Just on the typography bit, which is an area that many watch brands ignore for some reason: The Romans used the Capitalis Monumentalis for stone inscriptions, which is quite elegant - and yes, fairly difficult to chisel. Its shapes are the result of the brush with which it is painted on the stone first. That's also where the serifs come from, the little feet at the stroke terminals that guide the eye. - On the Bremont it's Eurostile for the bezel, the date, and for the text on the bottom half of the dial, and Futura for the logo and the numerals 6, 9, and 12. Helvetica on the back. Eurostile has been the choice of watch designers since the 60s, when Aldo Novarese brought it into this world to convey modernity and speed. It can also be seen in every action fiction film worth its salt - and whenever things happen in space, it is there too. Think USS Enterprise. We need to talk about the ubiquity of Times New Roman and Arial on watch dials though. These top choices from MS Word have found their way mysteriously into high horology, including Patek Philippe and Romain Gauthier - the latter even uses Zapfino for his logo.
Yeah but the most annoying is incorrect use of the plural of Lego which is fucking Lego not Legos. Only those comedy yanks use Legos, let's stop with the yankisms Andrew. Or Larry perhaps?
One more design shortcoming in that Chopard bracelet is that the clasp is friction-fit. I have an older 1937 with the same clasp closing mechanism and one side won’t stay closed anymore. Indefensible at this price point.
Hello Andrew. Great video as always and very well executed about the details. It made me look through my collection of watches and now I can point out the flaws 😂 cheers mate
I'll never forget my Dad telling me a story about getting a suit tailored, and the tailor asked him if he dressed to the left or the right. My dad said "Huh?" 40 yrs later, it's still stuck in my brain.
It could have been worse, Andrew, it took me 14 weeks to get a half link from Sinn for its fine link bracelet. I couldn't directly order the link from Sinn, but had to go through the AD, which in turn had to wait for Sinn to include the link in its regular restocking delivery. The good news, however, is that the link allowed me to perfectly size the bracelet.
Thank you. I'm starting to learn what is acceptable and what is not. While the Bremont font distribution took me some time, the 4:30 date on the Breguet was an immediate WTF.
The Breguet is up there. But for me, the Patek Cubitus chrono, with the garish date wheels and the awkward cut outs on the number markers is the worst one to me. The other two Cubitus' shown there look pretty good to me. But that chrono version just has a cheap watch kitchen sink look to it. But I don't even think that was Andrew's issue with it.
I was under the impression that the date display on the IWC was designed like it is so the date can still be read (or deducted, if you will) when the actual date is blocked from vision by the hand...
There must be several million watch channels on TH-cam; none of them come even close to being as entertaining as Andrew Morgan's. His wit is absolutely priceless. Every time I watch one, like this one, I say to myself "he needs to be doing something much more lucrative than this. I'm simply going to have to read one of his novels.
VC did a square 222 back in the day, AP did a square royal oak, both had the decency to not claim they were a new collection. Or that creativity was involved. Patek never did a square nautilus but they did do the nautilipse. Better times, better people.
I think the Nomos looks great. No idea why it ruffled some feathers. If the movement is smaller, you get a smaller display window - which should be expected? Imo it makes it look even more special because making a smaller movement for the same job is what horology is for.
I totally agree with you on the date window placement, and have been saying it for years. Also, I dislike round date windows. My favorite watches do not have the date at all.
I'll tell you what use the IWC date display is and I won't kill you: if it's quarter-past the hour when you glance down to find the date, by simple mental arithmetic you can work out the date even though the hand is covering it.
As dialed in (yeah, I know) as your videos are, did you sneak in Easter eggs with the 4:30 date window on the GS and the Chopard after putting that little design detail on the list?
About the IWC with the date window that shows three dates: there is a practical reason for this. You can make out the date no matter where the minute hand is. I have, in fact, wanted to know the date 15 past the hour and was frustrated by that pesky minute hand on other watches.
You are absolutely spot on about date windows. And toilet paper and cereal milk. PS - you went out and bought yourself a Chopard with a 4.30 date window though, apparently?
