First of all, Happy New Year! I hope 2026 has started smoothly for you.
2025 seemed to have flown by. A few ups and downs throughout the year. The sudden loss of our beloved cat Bowie (previous post) and a major health-related incident (or rather, accident) occurring in mid-September, but more about that later.
On to the topic at hand. My watch wearing tally varied a little since last year. Although, the top two spots were filled by watches that have been in the top three for the last few years. In a couple of years, I'll sit down and tally up the results of these yearly lists, in order to see if there are any pieces that haven't gotten any wear on the wrist at all.
As it stands, I have a Seiko SARB033 model that hasn't been worn for over three years and is currently listed on eBay. It's a great watch, without a doubt. It's only flaw in my view is that it sports a 38.5mm diameter, which I find a little too large on my wrist, for the type of watch that it is. It's a dressy watch and I tend to prefer this type of watch in a smaller size. If it were two millimetres smaller, I'd keep it. Alas.
And so, let me begin.
1 - Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight
I knew this one would claim a spot near the top, but I was surprised to see it reach Number One. Worn throughout 56 days of 2025, this favourite has proven to be a reliable and accurate wristwatch (I hate the term 'timepiece'!). I bought it on Boxing Day back in 2020 and it will likely be due for servicing sometime in the next couple of years but for now, it's purring along nicely. I don't want to repeat what I've written in previous yearly watch wrap-ups, so there's not really much I can add here about this watch.
So, I'll briefly mention the pen that's visible in the frame. And then I got the idea to include a fountain pen in every photo, so I'll quickly mention each of them, just for the hell of it.
My wife and I got back from a trip to
Ho Chi Minh City earlier this week. This was a much-needed break for us. We had been working flat-out (Aussie slang, meaning 'a LOT') since early 2024 and we had gotten fairly worn out. While there, I spent some time looking for something to purchase to celebrate my 60th Birthday last week. I didn't want to get another watch. As regular readers will know, I have more than a few watches in my stable. So instead, I thought about another fountain pen (got a few of those too) and decided to go for a
Mont Blanc. I've avoided them over the years because of the hype that surrounds the brand, but now I figured
Well, what the hell. Get something to commemorate this milestone birthday. Might as well go for a heavy-hitter.
I had no luck finding a
146 model with a Medium nib, so I put this purchase on hold until I got back to
Melbourne. Couple of days after getting back from the trip, I headed over to the Mont Blanc boutique at a major shopping centre and, lo and behold, they didn't have a medium nib 146 in stock either.
However, the saleslady suggested I try the fine and medium nibs on their 'tester' pens to see if I'd like the fine nib. I was a little dubious, as I find that a fine nib tends to show the defects in my handwriting a little more obviously than a medium nib.
Anyway, I tried the fine nib and then compared it to their medium. A barely noticeable difference between the two. Surprisingly, the Mont Blanc fine nib seemed to write closer to a medium nib in some of my other pens. And so, I bought it. Done!
Okay, on to watch Number 2.
Again, another watch that I suspected would land near the top. This was last year's most-worn watch and it racked up 53 days on the wrist this year. This is an understated watch, one that provides time only, but it does it very, very well. This type of watch is often referred to as a Field Watch, but I prefer to think of it as an Expedition Watch.
A quick explanation regarding the difference between a Field watch and an Expedition watch, IMHO;
Most Field Watches tend to have all 12 numerals on the dial. They were designated Field watches due to being issued to the military. Hamilton is perhaps the most well known current producer of Field watches these days, thanks to their Khaki range. Here's an example, picture courtesy of
hypebeast.com/2023/8/hamilton-khaki-field-full-titanium-automatic-watches-38mm-42mm-release-info;
Easy to read dial, with a 24-hour count track, clearly visible hands, and a seconds-hand to denote that the watch is running, and for those Alright, boys, synchronise your watches moments that you sometimes see in old war movies.
