Seeing as I am slow, and have slightly lost my mojo with all this counting and writing, I thought I would reward your patience over the first quarter of this year (yes I know, I am asking the same question), with a two in one offer. Yes you get both January’s and February’s results in one tidy package. Hopefully the unbounded joy and excitement you now feel will stop you querying the whereabouts of last year’s results and awards…..

Moving swiftly on. To try an keep a positive vibe against all the negativity currently swirling around the world like a malevolent miasma, I will charitably say the year started slowly. January was a five week month and we ended up with 489 watches (at a very low average of 97.8 watches per week). A reasonable 114 brands were represented at a handy diversity of 0.233 BpW.

The first Friday was the 3rd with a frankly terrible seventy nine watches. Sorry, I am supposed to be putting a positive spin on this. Lets say we started the new year with plenty of room for improvement. And we showed a bit of that as numbers slowly edged up to a peak of 110 on the seventeenth before dropping back over the following two weeks. Rolex was the only brand to reach double figures in the first three weeks (while Seiko, Panerai and Omega scrapped it out for the next three spots). On the 24th only five Rolex were worn which dropped them down to joint fourth with Tudor and Sinn. Seiko and Panerai shared top spot with ten apiece. The final week saw first place shared again, this time between Omega and Rolex, each with twelve.

Seeing as it is only January I’ll skip the winners and losers and move straight on to brands. 114 different brands isn’t too bad but plenty of opportunity to improve. We had a couple of brands appear (Maurice Lacroix and Lorenz) which didn’t appear at all last year. We also had three new brands joining the list, Kendal and Dent, Issey Miyake and Vega.

There were plenty of watches which got my horological juices flowing. Bootsy did the double with rather nice vintage Le Coultre Memovox and then his superb Kendal and Dent chronograph from the 1940’s. Skip went big and green with his Zenith El Primero. There was also twhp101’s striking turquoise Vega dive watch. Saving the best for last we have kaffe’s gorgeous Citizen NB1060-12L. Those clever people at Citizen have somehow managed to cobble together silver leaf and lacquer to produce a stunning dial.

Anyways, here are the numbers for January

1 Rolex 47
2 Seiko 42
3 Omega 40
4 Panerai 32
5 Sinn 19
6 Tudor 16
7 Breitling 13
8 Grand Seiko 13
9 Citizen 12
10 IWC 12
11 CWC 11
12 Hamilton 11
13 Heuer 10
14 Zenith 10
15 Timefactors 9
16 Longines 8
17 Squale 8
18 Doxa (modern) 7
19 Casio 5
20 Christopher Ward 5
21 Damasko 5
22 G Shock 5
23 KMK 5
24 Universal Geneve 5
25 Vertex (Modern) 5
26 Audemars Piguet 4
27 Farer 4
28 Fortis 4
29 Glycine 4
30 Jaeger LeCoultre 4
31 Eterna 3
32 Garmin 3
33 Glaschutte Original 3
34 Nomos 3
35 Sterile 3
36 Addiesdive 2
37 Blancpain 2
38 Boldr 2
39 Iaxa 2
40 L U Chopard 2
41 Marathon 2
42 Maurice La Croix 2
43 MkII 2
44 Orient 2
45 Oris 2
46 Patek Philippe 2
47 Pulsar 2
48 Rado 2
49 Steinhart 2
50 Timex 2
51 Tissot 2
52 Tutima 2
53 Vega 2
54 Yema 2
55 Zodiac 2
56 A. Lange & Sohne 1
57 Aerowatch 1
58 Anonimo 1
59 Bell & Ross 1
60 Berny 1
61 Boccia 1
62 Boderry 1
63 Bremont 1
64 Cardinet 1
65 Cartier 1
66 Crepas 1
67 Deep Blue 1
68 Ebel 1
69 Ginault 1
70 Girard Perregeaux 1
71 Glorys 1
72 Halios 1
73 Hublot 1
74 Isotope 1
75 Issey Miyake 1
76 Kendal and Dent 1
77 Kurono Tokyo 1
78 L L Bean 1
79 Le Phare 1
80 Linde Werdelin 1
81 Lip 1
82 Lorenz 1
83 Maen 1
84 Majex 1
85 Mappin and Webb 1
86 Meraud 1
87 Minase 1
88 Momentum 1
89 Muhle 1
90 MWC 1
91 Nivada 1
92 Olma 1
93 Pequignet 1
94 Poljot 1
95 Porsche Design 1
96 Precista 1
97 Record 1
98 Ryte Time 1
99 San Martin 1
100 Schofield 1
101 Seizenn 1
102 Smiths 1
103 Steeldive 1
104 Stowa 1
105 Studio Underd0g 1
106 Swatch 1
107 Tag Heuer 1
108 Unimatic 1
109 Vacheron Constantin 1
110 Vostok 1
111 Wise 1
112 Wolbrook 1
113 Zixen 1
114 ZRC 1

