Hodinkee: FINAL SALE blowout on select new watches
Watch geeks who also like a sale… hide your wallets. Because this feels like a pretty rare occurrence with discounts to match.
Hodinkee, the leading (luxury) wristwatch enthusiast content website, is in the process of reducing (or eliminating) their retail footprint. And they’ve been slowly turning up the heat by way of turning down the prices on a bunch of their inventory. But everything new or pre-owned is final sale. No returns or exchanges. None. Zero.
And this morning (Wednesday 8/21) it appears they took even further reductions on a lot of that stock.
Again, it’s all final sale but as Hodinkee has been an authorized seller then these should all ship with true manufacturer’s warranties.
Some of this gets spendy, but the price cuts almost certainly won’t be found anywhere else legit. Off we go. All new watches below, nothing from the pre-owned side, as that’s an entirely different barrel of monkeys to deal with.
Timex Waterbury Miyota Automatic HODINKEE Limited Edition – $120 FINAL ($279)
Was $148. Super fun. 40mm, Miyota 8215 automatic movement, aluminum bezel insert, and textured dial.
Certina DS PH200M Sapphire Crystal With Gilt Accents On Bracelet – $500 FINAL ($995)
Was $650. Could be the steal of the sale. Swiss made, automatic, and has tons of heritage styling charm including that ceramic bezel. The one drawback for many will be the size: It’s 42.8mm in diameter. Which is almost 43mm .(I know, profound analysis, right?) Which is a bit on the big side in this day and age of “classically” sized (read: smaller) watches. But it’s not overly thick. Its 11.9mm thickness (but a bit more with the crystal?) should help keep some of that bulk down. Maybe. ETA Powermatic 80 Swiss Made movement. Quick release pins on that sweet looking mesh strap, so throwing it on something else will be less cumbersome. Here’s a youtube review of it if you’re tempted.
Certina DS PH200M With Hesalite Crystal – $430 FINAL ($780)
Was just north of $500. So what’s the difference between this and the gilt-accented option on the shark mesh? This one has a hesalite crystal (so it’ll scratch and therefor you’ll want a tube of poly watch on hand) and the bezel insert is aluminum instead of ceramic. Strangely, the case is listed at 12.9mm thick instead of the gilt-verion’s 11.9mm. Still Swiss made with the Powermatic 80 movement, and yes, still 42.8mm in diameter.
Tissot Heritage 1948 Automatic Chronograph – $870 FINAL ($1450)
Hot Sauce what a looker. Was just $1090. Finding a Swiss made chronograph under a grand is darn near impossible. But to find one with the vintage-looks charm like this feels truly bizarre. Sizing is gonna hit the sweet spot for plenty: 39.5mm with a restrained (for a chrono) 11.9mm thickness.
Tissot Telemeter 1938 Chronograph – $1280 FINAL ($2125)
Another clearly vintage-inspired automatic chronograph from Tissot, but this one is thick. 13.9mm thick might be a little too beefy for some to wear as a dress watch. Still though. 42mm case diameter. Valjoux A05.231 movement. Sapphire crystal. Telemeter and double sub dial setup gives it a “twinsey” look to Omega’s Speedmaster Chronoscope (as well as a bunch of other vintage-inspired and truly vintage designs).
Hamilton Mechanical Intra-Matic Chronograph H – $1390 FINAL ($2145)
Morrrrrre vintage inspired chronographs. This time a mechanical instead of automatic movement, no date, 40mm in diameter, box sapphire crystal, and a panda dial. Thicc at 14.35mm.
Oris Aquis Date 41.5mm With Black Dial – $1,760 FINAL ($2,700)
That’s a ton of money… but strangely (infuriatingly?) not relative to the luxury Swiss watch market. This would be one way to dip a toe in those waters with a classy looking diver that’s not overly oversized at just under 42mm. Who drops almost $2k (or hundreds, as is the case on many of these other watches) on something final sale though? Would this possibly come down further? Like a lot further?
Hamilton 36mm Khaki Pilot Pioneer Mechanical Silver On Grey Strap – $510 FINAL ($845)
Truly “classically” sized at just 36mm in diameter with a 10mm thickness. Mechanical movement. Swiss made simplicity. Also shown at the very top of the post.
MIDO Ocean Star Tribute Black Dial – $780 FINAL ($1200)
Reasonably sized at 40mm with a 12mm thickness. Swiss made, automatic movement, and 300m of water resistance. Does come with a second fabric strap, but as there don’t seem to be quick release pins or drilled lugs on this thing, switching out straps probably wouldn’t be a daily (or weekly, or monthly) occurrence.
Tissot Heritage Visodate Automatic – $380 FINAL ($695)
Tissot’s flagship, dead-simple, automatic dress watch. 40mm in diameter, 10mm thick, and a 20mm wide strap. Hard not to love those specs for being so on-the-nose/perfectly middle of the road.
Certina DS Chronograph Automatic – $1020 FINAL ($2045)
A vintage inspired chronograph? You don’t say. Half off, but still more than a grand. 42mm in diameter, 13.9mm thick. Seems to be a theme with a lot of these vintage-inspired chronographs when it comes to size. Namely… they look great, but for many they’re often a touch too big or too thick to wear dressed up. Love those blue hands, but some of us might scratch the blue-hands dress watch itch with something far more affordable.
The Hodinkee “Back to Basics” FINAL sale on their wristwatch inventory ends… well who knows precisely when it ends, as it may go until they run out of stock and/or find another avenue in which to offload this stuff. Remember, final sale means final sale. No returns or exchanges. They want rid of these things.