Horological Meandering

iim7v7im7
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Choosing between 4 day-date automatics?

Hi,

I have been rethinking my collection lately with a mind towards consolidation. 

Background:

I have 6 automatic watches with a manual wind incoming in April.  I am finding that like many of you in the same situation, the rotation and wrist time is becoming difficult; hence my thought regarding consolidating the collection to a smaller number of watches. Also, my watch winder is a 4 head Orbita so, some watches are kept wound and others are stored in the drawer.

Automatics:

1.       Ball Watch Engineer Master II Diver Chronomter (Ref. DM1022A-SC1A-BKSL)

2.       Glashutte Original Panomatic Lunar (Ref. 90-02-02-02-24)

3.       IWC Aquatimer 2000 (Ref. 3568-05)

4.       Jaeger-LeCoultre Reserve de Marche (Ref. 148.84.04)

5.       Sinn 756 Diapal (Ref, 756.030)

6.       Stowa Antea 360 (Chronometer)

Manual:

·         Chronoswiss Regulateur 24 (Ref. CH 1123) incoming

The watches that I am considering “letting go” are the Ball, Sinn and the Stowa.  The Ball is a great watch, but it is a bit redundant with the IWC which I prefer.  The Stowa doesn’t get worn as much vs. the JLC these days.  I do wear the Sinn but two things in retrospect bother me about this watch. The Sinn has poor lume and I miss the seconds hand does not move unless the chronograph is engaged. I also would like a somewhat thinner chronograph and I know that the ETA 7750 drives the depth of many. So if I sold these, it would leave room on my winder for one new automatic watch.

So I am trying to identify potential options based on holes in my collection if I sold these three off. It would leave me with:

·         Sporty Diver on a Bracelet (IWC)

·         Dress Watch with a Power Reserve on a Strap (JLC)

·         Casual/Dress with Lunar on a Bracelet(GO)

·         Casual /Dress Regulateur Manual Wind on a (Chronoswiss)

This leaves me without a plain day-date watch, chronograph or a GMT/dual Time watch. I find that when I travel, I don’t want to take my better timepieces due to airport security, so I usually travel with an inexpensive radio-quartz watch. I also find that use the chronograph timing functions not too often and some of my quartz watches have this function. 

So I am thinking about a straight ahead casual/dressy day date watch. Stainless case, >36 mm, <42 mm in diameter, fits under a shirt sleeve on a 7-1/4” wrist, depth, display case back, with a dark dial, on a bracelet or strap and

Part of me wants to look at brands outside of what I have, but another part of me likes certain models that they make in these types of watches.  This is likely a common dilemma among collectors even though it really should not be a constraint.

Candidates:

·         Blancpain Leman Ultra Slim (Ref. 2850B-1130A-71-Retail $12,400)

o    large date for old eyes

o   In-house caliber 6950 with 70 hour power reserve

o   40 x 11.4 mm

o   display case back

·         Grand Seiko SBGH005 (Retail $7,200)

o   40 x 13 mm

o   in-house 9S85 caliber, 36,000 bph

o   display case back

·         Nomos Zurich Datum Anthracite (Ref. 804-Retail $3,660)

o   39.7 x 9.5 mm

o   In-house Zeta caliber with 42 hour power reserve

·         Omega De Ville Hour Vision Annual Calendar (Ref. 431.30.41.22.06.001-Retail $10,700)

o   annual calendar function

o   In-house 8611 co-axial caliber with 55 hour power reserve

o   41 x 14 mm

o   Display case  back

Questions:

·         Which of these 4 watches would you choose and why to diversify my collection?

·         Is trying to exclude existing brands a poor decision (Chronoswiss, GO, IWC and JLC)?

·         Are there other watches that I should consider?

Thanks,

Bob