A friend of mine, who is starting on the slippery slope of watch collecting despite my warnings, recently set me the following thought experiment and I thought I would share my thinking with you and then open it up to see what you lot would come up with. I don’t think we have had one of these threads for a while and, if anything, it might be a nice distraction from what whoever is in charge of the remote has you sitting in front of. So, here goes:

Which three watches would you buy if you had a maximum budget of £1,500 per watch? He clarified that the watches could be could be used or new.

I took this up with some gusto as I haven’t really done something like this before. I mean, I do have a fantasy watch collection but I never really approached the decisions with some idea of a budget. I quickly looked up the prices on some of this collection and realised that this was going to be more difficult than I first thought. It turns out the £1,500 is a really difficult sum. It is more (in some circumstances a lot more) than many of the microbrand offerings so, if I went down that route, I would end up not making the most of the budget. On the other hand £2,000 seems to be the minimum level at which really interesting watches start at (those with perhaps an unusual complication or a striking dial). Decisions, decisions.

I tried trawling through sites like Chrono24 with the filter set to £1,500 to see what, out of the tens of thousands of watches available, caught my eye but after about fifteen minutes I gave up. I realised I needed to take a bit more of a targeted approach. So, having spent far too much time over the years analysing the Friday thread, I started looking through those timepieces which had caught my eye and finally I was getting somewhere. After about a weeks worth of winnowing I was able to answer my friend and here are the results.

A simple, hard wearing watch for everyday use – Damasko DS30 – green

https://www.damasko-watches.com/en/DS30/SW10177.4

We are all fairly familiar with this so I won’t go into much detail except that I have always admired these watches for their simplicity, pop of colour and the colour matched date wheel.

Next up something vintage – Seiko Silverwave with starbust dial

https://adventuresinamateurwatchfett…iver-from-1964

Since I first read about these watches they struck a chord with me (I like the whimsical name, the style, the history) and this version is the stand out of the six originals which were made. Legibility may be rubbish but that is by the by. £1,500 should get me a decent example.

And finally something a little different. This was the really difficult one. For me 80% of the attraction of a watch is the dial however watches with really interesting dials don’t really kick in until around the £2,000 mark and then rapidly accelerate upwards for ever more. I found myself going through the list of exhibitors from the recent British Watchmakers’ Day and recognised one of them from a Friday thread. I went straight to their website and there I had my final watch. A Moels 369, probably with the Emerald Forest dial but I could be tempted by the Tortuga Bay (ideally I’d like to see the two side by side).

https://moelsandco.com/shop/p/369-emeraldforest

This to me has the right balance of interesting dial, minimalist styling and being slightly different. It also has more than a hint of a Moser Streamliner.

This is by no means an exercise in achieving a three watch collection (but it would be a good one) as I have plenty of watches which I like and don’t see the need to move on. However they do represent a fantasy collection that may one day be obtainable.

Now, over to you guys. What would you chose?

Ignore.

This lot apparently weighs in at over 8kg. It is a brave buyer who bids for this lot but, amazingly, there are 44 bids and the current one is at £244.

Somewhat disappointingly I suspect that, if I were to shuffle off this mortal coil, my current collection would look very similar. What is it they say? "One man’s treasure is another’s junk" or something like that.