The quick adjust link should be standard in ALL watches. Ridiculous that only dive watches have it is simply absurd. I also agree that ALL mechanical watches should come with exhibition case backs.
13:40. Love timing bezels from Rolex. I have a 6609 TurnOGraph waiting to be unboxed tomorrow that I hope is everything I’ve built it up to be in my mind.
I've recently began my obsession as a watch collector. And i must say- out of all the luxury brands I've been researching, for me the MAMACOO's watches are the most intriguing.
The VC Oversquare, ha ha! How about an AP Royal Cube to along with it? Companies like IWC, Breitling, and a handful of others should actually consult with a watch enthusiast pilot, such as me, to help define what we pilots actually want in a watch. Because I can tell you that giant cases and crowns, oversized dials and junk there on, etc. most definitely isn’t it.
9:35 The 556 I hands were probably designed first for 556 A with arabic numerals on the dial. On 556 A the minute hand just reaches the hour indices at 3, 6, 9 and 12, and the hour hand just reaches the arabic numerals at 3, 6, 9 and 12. They use the same hand set on 556 I and the design doesn't work that well.
By the way, older Parmigiani Fleurier models used a 3-day date window, like that IWC, and while I love those older PF watches, I cannot get over that silly date window. It’s just ruined the watches for me.
As for the Sinn, you’ve obviously not really looked, but simply decided. The 556s, like most of Sinn’s watches are about legibility, space and function- with a little design flair, often in the form of restraint, as is the case with the 556s. I have two. I prefer the ib- a watch, with its blue sunburst no-date dial and 12 identical applied markers and polished hands seems to want to be a dress watch, but with its simple slab-sided fully brushed case screams, ‘tool!’ Yet it seems to feel comfortable spanning the two identities. I’d understand complaints about the hour hand- its stubbiness is… a feature, but it doesn’t hinder reading the watch in any way, and contributes to the space left over. As for the other two hands: on the metal-handed versions the minute-hand is a minor triumph. It is perfectly shaped and pointy enough to be 100% legible. The space between the second markers and the hand is charged and alive as time is eaten up. This is only enhanced by the second hand, also perfectly legible, and always reaching reaching reaching for those markers as it ticks around. Lovely lovely interplay between the few elements that make up the dial, contributing, to my mind, a subtle dynamism to a seemingly ‘boring’ dial. On the black i version, that the second hand not reach is even more important. In certain lights, when the blacked-out part of the hands fall into the black background, and one observes the second hand, it seems to bend, due to the mind assuming that the pivot-point is where the white ends in the hand. Fun! I think this effect might not happen were the second hand to reach out to the edge if the dial. My point? The 556s are minor design triumphs, and you should try to not be such a dumbass. Also, always fun vids.
Ticked a few of my pet peeves. Obscure date windows, no micro adjust on any but the absolute cheapest bracelets (the Chinese can manage it on sub $200 watches, font stew.
I have a genault expedition on pre order. Think I may have a couple of extra lines of text on the dial😂 Most of my Seiko divers are JDM. They seem to be fine. My sla divers are aligned perfectly.
Come on! The Rolex Deepsea in gold is perfection! It is everything a modern Rolex should be! It is the definitive Rolex. The only thing that would add more Rolexness to achieve peak Rolex would be diamonds and a leopard pattern dial!
Having seen and tried one on after all the publicity and bad mouthing I found that really liked the look of the platinum 5822P - all I need now is a bucket full of money from a lottery win.
Andrew, when you said “font” repeatedly, for some reason, white icing from a Mr.Kipling cake flashed into my head and now I can’t get it out no matter how much SuperGlue™ I huff…😮
I really hate it when people quote (even briefly) the story of NASA spending huge sums of money developing a space pen, when the Russian just used a pencil. One it’s not true, NASA didn’t develop anything they just purchased a few pens from Paul C Fisher. And two, I’m not an astronaut but if I were, I’d rather not have bits of graphite floating around my spacecraft getting in electrical systems or my eye.
I agree with most of your points. But I do think you are wrong on the date window, watch geeks freak out over it too much. On the design you showed… it didn’t look good, but it looks good on others.
