WWR #13: Nomos Tangomat GMT

From a little town in Glashutte, comes my WWR no. 12.  which is the Nomos Glashutte Tangomat GMT.  Now one of the things that prompted me to choose this brand is that now in our world of complexities and somewhat chaos, a site of simplicity for me is beauty.  And that characteristic is visibly clear in all Nomos watches.  I chose the Tangomat GMT is that i breaks a way from the normal three handed watch and comes away with the GMT function through a window calendar and its one of the bigger models that Nomos has which is at 40mm.  The white dial face is also a sure damn killer.  You can pair it with Jeans, or casual long sleeve shirts and jackets, or a tie, fits everywhere. Those blue hands complement the dial so much adding to it the small seconds that really makes everything fit and clear. 



The backdrop of this model though is since the GMT function is done through similar to a calendar day ring, the date function is sacrificed.  Well whatever works for you, there is a Tangomat Datum that has no GMT function but a large date display on the dial.   



This clean minimalist watch is not screaming for attention but gains a lot of respect to where it is due.  Just look at the back.  Seldom do you see in-house manufactured watches these days.

WWR #12: Halios Laguna 500M Watch

I saw a prototype of this model months back from another dive watch website and it instantly captured my WIS senses.  It's design that is perfectly simple and yet unique is what attracted me to it. It kinda reminds me of a BMW M3, sedan on the outside, outstanding sports car in the inside.  The Halios Laguna looks like an ordinary 3 handed watch from the front, but surprise you, this thick and big watch under that simple dial can go 500M. 

What i love about it?
- Big and thick casind, 43mm and 14.5mm respectively
- 4mm thick sapphire crystal
- Simple dial design with inner rotating reflector, doing away with the usual divers external bezel
- Excellent lume
- Screw down crown design (watch it from the video review)
- Case design is unique
- WR500M, and doesn't look like one
- And the price at $670

 

Specifications from Halios Website:

• Comfortable, modern size: 43mm width, 49mm lug-to-lug, 14.5mm thickness
• Highly scratch-resistant 4mm sapphire crystal
• Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic movement
• Internal rotating bezel operated by non-screwdown, bi-directional crown at 2 o’clock
• 500M water-resistance
• C3 Superluminova-coated hands, dial and bezel markers for optimal low-light visibility
• Ships with: HALIOS bracelet, genuine Isofrane® 1968 rubber strap and tools
  
  All in all, this is really a value for your money.  And you are sure this ain't any next door Rolex or Timex that you  would see from your neighbor's wrist.  Something you can uniquely call your own Laguna.

Here's an excellent review by James Stacey from WatchReport.com.



That's all for this week.  Hail to Halios for this impressive watch!

How to Make it in America: Season 2

They said that How to Make it in America will replace Entourage in the HBO tv offerings to bring about another version of bromance or a show for guys and their adventures in this world.  Well, seeing season 1 of HTMIIA, I instantly loved it.  But it wasn't the next Entourage.  It was entirely different on it's own.  Entourage brought about the dream life of guys, you know, girls, girls girls, hollywood, living with your bros, cars, suits, bucks minimum of 5 digits, not to mention lots of cameos, and Sasha Grey, Alice Eve, Emmanuelle Chriqui and countles hot women. HTMIIA was about the real world, the struggles, adventures and success in views of two friends who dream to make it big in New York.  Yup, what place but New York, the center of all life on earth!  And now, Season 2 starts airing tonight, and they promise a bigger load from season 1, sex, drugs and money.  Surely got my juices pumped up, right in time after the finale of my well loved Entourage.  Keep it coming HBO!

 

WWR# 11 - Casio Edifice Red Bull Limited Edition Watch

F1 fan you are?  Well look no further.  F1 has it's youngest champion yet, and the most advanced F1 watch yet.  The Casio Edifice Red Bull Racing Limited Edition watch EQS-A1000RB is the Weekly Watch Recom for this week. 



