Last night I met up with my friend Manny who organizes gatherings for guys interested in menswear and related things in Nashville when there isn’t a pandemic raging; he calls the organization The Commonwealth. It was just nice to meet up with someone in public for a shared plate of burrata and a beer.
Beforehand I stopped by the Omega store to ask about repairing my dad’s Omega’s bracelet clasp which doesn’t close securely anymore, and while I was there I scoped out a couple watches for fun. First was the Moonwatch. Ever since my brother gave me the Other Moonwatch, I’ve been looking at the real deal a lot online and learning about all its ins and outs. It was great to see in person because they had both the hesalite and sapphire crystal versions. Surprisingly, I think I determined I preferred the hesalite’s looks. Pictured below, the sapphire version.
I wore the Bulova to compare the two. The sales woman who helped me instantly recognized it when I took it off to try the Omega, and asked if she could look at it. It was really neat that she knew the story behind it, and she was a watch enthusiast so she was excited to see one in-person after seeing them all the time online. We had a really great conversation about Omega, Moonwatches and vintage while I was there.
I also scoped out the newest version of the Seamaster 300m, the current version of my dad’s Omega from the late 90s. I vastly prefer the “vintage” version he owns, which I wear regularly. Everything about it feels more proportionally designed—the numbers on the bezel, the hour markers, even the logo. The new one is just more in-your-face, brighter, more saturated; it’s physically bigger at 42mm vs 41, and it’s thicker, too. I can see its appeal, but I prefer the older one.
My friend Manny has been binging Game of Thrones the last few weeks while he’s been at home, and when we met up, he’d gotten through the first episode of the final season. I relished hearing how he thought the show would go, which character he thought might do what, and what his hopes were; it was fun to relive that build-up to the show’s conclusion we all experienced last year. I’m really looking forward to hearing his thoughts on the end, since he hadn’t invested 8 years into the show like most others who felt let down by it.
