Watches we hope to wear more in 2021
From forgotten gems to emotional totems, five collectors and industry personalities weigh in on the timepieces they look forward to wearing this year.
Despite the practical precedence of the Gregorian calendar, Lunar New Year has put me in a somewhat reflective mood. To capitalise on all the navel-gazing I’d be doing otherwise — as we welcome good fortune, fat stacks and a clean bill of health — I asked a few members of the global #WatchFam what’s been on their wrists lately, with a mind to parsing the different kinds of perspectives collectors might have in 2021.
Of course, there are those who conceive of the Year of the Ox as a relentless extension of 2020 — the sequel nobody requested, to the world’s biggest socio-economic clusterfuck since 1918. By that token, last year’s watches are as relevant now as they were when the pandemic kicked off: an oddly satisfying take that gets at collecting’s evergreen appeal.
That said, not everybody surveyed dealt in the notion of wearing old pieces for continuity’s sake. Instead, some selected watches which spoke to personal demons fought, or an evolution in taste. Others ruminated (in excruciatingly loving detail, mind you) about the allure of coppin’ something gold. You know what they say: “different strokes for different folks”.
Lung Lung Thun
The Waiting List
“As I sit in Singapore writing this, there’s nothing I want more than to be reunited with the Cartier Monopoussoir (ref. 2396) that I left behind in Hong Kong. Naively, I believed I’d only be gone from the city for a month — as I waited for the COVID situation there to improve. Little did I know.
The watch wouldn’t have been significant, were it not for the lessons about trust I’m reminded of each time I wear it. Early on in my collecting journey, I decided that I wouldn’t sell any of my watches: each piece served as a snapshot of a particular period in my life; and whether good or bad, I wanted to cement the lessons I’d learned through the years.
In the latter half of 2020, as the watch world fawned over the Crash, I demurred to the world of the Collection Privée Cartier Paris (‘CPCP’). Subsequently, I stumbled upon the Monopoussoir and fell in love: I knew I had to have the piece but failed miserably to find one. Long story short (honestly in blind faith) I connected with a young female collector who helped negotiate the piece into my collection. To many it’ll seem like a small gesture, but the act of asking for something — of letting go and accepting that certain things were outside my control — is a challenge I’ve struggled with my whole life.
With another of year of uncertainty likely ahead of us — as we individually try to overcome feelings of anxiety and frustration — this watch is a timely reminder that I should have faith and learn to trust others in our community more.” — LLT
Martin Eber
Time for Whisky
“Since the mid-2000s, right around the time I started my first full-time job and became more interested in watches, I’d longed for an IWC Portuguese — specifically this chrono. Not quite a dress watch nor a sports watch, I loved its versatility: the understated yet imposing wrist presence, the contrast between the blue hands and clean, silvered dial. I still do.
Fast forward a few years and I decided it was high time to buy my first IWC; and came home with a…Portofino. I couldn’t quite justify my ideal choice at the time, and whilst the Portofino was a lovely watch (one that I still wear on occasion) it wasn’t the Portuguese. When I was finally able to pull the trigger on the Portuguese (by then, rebranded as the ‘Portugieser’) it instantly became my go-to ‘work watch’ — usually worn with a suit, sans tie — and I wore it religiously. Up until 2020, when the world turned, for want of a better word, to shit.
As one of the fortunate people who’ve remained employed during the pandemic (and like many others) my home has become my office, and the Portugieser just didn’t feel as appropriate anymore. (That’s odd, come to think of it, because it happens to straddle the smart/casual divide really well.) Consequently, I’ve mostly found myself wearing a Seamaster or my Black Bay Bronze ‘Bucherer Blue’, both of which felt a bit more suitable.
I love both the Seamaster and the ‘BBBBB’, and you’ll find me wearing either on pretty much any given weekend, but as 2021 progresses and the possibility of a return to normality (or some semblance of it) increases, I look forward to spending more time in the office — suited and booted, with the Portugieser back on my wrist.” — ME
Nick Kenyon
Time+Tide
“Occasionally, there are pieces of watch writing that enter your mind and never leave. Walt Odets' personal musings on a Lange Saxonia; Jack Forster on the Citizen Eco-Drive Caliber 0100; The Most Accurate Watch Ever Made; or Sean Song's Love Letter to the Rolex Day-Date are examples that come to and have never left my mind. So when Randy asked me to sketch out a few paragraphs on what I hoped to wear more in 2021, I thought I might borrow from Sean and write about the watch that captured my adoration several years ago (and finally met my wrist in late June 2020) — the Grand Seiko SBGW235.
In the vein of Walt, Jack and Sean, there’s a part of my mind forever occupied by the platonic ideal of a watch. That is, a perfect watch, which can be regarded a "nice watch" by a child who has only ever seen analogue faces when learning to tell the time; or by a connoisseur who owns a ref. 1518 in steel. It must be time-only, in a classically proportioned case that is neither too large nor too small, and must give the feeling to its owner of understated elegance.
There are many watches that could fit within that framework, but there are only two that have ever given me this feeling. One was the SBGW235 and the other was the Patek Philippe ref. 2526. (In my view, the Grand Seiko has the added appeal of being accessible to the ‘everyman’.)
