Well hello there and you join us here today to talk about the most Swiss of Swiss watches that’s right this is 10 Swiss watches for a thousand bucks now that does sound like I’m Gonna Get You 10 Swiss watches Tom for a thousand bucks but here’s how it’s gonna go down
I’m gonna pick five watches they’re gonna be a thousand bucks each you’re gonna pick five watches they’re all going to be Swiss dear if you’re a listener here’s where you come in tell us at the end did Tom pick the best five or did I pick the best five are you
Ready to go Tom all right then I’ve gone for my first pick the ball fireman Enterprise watch now the fireman doesn’t refer to those sexy men in the big red truck that tackle Blaze is this fireman refers to the man whose job it was to shovel coal into the boiler of a steam
Locomotive because Ball Watch Company are all about the railways because they started in America in 1894. now it might sound like I’ve completely fluffed the first Swiss watch choice but hang on a second um so the ball watch company was uh started in America it was an unprecedented Endeavor that included the
Creation preparation and inspection of thousands of watches and that was in 1891 um and then in the 70s they began using Swiss movements because that’s where it’s at isn’t it and so it remains yeah so they’ve got they’ve got a number of In-House calibers that are all cost certified and swiss official chronometer
Tested all that good stuff this watch features the automatic caliber ball rr1103 I’m not sure if that’s in-house or if that’s some sort of modified enter or whatnot but the coolest thing about it and one of the things ball is probably most famous for is their glow
In the dark action and this watch has got 15 micro gas tubes that make up the hour indices and uh there’s one each on the hour minute and second hand and there’s sort of little glow-in-the-dark capsules which are really really cool and yeah it’s just a really nice steel
Watch shame to start off with an American watch Tom but I it says Swiss made on the dial says it right there it’s kind of a shame actually because the American brands were incredibly good and due to popular demand they moved over to Switzerland instead of staying
Where they were based maybe one day we’ll see them go back but for now Swiss made you are correct by a technicality which I think is the best kind of correct Tom I will take your balls and raise you one bomb immersier now this is a proper Swiss watch made in Switzerland
Made in Switzerland since 1830 and that’s a while ago that’s old this is the classima 10324 not quite sure why it’s called the 10324 I don’t think it’s the 10 324th design that bomba Mercier has made but it is at least described as a fine men’s watch which is a shame because I’m
Sure women can wear it too yeah naughty Boma Mercier stuck in the past there but that’s what you get for being a million years old or however old they are yeah you get a 40 ml meter stainless steel case and it is apparently powered by Swiss made energy which is their way of
Saying quartz uh so what what do you lose in fancy fancy mechanical ugainian sweet sweet thinness this is a fit six millimeters thick a very very thin watch so it really has wow those dress watch Vibes very small lugs as well so it’s gonna it’s gonna wear very very nicely
For both men and women which is why it’s odd that left yeah very distinctly picked out men uh for this watch lovely blue Sunburst dial as well some Roman numerals and a date for knowing the date always good very nice yeah so for my next pick I’ve gone with the Frederick
Constant Classics index automatic now it started in the 80s so 1880s nope the good old 1980s okay shell suits and shoulder pads Frederick constant was there yeah yeah so relatively young for a Swiss watch come company but um definitely Swiss who says Geneva right there under their logo so I’m having
That so this is the classics index automatic it’s classics by name and classics by appearance because it’s a very traditional looking timepiece especially this model with the silver dial and the brown calf leather strap which is very nice very elegant looking it’s 40 millimeters in diameter and it’s
Also very thin this is only 10 millimeters thick as well so like you say should wear very nicely for men and women should slide under any cuff or up inside a vending machine if that’s how you operate some nice details to be had here so you’ve got the indices there
Which have sort of beveled tip to them which gives them a little bit of visual interest and the second hand is blue and you get a pure matte dials inside is an automatic FC 303 which I think is a base Salita movement so all together it becomes something that’s very refined
And tasteful but also quite quite casual as well it’s could be a just a quite quite a nice daily wear I admire the optimism of a brand 150 years after the founding of its contemporaries thinking yeah we can do this too we can make Swiss watches it’s the 1980s and
Everyone’s like whoa like digital clocks and and that and they’re going yeah let’s make a mechanical watch instead sure Tom let me take you into the world of certina because this is the DS Powermatic 80. now satina were founded in 1880 so a hundred years before your
One okay yeah I’ll have you know that’s fine that’s the century details this watch may look quite dainty and small but you’ll find it’s actually 41 millimeters across 11 millimeters thick and you can have it in a variety of different Steels including a PVD Gold version what you’ll note is the the