Now off to weigh my collection……

Well, thank goodness 2024 has ended. After a year of elections, ejaculations and effluviations we all could do with a bit of break but, somehow, I don’t think that is going to happen in the next twelve months. But before we worry about what the future holds lets wallow in the comfort of the past and see what watches we wore in the last month of 2024.

December’s Friday watches summed up the year. A bit pants. We couldn’t even scrape together 400 (399 to be precise, a new low by a massive margin with the weekly average dropping below 100 for the first time). It had started out fairly average but on the twenty seventh we must have been too busy idling on sofas as we scoffed down Christmas leftovers to remember to post. Only eighty five watches were posted, ten fewer than the previous weekly low. On the up side 119 brands were represented over December which equated to a diversity of 0.298 which is a new high. Because of the low numbers on the twenty seventh the fifty one brands posted that day resulted in a weekly diversity of 0.6, another new record. These numbers were boosted by some bending of the rules in a last minute push to reach 400 brands in the year. Did we make it? You’ll have to wait until the annual awards ceremony to find out.

It all started as you could imagine, with Rolex, Seiko and Omega taking up the top three spots in that order. Then on the twentieth an imposter crept into third place. Hamilton. Having not scored higher than twelfth (and as low as 114th) this year this was a surprise. We’ll look into their fortunes later on. And now to the twenty seventh. Although the old order was restored, no brand broke into double figures and the top three flirted with their lowest weekly figures.

Despite the poor showing at the top end of the table, somewhat unbelievably, a number of brands achieved their best results of the year in its dying gasps. We had four Eterna, nine Heuer, three Linde Werdelin and eight Nomos, Then we come to Hamilton who achieved a stonking twelve, a new all time monthly high. This was aided by a weekly record of seven on the twentieth. I’ll share the worms for Hamilton at the end but it seems that every year the potter around in the high single digits and then once a year they breach that ceiling before dropping back down. We’ll see what January has in store for them.

We equaled November’s 119 brands (by a little jiggery-pokery by a couple of members but I will let it go otherwise numbers would have been terrible). We added twenty brands to this year’s tally, eleven returned to the thread and a whole nine new brands. Returning brands included modern Vertex, Kobold, Bulgari and Geckota. New brands included Crafter Blue, BBC World, Manager and Ogmios.

As it was Christmas I kept my eyes out for notable watches with a Christmas feel. Due to the lack of watches including Frankincense and Myrrh ( I wouldn’t have put it past Bremont of old putting a portion of on or t’other in a Limited Edition) I was limited to gold watches but there were plenty out there. bmpf’s rose gold Dornbluth 04.0 was a beautiful as was Griswold’s gold Omega Constellation. RAJEN brought the big guns out with his gold Daytona and there was twhp101’s gold Seiko Lord Marvel and finally, the star on the top of of the tree, walkerwek1958’s gold Omega Constellation "piepan".

Right I have a date with a swimming pool as I try and work myself into some sort of shape. Here are the numbers:

