One of the best things about aBlogtoWatch is the community that has developed around it. From across the globe, aBlogtoWatch draws readers of all types and all interest levels, from the one-off browser to the diehard enthusiast. Everyone has their opinions, of course, and that’s what the comments section is for. In 2023, the community turned out to let its voice be heard, sharing over 20,000 comments! While most of the comments focused on the topic of the article, readers got personal, too, from road trips to Panama to immigrating to the United States. Invariably, it all came back to the watches at hand, and 10 articles got the most attention this year.
Bulova Jet Star Watch Revives A 1970s Design And Runs On High-Frequency Quartz
As part of Bulova’s push to expand the use of its Precisionist movement, the heritage brand under Citizen Watch Group dropped an absolute heater of a watch this year in the Jet Star. Inspired by a 1970s release, but fully reimagined, the watch was a hit for almost anyone who tried it out. This one received almost universal praise in the comments — no small feat — with people only quibbling about the 50m water resistance. Plus, there’s a lot of discussion about watch batteries.
Seikos always get plenty of attention, and this one was no exception. Celebrating Japanese mountaineer Naomi Uemera, the SLA069 gets the Seiko Willard case, a blue bezel and crown, and a dial with a depiction of Mont Blanc. There was plenty of discussion about the excellence of the Willard, a deep dive into two Seiko movements, and a discussion of Toblerone chocolate. This may not have been the most exciting Seiko release of the year, but it’s not always the big releases that garner the most chatter.
Hands-On: Rolex Day-Date 36 Jigsaw Puzzle Dial Watch In White Gold
This out-of-nowhere, off-catalog Rolex was perhaps the most surprising watch released in 2023. A turquoise dial with rainbow puzzle pieces? Multicolor gem indices? A day-date display replaced, respectively, by positive affirmations and emoji? No one saw this coming. Unsurprisingly, this was met with a lot of uncertainty. Some were convinced it was an April Fool’s joke, more than plenty made a pun about it being puzzling, and the acknowledgment that it will undoubtedly be a collector’s piece. People were far more accepting of the OP Celebration dials that were released at the same time.
Hands-On Debut: Longines Spirit Flyback Watch
This year, Longines came out swinging with hit after hit. A large part of that was the slew of home runs in its Spirit collection. The Spirit Flyback chrono was part of that string of releases and was roundly applauded for its design. But dimensions are bait for the comments section, and readers piled on to praise the design and pan the proportions. Perhaps the updated Legend Diver Watch showed that Longines can make a more wearable case, but the comments on that review didn’t include any discussion of washing your watch.
New Release: Breitling Top Time B21 Classic Cars Chronograph Tourbillon Watches
As Breitling continued its push toward more traditional, less rugged designs often inspired by vintage models, it also started dabbling in fancier movements, including a tourbillon added to its Top Time chronos. Two big recurring themes from the ABTW comments section reared their heads in this article. The first is the inanity of tourbillons: Everyone is putting them in every watch they can, and now that you can get a tourbillon for under $1k, they seem a bit less special (never mind that the mechanism is technologically obsolete thanks to advances in materials sciences that have occurred since Breguet invented the tourbillon at the beginning of 19th century). The second was the mental obstacle people seem to have about spending multiple tens of thousands on a watch from a brand whose average price is below $10,000.
Hands-On: Citizen Tsuki-Yomi A-T Watch
While its novel use of radio signals to sync the moonphase and its moon motif dial are certainly cool, this isn’t the Citizen one might expect to show up on this list. How many Citizens have you seen with pushers and a load of subdials? But that understanding ignores how popular Citizen is, and how many stories our readers have to share. The comments on the Tsuki-Yomi A-T (atomic time, as allowed for by the radio towers) saw plenty of deeper dives into the larger Citizen ecosystem, including praising the brand’s technology, discussing the Chronomaster series, and an exploration of the lack of radio towers servicing the southern hemisphere. Maybe more so than any other story, the comments section has almost as much meat as the actual article.
Hands-On Debut: The New Breitling Avenger Watches For 2023
Who said Breitling was moving away from its iconic rugged designs? This year, the brand revamped its Avenger line, with a colorful palette of updated three-hand and chronograph models. This article’s comments had it all: a debate about what it means for a brand to have “proper legacy,” education about how deployant clasps are mounted, and some predictable superhero references. Oddly, several people also chose to use this article to comment on an entirely unrelated G-Shock.
New Release: The Citizen AQ4100-65W Platinum Tosa Washi Paper Dial Watch
Quite a different offering from Citizen this time: A top-of-the-line Citizen that demonstrates the brand’s ability to deliver premium finishing and Japanese design while still remaining truly a Citizen with a high-end Eco-Drive caliber that’s accurate to just -/+ 5 seconds per year. The response here was mainly positive. People didn’t have much negative to say, though there were a lot of questions about paying $4,300 for an Eco-Drive. For all the people who questioned the pricing, there were an equal number of people vehemently defending Citizen and praising the release.
Hands-On: IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 Titanium Watch
Sneaking in with fewer than 15 days left in the year, our hands-on with the IWC Ingenieur in titanium got people talking. Perhaps more than any other watch, this engaged readers on the subject of how we talk about watches. Simple comments expanded into full exchanges about comparing watches of different values and functions, the validity of all viewpoints, and how we’re often prone to knee-jerk responses. When it came to the watch itself, there seemed to be an even split between those who were over the moon and those who were underwhelmed.
Blancpain X Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Watches Expand On The MoonSwatch Concept
It may not have delivered for Swatch in the same way the MoonSwatch did, but it was still one of the biggest releases of the year: The Blancpain X Swatch Fifty Fathoms. While a lot of people were quick to say how fun these watches are, the conversation inevitably turned to comparing this release to the MoonSwatch. Simply put, people found there was a qualitative difference between creating a cheap, bioceramic version of an Omega and a cheap, bioceramic version of a Blancpain. The gap between Swatch and Blancpain, it was argued, is considerably larger than the gap between Swatch and Omega. But as one commenter offered, “If someone’s ego is hurt because a cheap plastic version of their watch exists, the plastic watch is the least of their problems. . . .”