Hot List: January 3, 2025
Happy New Year from all of us at Feldmar! (Can you believe that we’re now a quarter way through the 21st century? 😮) We hope you’ve had a relaxing and fulfilling holiday season. Now we’re hoping to kick off the new year right with some great watch picks as well as some of our own predictions for 2025. So read on if you like hot watches and bold statements…
GRAND SEIKO HERITAGE SBGA415
Speaking of calendars and New Years, this SBGA415 is a modern re-interpretation of the celebrated 62GS from 1967. The light gray, textured dial is inspired by the deep winter snows that cover the mountains in Taisetsu, the twenty-first of Japan’s twenty-four sekki or seasons ⛄ Bold prediction: this watch may not last in our case for 2 weeks.
BVLGARI OCTO ROMA STRIKING 8 DAYS
Another prediction for 2025: the Bills will win the Super Bowl 🦬 Bolder still is this Bvlgari Octo Roma Striking 8 Days, which has a ridiculous thinness of 2.5mm and an 8 day power reserve. It’s encased in a striking black titanium DLC and sapphire case (lightweight yet rugged) that commands attention.
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL PANO LUNARINVERSE
Oscar prediction: Wicked for Best Picture 😈 This movie has been holding space in our hearts for months, and we just can’t stop singing Defying Gravity every time we put our watches away at night. Similarly wicked (good) is this platinum PanoLunarInverse from Glashutte Original, which is limited to 200 pieces worldwide and has movement parts mounted inversely so they’re visible from the dial side.
IWC INGENIEUR AUTOMATIC 40
World Series winner prediction: Yankees 🗽 Not getting Soto back meant getting 5 players who, combined, are far better. You can only keep this team down for so long! And you can only keep this watch out of your mind for a few minutes. IWC revisits the bold design of Genta’s iconic Ingenieur SL from the ’70s.
OMEGA SPEEDMASTER “FIRST OMEGA IN SPACE”
Sci-Fi prediction: Japan will successfully land a rover on the moon, which has got us thinking about this new “First Omega in Space.” 🚀 This watch is a tribute to the original from the 1960s featuring the “Dot Over Ninety” and vintage OMEGA logo. Modern improvements include a new sapphire crystal that recreates the classic domed shape of the 1962 model.
GRAND SEIKO ELEGANCE SBGJ273
Grammy prediction: Chappell Roan for Album of the Year, and we’re H-O-T-T-O-G-O for this Hi-Beat mechanical GMT from Grand Seiko 🔥 Its dial has a striated surface depicting a spectrum of hot reds, calling to mind how some lighter or darker floorboards might reflect varied shades of changing leaves.
LONGINES ULTRA-CHRON CARBON
Tech prediction: An AI-written novel will win a literary award 🤖We’re not thrilled with this outcome, but it’s probably in the mail for this year. We’re much more stoked on this Longines: the world’s first high-frequency diver with a 5Hz frequency and a depth rating of 200m. Reintroduced in 2022, the Ultra-Chron returns in 2025 in a carbon fiber case.
BVLGARI OCTO FINISSIMO
Feldmar prediction: A barbershop octet will form among some of the Feldmar staff that will see their rendition of “I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” go viral 💈 To outfit these new internet-famous singers, each will have a Bvlgari Octo Finissimo like this one. Known for its distinctive octagonal case shape, it’s endowed with a self-winding manufacture movement.
OMEGA SEAMASTER DIVER 300M
Financial prediction: The stock market will dive further before recovering in the second quarter leading to another banner year 📉📈📈To weather the bumpy start to the year, look no further than this classic dive watch from Omega with its iconic helium escape valve and robust construction to withstand up to 300 meters of water pressure.
SEIKO PROSPEX SPEEDTIMER GPS SOLAR
Critter prediction: Moo Deng releases a country album 🦛🎸 Seems silly, but you know it’s not impossible! While nobody really needs this, you may find yourself needing this Speedtimer Chronograph. Notably, it’s the first Prospex watch to use Seiko’s famous GPS Solar movement, found mainly in the Astron line of chronographs.
ANGELUS INSTRUMENT DE VITESSE INDIANAPOLIS BLUE
Watch prediction: 2025 will be the year of blue dials 💙 We’ve seen a lot of vivacious dials in the past year, so we’re thinking 2025 goes back to basics with simple blue being the preferred color. To manifest this prediction, check out this Indianapolis Blue Angelus with a discreet tachymetric scale printed on the dial’s edge.
NORQAIN WILD ONE SKELETON
Tennis prediction: We will finally see an American man win a major tournament for the first time since 2003, and it will be our very own Freddy Yarmus 🎾 He will be wearing this robust gecko-colored Norqain Wild One as he accepts the trophy and thanks his coach and Norqain embassador, Stan Wawrinka.
TAG HEUER CARRERA CHRONOGRAPH SKIPPER
2nd watch prediction: A confluence of disillusionment with AI, social media, and Big Tech in general leads to a further embrace of analog technology like mechanical watches⚙️ This will mean smooth sailing for the watch industry for the foreseeable future, and what better watch could there be to capture this zeitgeist than the Carrera Chronograph Skipper, a tribute to TAG’s sailing heritage conveyed through a distinctive color scheme.
Shop these timepieces and more at Feldmar. Check out our online shop or come visit us.
About The Author: Tom Roth
Born in Washington state, Tom developed an interest in photography during college at University of San Diego. There, he got started in music journalism, interviewing artists and taking photos at concerts. A life-long tinkerer and collector, it wasn’t long before Tom became fascinated with fountain pens and watches.
Those interests collided in November 2020 when Tom started at Feldmar Watch Company where he lives out every watch geek’s dream: photographing and writing about timepieces. When he’s not tinkering with his watch collection, Tom can be found traveling, biting his nails while watching PNW sports teams, and taking flying lessons.
Read more from Tom Roth
