When summer holidays started looming in I posted an article about summer watches and how to make a choice on what to get. A few weeks down the line and I was finally enjoying the gorgeous Greek sun. What did I bring with me? And how faithful was I to my own advice? If you want to find out stick with me.
In that post I set the following criteria as a good guide when choosing beach companions:
Water resistant rating: at least 100m
Screw down crown
Sapphire Crystal
Decent, accurate movement
Colour Scheme. Because let’s face it its summer!
Good value
The picture above depicts my choices. I am glad I managed to stick with at least one of my suggestions. The PRS-82 proved to be a great, hassle free summer watch. The rest of the choices seem to have departed from the original briefing.
They all feature very accurate movements and the Speedmaster and GMT have the required splash of colour! The sinn and the rolex have sapphire crystals, screwed down crowns and pushers but only one of them can withstand more than 10 atm of pressure. The tudor also has screw down pushers and crown but sports an acrylic crystal and boasts 50m water resistance. Finally, the speedmaster fails to meet any of the above apart from the beautiful colour scheme. So where did I go wrong? Especially when considering that I could have packed the Borealis Estoril 300, the Armida A9, the Tudor sub or even the Lorenz sub?
As soon as I was faced with a choice my initial instincts kicked in. I am, and always have been a chronograph man. I just couldn’t pack and go without having a chronograph with me. So, the TinTin seemed to be an ideal choice; the archetype of the chronograph with a colourful dial. Bingo! Unfortunately, one is never enough so before I could contain myself I was reaching for my Big block and my Sinn 103 Classic. Both excellent choices considering the reverse panda dials and their water resistance. All three of them great companions but none of them would see water action. Finally, the GMT seemed the ideal choice considering the colour scheme and of course the time difference!
Looking to my article a few weeks back I have to admit that I am glad I did not take my own advice. During the last three weeks I had the chance to strap every single one of the selected watches to my wrist and enjoy the hell out of it! Of course, the precista was the go to watch but all the others got to experience some of the Greek sunshine!
Such was my enjoyment that upon my return I decided that there is no point in buying watches according to their colour scheme or with the plan to use them during the summer holidays. Each of us is different and gets to extract enjoyment from different things. Nothing is set is stone and everyone should follow their insticts.
I could have used two beautiful blue dialled homage divers but instead I went for the boring black one! Both the Armida and the Borealis have now found new homes and I hope that the new owners will get to enjoy them on a regular basis rather than keep them in the watchroll for the holidays to come!
I have mentioned it in the past and I will keep on reminding you that watches are meant to be worn and enjoyed. So please do not abide by any rules or do’s and dont’s. Just go for whatever takes your fancy, wear it and enjoy the hell out of it!