1 Rolex 38
2 Seiko 31
3 Omega 30
4 Panerai 19
5 Tudor 18
6 Hamilton 12
7 Timefactors 12
8 Citizen 11
9 CWC 10
10 Sinn 10
11 Breitling 9
12 Grand Seiko 9
13 Heuer 9
14 IWC 9
15 Nomos 8
16 G Shock 6
17 Blancpain 5
18 Jaeger LeCoultre 5
19 Zenith 5
20 Eterna 4
21 KMK 4
22 Squale 4
23 Universal Geneve 4
24 Audemars Piguet 3
25 Damasko 3
26 Doxa (modern) 3
27 Glaschutte Original 3
28 Linde Werdelin 3
29 Longines 3
30 Rotary 3
31 San Martin 3
32 A. Lange & Sohne 2
33 Christopher Ward 2
34 Crafter Blue 2
35 Credor 2
36 Cronos 2
37 Garmin 2
38 Geckota 2
39 Junghans 2
40 Oris 2
41 Pulsar 2
42 Timex 2
43 Tissot 2
44 Tutima 2
45 Unidentifiable 2
46 About Vintage 1
47 Accurist 1
48 Addiesdive 1
49 Baltany 1
50 Baltic 1
51 BBC World 1
52 Bell & Ross 1
53 Berthoud 1
54 Boccia 1
55 Borealis 1
56 Breguet 1
57 Bulgari 1
58 Bulova 1
59 Bund 1
60 Cartier 1
61 Ciga Design 1
62 Clebar 1
63 Dornbluth & Sohn 1
64 Doxa (Vintage) 1
65 Dunhill 1
66 Farer 1
67 Fifty Four 1
68 Fortis 1
69 Ginault 1
70 Halios 1
71 Heimdallr 1
72 Helgray 1
73 Heron 1
74 Hublot 1
75 Iaxa 1
76 Imado 1
77 Kahuna 1
78 King Quartz 1
79 Kobold 1
80 Kurono Tokyo 1
81 Le Monde 1
82 Lige 1
83 Luminox 1
84 Maen 1
85 Manager 1
86 Ming 1
87 MkII 1
88 Muhle 1
89 MWC 1
90 Nivada Grenchen 1
91 Ogmios 1
92 Orient 1
93 Pagani Design 1
94 Patek Philippe 1
95 Philippe Biguet 1
96 Porsche Design 1
97 Q & Q 1
98 Rdunae 1
99 Record 1
100 Revue Thommen 1
101 Ricoh 1
102 Roamer 1
103 Spinnaker 1
104 Steeldive 1
105 Sterile 1
106 Studio Underd0g 1
107 Swatch 1
108 Tag Heuer 1
109 Timor 1
110 Ulysse Nardin 1
111 Vacheron Constantin 1
112 Vaer 1
113 Vertex (Modern) 1
114 Watchdives 1
115 Wenger 1
116 Wise 1
117 Yema 1
118 Zodiac 1
119 Zoretto 1
120 ZRC 1

Here, in no particular order, are some names that made the headlines in November 2024. Umm el-Marra, Cassius, Bert, Lewtobi Laki-laki, LignoSat, Anne-Genevieve and Maurizio. There are probably others I could add to the list but I seem to have forgotten who they could be. Anyway, you are probably wondering about the names on the dials of the watches that were worn during November’s Friday’s and so, as is my duty, I shall satisfy your curiosity.

November contained five Fridays this year, over which we managed to scrape together 554 watches at an average of 110.8 per month. A healthy 119 brands were represented, but due to the high numbers, diversity was down a little at 0.215 bpw.

The month started off with both Omega and Rolex tied on thirteen apiece and Seiko third with nine. The following week Rolex topped the table with sixteen, Omega came second with twelve and Seiko third again with eleven. On the fifteenth the order was repeated but the numbers being fifteen, ten and nine respectively. Rolex topped the table again on the twenty second this time it was Seiko and Omega’s time to tie on eleven each. Finally a change in the order with Seiko edging past Omega to take second with thirteen. Omega and Timefactors drew for third on eight.

November seemed to have been a good month for many brands. Timefactors had their best month of the year with thirty one. Squale also succeed in the same feat with ten watches shown. Rolex have had a bit of resurgence, their seventy two being the highest since March. JLC maxed out on seven, helped by a weekly high for the year of four recorded on the twenty second. Precista (the non-TF versions) had a good month too. The three appearances were a new overall record for them, which isn’t bad going considering none appeared last year.

The march towards the fabled 400 brands continued but, unless December adds an incredible forty five new brands we are going to fall short again. We still did well hitting a total of 119 brands (the most since May) aided by adding eleven brands which had previously graced the pages and yet another five new starters. The former group included Schofield, Habring and Philip Watch (the first one since December 2021). New starters included Otsuka Lo-Tec, Tandorio and Aragon.

