The Ultimate Halloween Watch: 2021

But take it if the smack is sour – The better for the embittered hour –  It should do good to heart and head – When your soul is in my soul’s stead – And I will friend you, if I may – In the dark and cloudy day.

– AE Housman

Here we are — warily entering the final quarter of the most haunting year of our collective lives.  This Halloween leaves no doubt in the eternal battle between trick versus treat.  That zombie apocalypse of nightmarish movies has slouched its way into our mirrors and webcams.  Los Muertos prepare ofrendas for us.  We are the walking dead.

So while we’re all dressed up with nowhere to go, this Halloween let’s see if there just might be a special watch to accompany your holiday haunt.  Colors, costumes, and characters make sense — but in the end, is there a watch that truly captures a death-defying stare?  Because if there’s ever been a time to channel that spirit, it’s this ghoulish time warp of 2021.

Color schemes are an obvious start for any holiday-themed watch and there are few that match the perfection of orange and black.  From the burnt-orange second hand popping off the Omega Speedmaster to the vibrant glowing orange of a Doxa sub, a legacy of historic icons pace the field.  Given the success of these tangerine trailblazers, you can now find such an abundant brew of orange and black watches that sorting through them all would require some serious hocus-pocus.  Or perhaps a ouija board? 

So before we get sucked into the Twilight Zone of every black dial with an orange accent, or every orange dial with a black strap, let’s narrow our focus to more recent additions — among those crafted by skeleton crews.  

Small independent watch companies, or microbrands, have not been spooked by bright orange dials.  You have the Nodus Retrospect III (review) with a sloped bezel that draws you into a lava-orange dial, the Collins Sonar (review) that beckons with lighter but still spicy hue (that also comes in a skull-white dial with vibrant inverted lume straight from Pixar’s Coco), and the Visitor Duneshore Shallows (review) that waves alien-like hands while honoring the legacy of coral faced divers.

The micros offer more subtle takes on the pumpkin & pepper as well.  Oak & Oscar showcases a brand-defining orange second hand — a look that pairs especially well with the white sandwich dial and black numerals of the Olmsted, or the rarely-seen-in-the-wild panda dial of the Jackson Batch No. 1.  Seals Watch Company also wields a burnt orange second hand in the Dark Seal line, adding an extra snarl to the already beastly 12-hour bezel model.

Speaking of beasts — perhaps a literal interpretation is more your style.  The micros have you covered there too.

You can get in touch with your darker side with the delightfully deprecating Orion Calamity (tuned to a devilish 666 feet, a commendable homage to the Bulova Devil Diver) or the equally macabre Orion Hellcat.  This model comes in a rich burgundy dial paired perfectly for the Fall, and the custom-cut sharp serif font practically growls on the wrist.  For a more disguised approach, you could opt for the black-on-black NTH Ghost, an ephemeral take on their Nazario line.  

Observers of Dia de los Muertos and fans of Coco (honestly how can you not be?) have options for all ages: from youth novelty dials brightening up Amazon to the inventive Memento Mori “Remember Death” collection from Mr. Jones Watches.

Now if you want to go one step further and actually get in costume, is there a watch that — like The Dude’s rug — really ties it all together?  

There just might be.

Back in college I had a roommate who loved to party but come Halloween hated to be bothered with a costume.  So he’d throw on a collared shirt and a vest — not so different from most days — and arrived to party as “Chandler from Friends.”  

Cheesy? Perhaps.  But 20 years later I still remember it.  And for this instant costume upgrade via wrist wear — Hamilton is king.

With appearances in over 500 movies, including new features every year, Hamilton provides countless options for high and low-maintenance costumes.  But let’s go with arguably the most significant watch-movie pairing in cinematic history that also happens to offer the most bare-bones costume: Interstellar.  

By now you know the scene.

For the costume, all you need is jeans, a t-shirt, and a Hamilton.  Ok, throw on the Carhartt jacket too.

You can complete Matthew McConaughey’s “Cooper” look with the value-proposition Hamilton Khaki Pilot Day-Date, or match Jessica Chastain’s “Murphy” with the made-for-this-movie namesake watch “The Murph.”  Bonus points if you land the tesseract box.

The iconic Hamilton Ventura offers similar versatility: paired with a Hawaiian shirt you can swing your hips like Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii, or added to a black suit you can alien-hunt just like the crew from Men in Black.

