This year’s GPHG jury awarded its preeminent “Aiguille d’Or” to MB&F for its CHF 160,000 Legacy Machine Sequential Evo, whose Twinverter switch allows several chronograph timing options including split seconds and lap timer modes.
Hodinkee chose the £218 Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch as its Watch of the Year.
In a way, the MoonSwatch award from Hodinkee is a welcome counterbalance to the GPHG, which all-but ignores commercial innovation and success in favour of pure horological excellence.
There is a place for both.
Hodinkee lists the models that have had the greatest impact on the watch business this year: “Tudor seemed to release a new classic every other month. Rolex went left-handed. AP celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak with a brand-new Jumbo reference. Vacheron brought back the 222. Patek revived the Nautilus,” it senior editor Danny Milton writes.
But the MoonSwatch trumped them all in its Watches of the Year review.
“Fans camped out for it. Police showed up to control the crowds. For a brief moment, the most popular consumer product on Planet Earth was a wristwatch,” Mr Milton says.
“As far as we’re concerned, any watch that generates that kind of excitement is a good thing – especially when the watch in question draws its design cues from one of our all-time favorite models, the Omega Speedmaster.”
Hodinkee concludes that the MoonSwatch was the biggest release this year in every quantifiable metric.
“Its release almost broke Hodinkee’s servers, generated the second-highest number of pageviews in Hodinkee history, and registered more than 1,100 comments on our introductory story – a record-breaking show of reader engagement,” it concludes.
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Whilst I accept that the MoonSwatch is a tremendous commercial success it’s a pretty poor inditement of the watch industry when a cheap, plastic watch which blatantly copies the design of an illustrious other (I assume that ‘bio ceramic’ is a plastic) is chosen as anyone’s watch of the year.
More importantly, if this achieved the second highest number of hits ever on Hodinkee’s servers what achieved the highest number? Perhaps a plastic copy of a Submariner?
Whatever it is. It’s a huge success. End of
Lovely but no one can buy the thing
I really like the design and idea of this watch. I have tried to buy this watch, but stores are always out of stock. Also one have to stand on a line to get it and yet its not certain that you get it. Now I want take this watch even for free.
Bio ceramic is not a plastic. It’s a ceramic hybrid typically used in surgical implants eg hip replacement joints. It’s a very hard material.
LOL
Don’t know yet not read article
I got one in germany
Well it got me into Swatch shops in 3 continents looking for a moon watch… unthinkable
I have 2 and the wife has 1. Everyone asks about them.
Market created but ineffectively served by substandard product.
Obviously created a buzz amongst those with no idea and bought out the worst aspects of watch ownership – quick profit / no genuine interest in the subject.
Pure Apple psychology which worked so well it even took the manufacturer by surprise.
Echoes of Rolex et al creating artificial value inflation.
What a joke. Watch of the year. Unavailable to virtually everyone. Flipped, the moment bought. Your hearded, like sheep, if you buy into this ethos.
Now, the Seiko GMT, on the other hand. Might have been a worthy winner. I know which one I’d prefer.
Agree. You either have to queue for hours or pay over the odds to a flipper. No thanks. Would be nice to have one but who wants all the hype and nonsense?
Got one for Christmas, mission to Mars! Goes to show that limiting production helps the watch. Unsure how omega helped feels like a Swatch.