As ever there were a few watches which stood out from the crowd of black dialed dive watches. First up we have j111dja’s lovely Seiko Ashtray. Bringing a whole lot more colour to the proceedings was s yellow dialed dive watch in the form of ed335d’s fine example of a Philip Watch Caribbean. Sticking with the yellow theme there was snowman’s Omega Seamaster with yellow chapter ring. I can’t let 50kopek’s Seiko Blue Yacht pass with a mention as they are beautiful watches. And finally, up for Misnomer of the year award, is Quality Man’s "luxury" field watch from L.L. Bean and Hamilton.

The scores on the doors are:

1 Rolex 72
2 Omega 54
3 Seiko 53
4 Timefactors 31
5 Panerai 24
6 Grand Seiko 21
7 Sinn 14
8 IWC 13
9 Tudor 13
10 G Shock 13
11 Citizen 10
12 Squale 10
13 Breitling 10
14 CWC 9
15 Zenith 8
16 Tag Heuer 7
17 Jaeger LeCoultre 7
18 Hamilton 6
19 Casio 6
20 Bell & Ross 6
21 Heuer 6
22 KMK 5
23 Universal Geneve 5
24 Christopher Ward 5
25 Apple 5
26 San Martin 4
27 Oris 4
28 Nomos 4
29 Longines 4
30 Swatch 4
31 Tissot 3
32 Blancpain 3
33 Marathon 3
34 Traser 3
35 Fortis 3
36 Audemars Piguet 3
37 Damasko 3
38 Smiths 3
39 Meraud 2
40 Ming 2
41 Glaschutte Original 2
42 Farer 2
43 Newmark (Modern) 2
44 Autodromo 2
45 Garmin 2
46 Nivada 2
47 Sterile 2
48 Cronos 2
49 Junghans 2
50 Stowa 2
51 Glycine 2
52 Porsche Design 2
53 Wolbrook 2
54 Baltany 1
55 Beaucroft 1
56 Boldr 1
57 Cyma 1
58 Evant 1
59 Hanhart 1
60 J Springs 1
61 Linde Werdelin 1
62 Muhle 1
63 Otsuka-Lotec 1
64 Pagani Design 1
65 Rdunae 1
66 Schaffen 1
67 Tandorio 1
68 ZRC 1
69 Ancre 1
70 Cartier 1
71 Glorys 1
72 Helvetia 1
73 Heritor 1
74 L L Bean 1
75 Laco 1
76 Militado 1
77 Monro Design 1
78 Orient 1
79 Riehl 1
80 Schofield 1
81 Unimatic 1
82 Girard Perregeaux 1
83 Habring 1
84 Heimdallr 1
85 HGP 1
86 Moser 1
87 Pellikaan Timing 1
88 Safari 1
89 Timex 1
90 Unidentifiable 1
91 Vacheron Constantin 1
92 Vaer 1
93 Zeno 1
94 Buran 1
95 Cortebert 1
96 E M G 1
97 Erebus 1
98 Le Phare 1
99 Luminox 1
100 Merkur 1
101 Philip Watch 1
102 Pierre Cardin 1
103 Ricoh 1
104 Ulysse Nardin 1
105 Airain 1
106 Aragon 1
107 Bremont 1
108 Chronoswiss 1
109 Corum 1
110 Doxa (modern) 1
111 Eberhard 1
112 Elliot Brown 1
113 Fit Bit 1
114 Hublot 1
115 Maen 1
116 Mappin and Webb 1
117 Nodus 1
118 Seagull 1
119 Seals Watch Co. 1
120 Vostok 1

In October 2024, the TZ-UK watch forum continued to serve as a vibrant platform for horology enthusiasts, facilitating lively discussions on various watch-related topics. Members engaged in conversations about different watch brands, shared personal experiences, and sought advice on watch purchases and maintenance. One notable thread invited members to share their favorite watch purchases of the year, with mentions of models such as the Breitling Navitimer and Longines Ultra Chron. While specific details about amusing incidents on the TZ-UK forum during October 2024 are limited, the community is known for its lively and engaging discussions, often featuring humorous exchanges among members. For instance, in the past, members have shared light-hearted stories and jokes related to their watch-collecting experiences, fostering a friendly and entertaining atmosphere.