Beyond costume accessories, there is one other Halloween watch pairing that simply must be mentioned.  Although the enduring Peanuts phrase is more synonymous with the Christmas special — “that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown” — I generally associate Peanuts with “the true meaning” of whatever topic Schulz is tackling: nature of friendship, how much to charge for Psychiatry advice, and of course The Great Pumpkin.

Who can think of costume contests without immediately seeing Flying Ace Snoopy in pursuit of the Red Baron? Or Lucy as a witch?  Timex and Undone agree.

The Timex-Peanuts relationship dates back to charming vintage watches from the 1970’s and wonderfully have been given a rebirth with a series of modern collaborations.  Undone has likewise joined the party and features a run of mecaquartz Peanuts chronographs, including Charlie Brown’s signature shirt in a pumpkin-like orange.

In the Schultzian spirit of finding a “true meaning”, he would probably agree that when it comes to autumnal celebrations — be it harvest festivals, All Soul’s Day, or Day of the Dead — there is more to explore than color schemes, costume designs, and nostalgic cartoons.  

While more explicit in some commemorations than others, the common undercurrent harkens to the “death of things” associated with the end of the harvest season and the specter of a sterile winter.   We brace for chills both literal and figurative by honoring those souls who have gone before us, and in their memory finding treats to counter life’s tricks.  

So could there possibly be a watch story that captures this “true meaning” death-defying deceit? Well, come gather ‘round the campfire, shine a flashlight submental skyward, and recall the story of Gruen Watches.

Founded in 1894 by Dietrich Gruen, Gruen Watch Company quickly grew into a premier American watch company with a global presence.  In the 1920’s Gruen shared status with world elites, often dubbed the “American Rolex,” as both companies jointly released Aegler-based models: the Gruen Techni-Quadron and the Rolex Prince.  In the 1930s Gruen introduced the watch design that defined the modern streamline era, the Gruen Curvex, which actually fashioned the pieces of the movement to the contour of the wrist.  

During both World Wars Gruen contributed to military efforts by making trench watches in WWI and producing aviator watches for Pan American during WWII, among other products from the War Division at their Time Hill Factory in Cincinnati.  In the early 1950’s Gruen released the Precision caliber 510 which, in the minds of some cinema aficionados, was actually the first James Bond watch and quite possibly the only watch to appear on film from Sean Connery’s personal collection (a dram of whiskey for him today).

Yet by 1958 Gruen Watch Company was bankrupt and being sold for parts.  Like many American watch companies, the bell began to toll after WWII — a lack of wartime commercial production created an unintended but real economic disadvantage in both the national and global market. So when George Gruen died in 1952 the largely family-run business was already suffering, and by 1953 the Gruen family had completely sold their interest.

In retrospect, this makes the watch design decisions immediately prior to 1953 all the more revealing.  They must have known what was coming. 

Sitting at the drawing board in 1951 and 1952 — when Gruen Watch Company was producing their only all-US made movement bearing the label “Cincinnati” rather than “Swiss” — they had to know that life at Time Hill was near its end.  This newly minted Cincinnati calibre 335-21 would be the ultimate US legacy from what Dietrich Gruen started back in 1894.  It would also be the last.

So what design did they commission as a final hurrah?  A limp to the finish line?  A conservative model that could at least appease uneasy investors?

No. 

They released the most fierce, rebellious, and dare I say, badass model of any mid-century collection.  While they introduced it as the Barclay, history has branded it the Spider.  

This midcentury gem comes in a 30 mm, 10K gold case, which of course houses the 21 jewel Cincinnati calibre 335 movement and is attached by the name-defining twisted lugs that you absolutely want crawling under your sleeve.  

Now I can’t prove that the Gruen family was intending for this one watch story to serve as a sort of antidote for future generations bracing for their own dark and cloudy days, here some 70 years later.  Like King Mithridates purposefully sampling toxins from the many-venomed Earth, thereby facing his would-be traitors with a seasoned confidence.

But I like to think they did.  And in 2021 we just might be willing to believe it. 

There you have it, the ultimate Halloween watch for 2021.  A vintage finale model with twisted spider leg lugs that stares death in the eye and winks.  So maybe you can too.

I tell the tale I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.