The Ten (Or So) Watches I Want Most in 2024 (Part 2)
Because yesterday’s just weren’t enough…
This is part two in a series taking a look at the watches on my mind as we come into 2024 in earnest. Part one was released yesterday, so if you haven’t read it yet, check it out here.
Yesterday, in the first part of this story, I told you about a lot of watches that have held a place in my heart over a decently long time. Today, we’re looking at some slightly more recent obsessions. Watches that, for the most part, grabbed my attention in the last two years or so and haven’t let go. So without further ado, here are slots six through ten, presented for your reading pleasure:
6. TAG Heuer Carrera
Throughout my time collecting watches (about 15 years now, for those counting), a consistent through line in forums, group chats, and general watch discourse has been the sad state of TAG Heuer. Hell, to quote myself from a few weeks ago:
“In the 21st century, TAG Heuer has been a brand devoid of personality and identity, content to produce shiny and generic watches sold at a price just low enough that they could be justified as an impulse purchase at duty-free shops by customers flying back from cruises.” (Read the rest of this story here.)
In spite of their best efforts, TAG has produced some genuinely great watches over the years (I’m always a few drinks and a late night on eBay away from a S/el), and controls several of the most iconic watch designs of the 20th century. And that includes the Carrera.
Just to get this out of the way, I want a Carrera. As it stands right now, that means I want one of two models. I either want the “Glassbox” 39mm Carrera TAG released last year, or I want one of the 1990s 36mm re-editions.
The Glassbox (along with a watch coming up soon) represents the best of what TAG Heuer can do in the 2020s, and that’s a whole hell of a lot. It’s the best Carrera in years, feels totally modern, but is so replete with Carrera DNA that it couldn’t possibly be anything else. It’s nice to see TAG supporting an old name in their lineup while still producing something genuinely fresh.
So what’s the competition for the Glassbox? Well, it’s a Carrera that does nothing but reach back to exactly what came before. Released in 1996, the CS3111 (and its siblings) is a true recreation of the earliest Carreras. 36mm and powered by a hand-wound Lemania 1873 — the same movement Omega based the 861, 1861, and 3861 Speedy movements on — these vintage re-editions helped kick off what has become, to put it lightly, an industry trend.
Yes, the whole vintage re-edition thing has gotten a little tired, but these are where it started, and at 27 years old, these are truly vintage pieces. They are starting to creep up in price though, so I may have to act fast.
What could bump this off the list?
Honestly, this is a spot where the right chronograph from just about any brand could pose a risk. I’m a big fan of the Carrera, but there are plenty of good chronographs out there — and who knows what’s to come.
7. Something Solar
Solar watches have been around for way longer than you might expect. When the first solar watch was introduced back in 1972, it was clearly ahead of its time, but also bore shockingly little resemblance to the solar watches we have today.
I got my first solar-powered watch in middle school. It was just one in a long stream of Timex Iron Mans (Iron Men?) that I wore from a very young age, and it hit me in just the right spot. I love a gadget, and that solar Iron Man was perfect for my 10-year-old self. Plus it had Indiglo, which is still awesome.
The solar watches that catch my eye today are decidedly different but no less cool. So I want to add some more solar to my life in 2024. There are plenty of solar watches on the market, but the two that have captured my imagination could, arguably, not be more different.
As I said above, TAG Heuer is doing some great stuff right now, and outside the Glassbox Carrera, to my eye, the best watch in their current collection is the Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph. While I would certainly be tempted by the blacked-out PVD option with its swirling luminescent bezel, my pick would have to be the titanium option. 40mm of pure GADA, just begging to be thrown onto a NATO strap and worn to hell and back.
Then, on the other hand, we have the Cartier Tank Must Solarbeat. It’s hard not to love a Tank, and it is one of the few watches out there that I genuinely don’t care about the movement. I don’t want a Tank because of some high-minded, horologically driven reason, I want one because the Tank is one of the best-looking watches ever made. Also, I’m mostly sure that the Solarbeat is purchasable. At least it is in some places, some of the time.
What could bump these off the list?
Honestly, this was more a way to jam two watches I like together, so the whole solar thing is a bit of a misdirection. The Tanks biggest competition comes in the next spot on this list. As for the TAG, it’s a great watch, but if I want a quartz, titanium dive watch, I’d be hard-pressed to justify the Aquaracer over something like a Scurfa.
8. The Perfect Everyday Dress Watch
My first mechanical watch was a vintage Hamilton from the 40s. It’s a watch I love, and still wear to this day. I have worn it to celebrate just about every milestone in my life over the last decade and a half and, when I want to wear something a little dressier, there’s nothing quite like throwing a small, gold dress watch on with ratty jeans and a threadbare button-down.
If you’ve tracked me and my collection at all it should be apparent that this is slightly out of the norm for my everyday wear. I typically can be found with something a little more toolish on my wrist — almost always a dive watch. But as I grow and continue collecting, I find myself yearning for something to bridge that gap.