Now, this type of watch is also very similar to what you call
Pilot's watches, which feature a virtually identical dial and hands layout. But that is a whole other post. Preferably by somebody else.
Regarding
Expedition watches, well my theory - and it is pretty much just that - is that they should only have 4 numerals on the dial, usually at the cardinal points (12, 3, 6 and 9), and this is where the Rolex Explorer comes in, representing the most famous watch with this configuration. Other notable Expedition watches include the
Nivada Antarctic, which was used by members of
Admiral Richard E. Byrd's crew during their
Operation Deep Freeze expedition in 1955/56;
In recent years, I've come to like the sparse and no-nonsense layout of a plain Expedition watch. Sure, they often don't have a date window, but this is not a detraction in my view. It's a good memory aid to check the date in the morning and then remember it for the rest of the day.
As this year's statistics show, this type of watch was a favourite of mine in 2025.
The pen - A Officine Leonardo Furore Sun Yellow, with Medium nib. This is a relatively new brand which produces some stunning pens. This one creates a smooth line on the page and makes for some effortless writing. You'll see a couple of others from this brand in this post. I thought the colours of the pens would brighten up the photos. Also pictured is a Matchbox 1963 Mercedes-Benz 230SL. If I ever set up a small bar in the lounge room - maybe in the next house - I'll put a few of these on display, to man the place up a little. Not so much a man-cave. Maybe more of a man-corner. 3 - Omega Seamaster Professional 300m
Perhaps the watch that I've owned for the longest time...actually, it IS the watch that I've owned for the longest time. The original skeleton hand-set began to get difficult to read in the dark, so I swapped them out for a sword hand-set. I think I already wrote about this in my 2024 Most-Worn thread, so I won't go into it all again. While nowhere near the regularity of wear that the first two watches on this list achieved, this watch spent 32 days of 2025 on the wrist.
As for the pen, it's another Leonardo. This one is a Momento Zero in Seaweed Green, with an Elastic Fine nib. I bought this pen off eBay for a good price but it was fitted with an Extra Fine nib, which I knew I wasn't going to like. Sure enough, once I received it and filled it with ink, it produced a fragile handwriting which showed up all of the gaps in the loops of my lower-case letter a's, g's, y's and d's. So, I visited a website called Galen Leather and got a Fine nib for it. Most of my pens are either Medium or Bold nibbed, so I figured a Fine nib wouldn't hurt too much. Fitting the nib took some trial and error* (and ink-stained fingers) and I'm not 100% certain that I've done it absolutely correctly, as the ink-flow tends to take some vigorous shaking to get the pen going. But once it starts, it writes very nicely.
*Leonardo pens switched nib manufacturers sometime in 2021. They once used nibs made by Bock and now use nibs made by JoWo. Both companies are German and the nib quality is great on both. The main difference lies in the plastic nib feed section, as their design is slightly different. This nib change-over required some hit-and-miss on my part before the ink flow was suitable.
4 - Baltic Hermétique Tourer
Here's one that has become a favourite since I got it in 2024. Thirty-one days clipped to my wrist and it proved to be quite reliable. Baltic make some nice bang-for-buck watches, with some nice variety. The bead-of-rice bracelet makes for a very comfortable fit and offers some breathability on warm days. And the watch's 37mm diameter works nicely on my small wrist. I've gotten very selective in recent years with regard to what kinds of watches and sizes I prefer. For this type of watch (yes, it's an Expedition piece, in my view), thirty-five to thirty-seven millimetres seem to be the sweet spot for me.
As for the pen, we have another Leonardo Momento Zero, this one in a nice marbled blue barrel and cap, with a Bold nib. This pen was part of a swap that I did with my old boss and I think he got the better end of the deal. When I got this pen, it had a 1.1 Italic nib on it. It wrote okay, but had a habit of tearing into the paper when I wrote. Either the nib was too sharp or I couldn't master the art of holding the pen correctly. In the end, I replaced this annoying nib with a Bold one, which writes a nice thick line. Now it's a great pen.
