Searching For My Perfect Third Watch

Over the past two decades or so, I’ve had two watches in mind that were my grail watches. In the last year, I’ve been able to acquire both of those watches. The watches in question were the IWC Big Pilot and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya. For the most part I never thought I would have one, let alone both of these watches in my personal collection. Things work out funny sometimes, and now I find myself with both of these in my safe… well not the Montoya, it’s off having its crown replaced.

The IWC Big Pilot has always been one of my favorite watches since the original IW5002 was released in 2002. The watch was homage to the B-Uhr military watch from World War II and featured a large 46 mm stainless steel case, 7 day automatic power reserve and came on a riveted buffalo leather strap. In my eyes the watch was just perfect. My wife and I even got engaged in New York City while I was wearing a 5002. I have owned a few versions of the Big Pilot from the ceramic Miramar to the titanium Heritage, but the ones that always stuck in my mind as the most desirable and un-obtainable were the perpetual calendar variants. I first saw a perpetual calendar Big Pilot was when John Mayer stopped by a watch show in Vegas to offer me his limited edition titanium Big Pilot perpetual calendar. Knowing how big of a star he would become in the watch world over a decade later, I should have bought that watch.



By some means I ended up owning two time only full sized Big Pilots in early 2023. Now I loved both watches, but I really didn’t need two Big Pilots. Naturally my mind started to think about how I could trade the two on a Big Pilot perpetual calendar. I knew the market price on the two Big Pilots was pretty close to that of a perpetual, so over the new few weeks I spammed every dealer that had one of the two Big Pilot perpetuals I liked until a deal was made. The Big Pilot perpetual I ended up getting was the Top Gun version. This was actually the Big Pilot perpetual that was at the top of my list, so I was extremely happy, even if I had to add a bit of cash to the deal. The thing I liked most about the Top Gun variant was the slightly larger case of 48 mm and also the matte black ceramic case. The black dial was also the best looking in my opinion. The other watch I was considering was the Rodeo Drive Perpetual Calendar, but it was a little smaller and also had a blue dial, which I thought wouldn’t go with as many outfits as the black dial.



So now I’m sitting with the Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar and as it has for nearly 20 years, my mind still couldn’t stop thinking about the Royal Oak Offshore Montoya. Even more so then the Big Pilot, the Montoya has been my favorite watch for as long as I can remember. I might have got engaged in the Big Pilot, but I got married in a Rose Gold Montoya. The titanium Montoya is actually my favorite though, not only is it a lot less expensive than the Rose Gold and Platinum version, but it just looks the best. The titanium case has a great hue to it and is very lightweight and durable. The carbon fiber bezel compliments the titanium as well. The white dial is also highlights the stunning chequered flag design of the dial and just makes the watch look clean. The titanium version is also the only of the three to get the black strap with white stitching, which in my opinion just finishes off the watch perfectly.

Also in 2023 I was able to acquire a pristine full set titanium Montoya, which is extremely rare to find since only 1000 of these watches were made and most didn’t end up with both box and papers. So now you would think that having both of these grail watches in my collection would mean that I no longer had to add any more watches to the collection. This is what I thought, but I soon found out that was incorrect.



While I love both of these watches, they aren’t exactly everyday watches. The first main issue with both watches is their costs, with both being valued at well over $20,000. They just aren’t the type of watch you throw on to run errands around town. While the Top Gun is made out of ceramic and thus hard to scratch, the Montoya will not take well to run-ins with harder objects. The ceramic in the Top Gun won’t really scratch, but if you chip it, there really is no way to repair it. So keeping the watches in good shape since they will be with me for a very long time is other big issue with both watches. We tend to stay in pretty safe areas when we go out, but if we did find ourselves in a questionable area, they could attract the wrong kind of attention as well. I do think my wife’s platinum and steel Rolex Yacht-Master would be more of a target though.