You should include all the multi-thousand watches that use cheap sellita movements, but somehow get a free pass because "SWISS". Breitling, for example, sells tons of them, including the superocean and the chronomat GMT. It's funny how Brick watch company gets blasted for putting cheap movements in $2000+ watches, but when Swiss luxury brands do the same shit (and charge you even more), it's "HoRoLoGy" and "HeRiTaGe".
You Ok, blood pressure a tad high, Wife left you, dog died, must be something that’s rattling you cage, watch collecting has a simple rule, Buy what you like...so sit down, take a deep breath..and smile, it’s going to be OK unless your favourite criminal/political hero is Donald Trump
You know Andrew, there are other times when conditions become…..uh…..uncomfortable other than the sight of a mountain…….at night…..in IFR conditions………..(?). For example a pilot can never have too much fuel. Unless your aero plane is on fire. Or, skills of a fine pilot are often demonstrated after a severe miscalculation in judgement. Yes, driving yourself in an aero plane is fraught with interesting experiences. Please do not ask me how I know these things :-( Fine review btw. Thanks
Best comedy channel on the Interweb, occasionally talks about watches.
No American comedian is safe from Andrew Morgan's strays
9:12 "a strap of 23mm is like Amy Schumer with an original joke." 😂😂
Amy Schumer with an original joke…absolutely hilarious. 😂
“No need to get it all the way up in there , just the tip is fine“. Never a truer word 😂
Another brilliant video! Waiting for next Sunday’s video already. Thanks Andrew!
Swear to God these just get better and better! There is simply no equal on TH-cam, hilarious and informative, my fave youtube channel of all!
You need to get out more lol
Just on the typography bit, which is an area that many watch brands ignore for some reason: The Romans used the Capitalis Monumentalis for stone inscriptions, which is quite elegant - and yes, fairly difficult to chisel. Its shapes are the result of the brush with which it is painted on the stone first. That's also where the serifs come from, the little feet at the stroke terminals that guide the eye. -
On the Bremont it's Eurostile for the bezel, the date, and for the text on the bottom half of the dial, and Futura for the logo and the numerals 6, 9, and 12. Helvetica on the back. Eurostile has been the choice of watch designers since the 60s, when Aldo Novarese brought it into this world to convey modernity and speed. It can also be seen in every action fiction film worth its salt - and whenever things happen in space, it is there too. Think USS Enterprise.
We need to talk about the ubiquity of Times New Roman and Arial on watch dials though. These top choices from MS Word have found their way mysteriously into high horology, including Patek Philippe and Romain Gauthier - the latter even uses Zapfino for his logo.
You had me at USS Enterprise!
“A pair of shoes filled with Legos” OUCH! 😂😂
Lego, there is no ‘s’.
Yeah but the most annoying is incorrect use of the plural of Lego which is fucking Lego not Legos. Only those comedy yanks use Legos, let's stop with the yankisms Andrew. Or Larry perhaps?
Everything looks good in an aeroplane, except the side of a mountain! LOL
One more design shortcoming in that Chopard bracelet is that the clasp is friction-fit. I have an older 1937 with the same clasp closing mechanism and one side won’t stay closed anymore. Indefensible at this price point.
I’ve always found Rolex’s dial essays a bit ridiculous.
Rolex should change their dial script to say: ‘Superlative ability to turn a luxury experience into impostor syndrome “.
The Amy and Jimmy jokes were on point. Great video bud
Hello Andrew. Great video as always and very well executed about the details. It made me look through my collection of watches and now I can point out the flaws 😂 cheers mate
Mr. Morgan, you are my Sunday's listening cup of tea.
I'll never forget my Dad telling me a story about getting a suit tailored, and the tailor asked him if he dressed to the left or the right. My dad said "Huh?" 40 yrs later, it's still stuck in my brain.
It could have been worse, Andrew, it took me 14 weeks to get a half link from Sinn for its fine link bracelet. I couldn't directly order the link from Sinn, but had to go through the AD, which in turn had to wait for Sinn to include the link in its regular restocking delivery. The good news, however, is that the link allowed me to perfectly size the bracelet.