5 - Omega Railmaster Co-Axial (36.2mm)
Twenty-one days on the wrist. I think this watch may be well overdue for servicing and I'll get around to it this year or next, unless it stops running beforehand. Again, another Expedition watch and an absolute fave of mine. If I had to whittle the collection down to five or six watches, this one would be a stayer, without a doubt. This 2nd Generation Railmaster has become increasingly collectible in this 36.2mm diameter, as they weren't produced in this size for the same length of time as their larger 39mm and 42.2mm siblings. As such, this model currently sells for silly pricing on the pre-owned market.
Once again, a watch with simplicity of layout, making for excellent legibility. I think this watch has appeared on every one of my yearly lists, which tells you something.
The pen is a Pelikan M450 Vermeil, with a medium nib. The cap and barrel end-cap are 925 Sterling Silver with a rose gold plating. As such, it does tend to get a purple tarnish over it from time to time. I've been told that regular use of the pen is one way to prevent this tarnishing from happening. Otherwise, I just run some Brasso over it with a cotton cloth to bring it back to its original lustre.
The images in the photo are still from a Netflix show called
Love, Death + Robots, a series of self-contained episodes set in alternate futures and universes, showcasing some stunning animation. Two episodes by
Alberto Mielgo are absolutely gorgeous to look at. One is titled
Jibaro and it concerns a 17th century soldier who is deaf and is therefore immune to the siren song of a water nymph who lures entire armies of men to their deaths in a large lake in a forest. The other episode is called
The Witness and it centres on an exotic dancer (stripper) who witnesses a murder and is soon on the run from the killer. The animation is fantastic across almost all episodes of this two-year series but these two were standouts for me.
Another smaller-sized watch. And it sits nicely on my wrist. Longines pitches this range along the Pilot's watch line, as the brand uses historic aviators such as
Amelia Earhart,
Charles Lindbergh, and
Howard Hughes in the marketing for this Spirit line of watches, which has done nicely for the brand in recent years.
Similar to the Railmaster above, this watch spent 21 days on my wrist and it performed flawlessly. Great Watch.
The pen is a vintage
Sheaffer Imperial (I think), possible 1960s or more likely from the 1970s. Writes nicely and has a nice heft to it.
I got some regular wear out of this watch throughout last year. Racked up 19 days with it, and it was the watch that I took on my holiday to Ho Chi Minh City, as I wanted something with quartz reliability (and solar powered was a bonus) and easily replaced if damaged or lost. The watch served me well. I tried to ensure that the first photo of each day was one of the watch, showing the date. That way, it would be easier to recall what we did on any given day. Although, we didn't really take too many photos this trip. As far as I was concerned, this was a holiday from everything, including worrying about whether or not I'd taken photos of any particular thing.
Water resistant enough to handle a hotel pool or shower, legible dial, quartz accuracy, adjustable bracelet clasp, to allow for swelling of the wrist on a hot day (and they were ALL hot days!) and every blast of sunlight would charge the solar cell in the watch.
Basically, this watch represented the best of what a set-and-forget wristwatch can do.
There was a time in my watch collecting journey when I would have scoffed at a watch like this.
Fool that I was.
The pen is a Montegrappa Privilege with Medium Nib. When I visited relatives in Italy ten years ago, they surprised me on the last day with this pen, which I thought was far too generous of them. Cap and body are Sterling Silver and it has a nice weight to it. And it writes nicely too.
But even if it didn't, would I get rid of it?
And that's 2025's watches wrapped up.
Other watch-related news.
1)
Oh yeah, regarding the health-related incident that I mentioned in the opening paragraph. I fell off a ladder and fractured my spine back in September. No way to sugar-coat it, folks. Might as well just come out and say it.