This all just makes the case for a third “daily” watch very strong. Easy right? Just go buy something cheaper that you don’t mind if it gets beat up a little. This is the exact thought I had and I’m now on my fourth try at a daily watch and I still haven’t got it right. The correct answer to this question is a Rolex Submariner, Deepsea, Sea-Dweller, Explorer II or GMT, but I’m just not a Rolex fan, so cross those off of the list.

The first watch I attempted to be my daily watch was the Sinn U2 EZM 5. I had always liked the Sinn U1 since it first released, and the U2 was just its newer upgraded brother. The U2 took the water resistance of the U1 from 1000 meters to 2000 meters and also added a GMT function. The main thing that intrigued me about the U2 was its case made out of German submarine steel. On paper this made the steel much more durable and less likely to scratch. The main issue with this steel is its weight. While some people like the heft of a watch on their wrist, I am very used to carbon, titanium and ceramic watches, so the U2 was just too heavy for me. I wore it for a while and I just ended up feeling that it was too heavy for me personally, so failure number one on finding a daily watch.



I had always liked the Aquatimer series from IWC and thought it might make a great daily watch. I really liked the time only versions and found a third generation IW356810 at a great price and thought I’d give it a shot. This version of the Aquatimer was also 44 mm like the U2 and crafted out of regular stainless steel. The watch has a black dial and a sapphire bezel in yellow and black. The watch came on a black rubber strap with a regular tang buckle. While I found the Aquatimer to be extremely attractive, I couldn’t get over two things. The first, like the U2 the steel case was just very heavy. The second and probably what did it for me was the rubber strap just wasn’t comfortable on my wrist. Also with the design of the strap system IWC used for the watch, I couldn’t just swap to some aftermarket strap to fix my issues with the strap comfort. So there is failure number two of finding my perfect daily watch.

Next up I decided to stay with IWC and try out the first generation GST Aquatimer 2000 in titanium, the IW353601. This watch was the first Aquatimer released and followed up the amazing IWC and Porsche Design Ocean 2000. The watch measures 42 mm, but wears a little larger due to its integrated bracelet design. Being titanium, the watch weighs next to nothing. It did come on a titanium bracelet, which I’m really not a fan of. In Texas, the temperature can go from 110 F to 50’s in no time. Without micro adjustments, most times a bracelet is either too tight or too loose. Although IWC didn’t make a rubber strap for this model, the next generation Aquatimer did come with a rubber strap, which would fit the first generation Aquatimer. Once I moved the watch over to the rubber strap I liked it a lot more. I thought I had found my perfect daily watch and even wore in on vacations, while helping my mother in law move and other errands. Now one little thing kept bothering me about the watch… although it should wear larger than the 42 mm diameter it’s listed at, it didn’t, and it constantly found itself favoring one side of my wrist or the other. I didn’t realize this was an issue I had with watches, but with this Aquatimer I figured out why I don’t like smaller watches… I need to have a watch pretty much centered on my wrist. So there we have it, failure number three for my quest for the perfect daily watch.



Around the time I was starting to see that the first generation Aquatimer 2000 wasn’t going to work, a listing came up for a Hublot King Power Oceanographic 4000 in full carbon fiber. The price was extremely good for the watch and I felt that I could sell the Aquatimer 2000 to cover the price. The Oceanographic was released in 2011 and held the record for the deepest diving watch for nearly a decade. The watch measures 48 mm in diameter and let’s call it 20 mm thick. The 48 mm diameter didn’t really bother me, but I gave pause to the 20 mm thickness. When the watch arrived it was a little heavier than I thought and I didn’t seem like the 20 mm was too crazy. Over the next few weeks I wore the watch often and thought it might be a perfect daily watch… but that didn’t last. The first thing that started to annoy me was how sharp the bezel design was. Even if I barely brushed into something, the bezel would cut whatever it was and some particles would get sandwiched between the bezel and case. With the watch being all black, this drove me nuts. The next thing that was starting to bother me was the strength of the carbon fiber case. Back in the day, the forged carbon Royal Oak Offshore Team Alinghis would get their bezels completely destroyed. While I haven’t really noticed any damage occur to the watch, it is always in the back of my mind. The final thing that did in the Oceanographic for me was the lack of a deployant clasp. With the Oceanographic being so top heavy and bulky, I have found myself catching the watch multiple times when putting it on and going to buckle the watch. So there we have it, my forth and most recent failure at finding a daily watch.