This watch is really the cream of the crop for quartz lovers.  Seeing the specs below, I bet you won't even use 50% for regular folks like us but the marvel of engineering to fit all those in analog watch  is pure advanced and innovative electronics and mechanisms.  I mean I seldom see these features on a high-end Master of G, G-shock watches, but no, its on a Casio Edifice with only hour, minute and second hands.  The mystery of how it works and how it all fits in this simple watch is what makes this very interesting.  Plus, this has the tough solar technology, similar to Seiko Solar and of course the popular Eco-Drive from Citizen.  This is probably the priciest Casio yet at around $700, but I bet all my collection that this is the most high-tech, full featured, most accurate watch of all F1 branded watches.  Especially that majority of which are mechanicals, really, though I am in love with mechanical watches, do you really think that F1 teams use a mechanical watch to capture lap times up to the most milliseconds? Not a chance.  If the price is too steep for you, there are a lot of Edifice models to choose from sans the Red Bull Logo. 


Specs from Casio:

• Case / bezel material: Stainless steel / Aluminum
• Stainless Steel Band
• One-touch 3-fold Buckle
• Solid Band
• 100-meter water resistance
• Mineral Glass
• Neobrite
• Screw Lock Crown
• Partial ion plated
• Solar powered
  
• World time
  29 time zones (29 cities + coordinated universal time), daylight saving on/off
  
• 1/20-second stopwatch
  Measuring capacity: 59'59.95''
  Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times
  
• 1/20-second stopwatch
  Measuring capacity: 59'59.95''
  Measuring modes: Elapsed time, lap time
  Memory capacity: Up to 5 records
  Other: Fastest lap
  
• Countdown timer
  Measuring unit: 1 second
  Input range: 1 minute to 60 minutes (1-minute increments)
  Other: Auto switching to elapsed time measurement (1-second units) when the end of a countdown timer operation is reached
  
• Daily alarm
  
• Low battery alert
  
• Power Saving (hands stop to save power when the watch is left in the dark)
  
• Full auto-calendar (to year 2099)
  
• Date display
  
• Regular timekeeping
  Analog: 3 hands (hour, minute (hand moves every 10 seconds), second), 1 dial (TM (mode))
  
• Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month
  
• Approx. battery operating time:
  6 months on rechargeable battery (operation period with normal use without exposure to light after full charge)
  31 months on rechargeable battery (operation period when stored in total darkness with the power save function on after full charge)
• Size of case/total weight: 51.6 X 46.2 X 14.3 mm/193 g

Here is a quote from the Champion himself:

"Let me share a secret with you: to win in Formula One, you need to be ready for new challenges all the time. Whether you’re a driver, designer or engineer, the commitment is the same. You only need to look at casio edifice watches to understand that they have a similar philosophy"

WWR# 10: Rolex Sea Dweller

I recently just decided that for every 10th post at Weekly Watch Recom, I will be choosing either high end or haute horology watches or "Grail" watches that shall address the serous watch collectors or consumers who have deeper pockets than the most of us.

And for the first special WWR #10, it will be none other but from most popular luxury watch brand in the world, before, now and forever into the future.  ROLEX.  Everybody knows the brand.  Even the homeless guy over the street to the nerdy computer geek who has never worn a watch in his whole life.  It's that thing that brands the person with a reputation of achievement and success likewise an automatic respect from the eyes of all mankind.  And you may expect that the Rollie that I will be recommending is the superman of watches, the Submariner, then I would cease this post to be too predictable.  Therefore it is the other stronger brother of the Sub, the SEA-DWELLER.  One of my own personal grail watches.   



For normal folks, they wouldn't tell the difference from the Sub,but for Rolex fans and WIS, they would view both entirely differently.  What I would note now are the differences that I like.

One noticeable difference is that this is the only Rolex without a date magnifier.  To which one of the things I don't like about Rolexes as for me, they give give an old man's watch look.  I mean I don't need my dates with lenses to be able to read them.

Next is by the name itself, a sea dweller would give you an instant perception that this watch can withstand more what what the ocean can offer.  And yes by water resistance, this is guaranteed 1,220 m (4000ft) vs the Sub's 300m WR.  And most importantly, this has a helium escape valve, really for one serious diver.

