I analyze the impact of new watches the same way I analyze other great loves.professional sports. My golden rule? Don’t make big claims about the year’s heroes or sleepers until the season is over.
I’m a Patriots fan. We’ve had a big 4th stringer drafted in the 6th round (you know Tom, right?), a rookie with a 92.5 pass rating (best of luck to Mack), and now we’ve had an impressive growth spurt. (I’m cautiously optimistic about Drake May).
Perhaps it’s because of disruptive microbrands or mild secondary markets, but the 2024 on the watch deeply reminds me of my experience with Pat. It will be interesting to see which watches end up on the losing side by the end of the year. Some hot new releases got too bright too quickly. Others were novelties that faded, perhaps as something more topical came along. And many were launched unnoticed by radar and remained there.
Pulling from all these buckets, here are my favorite unsung heroes of 2024.