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If the person you’re going to give a Christmas gift to is a watch enthusiast, you might want to consider buying a timepiece and a luxury watch, too, instead of the umpteenth luxury or tech-savvy accessory. However, when choosing a new watch, you might get easily lost, given the number of products, including smartwatches, time-only or complicated mechanical watches, or those equipped with solar or quartz technology. It’s indeed hard to pick the right one, even more so today, given the abundance of options available. The recommended retail price usually starts slightly above 100 Euros to grow to thousands of Euros and more, depending on your budget. Therefore, we selected and picked five timepieces belonging to different product categories, sorted by price.
Casio G-Shock x Captain Tsubasa Limited Edition DW-5600MWCT-7ER
Rugged sports watch lovers admire Casio‘s G-Shock product family (a brand within a brand) and military corps, too, as highlighted in our military watches related article. G-Shock partners with stylists, military corps, streetwear brands, and Japanese cartoons to produce exclusive limited edition watches throughout the year. The last in a row, and one of the most affordable G-Shock collab watches ever, is named after Captain Tsubasa, a Japanese manga series created by Yōichi Takahashi in 1981, better known, at least in Europe, with the “Holly and Benji” namesake.
The Casio G-Shock x Captain Tsubasa Limited Edition watch is a pimped variant of the rectangular-shaped low-cost DW-5600MWCT-7ER, featuring resin-made case and strap, and a quartz movement with a +/- 15 seconds per month accuracy. The Casio G-Shock x Captain Tsubasa Limited Edition DW-5600MWCT-7ER retails for 129 Euro and comes as a single batch of 1000 pieces. However, if you’re eager to get your hands on one, hurry up since it’s going to become a collector’s piece soon. From a price tag standpoint, this G-Shock is the perfect Christmas gift.
Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar
Scrolling through the list, here is the Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar, the most advanced T-Touch ever. The Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar includes a T-Touch Solar Expert‘s standard functions like perpetual calendar, countdown, timing, alarms, weather, and altimeter gauges while adding new functions such as an activity tracker, phone messages or call notifications along with social Apps’ push notification, for example.
The T-Touch Connect Solar looks like an analog timepiece but incorporates a MIP display that ensures high readability under any lighting condition. Available in brushed, black PVD, or rose gold PVD titanium, it runs on an in-house developed operating system and retails for 1,025 Euros on a rubber strap. Stay tuned, as we’re going to release an in-depth video review of the Tissot T-Touch Connect Solar by the end of this year.
Seiko Prospex SPB105J1 Dark Green Sunset
The Seiko Prospex SPB105J1 Dark Green Sunset is a special edition Prospex inspired by the 1968 Seiko Diver‘s case. Among the accessible Seiko diving watches, the SPB105J1 successfully combines a rugged diving watch’s specs with a sleeker and classier design than a Sumo or a Turtle, in my opinion.
The Dark Green Sunset Edition, whose standard variant is usually referred to as Seiko Marine Master 200 or MM200, is a professional diving watch. It is not limited in quantities as it is the Twilight Limited Edition watch instead. The base specifications are as follows: the case measures 44mm across and is 13,1mm in thickness, and adopts Seiko‘s proprietary Super Hard Coating to protect it against scratches and dents. Powering the Dark Green Sunset is Seiko 6R15 caliber ensuring 50 hours of maximum power reserve when fully wound. With a sticker price of 1,100 Euros, it’s a great value proposition.
Accutron Spaceview 2020 Limited Edition
With the Accutron Spaceview 2020 Limited Edition, we’re adding to the list a new technology to quartz, solar and mechanical watch movements. Accutron is back in business as a fully independent brand, introducing the industry’s first-ever electrostatic-powered wristwatch.
The Spaceview is the outcome of a ten-year project as ambitious as it is a breakthrough, and this limited edition is Accutron‘s talking piece. It comes as a collector’s box, including an Accutron-branded watch case and the book “From the Space Age to the Digital Age” published by Assouline. Accutron has produced only 300 pieces of the Accutron Spaceview 2020 Limited Edition. If you’re interested in discovering additional technical details, please read our detailed hands-on review. The retail price is in line with a project this exclusive and stops at 3,600 Euros.
Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic 10548
The Clifton Baumatic is, alongside the Classima, the top-selling collection from the Swiss brand, and has marked a dramatic technological advancement both for the brand and the class of products it belongs to. The reference 10548 is as mechanically refined as it is affordable; it shares the Baumatic 10550 base architecture while adopting the Baumatic BM14-1975A C2 mechanical caliber equipped with moon phase, day and date display, and a rewarding 120 hours of power reserve when fully wound.
The 42mm large and 13,2mm thick steel case is fully polished, making it the most elegant and classic-looking watch of this selected group of products. It is the priciest of them all, although offering much bang for the bucks, at a 4,300 Euros retail price.
(Photo credit: Marco Antinori for Horbiter®)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
