The Goat's Keeper SUOZ189 - Swatch Chinese New Year Watch for 2015

My mom and I had brunch in Mom and Tina's in ABS-CBN yesterday, and we ran a couple of errands right after. She had to have her Fino bag cleaned in Fino Trinoma. While we were there, she had the urge to buy a watch, so we made rounds in the watch shops. While we were in Swatch, we were informed there was a promotion for the Chinese New Year commemorative watch for 2015, the Goat's Keeper (SUOZ189).

I was just happy that they still had stock available, since I had only begun collecting Swatch watches late last year. It was Buy 1 Get 1, so we each purchased a pair, and we only shelled out PhP 4,000.00.

Sharing pictures of the watch - I am so happy I got to avail of this promotion!

Swatch's Lucky Monkey

I'm focusing my watch collecting on Swatch commemorative watches for the time being - while I'm still young and its still excusable. Like my mom always tells my sister, don't be afraid to wear color while you're still young.

I also made a Facebook page on Swatch collecting in the Philippines, hoping to touch base with local collectors if there are any. But, as I said prior, for now, I am limiting my Swatch collecting to commemorative watches. Items on my bucket list, to name a few, are the Ateneo Swatch, the Philippine Centennial Swatch designed by Jaime Zobel, the Year of the Horse Swatch (SUOZ169), The Legend of White Snake (SUOZ158), and the Goat's Keeper Watch (SUOZ189).

For Valentine's Day this year, Kim gifted me with Swatch's Lucky Monkey (SUOZ203), their watch commemorating 2016. the year of the Lucky Monkey.

The box is designed with ornamental mandalas made to resemble intricate paper cuttings, which is also continued and incorporated into the design of the watch.

The watch is a New Gent, so expect it to be a bit small for people with somewhat thick wrists like me, then again, its not as if I'll be wearing them - they're kept safely in storage. That doesn't mean, though that it's a ladies' watch. The design is quite unisex, and I've seen pictures in Instagram of men wearing this size also. And if it weren't a collectible as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't mind wearing it on rotation with my other watches.

As early as the first weekend of January I had the opportunity of buying it already from Swatch in Glorietta, had I not been with my sister. She exclaimed that I was too old to be buying funky watches, so I refrained from purchasing it, and said to myself I'd buy it when I wasn't with her.

On subsequent mall trips, however, whenever I'd visit a Swatch store, they'd always tell me that they were sold out already. Glorietta, Greenbelt, Trinoma, Sta. Lucia, wherever I asked this watch wasn't available. I asked to be put on the waitlist in case more stocks were to be delivered, and I was getting desperate as the Chinese New Year was drawing nearer.

One afternoon, while I was longingly reading up on reviews about the watch, I received a call from the Swatch Trinoma informing me that one Lucky Monkey had arrived, and it had my name on it. I bravely drove with Kim through hellish rush hour traffic that Thursday evening, from Makati to Trinoma! The waiting and drive was well worth it, because, Kim bought it for me as a Valentine's Day gift!

Having purchased it in Trinoma, we also entered a raffle contest. One of the reasons why stocks of the watch easily ran out was because Trinoma purchased 20 watches to raffle off. We didn't win.

Going through my list of online selling sites to check on Swatches for sale, I already saw listings for the Great White Snake, the Goat's Keeper, and the Philippine Centennial Swatch. Refraining from making any purchases now because I just finished some car repairs and am looking into buying a 2nd car. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the sellers won't be able to find people purchasing these models any time soon. With the statistics on my Facebook page, though, I'm quite confident because there does not seem to be much Swatch collectors locally.

Happy Chinese New Year, and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Bencab Swatch Watches

Kim's Christmas gifts to me this year were the 2014 and 2015 Bencab collaboration Swatch watches.

The Sabel Swatch was released in 2014, and was also packaged with a Bencab sculpture and a numbered watch. The watch that Kim purchased was in the regular Sabel Swatch packaging:

The Bencab+Swatch collaboration for 2015 is the Ode to the Flag. It is reminiscent of the Philippine Centennial Swatch released to commemorate the 100th Independence of the Philippines, but that one was a Zobel+Swatch collaboration.

I don't intend on wearing the Swatches, I just took them out of their packaging to inspect them further.

Under the specially designed packaging, the watches came in the standard plastic cases of Swatch. The 2015 Swatch's inner packet however had Swatch Club stamped all over it.

Here are pictures of the Swatches out in the wild for a photoshoot:

I really don't mind the size of the Swatch. I would guess without confirming that it is about 39mm. I'm used to wearing watches sized at 44mm upwards. However, the design is really intricately done on the straps and the watch face. The hour and minute hands are also quite distinct - it is noticeable even if the watch face of the Sabel Swatch, for example, is pretty busy with details. 

It was a good thing that Kim was still able to chance upon a Sabel Swatch - it was released 2014, and I suppose they have very limited stocks now. I had made inquiries on the Chinese New Year Swatch designs from the previous years at a Swatch booth, because Bencab also designed a Year of the Horse commemorative Swatch, and unfortunately, the previous years designs are no longer available. 

This further my resolve to purchase the Chinese New Year Swatch come next year - will not let the moment of getting another special Swatch pass me by again (here's to hoping that Bencab will also design it). 

The Bencab Swatches combines two of my passions right now, watches and art. I know I may not be able to afford a Bencab as of yet, but owning a piece, nay, two pieces designed by him at such an affordable cost of PhP 3,500.00 each, is not bad at all! 

Swatch can boast that they single-handedly revived the Swiss watch industry, so the designer-collaborations aside, owning a Swatch is an affordable investment to own a part of Swiss horological history. 

I hope some readers become convinced and go out to buy these beautiful pieces while they're still available!