown which is a new record low.

Having just finished what has become a bi-annual tradition of the Conservative Part leadership race I wasn't going to bore you with the another leadership race but this one turned out to be a little more exciting. The two favourites traded places each week one sometimes wining by small margins another time the other won with double the number of watches of the competitor. By the end of week four Seiko was one watch ahead. Week five was a torrid affair which went down to the last few hours before a winner could be declared. Suffice to say that the one beginning with R did win this contest but only by three.

So far so negative but fear not there are some positives to be gleaned. We were treated to our first Ochs und Junior watch since the first of May 2020 in the form of tenpasten's achingly minimalist Date. GShock and Cartier had their best weeks this year with eight and three respectively. GShock went on to reach twenty two for the month, their highest count since November 2020 while Cartier attained a new overall monthly record of six. Squale also had a storming month reaching ten, their highest of the year by some margin. Even humble Casio boke their monthly record to reach eight.

Of the 110 brands which were represented ten of them were new to the Friday thread in one way or another. Six made their first appearance this year including Rotary, Aevig and the brand formerly known as Mecchanice Veneziane (still a tongue twister as Venezianico). The four debutantes were Anker, E C Andersson, Straton and Yobokies.

Before I dive in to my favourite part of the write up I would like to mention two complications that appeared for the first time this year in July. We saw our first Tourbillon in the form of Banstone's Kemner. At the end of the month we saw something I wouldn't have been aware of without the owner's hint that something was different about this watch. I was about mark down Mr Curta's Mondaine as a three hander when I read what he had written. The paucity of information (all l had was a green bezelled Mondaine) meant I had to leap on to duckduckgo and spend some time investigating. Finally I was introduced to the delights of Stop2go. The second hand moves around the dial slightly quicker than normal and ends up at twelve o'clock with two seconds to spare. Here it pauses for those remaining two seconds before continuing on its way once the minute hand has advanced. This is, apparently, a further nod to Mondaine's history which is intertwined with that of Swiss railway clocks which also have this same complication. This two second pause allows all station clocks to be synchronised as the signal to advance the minute hand is sent from a central location. The synchronisation also includes the trains which only leave at the top of the minute. Thank you Mr Curta for providing an horological rabbit hole to wander down. Just to finish with a request, as I am recording complications this year, if you wear something that has an interesting complication which isn't immediately obvious, let me know otherwise it will be recorded as something less interesting.

I'll start off the notable watches with two Omegas which caught my eye. Desert_Weasel's Omega Speedmaster 1957 is really quite handsome, as is gorrie's MkII Rio 2016 speedie. Staying with the neo-vintage vibe was gunner's two tone Eterna with a stunning silver sunburst dial. For the true vintage enthusiast we saw ebb21's vintage vertex, it isn't often we get to see one of those on here. I have saved the best for last. On the 29th appeared a watch of such sumptuous late seventies outlandishness that I am thinking of creating an award just for it to win. Crouchy's Heuer Senator GMT Chronosplit draw many admiring comments and quite rightly so. I love it.

Anyway enough prattle here are the numbers for July. I will apologise now for the relatively high numbers of unidentifiable watches but as I am so far behind a few photos have dropped off and I don't want to pester members by asking them to remember what they were ding three months ago. Once I am up to date normal service shall resume.