Additionally, the forum’s charity fundraiser surpassed the £30,000 mark, highlighting the community’s engagement beyond watch discussions.

Well that is the flim-flam dealt with lets get to talking watches, 455 of which were posted on the Friday threads throughout October. This is ten up on the previous month. Brand numbers were up too, with 106 being represented. The weekly average was up to 113.75 (the highest since June) and so was diversity at 0.233 BpW.

The month started with Omega topping the table with fourteen, Rolex and Seiko tieing with ten each. The following week Omega were joined in first place by Panerai, which I am pretty sure is a first, not just for Panerai but possibly any brand outside of the TZ not so holy trinity. I can’t be certain as I have yet to figure out a way of checking this without spending hours leafing through the previous 200 or so weeks. Rolex and Timefactors tied for second place with eleven apiece and Seiko were third on nine. The eighteenth was a bit, well, vanilla with Rolex first with eighteen (such dizzying heights have not been reached by a brand since Omega hit nineteen on the fourteenth of June) Seiko followed on twelve and Omega was third on ten. A little bit of swapsies occurred on the 25th with Seiko coming top with fourteen, Rolex and Panerai second on Ten and Omega third with nine.

This year Panerai have seemingly really started mixing it with the top three, and digging into the numbers reveals a bit more to this story. Three times this year they have topped out at thirty three in a month however this is four short of their all time high of thirty seven in March of 2023 This suggests that they have been more popular but, digging back through the last five years of data, their numbers have remained pretty steady. Couple this with the ever reducing monthly total means that Panerai have been increasing their share of the numbers. As we haven’t had many charts this year I will add a few at the end to illustrate this.

Elsewhere Muhle (three) and Nomos (Seven) have had their best months this year. In a remarkable turnaround Timefactors have recorded their best month this year with twenty eight having recorded their worst ever performance only back in June. Conversely Sinn (seven) had not only their worst month this year but also their worst ever.

We added a further fourteen brands to the overall number, eight new to the year and six brand new to the Friday threads. The returners included Ventura, Buran and the welcome return of Gruen in the form of pacifichrono’s beautiful vintage Curvex. New starters included Capt, Zixen and, rather surprisingly, Meister-Anker.

Kicking off the notable watches is Cardshark’s A-13A, the first one of these we have seen since November 2023. We also saw the perfect example of Seiko’s blue dial expertise with Lammylee’s SLA043, with the pale blue second hand just adding a nice bit of interest. RLE wore their Doxa Spirotehcnique and there was gcleminson’s Omega Seamaster 120m/400ft, sometimes called the Baby Ploprof and is the better looking of the two IMHO. I have saved the most notable for last and this is tobywatches’ sandwich dialed Triwa, itself a handsome watch but perhaps its most notable feature it is made from Humanium. As much as it sounds like some rare metal brought to Earth from an asteroid from the outer reaches of the solar system it is actually a humble metal, mainly Iron, created by the melting down of illegal firearms seized in conflict zones.

Right, that is October out of the way. Onwards to November.

