Watch the Watch: Aron Solomon’s Watch World, Summer 2017
Hi. Remember me?
I know. I haven’t published one of these in like forever.
So why am I today?
Three reasons:
1. As of this week, for the first time in years, I have time to think and relax. I left the company I built – Law Made (terms of said departure for a more appropriate forum and at a more opportune time) – this Tuesday. So I’m on what I see as an extended vacation.
2. My pal Stuart, aware that I’m now an entrepreneurial vagrant, emailed this afternoon to ask for a new column. He’s probably the 100th person to do so since the spring, but his timing was perfect.
3. I’m currently excited about watches, which isn’t always the status quo. Sure, I always love watches, but just as you can love a sport when the league is having a few terrible seasons, so has been the case in a fairly boring watch world.
But things are interesting now. As I’ve predicted here a ton of times, there’s far less focus on “smartwatches” and more on smart watchmaking. That’s awesome and overdue.
And, hey, guess what? More people are wearing watches. Yep. And it’s the hipsters. For reals. If you don’t believe me, google collaborations such as Red Wing boots and Timex, and Japan’s Mr. Porter and Timex. These are being purchased in relative drives by our hipster friends.
Not that I’m one to talk.

Doofus.
But it’s not all a good news story.
I was at a party the other day in Amsterdam and, super-pretentious opening of this sentence aside, everyone I was sitting near (like 15 people, women and men) wore modern-era Rolexes.
Awesome, I thought, I’m around my watch meshpuchim (Yiddish for “peeps.”)
Nope. I tried to strike up watch talk and no one bit. They weren’t watch fanatics, they were people who wore nice watches as a part of social group membership. And, hey, that’s totally fine if you’re down with that. But it’s not exciting to me.
Here are five watches I’m excited about in the watch world today. Some are really new, some not quite as new. All are really amazing.

1. This is the Nixon Ultratide. It’s the ultimate surf watch. I want one. It comes in a bunch of colors, and while it has a retail tag of around $350, Jomashop has them right now for $77. I never see them in surf shops under $200, so score one now. It is cool, light, solid, and awesome.

2. This is an N.B. Yeager watch. It’s 40mm, so quite little by today’s big watch standards. It’s just classic and sporty and fun. It will set you back around $1,000 if you can locate one.

3. This is a new Seiko Presage, which you can pick up for around $1,400 from my friends at Seiya in Tokyo. I have something very similar from like three years ago. I get more compliments on mine than on any other watch in my collection, including this next one:

4. This is the limited-edition PAM 415 Tokyo, which I have. They did a very limited series for Panerai boutiques in several cities, including Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, Dubai, and others. I love how soft the band is. While it’s 44mm, to me, it feels thicker and heavier than most 47mm Panerai. If you want one, it’s going to be a really difficult and expensive hunting expedition.

I’ve written about the Victorinox INOX before. You may have seen the commercials – the ones where a tank runs it over. While they now make this in titanium as well, the original is one solid block of stainless steel. Hence the INOX name. It’s a serious beauty. I had a blue one recently for almost one full day, before my son, a budding watch fan, asked to try it on. <waves goodbye to watch>
That’s it for now. Feel good to be writing and thinking about watches.
As always, friends, be sure to watch the watch, and thanks for visiting.