And what I want is a simple steel three-hand dress watch. For me, this means one of two watches: the Cartier Santos-Dumont XL and the Grand Seiko SBGY007G Omiwatari. Each of these is a stainless steel beauty with blue accents and a thin case. Each of these I could see wearing for days or weeks on end, whether dressing up or lounging on the sofa watching movies.
The Cartier is, I think, the best modern interpretation of the Santos design and the Omiwatari is maybe one of the most objectively beautiful pieces in the Grand Seiko catalog. I can’t go wrong with either (or maybe both?)
What could bump these off the list?
The reality is that I already own a watch that satisfies this need. The Merci LMM-H01, made in collaboration with HODINKEE a few years ago, kind of fits the role I described perfectly. But why should that stop me from getting another?
Looking at watches I don’t already own, a Rolex Oyster Perpetual or steel Datejust both make a case for themselves as the perfect everyday dress watch, and each is available with a silver dial. Also, they’re water resistant, which is always a plus, and if you start diving into vintage and pre-owned, the market for three-hand Rolex offers an endless stream of great options right around the same price as the Cartier or Grand Seiko.
9. A Honking Big Dive Watch
I don’t know when exactly it happened, but at some point in the last year, while the rest of the world started focusing on smaller watches, I started getting interested in bigger ones. Not exclusively, of course, but all of a sudden the world of watches beyond 41 or 42mm feels like a rather appealing one.
That said, I still don’t own any watches that would be considered all that big. So, given my affection for dive watches and a curiosity driving me upwards, I gave the Seiko SRPC44 a go last year. As good as it was, that watch didn’t stick, but I still feel like I have room in my life for a giant dive watch.
Enter in the Doxa Sub 300 and the Omega Seamaster Ploprof.
I mean, if you’re gonna go big, might as well do it right. The Doxa Sub300 is a watch that has been on my radar for years and was never one that grabbed me (in fact, I thought it was pretty ugly) until I got to see one in person. It’s an awesome watch. It wears well, has a ton of presence, and would be hard to confuse for anything else.
And speaking of wearing well, having a ton of presence, and being hard to confuse for anything else, the newest iteration of the Omega Seamaster Ploprof — especially with its 75th Anniversary coloring — is beyond cool.
At their respective price points, these are not watches meant to be cross-shopped, but they would each satisfy my itch to go big or go home, at least for now.
What could bump these off the list?
Really anything that catches my eye larger than 42mm. I do think I owe it to myself to give the Doxa thing a go at some point, but how long that lasts is anyone’s guess. The Ploprof has some tough competition in that, within the 75th Anniversary line of Seamasters, Omega has produced what I consider to be the best-looking Planet Ocean of all time, and I would be hard-pressed to pick a different watch from that collection to end up in my watch drawer. That said, the newest Ploprof is bound to get a release in a new colorway sometime this year — so it could find its way in a different configuration.
10. An Affordable Flyer GMT
I am hardly the first, nor likely the last person to point out that GMTs are having a bit of a moment. Over the last two years or so, new GMT movements have meant that — seemingly out of the blue — there are a huge number of GMT-equipped watches to choose from. I’ve spoken at length In the past about my love for the travel-inspired complication, so I won’t bore you again here, but considering my admiration for what I have often called my favorite complication, it’s getting weird that I don’t own one.
So with the last slot on my list, I’m offering up what is likely my next actual watch purchase. It’s time for me to buy my first GMT. And it will likely either be the Lorier Hydra ZULU or the Mido Ocean Star GMT Limited Edition for HODINKEE.
There is next to no way that, in 2024, I don’t wind up with one or both of these watches in my collection. They are each flyer-style GMT watches with well-conceived and well-executed aesthetics — something I can attest to, as I’ve seen them each in person and been blown away in turn.
What could bump these off the list?
I have to be honest, I am pretty certain the Lorier is going to happen. It feels like a foregone conclusion. I have owned and reviewed Loriers, have a massive fondness for the brand, and cannot think of a good reason why the Hydra ZULU isn’t a watch that I already own (other than that I forgot when the initial drop opened). Will I keep the watch? I don’t know — black watches never seem to stick in my collection for long — but I will be damned if I don’t find out.
As for the Mido, it may be in a slightly less concrete position. As I said, we are in a real boom time for GMT watches, and a new low-priced GMT could come along any time and knock the Mido out of contention for a spot on my wrist. The future is unknown, but at least for now, I think I see the Mido having a spot in it.
A Call to Arms
So there you have it, the way more than ten watches on my mind going into 2024. I almost certainly wind up with most of these watches, but it does feel good to check in with myself every once in a while and take stock of what’s going on in my collecting brain.
With my massive data dump out of the way, I’d love to hear what you all are interested in picking up this year, even if it all gets thrown out the window the next time you open up Instagram and see some spectacular new release.