1 Seiko 45
2 Rolex 49
3 Panerai 33
4 Omega 45
5 Timefactors 28
6 Breitling 13
7 Grand Seiko 12
8 IWC 12
9 Heuer 6
10 Longines 6
11 Casio 3
12 Tudor 15
13 Tag Heuer 8
14 G Shock 7
15 Garmin 6
16 Jaeger LeCoultre 4
17 Nomos 7
18 Junghans 3
19 Muhle 3
20 Sinn 7
21 Squale 4
22 Damasko 5
23 Smiths 4
24 Universal Geneve 4
25 KMK 3
26 Citizen 3
27 Steinhart 3
28 Zenith 3
29 Christopher Ward 2
30 Davosa 2
31 Traser 2
32 Patek Philippe 3
33 Oris 3
34 Girard Perregeaux 2
35 Glaschutte Original 2
36 Orient 2
37 Doxa (modern) 2
38 Fortis 2
39 Alpina 1
40 Buran 1
41 Clemence 1
42 Cronos 1
43 E M G 1
44 Gruen 1
45 Helm 1
46 Lorier 1
47 Meister-Anker 1
48 Sterile 1
49 Swatch 1
50 Ulysse Nardin 1
51 Unidentifiable 1
52 Ventura 1
53 Wempe 1
54 Wyler 1
55 Audemars Piguet 4
56 Pulsar 3
57 Blancpain 4
58 Hamilton 4
59 Bell & Ross 2
60 Yema 2
61 Precista 3
62 CWC 2
63 Rdunae 2
64 Vacheron Constantin 2
65 Yobokies 2
66 A. Lange & Sohne 1
67 Airain 1
68 Autodromo 1
69 Borealis 1
70 Bulova 1
71 Capt 1
72 Erebus 1
73 Ginault 1
74 Rainer Brand 1
75 Record 1
76 Skmei 1
77 Spinnaker 1
78 Steeldive 1
79 Triwa 1
80 Boldr 2
81 Glycine 2
82 Hublot 2
83 Tutima 2
84 A-13A 1
85 Aerowatch 1
86 Apple 1
87 Baltic 1
88 Bremont 1
89 Heimdallr 1
90 Henex 1
91 Kurono Tokyo 1
92 Mappin and Webb 1
93 Ming 1
94 Unimatic 1
95 Wolbrook 1
96 Zixen 1
97 Archimede 1
98 Bedat + Co. 1
99 Certina 1
100 Doxa (Vintage) 1
101 Echo Neutra 1
102 Eterna 1
103 Helvetia 1
104 Lemania 1
105 Prima 1
106 Seestern 1
107 Wise 1

While swapping batteries (and battery clip) I was reminded of the differences between these two movements so I thought I would see who else could spot them. The two movements are ESA Dynotron movements. One a 9150 and the other a 9154.

To make it easier I haven’t compressed the image so I hope Tapatalk doesn’t cause too much havoc.

I have spotted seven differences. Extra bonus point if you can identify which movement is which.

With the silly season of August over the forum settled down to more serious discussions. Such as the moral dilemma of holidaying in Whitby and how one should hide ones bullion. A number of methods were suggested from the sublime (buying a fruit machine and fashioning the bullion into coins to use in said machine) to the ridiculous (hiding in a caravan). My favourite was casting it into the shape of a small pirate ship and dropping it in the fish tank.Treasure indeed.

Right, enough gold, lets talk watches. All 445 of them to be precise. We nearly avoided any new record lows (the monthly total was only one more than the current low), bringing the weekly average to 111.25. However we did record the fewest number of brands this year with only ninety nine being worn this month. The measure of diversity subsequently dropped to 0.222bpw.

Friday the sixth was the first Friday of September and it started strongly with both Seiko and Rolex maxing out with twelve apiece. In third cam Sinn on nine with Omega behind with three fewer. On the thirteenth Omega rocketed up to first with twelve and a three way tie ensued between Rolex, Seiko and Panerai with ten each. This was the first time four brands had scored over ten watches in a week since the 15th of March. These forty from one brand pushed us to our highest weekly score (127) since the start of May. Rolex made their way to the top spot on the twentieth with eleven with Panerai next with ten and then Seiko with Nine. Omega were back down in eighth with four. Rolex stayed on top for the last Friday with fourteen, Seiko followed with twelve and Panerai came third with eight. Omega added one to the score of the previous week and bumped themselves one further up the table.

Girard Perregeaux had their best ever week on the sixth with three and, although they didn’t appear in the proceeding three weeks it was enough for them to have their best month of the year. Glashutte Originale had their best month of the year with six, only one short of their best ever showing. Panerai equalled their best month this year with thirty three but possibly the most impressive performance was Longines who recorded their highest score of the Year of thirteen, only three months after only being worn once in a whole month. This was enough to give them their first appearance in the monthly top ten, the nineteenth brand to do so. The notably worst performance of September was Omega who’s flirting with the lower reaches of the top ten ended up giving them their worst ever monthly score of twenty seven, four lower than their previous lowest which was only recorded in July.