Thank you. I'm starting to learn what is acceptable and what is not. While the Bremont font distribution took me some time, the 4:30 date on the Breguet was an immediate WTF.
Totally agree. That one bugs me the most. Funny that Grand Seiko did the same!
@@patrickhartmann1540 My first thought was the 45mm Bulova Lunar Pilot
The Breguet is up there. But for me, the Patek Cubitus chrono, with the garish date wheels and the awkward cut outs on the number markers is the worst one to me. The other two Cubitus' shown there look pretty good to me. But that chrono version just has a cheap watch kitchen sink look to it. But I don't even think that was Andrew's issue with it.
“Cross eyed gun dog” is diabolical 😂😂😂
Cubitus is a great addition to the range for Nautilus owners and the new instantaneous day/date movement is a beauty.
Slick video with a bucket of subtle gags. Liked the Uboat line
I was under the impression that the date display on the IWC was designed like it is so the date can still be read (or deducted, if you will) when the actual date is blocked from vision by the hand...
There must be several million watch channels on TH-cam; none of them come even close to being as entertaining as Andrew Morgan's. His wit is absolutely priceless. Every time I watch one, like this one, I say to myself "he needs to be doing something much more lucrative than this. I'm simply going to have to read one of his novels.
VC did a square 222 back in the day, AP did a square royal oak, both had the decency to not claim they were a new collection. Or that creativity was involved. Patek never did a square nautilus but they did do the nautilipse. Better times, better people.
..better pizza, Papa John's
Andrew is simply right. About (almost) everything.
I think the Nomos looks great. No idea why it ruffled some feathers. If the movement is smaller, you get a smaller display window - which should be expected? Imo it makes it look even more special because making a smaller movement for the same job is what horology is for.
Click! The sound of Jimmy Fallon unsubscribing from Andrew’s channel.
I totally agree with you on the date window placement, and have been saying it for years. Also, I dislike round date windows. My favorite watches do not have the date at all.
my GMW-B5000TVA-1 has more text than the deep sea and i love it, wear it 4-5 days a week these days (used to be 7-days).
Thank you, this video is spot on!
The Cartier tank XL also has a 22.5-23mm lug width. Bizarre!
23 fits.
Enjoyed the Chopard story. 😊
I'll tell you what use the IWC date display is and I won't kill you: if it's quarter-past the hour when you glance down to find the date, by simple mental arithmetic you can work out the date even though the hand is covering it.
The usual wit and insight, but cannot agree with you on the Sinn 556, a classic- although in black
Ahm... there is no measurable extent of any kind where Jimmy Fallon is funny. No such dimension exists.
As dialed in (yeah, I know) as your videos are, did you sneak in Easter eggs with the 4:30 date window on the GS and the Chopard after putting that little design detail on the list?
About the IWC with the date window that shows three dates: there is a practical reason for this. You can make out the date no matter where the minute hand is. I have, in fact, wanted to know the date 15 past the hour and was frustrated by that pesky minute hand on other watches.
You are absolutely spot on about date windows. And toilet paper and cereal milk. PS - you went out and bought yourself a Chopard with a 4.30 date window though, apparently?
Man, Tom brought me IWC in Vanilla Sky, that was the one. Still don't know if I should take my watch off at night like TC did in the film.
The quick adjust link should be standard in ALL watches. Ridiculous that only dive watches have it is simply absurd. I also agree that ALL mechanical watches should come with exhibition case backs.
13:40. Love timing bezels from Rolex. I have a 6609 TurnOGraph waiting to be unboxed tomorrow that I hope is everything I’ve built it up to be in my mind.
23mm lug weigh. I am a proud owner of such a watch. A Mido Multifort escape. And to get a strap in that size AliExpress was able to help.
Tudor black bay bronze bucherer ❤
Same here. Citizen Navihawk A-T in my case.
Strange my alpine eagle fits perfectly
😂😂😂
@ 😂 no sarcasm intended lol I removed a link myself with a flat head
Priceless, absolutely Priceless 😂
Great video Andrew! Thank you. As far as the Cubitus, IMHO it is a homage to the Cartier Santos, just uglier.
