Watch Dandy

Well, the official first day of Baselworld 2017 is officially over. And it was a good one. We’ve now seen the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Grand Seiko, Hermes, and more. There have been quite a few standout pieces, ranging from simple time-only watches to more inventive complications. Tonight, we sat down Ben, Louis, and Stephen to share their initial impressions of this year’s first batch of novelties.

Today was the first official day of Baselworld 2017, and as we’ve done for so many years now, we began the day at 9:00 AM with Omega. Omega is surely having one of the strongest fairs so far, showing not only some amazing limited editions that have the interwebs chattering, but also some really nice commercial pieces such as the racing dial master chronometer Speedmasters. Today, Ben and Louis sat down to discuss their favorite pieces from the 2017 Omega collection and provide all the information you’ve been waiting for in regards to the “Trilogy” set.

It’s the Heritage Black Bay 36 as you know and love it, with its sleek black and white dial, vintage snowflake hands, and fixed bezel in polished steel. Only it’s bigger. Five millimeters bigger, to be precise. Meet the new Black Bay 41.

Heading into this morning’s Omega meeting which, like, basically the entire HODINKEE team attended, we were all excited to see the new limited edition “Trilogy” of the Speedmaster, Seamaster, and Railmaster. And they were awesome, you’ll hear more about them shortly (in video!) but we knew they’d be awesome. What we did not know is that we’d see another Omega sports watch, one that comes slightly out of left field, was not included in its press release, and at this moment, does not even exist on its website. But it’s awesome, and it’s priced to move. In fact, this might be one of the most commercially compelling watches of the show, and by virtue of that, maybe of the year 2017.

Hermès has been doing steadily great work in the watch space over the last few years, especially with the Slim d’Hermès line. Another speciality of the maison though is what it calls “poetic complications,” which take a less function-driven approach to watchmaking, instead opting to delight or surprise (such as with Le Temps Suspendu). Well, today the two families are coming together in the Slim d’Hermès L’Heure Impatiente, which features a brand new complication.

The Cellini collection was first brought back in 2014, but only minor changes have been made since them. Well, 2017 is the year where we finally see a moonphase complication come back at Rolex, something fans have been waiting for since the 1950s. Seriously. And, as you’d expect from Rolex, this modern take is not “just” a moonphase complication, it’s astronomically accurate for 122 years. In many ways, this Cellini Moonphase is the rightful heir of the mega references 6062 and 8171, and we couldn’t wait to see it in the metal.