Bremont

 

It seems that I just blinked and then I missed it.  There used to be a Bremont store at the Shangri-la Mall but I went there a couple of weeks ago only to be disappointed.  Nada, it's gone!  

Before the quarantine era, I was looking at a lovely piece but was hesitant because the model that I fancied did not come with a steel bracelet.  I loved the face, and while leather straps look so elegant, I perspire a lot, and these straps do have a tendency to smell when used in our hot and humid Manila weather.

At certain price points, I'm not a fan of ordering online.  A thousand things can happen!  I'll probably wait for my next opportunity to get one of these beauties.  And beauties they are, all with a story to tell.  The one shown above pays tribute to the Greenwich Observatory.  The one shown below is named after Stephen Hawking.

Lovely, lovely, lovely!  I am a geek gawking at the heavens!

Klo & Co

I was very proud when I got my Alpesailer from Klo & Co.  It had a reasonably reliable NH-35 movement from Seiko, its style was elegant, construction was excellent and the price was very affordable.  Most important, it was my first Filipino watch.  One of the new local micro-brands, I think this company will achieve solid milestones over the next few years with their bold designs and suave internet marketing strategies.  I just learned that the group came out with a retro neon model (shown on the right) that just looks so cool!  Check it out... 

Detroit Watch Company

* from detroitwatchco.com

I told myself not to purchase watches with leather straps anymore.  In tropical climate, leather straps get worn and torn quickly and therefore need constant changing.   My heart is torn, however, with the B24 Liberator of the Detroit Watch Company, as it looks so gorgeous!  With a Swiss Valjoux ETA movement and the cream colored nameplate, this chronograph is definitely on my wish list.  Looks like a true pilot's watch and because it's a niche brand, I'm doubly excited.  Oh my, with the enhanced quarantine period, it seems that I'm screen-shopping (the online version of window-shopping) way too much...

Jacob & Co.

*photo from jacobandco.com

I can watch it all day.  Absolutely mesmerizing.  

Tuseno Blackwater

*photo from wristwatchreview.com

Surfing through various watch review websites, I came across an innovative Swedish watch company called Tuseno.   The article kept me piqued as it described a sturdy looking automatic model called the Blackwater.  Take note, it's got a Sellita movement, a rotating bezel, sapphire crystal and is good for 300 meters underwater.  Somehow, that rang a bell because I had just watched a rerun of Game Of Thrones (the show had a fictional Blackwater Bay, the location of the great sea battle for possession of King's Landing).  Upon further checking with the company's website, I understand management donates a portion of their earnings to fund sea rescue operations, which is a very good way of showing corporate responsibility.  More power to their team!

Grand Seiko

Reservoir GT Skeleton

Over the Christmas holidays, I had a chance to look at the Reservoir watch collection, and while I liked the models on display, I told myself that I'd postpone the purchase until a future date.  While browsing online, it seems that I have fallen in love!  The GT Skeleton looks rugged yet has a certain air of precision.  The orange hand excites me, and it seems just like a speedometer needle that's retrograding on the instrument gauge with each step on the accelerator pedal.  Now does that make sense or what?

Mont Blanc

Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime

* photo from Christie's

This bit of news was a interesting to read, blew my mind the minute I saw it.  20 complications in stainless steel.  Reversible.  At $31 million, the highest price paid for a wristwatch on charity auction (held by Christie's to fund research on muscular dystrophy).  The Only One.

Swatch

Orient

Edox

MB&F LM1 Silberstein

The Baccara

I learned about this roulette watch from my friends running casinos in Macau and Jeju Island. Christophe Claret's gaming watches will never cease to entertain the most demanding of players.  Most entertaining!  Lucky nine anyone?

Bovet

When will I ever get to own a Bovet?  I can dream can't I?  The Geisha above, and  the Pininfarina below are two of my favorites...  Not for the faint-hearted!

The Herios Kamasutra

On the last day of our recent trip to Hong Kong, Vicky has some last minute shopping at the World Trade Center.  It was a good thing for me, as I had enough time to ogle at the watches at the Milus showroom located at the WTC ground floor.  Such elegant (read expensive) timepieces, that I can only dream of.  It was a sad thing for me though that I wasn't able to see the Herios Kamasutra model that I am so fascinated with (shown on the right).  Yes, I am such a fan of horological erotica, so limited in number, so collectible, so lovely to behold....

Wake up, you hypnotized man!

;-)

Watch Winder Manila

Bettina took Eddie & Korina to the Apple Store along Connecticut in Greenhills, and I went along for the ride.  It turns out that a store in the basement level called Watch Winder Manila carries the best value-for-money watch winders in the market.  Elegant finish i must say, and you can see these are well designed.  I understand from the sales staff that these are locally assembled using good Japanese motors.  The one I wanted (photo above, good for 16 watches) costs somewhere in the P15k range, as opposed to the imported ones which are astronomically priced at P60k and good for only 4 watches. Imagine that!  Kudos to the owners and more power to local enterprise.

Union

I totally missed my target.  I had been looking at a Union Belisar chronograph at the Shangri-la Mall, and I had gone back twice early this year to check on it, to compare it with other brands.  The watch is a mid-level brand of the Swatch group, and I was very much attracted to the yellow hands.  Now that I have decided to go for it, I learn from the store that the Philippine distribution has been discontinued, and that all stock has been sent abroad.  Now that's the result of indecision!  Huhuhu...

Olivier

While the dinner at Grand Momma's Kitchen was a happy treat, our visit to the Timeworx watch store at the Il Terrazo mini-mall along Tomas Morato Street gave me a sad face. The store carries the Olivier bronze diver's watch, the coffee colored face of which I had been longing to purchase for some time now.  Alas, on this visit, the watch was no longer to be found; somebody had beaten me to it!  The watch would have been a fine addition to my collection (bronze cases are not easy to find, and in addition to having very good resistance to salt water, I think the vintage look is quite elegant).  Truly, the things you regret most in life come as a result of indecision; oh well, life goes on... 

Wyler

I was browsing some of my favorite watch forums, and I'm pretty sad to learn that Wyler filed for bankruptcy in 2009.  I have a manual Wyler that was given to me by my godmother sometime in the early seventies.  I cracked and replaced the glass casing thereof in the mid-eighties, and broke the spring soon after.  It no longer functions, but I keep it as a memento of childhood.  Now the company that made the watch is no longer, and in a sense, a part of me feels missing.  Wyler was famous for the sturdy Incaflex mechanism that protected their watches from shock.  For marketing purposes, the company dropped its watches from atop the Eiffel Tower in the late sixties and despite the fall, the watches would continue to function.  In the decade before the company folded up, they launched bold watch designs (as you can see above), but I would think that sales have been limited.  After all, the mechanical watch business is very marketing oriented, and technological triumphs are really few and far between; outside circles of watch enthusiasts, the brand is not known at all.  Well, such is life...