1 Rolex 94
2 Seiko 91
3 Omega 51
4 Tudor 35
5 Timefactors 27
6 Sinn 24
7 G Shock 22
8 Panerai 19
9 CWC 17
10 IWC 13
11 Breitling 12
12 Grand Seiko 12
13 Damasko 10
14 Squale 10
15 Heuer 9
16 Casio 8
17 Citizen 8
18 Longines 8
19 Hamilton 7
20 Tag Heuer 7
21 Tissot 7
22 Zenith 7
23 Cartier 6
24 Bulova 5
25 Glaschutte Original 5
26 KMK 5
27 Oris 5
28 Unidentifiable 5
29 Blancpain 4
30 Bremont 4
31 Glycine 4
32 Nomos 4
33 Orient 4
34 Christopher Ward 3
35 Helm 3
36 Helson 3
37 Jaeger-LeCoultre 3
38 San Martin 3
39 Vacheron Constantin 3
40 Yema 3
41 A-13A 2
42 Aevig 2
43 Borealis 2
44 Breguet 2
45 Clemence 2
46 Dubey and Schaldenbrand 2
47 Eterna 2
48 HKED 2
49 Junghans 2
50 Luminox 2
51 Ming 2
52 Mondaine 2
53 Ollech & Wajs 2
54 Pagani Design 2
55 Patek Philippe 2
56 Porsche Design 2
57 Precista 2
58 Scurfa 2
59 Seestern 2
60 Steinhart 2
61 Stowa 2
62 Swatch 2
63 Tutima 2
64 Universal Geneve 2
65 Zeno 2
66 6B 1
67 Alpina 1
68 Ancon 1
69 Anonimo 1
70 Anordain 1
71 Apple 1
72 Archimede 1
73 Audemars Piguet 1
74 Autodromo 1
75 Bell & Ross 1
76 Boschett 1
77 Credor 1
78 Cronos 1
79 Davosa 1
80 Deep Blue 1
81 Doxa (modern) 1
82 Ebel 1
83 Evant 1
84 Farer 1
85 Fortis 1
86 Frederique Constant 1
87 Incipio 1
88 Kemmner 1
89 Kurono Tokyo 1
90 Linde Werdelin 1
91 Lorier 1
92 Meccaniche Veneziane 1
93 Moser 1
94 Newmark (Modern) 1
95 Nivada 1
96 Nodus 1
97 Ochs und Junior 1
98 Oriosa 1
99 Pulsar 1
100 Rotary 1
101 Schofield 1
102 Sekonda 1
103 Skmei 1
104 Smiths 1
105 Spinnaker 1
106 Stanley 1
107 Steeldive 1
108 Synchron 1
109 Vertex (Vintage) 1
110 Wolbrook 1
111 Zodiac 1


I have managed to cobble together the swingometer for the month and it shows a drop in the popularity of simple three handers. It'll be interesting to see if that continues in August.

, on Flickr

Anyway, that is me done, I am off to pick up some crispy aromatic duck and sweet and sour chicken balls.

[earlofsodbury]

Thanks for another entertaining round-up!

[EBB21]

Much appreciated as always. Unidentifiable at 5 is a bit worrying.

[Kitsan]

Really enjoy reading these, thanks for putting them together

[Ey-Up]

Sterling work. Thank you.

[Mr Curta]

Massive thanks for your efforts, which are unfailingly interesting and entertaining.

You could have saved time by pinging me a PM regarding the stop2go, but I suspect that you enjoyed tracking down the information. That one was the 'Gottardo2016' LE version. The bezel is made from a bit of a 1952 Ae6/6 locomotive driver's door, which is rather Bremontesque but a lovely shade of green.

[sish101]

Eloquent and entertaining as ever. Your efforts are appreciated.

Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves

[Rinaldo1711]

Always enjoy and appreciate this - thanks!

[ben4watches]

Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable insight into the wearing habits of the TZ massive.

Definitely the highlight of the forum and worth the monthly wait (sometimes longer )

[NigeG]

Always enjoy and appreciate this - thanks!

^ This. Thanks


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[Kamakazie!]

Good read as always Wimm

[Bondurant]

Thanks a lot Wimm

[greasemonkey]

another enjoyable read,thanks Wimm.

[SteveDSSD]

I always look forward to this thread, really appreciated Wimm :)

[Griswold]

Great write up as usual, always an interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[Quality Man]

Thanks once again, great stuff.


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[Bonny Marco]

Always enjoy and appreciate this - thanks!

This above. Thanks Wimm!

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