Andrew reveals five of his own watches in a Media Watch Death Match against Josh from Watchonista (and gets a slapping)
Andrew McUtchenIt started with an invitation to join Watchonista’s ‘Home Time Live’, a new series on Instagram that takes followers into the homes of the industry’s leaders and luminaries for an intimate interview. Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling. Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bulgari. Max Büsser of MB&F. And now, a Happy Hour version of the usual midday broadcast featuring Time+Tide. Exciting!
It was a rad proposition, because — thanks to some brutal time zone trading — it also meant me drinking breakfast beers while we did it. Josh, meanwhile, sipped a much more civilised evening tipple. But, aside from discussing our chosen beers, what else would we talk about? Josh Shanks and I had a WhatsApp chat. We settled on a live version of our very own ‘Celebrity Watch Death Match’, where we would pit five of our own personal watches against each other. The categories for the watches would be Dive Watch, Pilot Watch, Dress Watch, GMT Watch and, Josh’s last-minute inclusion of a ‘Curiosity Category’.
Throughout the battle, we maturely, and in as least a biased manner as possible, tried to select a winner. The idea was that we’d then compare our own ratings with The Internet. We planned to put them up on Instagram Stories and let the people decide. Well, it didn’t stop there. Because both Josh and I were SHOCKED at what the people decided. We got three out of four categories wrong, according to the democratic process. It all got rather juicy, so we opened it up to Facebook and Instagram. Which did balance out the results, and may have handed back the W to T+T. But, to be honest, that was just sour grapes. So we now bring you the unedited report card on this Media Watch Death Match extraordinaire with just over 5000 votes on it. In which, I am not pleased to say, I received an absolute slapping.
Dangerous Divers
(L) Watchonista, Tudor Black Bay Bronze Blue, Bucherer Special Edition, (R) Seiko Turtle SRPC49K 
Josh and I couldn’t call this one. While the Tudor is obviously a highly desirable piece, rare and at a much higher price point, the ‘Darth Turtle’, as we call it here at Time+Tide, brings some serious black magic. It is perhaps the most enquired about Seiko ever, and every time we post it there are an increasing number of people putting forward the idea that — in fact — it never existed for normal people, and was a watch media-only piece. Which is wildly untrue.
The Verdict
Our choice: The Tudor in a clinch
Instagram Stories: 64% Tudor, 36% Seiko – Watchonista Wins!
Pilot’s Watch
(L) Time+Tide, IWC Big Pilot Le Petit Prince, (R) Watchonista, Omega Speedmaster 60th Anniversary Limited Edition
A Speedy as a Pilot’s watch? I also raised my eyebrows, and Josh himself admitted it was a wee stretch, but we also did hem and haw about astronauts being glorified pilots. The result was Josh awarding the category to me and the BP. Instagram wasn’t having it.
The Verdict
Our choice: IWC
Instagram Stories: 41% IWC, 59% Omega – Watchonista Wins!
GMT vs GMT
Rolex GMT-Master II 126711CHNR – TIE!
You really couldn’t have made this up. The delightful Viviana Shanks, Josh’s wife, revealed her Root Beer, then I revealed, uh, mine. Twinsies!
Dress Watch
(Top) Watchonista, Rolex Explorer, (Bottom) Time+Tide, H. Moser & Cie Pioneer
This was the quickest concede of the day. Josh put his hand up when the Pioneer was revealed and said, you win. We did argue, like many of you on social media, that the Explorer is — in no way — a dress watch anyway, despite it having the appropriate hallmarks for the tasks. Quite the opposite, in fact. Josh went into explanation overdrive and, in a poetic twist, declared that because it was worn on his wedding day, it was to help him ‘explore’ married life. No explanation was necessary for Instagram, who once again handed Watchonista the biscuits.
The Verdict
Our choice: Moser
Instagram Stories: 57% Rolex, 43% Moser – Watchonista Wins!
Curiosity Category
(L) Time+Tide, Nomos Orion Rose, (R) Watchonista, Hublot Classic Fusion Shawn Carter
To be fair to Josh, who dropped this category very late in the game, for ‘curiosities and oddities in our collection’, he ALSO materialised a rare and super cool ‘NOT FOR SALE’ Hublot service watch. That dropped my jaw. Sure, it’s quartz. Sure, it’s resin. But damn if it ain’t the kind of stuff watch-nerd dreams are made of. I had to roll on that, I gave him the dubya. My Nomos is actually my wife’s. It was the only odd or curious watch in the house in lockdown and it had to do. But Josh’s Hublot throwdown didn’t end there. He followed up with the Hublot Classic Fusion Shawn Carter Edition, a watch that featured only a couple of weeks back in Jay-Z’s cache of watches. It was a resounding win. But it turns out the Curiosity part of this category actually referred to the result. Ready for it?
The Verdict
Our choice: Hublot
Instagram Stories: 70% Nomos, 30% Hublot – Time+Tide Wins!
Overall verdict: Watchonista: 3, Time+Tide: 1
<Insert sulky emoji here>