Favorite Watches of 2022, Part 2
Welcome to Part 2 of my Favorites of 2022. You can find Part 1 here.
For my own convenience (and yours), I’ve called out a few specific categories. In no specific order, here they are:
Favorite Field Watch of the Year
Favorite Dive Watch of the Year
Favorite Dress Watch of the Year
Favorite Chronograph of the Year
Favorite Beater of the Year
Favorite Kickstarter Watch of the Year
Favorite GMT of the Year
Favorite Watch of the Year
Favorite Brand of the Year
That’s a decent number of categories, so I’ve broken this post up into three parts. In this one, I’ll cover the Chronograph, Beater, and Kickstarter categories. So, let’s begin – and just as a reminder, without exception, these are watches that I have gotten my hands on in the metal.
Favorite Chronograph of the Year
This one came down to two watches and I can honestly say it was a close one. Ultimately, the one that won just checked off too many boxes for me to ignore, not the least of which was its gorgeous Swiss movement on full display behind the sapphire exhibition caseback.
That watch is the Zelos Vitesse ‘Panda’ Chronograph.
This has got to be the most un-Zelos-like watch that Zelos has ever put out. I’m used to seeing hard angles and sharp edges on Zelos watches and this chrono is all graceful curves and swoops and vintage cues. The 40mm 316L stainless steel case is coated with the same 1200HV hardened coating that Zelos applies to many of their other watches, making it a solid and scratch-resistant timepiece. Inside the that case is the La Joux-Perret L100 Bi-Compax chronograph movement with a custom-designed rotor (yep, this is an automatic) that takes its inspiration from classic car wheels.
While I don’t care for beads-of-rice bracelet, I found a perfect match for this gorgeous timepiece, which was (spoiler alert) in the running for my Favorite Watch of the Year. I put it on a black leather strap with a deployant clasp from Christopher Ward and it. looks. AMAZING. with that combo.
The Vitesse is, sadly, currently sold out, but keep an eye out. Zelos is known for re-introducing past editions.
Favorite Beater Watch of the Year
Before I dive into this category, let me define what I mean by “Beater” watch.
I sometimes have to go up to San Francisco for work and, well, it’s not exactly the environment that I’d feel comfortable wearing a $2000 watch around in. So I reach for one of my beater watches, something that I wouldn’t be totally shattered about if it got stolen or smashed. Beater or not, however, it does have to scratch that itch; I can’t bring myself to wear a watch I don’t like.
So, here are the requirements for this category:
It must cost less than $500.
Replacing a watch is always hard. Replacing a watch that costs more than $500 is MUCH harder.It must not be a limited-edition or a model that’s sold out.
Part of the point of a beater watch is that it should be something that’s replaceable; having a watch that isn’t easy to replace – or that costs more than retail pricing to replace – automatically fails this requirement.It must be a watch that I actually like to wear
Just because it’s a beater doesn’t mean I cringe at the thought of wearing it. In fact, all of these watches I genuinely enjoy wearing and would wear even if I weren’t in a situation that required a beater watch.
So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to my favorite Beater of this year: The Islander Northport with the Black Ripple dial.
Islander’s watches are utterly underrated. Sure, many of the early models are homages, but lately, they’ve been putting out some watches that, while they may draw inspiration from pieces that have come before, still have many excellent touches that make them very much worth owning. The Northport may be a Seiko 62mas homage, but the ripple dials and the assorted colorways make it enough of a unique watch on its own that I had no compunction about picking it up.
Drawing inspiration from his hometown/state of New York, the Northport is a watch named after a village on the Long Island Sound. The ripple dial is inspired from the ripples seen on the Long Island Sound on a breezy day. The watch is available in four colorways and each features a high-beat Miyota 9015 movement, sapphire crystal, engraved caseback, solid link/endlink bracelet and lots of microadjust holes on the milled clasp. On my wrist, it’s almost always on a ZuluDiver Gray Nato Strap.
You can buy the Islander Northport here.
Favorite Kickstarter Watch of the Year
This one I chalk up to Peter Kotsa’s YouTube channel. The watch company Batavi is a Netherlands/Canada-based microbrand that’s been around since 2017. The Geograaf Wereldtimer was their third Kickstarter campaign and all three have been successfully funded. The Wereldtimer, however, was the most successful of the three, racking up bit north of twice its €34,900 goal.
Featuring a Swiss GMT movement from Soprod that lives inside a 39.3mm stainless steel case, that features a mix of polished and brushed finishes, the Geograaf was available in four colors: Rose de Taïf, Eau Claire, Arctic Dawn, and Aurora.
Or, as I call them, White, Blue, Salmon, and Gray. I went for the Blue (the Eau Claire).
Although the watches featured Soprod’s standard GMT movement (the C125), Batavi chose not to go with a standard fourth hand. Instead, there is a rotating ring positioned inside the markers with a 24-hour scale that can be manipulated using the 3-o’clock crown in the first position. There is an outer ring manipulated by the crown at the 10-o’clock position that lists a number of cities. To tell the time in a second time zone, position the relevant city at 12 o’clock, then rotate the inner ring so that the correct current hour lines up with the city. In my case, since I’m working on a story on British watches, I’m tracking London time, so it’s at the 12 o’clock position.
Once you have that, you can tell the time in any one of an addition 23 time zones. Simply find the city that corresponds to the time zone you want and check the hour marker on the inner ring.
The worldtimer on the Geograaf is easily the second-most unique complication on any watch I currently own. It’s implemented well, the colors all come together very nicely, and it’s easily legible. The H-link bracelet it comes on (there’s an included leather strap as well) has polished center links and a simple milled clasp with four microadjust holes. A display caseback shows off the C125 movement decorated with some perlage and Côtes de Genève stripes. On paper, this watch ticks off almost all the boxes on my wishlist for a worldtime/GMT, so it’s no wonder the Geograaf is my favorite Kickstarter watch of 2022.
You can get more info on the Geograaf here.
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That’s it for Part 1 of my Favorite Watches of 2022. Next up: my favorite GMT, Overall Watch of the Year, and my Favorite Brand of 2022. That’s actually also an easy one – though my pick for the GMT definitely had some stiff competition..