During the holidays I looked at a few watches (some of which I show below) and it really brought home to me how important it is to try them on your wrist instead of trust the internet. When you look at photos on the web, you typically see the watches much larger than how they will appear on your wrist in life size. I was surprised again and again by the watches I tried.
For example, I thought I was going to really like the IWX Mark XVIII (I couldn't find a Heritage to try) given its simple, clear dial and no-nonsense looks.
But it turns out I didn't like the sharp edges on the case; it wasn't comfortable to wear. Also, the lume dots at the cardinals are a slightly different colour than the unlumed hour markers. Finally, the date window looks too bar in-board to me; for symmetry, it should appear approximately where the 9 is on the other side. at about $5000 USD I thought this was expensive for what you get.
I also tried a Tudor Ranger. I originally resisted because I thought it would be too big for me.
I think the size is mostly OK, but I wish the bezel was a bit larger and the dial a big smaller. I like the style of the hands (and pop of colour from the seconds hand), the minute markers, the font used for the hour fonts, and the "vintage" colour of all the markings. If the face was smaller this would be a contender for me. It is affordable too, because of the ETA movement, at only about $2.6k USD.
I also tried a Grand Seiko, and it's true that you have to see one in real life. You don't really understand what the finishing is like without seeing it in person and in motion.
The reason I considered the Seiko is because I wanted something that was less flashy, that wasn't obviously expensive. I also think that although it is a sports watch, it is formal enough that I could wear it with a suit too. The Grand Seiko I wanted to look at was the most basic automatic (SBGR0253) but I couldn't find one anywhere to try, including the Grand Seiko shop at Narita airport! The one in the photo below is essentially the same style but scaled up to larger size.
This is basically the style of the standard "sarariman" watch in Japan. If you ask a Japanese kid to draw a watch I'm sure this is what you would get. I was kind of thinking of this as the Acura of the watch world -- Acura when they first came out, not the zombie, Americanized company of today. That is, a scrappy upstart showing that premium could mean good engineering, build quality and clean styling without all the luxury frou-frou of the European incumbents.
But when you actually wear one of these you find that instead of being relatively anonymous, it is actually unbelievably blingy. Because of the high polish they apply to the steel, and the faceted hour markers, the watch blinks and winks at you from almost any angle (you can see this at the 10 o'clock marker in my photo). And I don't know about you, but I associate highly, highly polished silver surfaces to be cheap chrome plating over plastic on crappy toys and the like. I'd have to overcome some mental blocks to fully appreciate this watch.
FInally, the grail.
I wasn't inclined to like the Rolex Explorer in the box, and found it disappointing after seeing it in real life. I wasn't even going to try it on originally. But once I did it just felt so right.
Before I had it on wrist, I was thinking that a vintage model would be more interesting (and I did try one later) because of the more compact size. But it's hard to emphasize just how good this felt on wrist. It didn't have the finish quality of the Seiko, and is largely mass produced by machine instead of hand built like the GS, so it is hard to pay over twice the price of the Seiko (and you don't even get an exhibition case back! [yes, I understand that would go against the marketing of the Explorer as the "adventure" watch]) But the Explorer felt so perfect and at abot $6k USD is still very affordable - for a semi-luxury watch, that is.
I didn't end up buying one though because when I went back the next morning to buy it, it had been sold; and I had seen it just the previous evening as the store was opening their newly delivered stock! It's quite hard to get your hands on one if you aren't a repeat customer I understand.
Then I thought some more about how I have hurt every single watch I have ever owned, either gouging the crystal, breaking something in the mechanism or smacking the watch hard enough to break the case off the strap. I reconsidered daily wearing something in that price range. And if I wasn't going to wear it, then what was the point of even owning it?
