Feature: 10 Watches Every Enthusiast Must Experience

With hundreds upon thousands of watches that have ever been in this world, coming to terms with which you should buy and own can be a bit daunting. For many of us, that’s really part of the fun. It’s like visiting new places in the world, exploring new cultures. And like the globe has its must-see destinations, so too does watchmaking have its must-see watches. Whether you beg, buy, borrow or try on at your local retailer, here are ten watches that you simply can’t leave this mortal coil without experiencing.

Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch

For a lot of people, the Moonwatch is something of an enigma. It’s a pretty plain watch, seemingly uninteresting as an object and not in particularly high demand. Its general availability doesn’t seat it in the upper echelons of unattainable legend, and so that can leave casual observers wondering why on Earth people bang on about it so much.

Even holding one can yield the same response. It’s an unremarkable thing by itself. It’s well made for sure, but it lacks the bells and whistles a modern watch might have to draw crowds with. It doesn’t even wind itself, relying on good old-fashioned knuckle grease to keep it going.

So, I therefore caveat this watch’s must-experience status with the following: don’t hold this watch or wear this watch as you. Do it through the eyes of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. What you’ll be holding is a trace of history, a fleeting scrap of physicality with one of mankind’s greatest achievements. This watch, at one point, was the highest form of timekeeping technology, which coincided with what continues to be the furthest-reaching journey humans have ever taken. Even realising that those two periods overlap is worth experiencing the Moonwatch for.

Grand Seiko Snowflake

Experiencing watches is as much about experiencing the cultures they represent as it is the physical objects themselves, and for that reason it’s an absolute must to have a Grand Seiko in this list. The Japanese brand’s Snowflake watch exemplifies that better than most with its quirks and details that, even when presented in pretty straightforward watch form, highlight that it is indeed from the other side of the planet.

From the techno-geekery of the mechanically powered, quartz regulated Spring Drive to the bizarrely light titanium case, the Snowflake is a watch in the same way that paper is a material for dividing walls and a mat on the floor is a bed. It’s horology, Jim, but not as we know it.

Where the Snowflake slaps you in the face hardest with this is in the dial. Not only is it executed to near-perfection, but the snowfield-inspired texture is quite simply of another time and place. Even today, with a connected world, there’s no getting used to just how different that dial is. We in the west just can’t make anything like it.

TAG Heuer Carrera

In recent years, TAG Heuer’s meandering mission to find its voice has left people confused and annoyed. As a brand, it’s been a bit like streaming a movie with a bad connection, piecemeal and unsatisfying. You get the gist, but you miss the moments that leave you feeling rewarded.

And so if you want to understand what all the fuss about TAG Heuer is, it makes sense to go back to grass roots and experience the golden age of what was once a legend not just in watches, but motorsport as well. The TAG Heuer Carrera is of a simpler time. These days watch sponsorship in motorsport is all big budgets and even bigger marketing teams, deliberating optimisation and media efficiency like particularly dull robots.

Back then, it was a bloke, Jack Heuer, buddying up with racing drivers on the grid and trying to sweettalk them into wearing his watches. It was discovery of new talent, celebration of old, and it all happened at a pace and a scale that actually made sense. Perhaps some time with the Carrera will help you relive that.

Panerai Luminor Base

If you, like me, are getting a bit bored of fake vents in cars, fake zips on clothes and fake doodahs on watches, then the Panerai Luminor is a watch you absolutely have to experience. To me initially it seems overdesigned, like every part of it exists because a designer with a flair for the outlandish, who’s closest experience to diving was slipping over in the shower, deigned it so, but no.

The Panerai Luminor Base is actually one of the purest watches to exist today, almost entirely unchanged from the watch it was many decades ago when it first came to be. The cushion case was repurposed from an Art Deco pocket watch, the dial double-layered to shine as bright as possible underwater and the crown guard locking system developed because the Italian Navy were too cheap for automatic movements.

In its simplest Base form it is an unadulterated lump of steel whose weight and heft should be felt first-hand. Pictures are no good. And if you do that and still find it too big and fussy, then fine—but I’d be very surprised if you didn’t come away with a new appreciation.

Rolex Oyster Perpetual

Of course, you have to experience a Rolex at some point in your life. Ten years ago, that would have been as easy as walking into a store and giving one a go, with plenty of choice new and used at reasonable prices. Thankfully, the iconic Rolex experience remains one of the cheaper of the brand.