The ninety nine brands which were worn this month was the lowest number of brands to appear this year. I think part of this was driven by the slow down of the addition of new brands as only four (Titoni, Offshore Professional, Majex and Maen) returned to the thread and only two new brands were added (Wise and Momentum). This leaves us on 325 for the year so still seventy five short of that 400 but I think that was before my last appeal so that may have had an effect. With only one Friday left of the year I suspect it will be too late to hit that target. But if I do post this shortly and you read this before tomorrow is out perhaps you could dig out that vintage watch from the back of your sock drawer or even that novelty watch you brought because it looked funny but only wore for two days. It isn’t as if you haven’t got anything better to do (unless you actually do have something better to do).

Not many watches caught my eye this month (either a symptom of the low numbers or perhaps a sign of having done this for five years now). But out of those that did, PeteS’s Offshore Professional was the standout. A superbly designed and (by all accounts) put together watch we haven’t seen since December 2021. Crouchy’s Seiko A829-3019 is a lovely example of a family of watches that aren’t seen much around here but I know of two other members which have one or more examples. I couldn’t help but notice twhp101’s Ricoh 643118, not only with the bright orange dial but the unusual lightning bolt text on the dial stood out. I am sure I am not the only one who would be interested in knowing the history behind that if you know it. My final mention isn’t a watch (although there is no doubt his JLC World Time is not without merit) but the collection that it was photographed with. A vast array of GI Joe figurines, obviously another of Evangelos’ passions. A cracking collection.

Right, as October awaits and I have loads of free time over the next few days, I have a counting marathon on my hands to catch up before I start planning the awards ceremony. Here are the stats:

1 Rolex 47
2 Seiko 43
3 Panerai 33
4 Omega 27
5 Tudor 20
6 Sinn 19
7 Grand Seiko 15
8 Timefactors 14
9 Citizen 13
10 Longines 13
11 G Shock 12
12 IWC 11
13 Breitling 10
14 Garmin 7
15 CWC 7
16 Glaschutte Original 6
17 Swatch 4
18 Apple 4
19 Doxa (modern) 4
20 KMK 4
21 Universal Geneve 4
22 Hamilton 4
23 Heuer 4
24 Jaeger LeCoultre 4
25 Squale 4
26 Christopher Ward 3
27 Ming 3
28 Certina 3
29 Damasko 3
30 Oris 3
31 Yema 3
32 Tag Heuer 3
33 Sterile 3
34 Girard Perregeaux 3
35 Bell & Ross 2
36 Bremont 2
37 Aquastar 2
38 Le Monde 2
39 Ricoh 2
40 Rotary 2
41 Zodiac 2
42 Moser 2
43 Nomos 2
44 Patek Philippe 2
45 Steinhart 2
46 Tactical Frog 2
47 Unimatic 2
48 Junghans 2
49 Victorinox 2
50 Scurfa 2
51 Tutima 2
52 Linde Werdelin 2
53 Momentum 2
54 Breguet 1
55 Briston 1
56 Hermes 1
57 Maen 1
58 Majex 1
59 Militado 1
60 MkII 1
61 Muhle 1
62 MWC 1
63 Neuchatel 1
64 Orient 1
65 Pagani Design 1
66 Sugess 1
67 Ball 1
68 Cartier 1
69 Ebel 1
70 Erebus 1
71 Porsche Design 1
72 Precista 1
73 Record 1
74 Ryte Time 1
75 Seestern 1
76 Vacheron Constantin 1
77 Audemars Piguet 1
78 Baltic 1
79 Baume et Mercier 1
80 Blancpain 1
81 Casio 1
82 Fortis 1
83 Glycine 1
84 Halios 1
85 Helvetia 1
86 Le Phare 1
87 NTH 1
88 Rado 1
89 Stowa 1
90 Timex 1
91 Titoni 1
92 Wise 1
93 Autodromo 1
94 Edox 1
95 Hanhart 1
96 Newmark (Modern) 1
97 Nodus 1
98 Offshore Professional 1
99 Proxima 1
100 Unidentifiable 1