watching me, watching you
pikachu, the kid on swatch, the moonswatch, the upcoming blancpain/swatch collaboration and what watches to buy if you don't like apple watches.
I am a watch guy.
I am not one to get hyped over Jordans or any special edition or collaboration product, but there was one exception: the Omega/Swatch MoonSwatch.
Omega and Swatch released the MoonSwatch in February 2022 to controversy and fanfare amongst holorology enthusiasts. Two watch titans linking up to bring a famous watch once considered out of reach to the people. It's a simple idea; take the design of the Omega Speedmaster Professional and use Swatch components and technology to make it a mass-market product for the people.
What's not to love? It's a design dating back to 1957 that has been to the moon and back, and it can be yours in fun, space themed colors for only $270.
For someone like me, a collaboration like this was a godsend. The Omega Speedmaster Professional is one of my "grail watches" for reasons beyond flexing an $8,000 watch. I associate the watch with someone whose loss greatly impacted me. This person was a professional who helped me get through a time of my life that I currently avoid writing about because of the associated trauma.
Nonetheless, this was someone who I bonded with over a love of watches. I remember I eagerly bought the Swatch Sistem51 when it hit stores in 2014. I was intrigued by the fact that a swiss-made, automatic movement watch can be had for $150, but he was intrigued with how far Swatch had come since his teenage years.
Unlike the Sistem51, I have not been able to find a MoonSwatch in the color I want at my local Swatch boutique. The colors that resemble the actual "moon watch" itself; the "Mission to Mercury" and the "Mission to the Moon" are almost always sold out at every Swatch boutique I visit. Swatch claims on its website that they are "working around the clock behind the scenes to make the 11 unique watches and are replenishing our selected Swatch stores regularly" and that these watches are "not part of any limited-edition," however I digress.
This is what I don't like about hype and artificial scarcity, or scarcity made by people taking advantage of the public's dubiousness. It has killed things that I genuinely like "Panda" Nike Dunks, Aime Leon Dore, Supreme and the MoonSwatch; the reason it becomes popular in the end is because people develop a false pretense about its supposed rarity.
Now Blancpain, another watchmaker owned by the Swatch Group, is yet to release a collaboration piece in the same vein as the MoonSwatch. It is currently unknown which model they make a plastic fantastic version of, but all my chips are on the legendary Fifty Fathoms model - one of the first dedicated diving watches ever made.
Swatch CEO Nick Hayek said in an article by Mike Christensen for British GQ that luxury watch brands outside the Swatch group approached him with the opportunity to collaborate, citing that it would be a way to tap into a new market.
“Their argument was, I have so many young customers who are aspiring, but cannot buy a watch for $30,000 or $50,000, so if I open a collaboration with Swatch, in the way you have done with Omega, I can reach more people with my name, with my history, with what is coming,” said Hayek.
Horology and watches in general are tools and not meant to be luxury products or mere collectibles. I feel this opinion is my worst "watch snob" take, but I feel that such willingness to dilute their brand name really shows a lot about the current climate of the watch game.
This is why these days, I equate watches to music - the best artists are independent.
I love the work out of "microbrands," small, product-forward brands with the sprit of a burgeoning streetwear label. They take all the fussiness and cut the middleman to provide a beautiful, well-crafted watch to its customers for the lowest price possible.
I understand that these days, you would much rather have an Apple Watch, but for the price of a brand new Apple Watch Ultra, you can have a unique watch from small, independent microbrands.
Watches by Kuoe from Kyoto, Japan are the perfect finishing touch to achieve the "old money" aesthetic. Founder Kenji Uchimura was inspired to design watches after stumbling into a vintage watch shop as a university student in London, where he would be amazed at their accurate time-keeping abilities even after 50-70 years of use. Kuoe's watches start at $248 and use quartz movements from Seiko and automatic movements from Citizen (Miyota), which are renowned for their accuracy.
For a more classical "tool watch" look, Lorier from New York City takes elements from well-loved watch silhouettes that traditionally cost an arm and a leg. The Falcon takes inspiration from sporting watches like the Rolex Explorer, while the Neptune blends features from diving watches like the Rolex Submariner and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. Personally, my favorite one out of their lineup is the Hyperion, which resembles the Rolex GMT-Master for only $600.
My absolute favorite watches come from a company called Studio Underd0g. Unlike most watch brands that do it to invoke some sort of "passion" and elegance, the London-based Studio Underd0g does it for the memes. Sure, Rolex does make a pink watch, but they wouldn't make a watch with a green and brown dial called the "Mint Mint Ch0c Chip." For $600, you get a tried and tested Seagull movement with a unique design that sets it apart from anything else on anyone else's wrist. Currently, Studio Underd0g releases their watches in select time windows and the next batch of watches are set to arrive to its newsletter subscribers first.
At the end of the day, much more needs to be said in terms of getting the most out of your money in terms of watches. I have much more to say about watches, including my disdain for watches made by fashion brands sold at department stores.
That will come sometime later.
Ingat.