Due to somewhat recent events – Patek, it still kind of stinks in here – it is nearly impossible to conjure up any other images than the 5711 with “Tiffany Blue” (also known as Gift Bag Blue – a nugget of info my 8 year-old dropped on a salesperson at Tiffany one time) dial when the conversation ends up being about Tiffany & Co. and watches. The Tiffany East West Automatic that I am going to discuss manages to break free of the hype, and while it isn’t going to ever be a ticket to the big-time – I have also been collecting since well before 15, but don’t personally know Phillipe Stern – it always seems to make me smile despite it’s quirks.

Back in May of 2020, during the wee-months of the Pandemic, my father was faced with his annual opportunity to make my mother upset by buying her the wrong thing for her birthday. Somehow, I was successful in at least convincing him that his long losing streak could be broken if he simply asked her what she wanted, and bought that.

My mom had been impressed with the Reverso grand taille that I had recently purchased, and found something similar in the Tiffany East West Automatic. That was what she wanted. Blue dial. Not the “Tiffany Blue”. My mom is far from being a hype monster. Her only other watch is a vintage Cartier Tank that she bought from a flea market in Paris 10 years ago.

Right out of the gate, despite her loving the Tiffany East West Automatic, she had an issue with its size, and essentially gave it to me to “borrow” for what has been well over a year and a half now. I constantly remind her I have it, and she constantly doesn’t ask for it back. I am not complaining…

Out of all of the watches in my collection, the Tiffany East West Automatic one gets the most compliments when I wear it. People just love the dial. The color, the texture, and then when they hone in they fall in love with the orientation of it – East West, get it? I have to say, whenever I wear it, I find myself looking at it more than some of my other watches. It makes me smile, and it reminds me of how cool my mom is, and how good her taste is.

The Tiffany East West Automatic has its issues. The rotor is loud, the case is a bit too large – even for me – IMO, and the deployant clasp is far too difficult to operate. Despite these issues, I don’t wear the watch every day, and they aren’t big enough issues to take away from the watches overall charm.

It’s a bit of a romantic notion that you can use the Tiffany East West Automatic as a travel clock, but when I take it off and lay it on my night-stand, it does look cool as a travel clock. This watch could be a fantastic business travel companion for me as it is in a ubiquitous, yet striking color that would match the vibe of everything from jeans and a t-shirt to a suit. It’s also not an easily identifiable hype-monster that may put me in danger of being robbed if I got off at the wrong train station. Oh, and I have to mention, it is even cooler when you wear it on the inside of your wrist, which is a total “watch nerd” move that I can pull off with this one. I can only imagine anyone who is a machinist or otherwise who wears watches this way for practical purposes would be either amused or concerned hearing this.

I think that the Tiffany East West Automatic will only get more charming as time goes on and it takes on some patina. Either way, it is a cool little, but also big oddly enough, reminder that watches can, and should be fun, and that my mom has fantastic taste, and is who I inherited the “aesthete + OCD” genes that are in the DNA of many, if not all, of us watch enthusiasts.