The three watches Jamie wore most in 2024 are…
Jamie WeissJeez, what a year. 2024 was a wild year for me personally, but professionally it was particularly memorable. It’s hard to think that our Time+Tide 10 celebrations were almost 12 months ago… What a week of madness that was. Three limited editions in three days! That’s bonkers. 2024 also marked my first Watches and Wonders with the Time+Tide team – another mental week – and saw me wear and review more watches than I ever have in my life. Doing the maths on the total value of watches I reviewed this year makes my head spin (it’s in the tens of millions of dollars, which is absurd).
Looking back on my three most worn watches of 2023 writeup, I mentioned that I’d been a good boy and only added one more watch to my collection that year… But I can’t say the same for 2024. Indeed, two of the three watches that were in the highest rotation for me in 2024 were pieces I acquired this year. However, I’m satisfied that like my top 3 last year, it’s quite a diverse trio, with each featuring a different type of movement: automatic mechanical, quartz and Spring Drive.
Baume & Mercier Riviera Azur 300m
First up, we have that one watch that joined my collection in 2023 and subsequently got plenty of wrist time in 2024: my Baume & Mercier Riviera Azur 300m in black. This dive watch take on Baume’s luxury sports watch flagship represents another horological milestone for me: my first integrated bracelet watch. It’s also the biggest mechanical watch I’ve ever owned at 42.1mm in diameter, but despite its masculine proportions and tool watch bent, it’s been a surprisingly versatile daily wearer.
The Riviera generally is a highly underrated watch, I feel: while any watch that features an integrated bracelet and angular bezel will inevitably be compared to the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, I think the Riviera is a much more understated watch, even in chunky Azur 300m form. That has much to do with its dial textures, especially models like mine with tinted, laser-engraved sapphire dials: they add a visual lightness to the Riviera that’s antipodal to the Clous de Paris finishes found on many of these kinds of watches.
This also happens to be my first watch with an exhibition caseback, and while we don’t typically talk about the Baumatic range as being one of the world’s prettiest movement families, I think it’s actually rather charming. Richemont put variants of this movement in a lot of different watches these days, including the IWC Ingenieur and Panerai Luminor Due, but ironically, the BM13-1975A in my Baume is finished to a higher standard than many Baumatics inside more expensive brands. A 5-day power reserve and COSC certification are just icing on the cake.
Casio G-Shock G5600BG-1 Birthday Special Edition
In my most worn watches of 2023 article, I mentioned at the end that I was in need of a G-Shock. Literally the day before New Year’s Eve, I took the G-Shock DW9052 I’ve had since I was a kid in for a battery replacement and pressure test – but when it was pressure tested, the resin surrounding the buttons cracked and perished. I was a little heartbroken, truth be told. But I’ve since very much moved on. The highlight of my 2024 was a three-week holiday my brother and I had in Europe in September: to celebrate the holiday (and also to have something to wear that I wouldn’t be too sad if it got nicked), I bought a new G-Shock, which in a late charge, entered my top 3 most worn.
Like Borna, I bought a solar 5600: specifically, I bought a G5600BG-1, a limited edition released this year to commemorate the 5600 series’ 40th anniversary, which features an eco-friendly case made from recycled red and yellow resin scraps left over from the manufacture of other G-Shock bands and bezels. The result of this process is that no two of these watches look exactly alike, with the flecks of red and yellow resin kneaded within a base black resin layer creating interesting, random patterns.
In short, I’ve barely taken this watch off since that September trip. It was a great travel watch – light on the wrist and great for hopping time zones with – and is just a great, low-stress daily wearer. I’ve always been a fan of the 5600’s design, but this model’s eclectic texture gives it a subtle point of difference. I wear a lot of earthy tones, so the red and yellow complement my wardrobe. And because it’s solar-powered, it’ll be a long time before I have to take this Casio to go get a battery change…
Grand Seiko Sport Spring Drive GMT SBGE257
And now for the watch that I wore most of all in 2024: my Grand Seiko SBGE257. I’ve long admired Grand Seiko – especially after visiting the brand’s Shizukuishi and Shinshu factories – so it was only a matter of time before I joined the GS9 Club, as it were. It was crucial that my first GS had to be Spring Drive, and I’m a massive GMT watch fan – they’re my favourite type of watches. I also didn’t have a green watch in my collection… So the SBGE257 ticked a lot of boxes, and it’s barely left my wrist since I picked it up in January. It also felt very cool having this on my wrist when I interviewed Seiko President Akio Naito in October.
It’s also yet another Grand Seiko that has been done a disservice by both the brand’s images and most photos out there in the world. GS, in typical fashion, describes this watch’s dial as being inspired by the “rich fecundity of nature” and “echo[ing] the rich green of one of the 2,000 types of moss that can be found in Japan.” (‘Fecundity’ is such a great word.) The images on its product page depict it as a dark green, but at some angles, it appears almost black… And then the light hits it just right, and it really lights up: the dial looks matte at some angles but actually has a subtle and very verdant sunburst.
I’ve not got a bad word to say about its performance, either. A 72-hour power reserve makes it weekend-proof, the quick-set GMT hand is satisfying to use and I’ll never get tired of watching its smooth seconds hand sweep, its high polish flickering as it glides across the dial. Indeed, my only regret with this watch is related to its polish: a few weeks into owning it, I put a massive scratch down the side of its Zaratsu-polished lugs. Whatever. This watch was always destined to be worn to death, so I can’t say I’m too disappointed.