My Favorite Recent Watches

We all know and recognize how traditional watchmaking is. This industry usually is all same old same old, but every now and then there’s something new and cool. This can easily manifest in just a new microbrand popping up on the scene, but I wanted to look at some specific examples of watches that have just been released in the last few days or weeks that make me excited for the future of watches, even if it is just a little release. Many of these are exciting for the brand, but a few of them are showing new potential for the rest of the industry. Without further ado here are my favorite new watches that get me excited. As usual this is not a review of any mentioned watches, and all images come from the brand mentioned, unless it is an in hand wrist shot.

Farer just released a new watch, and it proves how much good work their designers are doing. This is the chrono contemporary and it takes all the funky design we know and love and streamlines it. I think a great comparison is the aquamatic series, bold bright colors, great finishing but save for the new ceramic bezel version all of them have aluminum bezels, which is good for the style that Farer wants, but these new chronographs have a sapphire bezel for that extra shine. And to add to that the two colors offered are very pleasing and executed in much more purposeful way that some of their previous watches have, in my opinion at least. Let’s not forget about the new tonneau case watches, I don’t love the colors chosen but I do love the case shape and finishing, it feels like that perfect mix of dressy and sporty. If you look at Farer’s website on the Wayback Machine you’ll see an interesting evolution, the team at Farer are so talented and have released so many cool watches, its crazy to think that they haven’t even reached their potential. Looking at their current lineup, and their latest releases I’m excited to see what the brand will look like in a few years time.

I have shared my opinion on Christopher Ward many times now, and like Farer they seem to be getting better and better. I still remmeber the first time I looked at their website, all of the designs were boring and passionless, great quality sure but nothing fun to look at. Well that has been changing slowly. Between the Twelve and the two new colors of the Sealander, 36mm and gmt, Christopher Ward has their new style. Pleasing colors on semi no nonsense sporty designs for really really good prices, I can see a bit of that passion for watches that was missing a couple of years ago! Add to that Christopher Ward helping lead the charge of smaller, more reasonably sized watches and I think this is another slow burn brand. I am plenty excited to see what watches they have available in a few years, but I’m more excited about what they have right now. 

I feel like I have the same character arc every other week at this point, Hamilton has just released a new watch in their field collection, and it’s a bit weird, at least in Hamilton’s overall collection. Let me just come right out and say, it is a great watch, even for the price, where the watch is more high end than most people would want. But nevertheless, this new field automatic has a large compass bezel that gives off this really tough vibe that matches the all brushed case very well. That’s not what I’m excited about right now though , I’m excited about the sizes, 41mm and 37mm. I don’t care about the 41mm, it exists for the people who like that size of watch, but the 37mm looks so great and would fit on my wrist like a dream, a dream I tell ya! In general Hamilton’s vibe is really great for stealth wealth, yeah it’s a decently expensive Swiss watch but you honestly couldn’t tell unless you are already too far in the watch game. I’m not like, excited for Hamilton’s future because I could live without their watches, but to see them dip their toes into the small watch pool makes me excited because its one more brand legitimizing this space and hopefully there will be more cool watches that fit on my wrist the way I want them too.

Seiko’s watches are so close to being perfect for my personal collection. The main thing holding them back is the lack of great quality other brands have been able to achieve these past few years. Mainly with printing on dive bezels and slightly jangly bracelets, nevertheless a Seiko watch is still a great watch, and if it weren’t for the size I would go out and buy this watch right now. The Seiko Alpinist GMT is almost perfect, I love the idea of a GMT complication because I do have family who live on the other side of the globe from me, so it would be a fun connection to have. And I love the Seiko Alpinist, barring the size of the watch, so it seems like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, the size just doesn’t work for me, I love the dual crowns and compass bezel so I couldn’t go for the baby Alpinist even if there was a GMT version of it. I love what this watch is, and it shows that Seiko does do cool stuff, even if most of us here in the US miss out on it.

This final one hasn’t been officially anounced yet, but I’m still excited. I have mixed feelings about Baltic, on one hand they have a solid appealing design language that needs just a few tweaks, but then they go an use an interesting movement with a bad track record in the MR01. Here Baltic is teasing a new sport watch, I’m assuming because of the trophic rubber strap and fully protected crown. We don’t know what this is going to look like, but if it looks anything like I’m expecting it too its going to be the best Baltic yet, combining all of their experience to make something wholy new. Obviously I can’t be 100 percent certain about anything, but it looks interesting from the teasers still, it will be announced October 5th, and it could not come sooner.

There is a lot to be excited about industry wide, watches are getting more wearable, more colorful, and more unique in design just with a few new microbrands and indie brands. But then add to that these older legacy brands making more interesting design choices and leaving behind their precious archives to actually create something new. Now we just have to sit back and watch.