Three out, one in!

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I made up my mind recently that I was going to reduce the numbers a bit (especially after a bit of a splurge on camera gear) and this week I sold three very nice watches. I decided to console myself by having a browse at some watch porn on the net, though, and inadvertently stumbled across something rather beautiful.

The Glashutte Original Senator Automatic was discontinued a couple of years ago, and is an absolutely gorgeous, very simple (two-handed) classic dress watch; however, at 40mm it has a fantastic wrist presence. It’s powered by one of GO’s best movements ever, the 100 series, and in this particular variant it happens to be the 100-08. Automatic, 32 jewels, 55 hour power reserve, swan neck regulator and the usual impeccable standard of finish in terms of bevelled edges, polishing and sunburst decoration. In the usual GO style, the rotor is skeletonised and has a 21kt gold oscillation weight. The finish on dial, hands and case is also faultless, and to top it off the strap fitting is a touch of genius, wrapping around the case with absolutely perfect proportions.

I wasn’t looking to buy another watch right now, but with the Cartier leaving the stable I was in need of a simple dress watch with no complications whatsoever. I think this fits the bill.

What makes a dress watch?

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I’ve seen (and even contributed to) quite a few discussions about this over the last few months. The die-hards will say that it has to be no more than two – or, at most, three – hands, and that a simple date complication is a complication too much. Some will contend that it has to have sub-seconds or no seconds at all, and that even a third central hand precludes a watch from the definition of “dress”. I’ve even heard the argument that the case must be of a special metal, and of course most will say that any dress watch must be on a leather strap.

Probably, at some point in time, all of these arguments would have held merit. To my mind, though, the informality of life these days makes a bit of a nonsense of the traditional view. When black tie events see a plethora of Disney waistcoats, bow ties and jacket linings, and when the majority of people will wear pretty much what they like without reference to the old definitions, the dress watch today can be almost anything you want it to be. It’s not as if anyone will take you to task on it, and I shouldn’t imagine many people care, anyway.

For me, “dressy” is more important than “dress”. Something that can also be worn casually means that they don’t just come out for special occasions, and that makes a lot more sense considering how much money we have tied up in these silly things. With all of this in mind, I reckon these two fit the bill quite nicely.

Clients

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The largest project I’m working on at present is also for one of my favourite-ever clients, because the project team is such a pleasure to work with and the culture is generally one in which I feel very comfortable. (As a consultant, trust me when I tell you that this isn’t always the case, so it’s something of a bonus.) Anyway, a while back I was in a meeting one of the senior managers there (who I happen to particularly like), and mid-conversation he noticed the Cartier Basculante poking out from under my shirt and said “That’s a very classy watch – is it reversible”? Now, I was dumbfounded as this is a pretty rare occurrence, but since then my watch rotation has become a bit of a talking point before meetings. In fact, the Silverstone I was wearing on one occasion last week was particularly appreciated.

With this in mind, you’ll probably understand that – as I was choosing what to wear for a couple of meetings there tomorrow – I felt obliged to pick out something that hadn’t been seen (or at least noticed) before. The GO PanomaticVenue seemed appropriate, and as I already know that I’ll be wearing a black suit I also had to take off the brown alligator strap and replace it with the original black alligator and rather nice GO deployant clasp.

Well, you have to make an effort, right?

A GO is a GO is a…

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As has been mentioned before, I’ve been after a moon phase for a while (my Seiko came and went in double-quick time, but that was for reasons of necessity). However, when I was asked whether I’d consider a trade – GO for GO – my reaction had it been anyone else that asked would have been a polite “no thanks”. I’m bound to say, though, that the GO Senator Lunar Reserve de Marche is not only quite a rare find but it’s also a very, very beautiful watch. It fulfils my yearning for this particular complication and is probably a little dressier than the Venue in any event.

All in all I’m more than happy, particularly as I reckon with a degree of certainty that the traded watch will find it’s way back to me at some point. That’s a win/win, isn’t it?

GO figure!

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A few months ago – quite a few months ago, in fact – I began musing on how my tastes had veered in the direction of complications and away from the more conventional fare of divers and sports watches. In fact, what I really wanted was a moonphase and, after spending a couple of months looking for something vintage (and discovering that all of the good ones were out of reach), I focussed instead on modern; in particular, on JLC and Glashutte Original. Now, at that time I already had three JLCs in my collection (I still have two beauties) so my primary attention was very much on GO. The more I looked at it the PanomaticLunar the more I liked it but I also realised that there were three of four GO models that I wanted, and I therefore needed to widen my search a little.

Yesterday, then, I was having a browse for something suitable (again) when I saw an as-new PanomaticVenue listed on TZ-UK. I’d looked at this one a few times before, because I love the dial layout and always have room for GMT’s in my watch box; its one of the most useful complications for me, and this one is particularly clever, with the main hour hand changeable in one hour increments – either backwards of forwards – with the push of a button. A real travellers GMT, in other words.

Aside from that, though, the PanomaticVenue is yet another example of the exquisite design of GO’s in-house movements. This one is the Cal. 90-04; 47 jewels, 28,800 vph, adjusted in 5 positions, an off-centre three-quarter sized rotor, 42 hour power reserve and GO’s BEAUTIFUL double swan neck regulator to top everything off to perfection. The photos below don’t even begin to do this watch justice, but I hope they hint at the quality of the watch, and to GO’s attention to detail in every aspect of their watchmaking.

I’ll always love vintage watches, and in truth I’ll always love vintage Rolex in particular. However, my move away from purely vintage, and from divers and sports watches generally, was no accident – nor was it just a whim. There’s an amazing degree of diversification out there if you look for it, and within the realms of the modern watch there are some absolute masterpieces of design. Some of them will remain grails for most of us, admired from afar but never really achievable. Others just need a slightly more open approach to collecting, and perhaps a bit of luck with regard to timing and the availablity of funds.

I was certainly lucky with this one!