We have been doing some painting, in an effort to get the house looking tidier so that we can put it up for sale and move into something a little more manageable. This house has garden surrounding it on all four sides and the maintenance takes some doing. Anyway, my wife was painting the kitchen/dining area walls and I was tackling the exposed beams along the ceiling. The house dates back to 1974 and, for some ungodly reason, the original owners painted these beams with a mission brown stain. This meant that, rather than being a coat of paint that could be sanded off and re-painted in any other colour, the stain had actually soaked into the timber so that any attempt at removal of this colour would require sanding away quite a bit of timber. Screw that. That would be way too much work and mess.
Instead, my wife consulted with the guys at the paint section of our local hardware store and they provided us with a can of white paint which has a slight grey running through it when wet and then dries to a nice subway-tile white. Two coats of this stuff should do it.
So, I got to work. I rigged up a plank of pine between two ladders to create a short 'bridge' which would be high enough to reach the uppermost section of the beams at their apex, approximately 10-and-a-half feet high once I was on the highest point of the plank and stood to full height.
One ladder was a modern aluminium one (yes, that's how we spell aluminum in Australia. And we pronounce it as 'allooo-minny-um'). The other ladder was a vintage wooden one that I had revarnished years ago.
Anyway, it all seemed to be working well enough. It did involve quite a bit of getting up and down this ladder bridge but I was basically done. Until I noticed a small patch that I'd missed.
Right in the top corner, only about a finger's-width unpainted. I placed the two ladders up close to the spot and climbed up the wooden one. A few seconds later, I'm on all fours on the plank, about six feet off the ground and getting ready to stand up so that I can give this tiny patch of the beam a lick of paint. I noticed that this set-up suddenly felt a little rickety to me.
Last thing I recall seeing was the plank twisting quickly to the side.
Next thing I knew, I was on the kitchen floor, lying on my left side and struggling to catch a breath as I tried to yell out Oww, owww, owww!
My back and ribs were killing me as I tried to breathe in. My wife and kids rushed in. I said my back hurt like hell, as she told the kids to clear the ladder debris while she fetched a blanket and came back to place it carefully under my head.
Just try to get your breathing under control, Tee, she said. I took short breaths as the pain continued. She asked if I could wiggle my toes. Yes, I could.
Where does it hurt?, she asked.
My spine and back right-hand side were in agony.
My breathing slowly got under control and she wiped my forehead with a cold flannel towel.
Some time passed before I was able to gingerly get up onto all fours and they helped me up and over to the couch.
She asked if I wanted her to call an ambulance. I don't know, I replied.
An hour or so later, she took me to the nearby hospital. It was around 1:00pm. We went in through the Emergency door and were soon seen to by one of the staff. Very shortly afterwards, I was on a hospital bed in the Emergency Department. Over the course of the next eight or nine hours, I was given a CAT Scan, blood test, blood pressure check, blood sample taken, X-rays and told to lie still. The Doctor poked and prodded my back while I tried not to scream.
A nurse would appear every so often to ask me what day it was. Just to ensure my brain was still working as it should. Did it ever? Or maybe she was having trouble remembering what day it was?
The CAT scan and X-ray revealed a fracture of the T6 vertebra in my upper back. I was wearing my Hamilton Khaki Field Auto when I arrived at the hospital, but soon took it off and handed it to my wife. Right now, I didn't really need to be wearing a watch;
Turned out to be a compression fracture of the vertebra. No broken ribs, but they hurt like hell on the right-hand side of my back. Had they been bruised? Every breath seemed a struggle. They gave me some over-the-counter painkillers, which took the edge off. The CAT scan also showed some cysts on my liver, to be dealt with later on. Man, what the hell!
More about that below.
Not really much more they could do. They gave me some more painkillers before giving me the all-clear and basically told me to avoid any heavy lifting, twisting at the waist, or strenuous activity for the next few weeks.
Cool. I sent a text to my boss later that night to say that I would not be at work the following week.
I moved carefully over the next seven days. And on the following Friday night, at about 8:00pm, I sneezed and the pain started all over again. Aww, hell!
Back to hospital a couple of hours later, when it seemed like it wouldn't subside.