I heard recently that Rolex Submariner with comic sans font on the dial. Just a rumor.😅
Solid casebacks rule! If you dont have a fancy chronograph, no use!
My favorite watch channel without a doubt.I’m happy to spend my money on MAMACOO watches. I’ve never been let down by their products
i love how you know all those details
One of your BEST!
Replace the 6 o'clock marker is the best one.
I have that very bremont model. And like it very much. The font count is a point taken. But i am not bothered by it.
Oups that Chopard date….not at the right place….😊
I've recently began my obsession as a watch collector. And i must say- out of all the luxury brands I've been researching, for me the MAMACOO's watches are the most intriguing.
I just consider the alignment problems part and parcel of a seiko, after all these years its consistent
Gand Seiko not only did the watch strap at 23mm but the date window at 4:30 as well 🤦🏼♂️
lol the Seiko Samurai chapter ring was misaligned in the stock photos 😂
Fortunately, my Seiko Samurai's dive bezel is perfectly aligned. 😎
The VC Oversquare, ha ha! How about an AP Royal Cube to along with it?
Companies like IWC, Breitling, and a handful of others should actually consult with a watch enthusiast pilot, such as me, to help define what we pilots actually want in a watch. Because I can tell you that giant cases and crowns, oversized dials and junk there on, etc. most definitely isn’t it.
Jimmy Stewart and Hitchcock 😂 references a-go-go....Nice
Jimmy Fallon and Amy Schumer, Piers Morgan and James Corden, and even Hitler! 😂
9:35 The 556 I hands were probably designed first for 556 A with arabic numerals on the dial. On 556 A the minute hand just reaches the hour indices at 3, 6, 9 and 12, and the hour hand just reaches the arabic numerals at 3, 6, 9 and 12. They use the same hand set on 556 I and the design doesn't work that well.
I love that complicated Cubitus .. if that isnt a fun watch I dont know what is!
By the way, older Parmigiani Fleurier models used a 3-day date window, like that IWC, and while I love those older PF watches, I cannot get over that silly date window. It’s just ruined the watches for me.
12:45 - Oooooh “link”; I’m an idiot!
For those Super Troopers fans would understand… 😂
I can't believe you didn't mention the Nomos with 2 separate date indicators.
Excellent. Thank you.
“Liquid wrist turd” I almost spat my beer 😂💯
Good one.
As for the Sinn, you’ve obviously not really looked, but simply decided. The 556s, like most of Sinn’s watches are about legibility, space and function- with a little design flair, often in the form of restraint, as is the case with the 556s. I have two. I prefer the ib- a watch, with its blue sunburst no-date dial and 12 identical applied markers and polished hands seems to want to be a dress watch, but with its simple slab-sided fully brushed case screams, ‘tool!’ Yet it seems to feel comfortable spanning the two identities. I’d understand complaints about the hour hand- its stubbiness is… a feature, but it doesn’t hinder reading the watch in any way, and contributes to the space left over.
As for the other two hands: on the metal-handed versions the minute-hand is a minor triumph. It is perfectly shaped and pointy enough to be 100% legible. The space between the second markers and the hand is charged and alive as time is eaten up. This is only enhanced by the second hand, also perfectly legible, and always reaching reaching reaching for those markers as it ticks around. Lovely lovely interplay between the few elements that make up the dial, contributing, to my mind, a subtle dynamism to a seemingly ‘boring’ dial.
On the black i version, that the second hand not reach is even more important. In certain lights, when the blacked-out part of the hands fall into the black background, and one observes the second hand, it seems to bend, due to the mind assuming that the pivot-point is where the white ends in the hand. Fun! I think this effect might not happen were the second hand to reach out to the edge if the dial.
My point? The 556s are minor design triumphs, and you should try to not be such a dumbass.
Also, always fun vids.
Nice video Andrew. What was it about again?
Ticked a few of my pet peeves. Obscure date windows, no micro adjust on any but the absolute cheapest bracelets (the Chinese can manage it on sub $200 watches, font stew.