I want to wear the SBGW235 more in 2021, not just because it’s the nicest watch in my collection (though it is); or because it fits the platonic ideal of the watch (though it does), but because no other watch stirs the same feeling of admiration in me when I put it on my wrist. Because we can argue till we’re blue in the face about what the ‘perfect’ watch is, we can likely agree that it’s found not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — NK
Mark Cho
The Armoury
“In 2021, I want to wear more of my gold timepieces (and I don’t just mean that in a low-effort, dad jeans kinda way). I want to rejig my wardrobe so that it’s more inclusive of gold watches. I want my existence to be a paean to the fine, gold watch. To that end, I’ve settled on a 15-step plan (of which I’ve already devised the first three steps).
Firstly, I plan on restricting all of my activities to ‘Magic Hour’ or later: after all, gold looks its best under the sultriest of sunlight (or failing that, the dimmest of crystal chandeliers). Secondly, I aim only to wear cufflinks, belts and other accessories that are made from solid gold. What goes best with gold I hear you ask? More gold. Besides: dragging around all those heavy metal objects saves you a trip to the (COVID-restricted) gym. Thirdly, all my garments will take the form of suits: woolen navy 3-pieces for the winter, ivory linen ditties in the summer. During the hours in between, I’ll wear custom tracksuits and sets of pajamas shaded in honey, yellow, and ecru. At the altar of gold, one’s appearance must be uniform.
I eagerly enter this new gilded era, traipsing through the dust wrapped in my honey tracksuit, wearing one of my favourite timepieces of the ages: the Vacheron Constantin 4072.
In my PG years (‘pre-gold’) — when I merely liked gold rather than wanting to become one with it — I regarded this watch as one of the most beautiful designs I’d ever had the good fortune to own. It's discreetly beautiful and beautifully discreet. As I wore this 4072, opportunities flocked to me like so many geese travelling to the north pole. Words in phrases effortlessly reversed and versed for extra smart points.
I stopped wearing it for a while because I felt it was unfair to carelessly change avian migration patterns but really who am I to question the consequences of my own actions. The watch winks with its big sub-dial ‘eyes’ while the lollipop timing hand beckons me to stare a few seconds longer (as well as timing the duration of each stare). For a time I put it away, terrified of its hold on me; but now, fully succumbed, I have returned to it.” — MC
Kevin Cureau
PHILLIPS
“The JLC Reverso is an icon in the watch industry, no question about it, and a watch I’ve always wanted to own since I first began collecting. I don’t possess many, but each piece that I own satisfies a certain need or ‘category’ in my watch box. When thinking about dress watches, the Reverso was the only design that struck me as a serious contender.
The specific iteration I ended up pulling the trigger on was the ‘Tribute Small Seconds’ with blue dial. The reason behind that had to do with its date of release: in 2018, the same year I attended my first SIHH. I fondly remember strolling around the JLC booth and seeing the piece displayed next to a makeshift workshop, where artisans from Argentinian bootmaker Casa Fagliano were demonstrating what it takes to make leather accessories worthy of such an iconic timepiece.
What made this watch even more special to me is that I’ve always told myself that if I were to get a Reverso, it would be to celebrate a special event in my life; and indeed it happened just as I imagined when I received this JLC Reverso watch as my wedding gift from my in-laws.
Sadly, after owning it for almost a year now, I’m a little angry at myself for only wearing the Reverso Tribute on a handful of occasions. To be honest, I’ve often hidden behind absurd reasons not to wear the watch:
‘I should only wear it with a suit.’
‘My outfit is too casual.’
‘I want to show another piece to my friend.’
The reality is that the Reverso Tribute is such a versatile watch that it excels when worn with anything, regardless of how formal or casual the whole ensemble. The brushed sunray dial; the applied markers; those dauphine hands which just seem to draw you ever deeper into the deep blue color. Then there’s the steel case: a showcase of light that will have you reaching for your phone in order to record wristroll after wristroll countless times.
To hide such an object away in one’s watchbox is simply a shame. That’s why I’ll be wearing my Reverso more in 2021.” — KC
Randy Lai
Some bloke with a newsletter
“If the age-old adage of absence making the heart grow fonder is to be believed, then I ought to be running an APB on this ‘luminous’ Lange 1. Not for reasons pertaining to the actual product, but because of the hoops I had to jump through before, during, and after its acquisition.
All things considered, I’d managed to acquire the watch for a sum that was solidly below market — some small solace for the fact that the dealer who sold it to me seemed a fairly evasive, uncooperative sort. Upon taking the piece in for a routine service, I realised why: it transpired that some third party ‘watchmaker’ had done a number on several of the bridges and balance cock, their ultimate goal a mystery. As you’d imagine, the boys in Glashütte were none too thrilled; with the end result being a quotation punitive enough to nullify all of the savings I’d made at first instance, and then some. Thanks to the broad-array disruptions caused by COVID-19 to daily life in the EU, I didn’t see the piece again till last December. Repairs began in June.
In spite of all that, I’ve found myself really savouring every moment that I spend wearing the piece. There’s a valid argument to be made that, at this point, I’m simply validating my original decision — along with all of the attendant failures in research and due diligence pertaining to the seller — but truthfully, that’s all part of the journey. As I see it, every time I look down at that carefully considered dial and the rejuvenated movement beating away beneath, I’m faced with something more meaningful than any old watch. I’m getting a friendly reminder to think smarter.” — RL
Styleternity Coda is a regular newsletter principally covering horology, wine & spirits, and various other disciplines that muddy the waters of craft with artistic inspiration.
To receive updates (and the occasional email), subscribe below. Alternatively, consider sharing Coda with a friend.
Love that 4072