I apologised to the Doctor who saw me this time, saying I felt like an idiot, but she reassured me with the old better-safe-than-sorry line. She prodded the back of my ribs near the spine and I flinched.
Yeah, that's it!, I said through gritted teeth.
Okay, it looks like you may have bruised the intercostal muscles that are attached to the ribs as they join up to the spine. These muscles expand when you breath. What I want you to do is take ten deep breaths every hour and cough ten times every hour. Try it now for me.
I tried taking a deep breath. No fun.
Okay, now try coughing.
I coughed. Once. That was even less fun.
She gave me a referral for further X-rays, as a precautionary measure, and I went and had them done the next morning.
Here's the remains of the broken timber ladder. The Hamilton Khaki is on a different strap;
From what I can tell, it looked like one of the ladder's legs split at its base and down I went. It all happened so fast.
Visited my GP a few days later for the results of the latest X-rays. I was hoping to see some actual X-rays but all he had was the report. He explained a little bit about compression fractures. No further damage done to my back, which was good. He wrote me out a referral for an Ultra-sound, to have the cysts checked out. I had the ultra-sound done later the following week and they turned out to be benign. Just a part of aging, as told to me by my GP at the follow up appointment a week later. He told me to ramp up my Vitamin D intake by getting out in the sun a little more.
My back still felt tight and a little achy in the first two months after the fall.
Thankfully, this has faded since then, and I pretty much feel normal now. Although, I haven't tried any heavy lifting since.
So that's that disaster averted. It could all have been much worse.
2)
I finally got around to getting my Rolex Submariner serviced. I bought the watch back in 2015 and I sent it off get worked on back in October 2024. I was told the repair would take around 5 to 6 weeks.
It took 20 weeks and 3 days.
Came back working smoothly, though.
They had it long enough.
3)
My wife has a Sinn 556A. I bought it for her back in 2014 and she basically wore the hell out of it until sometime in 2021.
This 556A ticked all the boxes regarding the type of watch she prefers;
1- Large-ish (38.5mm diameter case)
2 - Clearly readable numbers on the dial.
3 - Date
4 - Water-resistant (to 200 metres)
It is a well-built and reliable watch. And it had a certain cachét for her because it was German-made rather than Swiss. This gave it a little more point of difference. The only thing that began to bug her about it was the size of the date window, placed at the 4:30 position of the dial. It was small, and her eyesight (or mine, for that matter) isn't what it used to be.
So, since I was working for the company at the time, I got her an Oris ProPilot Big Date, with blue dial;
As indicated by its name, the Oris ProPilot is considered a Pilot's watch and it was a successful seller for the brand.
While she liked the overall aesthetic of the Sinn watch, the difficulty in reading the date became a deal-breaker for her. So, I got her the Oris and she's worn it ever since. It's a 40mm diameter, but she doesn't mind it. It sits well on her wrist.
The Sinn 556A was soon packed away in her bedside cabinet.
Of course, me being me, every time I saw one of these 556A's online, I'd start thinking of getting my own. About a month ago, she saw me looking at one on my iPad.
I have one of those, she said.
Yes, I'm thinking of getting one myself, I replied.
Don't spend your money. Have mine.
No, it's yours. I'll get my own.
Just take mine. I don't wear it anymore. The date's too small. Don't waste your money.
We went back-and-forth for another minute. She was right, of course, but I didn't want to take her watch.
Don't be silly. Take it.
Regardless of my interest in wristwatches, she was right. It made sense.
So, I added a few extra links to the bracelet and began wearing it. It has every scuff and scratch that she put on it.
Which makes it look even more awesome.
She wore it the way a wristwatch is meant to be worn. It's supposed to reflect the life and adventures - big or small - of the person wearing it. It's meant to scar like its owner.
And that, folks, is that. No major shake-ups, but an interesting exercise for me nonetheless. We'll see how I go this year.
In the meantime, take care and thanks for reading!
P.S. - And it looks like Blogger is now highlighting names and phrases and providing links to them.
Hmmm.