I have a genault expedition on pre order. Think I may have a couple of extra lines of text on the dial😂
Most of my Seiko divers are JDM. They seem to be fine. My sla divers are aligned perfectly.
Rolex Deep Sea in gold should have deleted the gas valve text, ok on the tool steel version but ruins the gold for me and would do a gold sub instead.
but 2 of these watches I would definitely buy 😎.. But.. you make some good points.
Come on! The Rolex Deepsea in gold is perfection! It is everything a modern Rolex should be! It is the definitive Rolex. The only thing that would add more Rolexness to achieve peak Rolex would be diamonds and a leopard pattern dial!
How anyone couldn't like that Rolex 😍
Did anybody else wonder why the minute hand on the Patek watch didn't line up with the ten past marker?
Speedmaster is always the answer
Haha…after you pointed out all the fonts…it didn’t look as good as the first impression…I was thinking how I liked the Diver/GMT combo
Mostly spot on, but I have no issue with the IWC date. I think it actually provides some appeal.
Having seen and tried one on after all the publicity and bad mouthing I found that really liked the look of the platinum 5822P - all I need now is a bucket full of money from a lottery win.
Tighter than a billionaire at Christmas! 😂
The GS Tentagraph also had a date window at 4:30…could have used one watch to cover two sins lol
Poor Bremont … even the good one’s can’t catch a break!
Andrew, when you said “font” repeatedly, for some reason, white icing from a Mr.Kipling cake flashed into my head and now I can’t get it out no matter how much SuperGlue™ I huff…😮
I’m 1000 percent with you on the date being placed between 4 and 5. Zenith does that all the time. Can’t stand it!!!
“Like making watches for the bad guys” hehe. Speaking of which I’ve just bought a lovely Laco.
Never once noticed or paid attention to fonts. Now that's all I see
I really hate it when people quote (even briefly) the story of NASA spending huge sums of money developing a space pen, when the Russian just used a pencil. One it’s not true, NASA didn’t develop anything they just purchased a few pens from Paul C Fisher. And two, I’m not an astronaut but if I were, I’d rather not have bits of graphite floating around my spacecraft getting in electrical systems or my eye.
At 2:32, you say that a PSA poster at your Doctor's surgery had many fonts? Why is this noteworthy or funny?
Please can someone explain. Thankyou.
10:36
Grade A burn.
A+ if you change "funny" with "isn't annoying"
Great point with too much dial text, it's one of the things I don't like Rolex
Best superlatives on youtube🎉
Did you really buy a Chopard with the date at 4:30???
I agree with most of your points. But I do think you are wrong on the date window, watch geeks freak out over it too much. On the design you showed… it didn’t look good, but it looks good on others.
Lov the nod to Pink Floyd.
You should include all the multi-thousand watches that use cheap sellita movements, but somehow get a free pass because "SWISS". Breitling, for example, sells tons of them, including the superocean and the chronomat GMT. It's funny how Brick watch company gets blasted for putting cheap movements in $2000+ watches, but when Swiss luxury brands do the same shit (and charge you even more), it's "HoRoLoGy" and "HeRiTaGe".
One word answer to that: Hublot.
👏👏👏
😂😅@@matthewbrotman2907
@@robertposteschild2353 everybody knows the rules
You Ok, blood pressure a tad high, Wife left you, dog died, must be something that’s rattling you cage, watch collecting has a simple rule, Buy what you like...so sit down, take a deep breath..and smile, it’s going to be OK unless your favourite criminal/political hero is Donald Trump
You know Andrew, there are other times when conditions become…..uh…..uncomfortable other than the sight of a mountain…….at night…..in IFR conditions………..(?). For example a pilot can never have too much fuel. Unless your aero plane is on fire. Or, skills of a fine pilot are often demonstrated after a severe miscalculation in judgement. Yes, driving yourself in an aero plane is fraught with interesting experiences. Please do not ask me how I know these things :-( Fine review btw. Thanks
The Patek Phillipe Swifty!
“Just the tip”- me at age 15…..😂
Breguet got blasted for a 4:30 date window but the very next watch (Grand Seiko Chronograph) got a pass for it?