So now having failed four times at trying to figure out my mythical perfect daily watch, I feel like I have a great idea of what I’m looking for. The criteria is as follows… The watch needs to be larger, preferably over 42 mm, or at least wear like it is that size. The watch needs to be on a rubber strap and have a deployant clasp to take the fear of dropping it away. I would prefer a lighter weight material like titanium, but steel would work as well if the watch wasn’t super heavy. Since I am in the watch business, it needs to be a watch that is from a brand with some horological significance. Finally it needs to be a watch that I actually want to wear over the Montoya and the Top Gun.

I actually have three watches in mind that would probably fill most of these criteria, with one being perfect. Let’s start with the one of the three that might be the biggest risk and might not fill all my needs. This would be one of the newer divers watches from Ulysse Nardin. I absolutely love Ulysse Nardin and just haven’t owned a watch of theirs for some reason though. The new range of divers from Ulysse Nardin come in a huge range of materials and colors, with the ones most interesting to me being the non-chronograph versions with a titanium case and carbonium bezel. Carbonium is a new material from Ulysse Nardin that promises more durability than carbon, but keeps the same interesting patterns of forged carbon. The watches look amazing and will also wear very light, with many of them showing off the manufacture movement from the caseback. While the watches come on rubber straps, most if not all have a standard tang buckle, which is on my no list. I think Ulysse Nardin has a deployant clasp that would work on these straps, which might help with my trepidation. I could always get an aftermarket deployant, but it feels a bit weird to do so on such a high end watch.



The next watch I have been thinking about as being a great daily watch would be the full sized Blancpain Fifty Fathoms or 500 Fathoms in titanium. These watches are the most historically important diver’s watches along with the Rolex Submariner and also come in a 45 mm case. Most versions have a display back where you can see the manufacture movement and also boast a 120 hour power reserve. I know most of the watches do not come with a deployant clasp, but I know Blancpain makes a deployant that will fit the full sized strap of the Fifty Fathoms or 500 Fathoms though. The 500 Fathoms seems more like the watch I would pick being slightly larger and having 1000 meters of water resistance, but the overly large numerals on the dial kind of ruins it for me, even though it does have a very interesting sandwich dial construction. The Fifty Fathoms does also seem a bit boring when comparing it to something like the wild Oceanographic.



The final watch I’m considering for my perfect daily watch is one of the original 42 mm Royal Oak Offshores. Sure these are very similar to the Montoya I already have, but I already know I love how these watches wear. The main hurdle to these Offshores is the price. While you can pick one up for around $10,000 less than the Montoya, they are still a bit off from what I can trade the Oceanographic for. For me to get into one of these, I’d have to call in a favor and see if I could work something out. While these watches are 42 mm, they really wear a bit larger of at least 44 mm. The models I’d be looking at would be the steel rubberclads or something from the themes versions like the Volcano. For the most part these older Offshores are all made in steel, but they really aren’t that heavy. I also know any decent watchmaker could easily polish scratches they might pick up out. All these older Offshores also came with deployant clasps and AP still makes the rubber straps for them. A lot of people hate the old AP design deployants, but I find them very comfortable, I mean my Montoya has one and I love it. If I can make an Offshore work, that is the route I would go, but I’m just not so sure I can pull it off.



So there you have it… all of the failures I’ve had at trying to find a perfect daily watch and the shortlist of watches I think would make a great daily. Now things change fairly fast, so who knows what my next attempt at finding a daily watch is going to be. Whatever I end up going with, I’ll make sure that I do a full write up on it when it arrives and put some pictures of it up on Instagram as well.