The case of 40mm is the same with the sub, this the SD is thicker to accomodate the helium escape valve.  Thus adding more wrist presence.


















And lastly, in the accounts of two sides of the coin or is a pro and a con at the same time, this model is already discontinued and already replaced with the bigger and badder Deep Sea Dweller, thus adds more uniqueness to those who own it.  Vintage collectors surely will try to get their hands on these in the coming years so if you ever get a chance to bid one at the bay or see it for sale at forums or watch stores, grab it if you can.  You won't regret it.  And you won't have to live by the thought that you just purchased one of the most common watches that people wear, but something that shares its classic beauty but with added oomppff! you can brag about.

WWR# 9: Orient Ray Diver Watch EM65009D

You may think that I have any link with Orient or anything but I just can't help but recommend another watch from the brand after finding this over the net and just stuck with me to share it to rest of the public to know.

Another thing Orient is popular with from the views of WIS like me is the cool names that they name their watches for easier identification for watch fans. Their most popular watch I have to say is the Mako. It's a diver style watch with a 40mm diameter, auto movement 46946 and is available with quite a range of dial/bezel colors, blue being the most popular. By 2010, the Mako was upgraded to it's bigger brother and named it Mako XL which is by far one of the best sellers to date from Orient. I also did a review of the Mako XL in my previous post (check it out). And just last night, while hunting the net for horological species, I found this. It's the new diver watch called 'Ray'. And by the looks of it, it's another upgrade from the Mako.



The bezel and case is very similar. The hour and minute hands are upgraded and I like the ones on these better from the Mako. By far the best hands I've seen from lower end Orient diver watches. The other thing I like are the round indices that are inspired from their pro-saturation divers. The bezel insert is a mix fusion with the Mako and Mako XL, and has remained the lume pip on the 12 marker. The bracelet now is slightly decorated with polished lines which gives it a classier look. The specs read it has a 41mm case diameter and 22 lugs. The price is at $215 (same with the Mako). Below are the pictures from Orient. If you are looking for your first or next affordable mechanical diver, look no further.





for comparison sake, the Mako, Mako XL, Pro Diver and the Ray in order.

WWR #8: Orient Power Reserve Dress Watch DJ0200

What of the things that I look for when choosing watch brands is the way how they are able to meet the demand of the consumer which is me of course. What I mean is, we as watch idot savants or watch consumers have needs. We have specifics that we want a watch that has an inhouse mechanical movement, perpetual calendar, chronograph, power reserve indicator, tourbillion, platinum casing, etc etc..blah blah blah. But of course, most of the time, those needs are not met because of the constraint of our capacity to pay our credit card bill after a month's purchase. And it surprises me when there is a product our there that meets my needs, and at the same time I can demand (I can afford I mean). And this is one example that I will recommend for this week. The New Orient Power Reserve Dress Watch.




Mostly, low to middle-end watches that come from the land of Japan have basic automatic movements and features non decorated movement which some do not hack or wind. It may feature day-date and thats it. For this watch that I recommend, it has that, plus a real GMT hand function, a power reserve, and a winding and hacking function to complete a jetsetter yuppie's demand of a classical timepiece. To add to that, it has a Sapphire Crystal and a see thru exhibition caseback for the view of the decorated new movement.



Here are the tech specs of the watch from Orient's site.
Mechanical Movement : ORIENT caliber 40P51 Made in Japan
Self-winding & Hand-winding movement
22 jewels
21600/hour vibrations
Power reserve indicator, Date indicator
24hour hand (Dual-time function)
Second hand halt mechanism
Stainless steel case
Sapphire crystal
See-through caseback with crystal
Stainless steel bracelet
Water resistant to 50m
Diameter 40.40mm
Thickness 11.98mm



The thing though is, I haven't yet seen one in the wild so I cannot validate the price and the value, but with the experience with the brand and its value and affordability always in mind, I'm sure it will meet my demands and expectations.

If you have this actual watch, please send me a message on your thoughts about it and pictures of it, I would gladly update this post with your shared pictures for everyone to see.