I stumbled on a list of movie watches by accident the other day and quickly passed over 95% of the stuff shown there—James Bond’s unobtanium Omegas, weird RDJ/Iron Man novelty watches, unaffordable Rolexes—and stopped at an interesting field watch from, of all places, a Rowan Atkinson TV show, made by MWC:
It’s a pretty standard field watch layout but I like the crown and bezel, and it’s remarkably affordable. However, it’s also super-thick for some strange reason, and 40mm diameter, which is the absolute largest I’d consider for a watch. Looking through their other offerings, there’s a really nice 40’s pattern British field watch with a second hand dial that’s got some more personality at 39mm in diameter:
The website says it’s 1mm thicker than the first watch, which means it would be pretty bulky. I’ll keep an eye out on used prices, but as with lots of other things (jeans, cars, glasses, bathing suits) this is the kind of thing you have to try on in person before you buy. Interestingly, MWC was actually founded as a partnership including Albert Wajs, one half of the company who produced my estate sale diver. Unfortunately their only dealers are in Minnesota, California, and on eBay, so I’d have to take a chance if I really wanted one. I then fell down a horological rabbit hole and found a beautiful 39mm pilot that was for sale in 2012 and apparently hasn’t been made since; that was my sign that it was time to stop.