Friday Watches – October 2024

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