Designation of Powermatic 80 and that might ring some Bells because this is the ETA caliber used by tiso in the PRX but it’s also used here in satina which is also a a Swatch group brand and that means you get that lovely 80 hours of power reserve a I wouldn’t necessarily
Call it an in-house movement but it is a very unique movement um giving you a fully Swiss and very elegant and classic looking time piece if you like that sort of thing certainly looking at the photos this is exactly the kind of what she would buy if you
Were say a graphic designer or perhaps someone with obsessive compulsive disorder yeah it’s very interesting isn’t it it’s quite different I like the Gold pbd version and especially on that banded NATO strap there it’s a bit different I think it’s quite fun actually so for my next Swiss watch brand I’ve gone with
Another American brand this is Hamilton again with their pioneering railroad Aviation and Military Spirit but as Hamilton say American Spirit Swiss Precision so established in 1892 in Lancaster Pennsylvania but they hitched their wagon to the Swiss donkey named etto in 2011 so that’s that’s all the Swiss Heritage you’re getting but since
Then they’ve been appearing in every Chris Nolan movie so that’s just as cool as any amount of Swiss history um in my eyes so this is the Khaki Navy scuba Auto and it has a chunky steel case and a chunky bezel and there are various color always I like this blue
And white version it’s got a very nice sort of nautical freshness going on which is which is very pleasing to me um and especially this Sirocco Edition um I’m not entirely sure who sauroko is uh some kind of engineering company um but what they’re bringing to this watch
I think is the orange minute track the nice flashes of orange there on the minute track and the second hand which really pops against the navy blue dial and the uh the white rings in the center is new to this Edition again I think that’s some kind of Nod to the wind
Powered speed record attempts at Sirocco are embarking upon anyway um the blue rubber strap as well is a really nice addition yeah really cool watch Hamilton do do really cool watches in general and this is another one I believe that’s another appearance for the Powermatic 80 in there but that is a
Very nice looking watch isn’t it um talking of nautical fresh that’s exactly what I asked for when I get my hair cut and then he knows what you mean when you say that right but I get this I don’t I don’t what you think but like
It’s been blown about by the wind and faintly smelling of sewage okay good Tom if you like orange then you are going to love this doxa sub 200 Pro now it’s called professional but I’m saying Pro because it makes me sound like I know what I’m doing uh docso was founded
In 1889 and they were right in there in the thick of it with Rolex with Omega and all of those guys making the first dive watches that people were using Under the Sea now famed hat wearer and undersea Explorer Jacques Cousteau was known for wearing a number of different
Dive watches because he took whichever one was offered to him for free and one of those was this doxa so it is a proper tried and true and tested um the doxa big chunker dive watches they will cost you more but this is a smaller 200 meter water resistance but
Still every bit the dive watch that you could possibly want it’s 42 millimeters across and 14 millimeters thick you get the 200 meters of water resistance a Swiss Salita caliber and with that bright orange dial you won’t lose your wrist when you go diving pretty cool
Yeah that is nice I love a bit of International Orange me it’s not just International Orange I like the bright yellow and turquoise and yeah fun fun yes they have definitely gone for colors that people find popular at the moment good on them I say right for my next one
I’ve got a Swiss Juggernaut uh since 1975. again it’s quite new but you know those Swiss Jura mountains aren’t going anywhere so set up a watchmaking company there and crank them out and that’s what Maurice Lacroix have done and this is the I think they want me to say icon but
Acorn it’s Acorn quartz I’m gonna say icon I’m just gonna say it I’m gonna abide this is the icon quartz 40 millimeter so it has a fixed bezel with six arms as Maurice Lacroix refers to them but I struggle to identify those as arms what would you call them nodules
Yeah cool I was going to say John bees but we’ll go with nodules um so you’ve got the fixed bezel there with the uh the the nodules on them um and this uh icon quartz has been reappraised lately based on some customer feedback this is a new
Iteration is very familiar well one of the things they’ve changed is a subtle change but I think it’s quite nice and it’s working in its favor uh the some of the sharpness and the angles of the edges and Corners have been reduced so you’ve got a nice greater overall
Softness to the piece which I think makes it feel a bit more refined and actually you know a little bit more sporty um you’ve got a nice Sunburst blue dial and thin applied indices which give it a little something something and it just looks like a cool watch is 40
Millimeters there’s a date window at three it’s got 100 meters of water resistance what’s not to like on Marissa choir are very much known for making good quality watches for the money so if you’re looking for something familiar and you want it to be well made
Then you can put your money here and you’ll know that you’re gonna get a good quality watch it’s not particularly original it’s not ages and ages of Swiss Heritage but it is going to keep your wrist pretty happy in a 1970s Vibe for for a while for a good while I think
Up until the point you’ve saved your 30 000 pounds for a Royal Oak yeah exactly Tom the next Swiss watch I’m going to give for you is a tiso founded in 1853 and I know what you think I’m going to say I know you think I’m going to say
