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New watch? Always! To keep up with the fast pace of traditional horology, I’m introducing a weekly round up. No further explanation needed, right? So let’s get stuck in, starting with the new Tissot Couturier (image courtesy affordablewristtime.com) . . .
Tissot Couturier
As a French speaker, I take exception to the name. Aside from being nearly impossible for non-French speakers to pronounce, a couturier is an establishment engaged in couture. A fashion house. Tissot’s new watch produces rien – except guffaws from anyone familiar with the asymmetrical beauty of Glashütte Original’s designs.Â
Not to put too fine a point on it, the new Tissot Couturier is a cheap rip-off that totally misses the boat when it comes to balancing visual elements. To cleanse your palate, clock the Glashütte Pano Reserve (above). Avant!
DOXA 200 Professional
The DOXA Sharkhunter topped TTAW’s list of the Best Automatic Dive Watches Under $1000. DOXA has a new watch. Actually, a series of colored watches that stick a dive tank in the mouth of the Sharkhunter (Jaws-style). Just like Bruce, these bad boys pop!
The ETA 2824-2 automatic movement powers the whole line: Orange Professional, yellow Divingstar, navy blue Caribbean, turquoise Aquamarine, silver Searambler and black Sharkhunter. As you can see, they’re attached to a tone-on-tone, color-matching FKM rubber strap.
The DOXA 200 Orange Professional puts the Seiko Diver Automatic Orange (reviewed here) to shame. At $950 per watch, you’d be forgiven for buying more than one SUB 200. Over at TAG Heuer, if you want one, you have to buy five . . .
TAG Heuer Monaco Exclusive Limited Edition Set
The Monaco is a quirky you-might-even-say-singular timepiece with a lot of history. I get that. Owning one is an entirely defensible decision. But five? All modern pieces? For $39k? Yup. Behold the TAG Heuer Monaco Exclusive Limited Edition Set.
OK, sure. They’re all limited edition pieces – Tag produced 169 examples of each new watch. And yes, the best ones are sold out (as a one-off purchase). But buying this set to get one Monaco you like is like buying a bunch of lesser Ferraris to own one you really want. Which people do. If I had to pick one, I’d take the photo bomber. But I can’t. So there is that.
Seiko Alpinist
The Seiko Alpinist and I were born in 1959. Unlike your humble horologist, Seiko’s first sports watch has been re-engineered to modern specs. The “Japanese Explorer” is still a 39.5mm timepiece with 200 meters of water resistance and a second crown for the internal compass bezel thingie. The new display caseback gets a big thumbs-up. The cyclops date wart, an emphatic downvote.
Four new Alpinists shelter under Seiko’s Prospex sub-brand. The SPB121 – green dial on a brown alligator strap – is the most faithful to the original. The others, like the SPB117 above, are not-entirely-convincingly “Alpinist-inspired.”
The $725 price tag seems a bit steep – until you consider the fact that the new Alpinists are powered by Seiko’s new 6R35 automatic movement. The updated engine boasts hand winding, hacking seconds and a 70-hour power reserve. Available early 2020, sold out soon thereafter.
Richard Mille RM 33-02
Richard Mille is famous for high-tech tonneau-cased watches beloved of the terminally bling and excessively famous. Timepieces that cost more than the gross national product of Belize. The watchmaker’s new RM 33-02 is high-tech and round. Wait. What?
Simple explanation: RM wants to buy Belize. So he’s devised an entry-level watch, distinguished from pricier pieces by its round case. Price of admission to the RM Club’s lower tier? $145,000. RM 33-02 production’s “limited” to 140 pieces. If it sells out, RM pockets $20,300,000. See how that works? See you next week.
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