FEATURE: The C.O.C.O. Council Watch of the Year 2023

 

Welcome back everyone and I hope you all had a great Christmas... I'm sure you have barely been able to sleep thinking what could possibly be the C.O.C.O. 'Watch of the Year' for 2023 and so without further ado, let's get right into that!

This year for the first time the Council was asked to vote not only for a 'Watch of the Year' but also for a runner up and a third place too. The 'Watch of the Year' though could only be won by 1st place votes, with the other placings only coming into play once that was decided. 

Well, it's no great surprise that we have three Carreras on the podium in the 'Year of the Carrera' is it? And even less surprising that the final CBK Glassbox Carrera took the top spot. Indeed this has been the most crushingly obvious victory in the (relatively short) history of the C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year competition with the Panda taking an absolutely MASSIVE proportion of the votes. In fact 2/3rds of the voters gave the Panda a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place with a massive ten wins and five second places. Frankly, with scores like that it wasn't just a foregone conclusion but an absolute massacre!

To give you an idea of just how massive the Panda's victory truly was, to determine the rest of the placings I turned the scores into points using 10pts for a 1st, 6pts for a 2nd and 4pts for a 3rd, after which the Panda stood a full 92 points clear of the second placed 'Chronotempvs' and 98 points clear of the 'Skipper'. In fact the Panda scored more points than the next FOUR watches put together. Dominant doesn't even begin to describe it. 

But does that also mean the Panda has managed to topple the previously unassailable Silver 160th Anniversary Glassbox in the ultimate points standings?

Damn it was close, but no, the Silver 160th CBK221B just clings on to it's undisputed number one status by the tiniest of margins (0.1pts), with both Glassboxes still 0.5pts clear of the third placed JH88 42mm Carrera of 2020. Elsewhere the 'French Edition' scored extremely well, the only other watch to break the 8.0 barrier this year, but surprisingly the lower scoring 'Chronotempvs' and 'Skipper' Carreras got the nod in the WOTY vote. 

Of course I'm pleased to see the green dial and titanium Solargraph Aquaracers up there, both of them scoring 7.5pts and beating out more expensive watches like the Chronosprint Carreras and the Bamford Ikuzawa Carrera and also the sole Monaco in the top ten, the Night Driver. 

Odd though that the Skipper should take third place in the C.O.C.O. vote but only just manage to scrape into the top ten scorers. But there we are I guess that's the difference between proportional representation and a first past the post system eh? Also I noticed some huge differences in how people score, one 'Watch of the Year' vote was given to a watch that that person only scored as a 7.5, I guess that person just didn't think too much of all the year's releases...

Well, that's it for another year. Once again, thanks to the members of the Council for all their hard work and thanks to you for continuing to visit and listen to me babble on about my favourite watch brand. Rest assured there is more content coming, the next post will be on the 30th and will be a look back over 2023 with our Swedish Aquaracer fetishist Jim Dollares. If I can drag him back to finish it that is... once I got on to the Monacos he kinda glossed over and I didn't hear from him for three days. Damned unreliable these Continentals you know!

But seriously, thanks again to everyone and honestly I can't wait to find out what's coming in 2024, because this year it seems rumours are hard to come by. I've heard about a couple of things, but I'm not even 100% sure those are confirmed. So of course I will be visiting the TAG Heuer website every morning as soon as I turn on my computer to find out if anything's appeared and keeping my ear to the ground on the THF forum for any region specific Limited Editions to make sure I keep you up to date with everything I possibly can. 

And now, if you don't mind, I think I might just put my feet up and pour myself a very large Jack Daniels and Pepsi Max, I think I deserve it!

Rob / Aqua-G