PRX but I’m not talking I’m going to say another word and gentlemen what this is the very bizarrely named tiso gentleman Powermatic 80s salicium celestium oh Chucks Chucks a little bit of marvel-ness at the end there you know sounds like where Vikings go when they die or
Is tiso sitting on their own silicon hairspring that we don’t know about well this is the third outing for the Powermatic 80. I think I’ve kept count correctly there this one has a silicon balance spring as you mentioned it does it does wow you know a thing that was a
Good guess and that means that it is very resistant to magnetic fields which means you won’t get that oh no my watch is running fast now I have to go to the jewels and have it demagnetized that you can get with metal balance Springs it’s also a very attractive watch
Um 40 millimeters across 12 millimeters thick pretty much spot on there in terms of proportions lovely Sunburst dial in a variety of different colors and shades steel case 100 meters of water resistance a a date window there with a nice little frame around it all together you’re getting basically if you were to
Describe the watch that you want at the price that you want it for this is kind of it you know absolutely yeah this is the kind of watch I like steel blue nice Sapphire case window on the back so you can see you can see the nice salicium
Tom if we don’t retrieve the silesium by the end of the day the world will explode facilitium lightning strikes my eyes uh right shut up though because from one Greek god to another this is the Zodiac olympos stp-111 so our East kalangme are you all right son of a watchmaker 1882 there’s a
Black and white photo of an old dude on the about us page so kalami’s Dynasty managed to become one of the fastest growing companies in Switzerland and in 1908 he patented the name zodiac so that’s plenty old isn’t it so points for me there so um this is
The Olympus and it’s a legacy piece from 1961 inspired by the Olympus military watches made for the British Royal Navy so it’s a rugged field watch built for outdoor adventure as is most of zodiac swatches I think that’s where they’re at um probably the most notable thing about
This is the case shape it’s giving me Batman Vibes Tom Batman is the Batman oh right like I’ll bet do you mean Batman’s cowl yeah yeah oh yeah okay or some sort of grapple gun well it’s got the nickname the manta ray because I think most people think it
Looks like a manta ray not anything associated with Batman Batman’s cooler I think it’s because of the the sort of pointy lugs at the top there’s a bit of asymmetry and the pointed lugs look like they’re sort of the fins that you would find on around the mouth of the manta
Ray yeah that’s Batman so yeah well yeah nice nice Batman helmet case shape there um uh other notable features include a hacking seconds function um which stops the second hand dead in its tracks for precise time setting and there’s a lovely Smoky textured dial um in either green or black I like the
Green one it looks like someone’s shining a spotlight on a lawn at night which is very good it’s all transportative in that sense who’s there if you yeah like a UFO abducting some numerals that are neatly arranged on the lawn um what are we talking about yeah and
And the new moves themselves are actually quite nice sort of vintagey Sandy creamy tones there which some people like myself included um yeah so very nice vintage Vibes overall I think it’s a really cool looking watch it’s nice to look at something unfamiliar for a change yes they make a lot of round
Watches don’t they this isn’t round and I’m all for that but Tom let’s round out these 10 Swiss watches with an old favorite from longine ah now London founded in 1832 it’s not the oldest here but it’s very close by two years this is the Hydro Conquest which means
C battle something War C Invader and this is a 41 millimeter watch 12 millimeter sticks 300 meters of water resistance which is exactly what you want from your dive once you want way too much water resistance just so you know you’re going to be safe when you
Wash your hands it’s got the Swiss quartz l157 Source from Etta and I think this watch is probably the best quality here when you look at a longine close-up the details they are chef’s kiss yes the markers they’ve got those Metal Frames around the house got the nice little
Kink and the almost snowflake-like Loom plot there on the hour hand Crown guards all shaped and lovely and chunky everything about this the nurse on the bezel the shape of the lugs the polished links all of it is is way way up there for the cost this this to me is one of
The most complete packages that you can get yes it is quartz but where you lose out there you really gain in the quality of the thing and lunging 1832 one of the oldest Brands ever in the whole world yeah I really like it and um sometimes I
Can’t decide whether or not I want my markers as dots or indices bars or big numerals um so this Hydro Conquest has got me covered um which is really cool that’ll do you good on any dive if if that’s what you like to use your dive watch for I mean
It’s a bit weird but you might do well there you go dear viewer and listener 10 Swiss watches for around a thousand bucks would you pick any of those would you add something else to the list and who do you think did it better me or Tom
Shaking my head there please let us know in the comments below thank you so much for listening uh please also like And subscribe as it really does help us and we’ll see you next time goodbye bye -bye
