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Dsloan
·So leaving the provenance and history aside, as a piece of utilitarian design, what I love about the original (and most of the many iterations of the original that stay close to the original) is it's a wonderful exercise in form following function, the modernist monochrome dials and hand set are incredibly legible with perfect proportions and really beautifully and elegantly balanced.
The quality, quantity, and application of dial lume are about as good as It gets, the whole piece is a brilliantly considered example of understated modernist (mid-century) utilitarian design with really strong influences of Bauhaus and Ulm Schools.
The bejeweled, vajazzled, and violently garish iterations are the antithesis of the kind of design philosophy that I adore, as they start to lose these key components they become little more than blingy decorative or (potential) investment pieces.
That's my two penneth worth anyway😉
This feels like it brings up a lot of interesting questions about watch collecting. We signal a lot about ourselves through what we dislike and perceive as being in 'bad taste'.
I think you bring up a few interesting reasons for dislike. But, I'd also add that I feel like there's an aspect of men being uncomfortable wearing jewelry. To my mind, for everything I enjoy about mechanical watches, at this time in history, they're basically fashion accessories for most people. So, I find it a bit odd that many of us collectors are basically saying "I love m̵e̵n̵'̵s̵ ̵j̵e̵w̵e̵l̵r̵y̵ watches, but I really don't like them when they look too decorative."
I'm probably being a bit too reductive, as there are other reasons people may not prefer iced-out watches - they signal wealth too strongly, they deviate from the utilitarian history of watches, etc. But, I do think it's interesting that these types of models are usually marketed to women and celebrities, and we normal guys with disposable income feel like they're not for us.
But, at the end of the day - everyone should just enjoy what they enjoy. For the record, I think that the blue speedy that was shared is kinda cool. I'm not sure that I could pull it off myself, though.