The Oyster Perpetual combines three of the founding successes of Rolex all into one watch, upon which it built the empire you see before you today. Those things are hardy steel wristwatches, self-winding movements and water-resistant seals.

All of these things existed before Rolex got its hands on them, but never quite with the cohesion and simplicity of execution that Rolex managed to bestow. That’s the essence this watch continues to demonstrate and one that’s still well worth experiencing for yourself.

A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia

On paper, the Saxonia Thin from German watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne is a thoroughly mediocre watch. Two hands. No complications. 37mm across and it doesn’t even wind itself. It’s as basic as basic gets, and that may make it seem like spending time with one is as exciting as attending the international paperclip convention’s after-hours seminar on the concern of rising paper thickness, but you’d be mistaken. The seminar was fascinating.

So too is the Saxonia Thin, because this watch is an exercise is doing the barest minimum to the highest possible standard in the world—and I don’t say that lightly. In fact, this watch can only be understood by experiencing it in person. Anything else is just Pal TV, 480p, downloaded from Limewire and played back on the screen of a pregnancy test.

Seeing the crisp dial, the razor-sharp hands, ultra-thin case and immaculate calibre L093.1 for yourself is really in exercise in seeing how good your eyes are, because I can guarantee they’ll be letting this watch down and not the other way around. There are a lot of very high-quality watches out there, but this continues to be one of the best.

Breitling Navitimer

Not only did this watch accompany both pilots and astronauts for many decades, it also continues to be one of the most confusing watches ever puzzled over by human beings. Whilst it might look like a calculator took a dump on it from a great height, it actually makes a whole lot of sense once you’ve read the not-insubstantial manual a few times over. At least for a bit, and then you forget it all over again.

The experience I want you to have with this watch is one where you realise that people, human beings, actual ones, actually used this watch to work things out. And not in a low stakes environment like cheating at Countdown, but in a plane, in the air, where any number of things are waiting to go wrong and kill you to death.

Not only that, but pilots actually demanded Breitling make this watch en masse because it was easier than what they were already doing if you can believe it. So get the chance to try this thing on and imagine trying to do long division whilst keep a plane from plunging into the ground.

Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache

No watch experience taster menu would be complete with the classic flavours of Vacheron Constantin. It’s a watchmaker that sometimes goes under the radar in the face of the Nautilus and Royal Oak of its holy trinity compatriots, so I think it’s only fair that it should get a little extra lovin’.

And that won’t be with the spicy zinger Overseas or opulently rich 222 or anything like that, but with a good old simple slice of beef: the Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955. So-called because of the tear-drop lugs sprouting top and bottom, this watch is every bit the providence of good taste. I don’t have good taste and you might not either, but I know enough to know that this is it.

The Lemania-based hand-wound chronograph calibre 1142 inside is the same one Vacheron—and many, many other high-end manufacturers—used back in the day. They could’ve ditched it for something new and original, but I’m glad they didn’t. It’s not something that makes sense on paper. You have to see it all together for yourself.

IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic Spitfire

IWC made these for the Royal Air Force. That’s all you need to know. Check one out.

Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711

The last watch might come as a disappointment to some, but bear with me. Yes, it’s an overhyped watch with divisive looks and by now everyone’s probably sick of it, but what I want to draw attention to here is that the mythos of this watch is actually very different to the real-life experience, and if you can try one for yourself, I’d still suggest you do.

Between this and the AP Royal Oak, it’s a segment of watchmaking that’s praised for its bold looks, chunky build and overall in-your-face mentality. Except … that’s not actually true. The Royal Oak is bluff and sharp and everything you’d expect of an era-defining piece like that, but the Nautilus is a very different slice of pie.

For one, it’s thin, and not just in the case, but the bracelet as well. Despite all that steel, it wears—dare I say it—delicately. It’s almost a dress watch in the shrink-wrapped slenderness it applies to your wrist. After so long and so much hype, it’s completely unexpected. Or at least it was, until I just told you.

I hope you enjoyed this collection of must-try watches. Perhaps you have a few ideas of watches you think must absolutely be tried by every enthusiast yourself? And here’s a question for you. If we got a bunch of these watches, put them in a room and invited you to come and see them for yourself and chat with me about them, would you come?

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