The three watches Jamie wore most in 2023 – Citizen, Tudor, Lip

Jamie Weiss

Six months into being Time+Tide’s Australian Editor and phew… It’s been a wild ride. I moved cities, hosted my first T+T event, and wore a f*ckton of cool watches. I thought I was already pretty obsessed with watches, but working with the passionate and knowledgeable T+T team day in, day out – and being constantly titillated and tempted by the constant stream of new watches arriving at the Melbourne Discovery Studio for both sale and review – and it’s become a full-blown addiction. It’s like being a kid in a candy store.

Something I’m pretty proud of myself about, though, is the fact that I’ve only added one new watch to my collection since working on the watch beat full-time. Like my colleague Borna, I’ve also been in the extremely fortunate position of being able to wear heaps of watches lately, including a few longer-term reviews. But 3 watches were on particularly high rotation for me in 2023: two which I purchased in the last 18 months and were always destined to be worn to death, and one watch I’d previously abandoned only to come back to and rediscover its virtues.

Citizen Promaster Diver ‘Fugu’ Full Lume

My Citizen Promaster Diver ‘Fugu’ Full Lume was easily the watch I wore the most this year, with this hardy dive watch accompanying me everywhere from the office to the beach in Bali and up mountains in country Victoria. After losing my Swatch Sistem51 (which was previously my beater), I was looking for a reliable, cheap daily – and wanted to do something different to a Seiko SKX. I’ve also always been a sucker for full lume dials, so when this baby popped up for sale I didn’t waste any time pulling the trigger.

I feel as if the Fugu gets a bit slept on, but it’s superior to the SKX in many ways. The latest models (like mine) have sapphire crystals, grippy (and properly aligned) bezels, and a super-comfy standard rubber strap with no-decompression limit timings printed on them (although the print has started to rub off on mine). The full lume dial is a fantastic party trick in particular, as is the cute little pufferfish logo on the caseback. Tough, capable, comfortable and unpretentious, this is the watch I gravitated to more than any other in 2023.

Tudor Black Bay Pro

However, the Citizen isn’t the favourite watch in my collection – that honour is reserved for my Tudor Black Bay Pro. As I mentioned in my A Question of Time interview, it’s the first luxury watch I bought for myself as a watch writer and for me represents my coming-of-age as such. It’s my “I’ve made it” watch. It’s also the watch I wore for my interview with Time+Tide, as well as the sole watch I took to Watches & Wonders this year… If you’re going to drop a few thousand bucks on a GMT watch, may as well travel with it, right?

In 2023, I also dealt with the five stages of watch grief after scratching it for the first time – a character-building experience, for sure. When I bought it back in 2022, it was one of the biggest purchases I’ve ever made in my life, and I was a little nervous about how financially irresponsible it might prove to be. However, after owning it for over 12 months and wearing it to death in 2023, I feel utterly validated in my decision to acquire it. It’s just a lovely watch and I suspect it’ll be in my top 3 most worn for a very long time.

Lip Mach 2000

Finally, we have my Lip Mach 2000, which came as a bit of a surprise. I bought it on a whim back in 2021, wore it for a few days and then hid it in the back of my wardrobe. It was a fleeting pleasure, and a bit of a cautionary tale: if you’re looking for a watch to fill a void in your collection, don’t settle, wait until you can afford the watch you really want because you won’t be satisfied with second-best. It’s a tale I told many people in my life who’ve come to me for watch advice.

However, in 2023, I dug it back out and started wearing it again, so much so that it’s become one of my most-worn watches. It’s also one of the watches I got the most compliments for in 2023 – its funky Gallic design is certainly eye-catching. Call it a slow burn rather than a whirlwind romance.

Final thoughts

An honourable mention must be made to two watches I also wore a lot in 2023, but not quite enough to make my top 3: my grandfather’s Eterna Dato and Longines La Grande Classique, both of which I inherited after he passed away in 2022. They’re lovely watches, but they’re just a bit too sentimental (and fragile) to wear day-to-day, especially the Eterna. I’m still on the hunt for a slim, classy dress watch that I can wear more frequently, so I suspect that in 12 months’ time, something fitting that description might make my list.

I also just had a bit of heartbreak over the weekend: after pressure-testing my G-Shock DW9052, the resin surrounding the buttons cracked and perished, meaning it’s no good for daily wear – so I’ll probably find another G-Shock to fill that void in my collection. Maybe the new Mudman…