[Closed] Whats the most you would pay for a watch?

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4.99

About 50-100K.
I'd have to be earning a fair bit more than I currently do though.

i have one of those (or similar) too! 😀

About £150 for my Polar.

2-3K tops. That puts a huge selection of beautiful Swiss watches within your grasp without the excess of the 5-6 figure models.

however much my wife is prepared to spend on one (don't think I have bought one in years).

couple of hundred max

nothing havent owned one for 20 years,hate living life by a watch,
ok there are clocks in the house on the phone, on my bike computer and in the van,
but i hate watches, and i am still punctual

there are clocks in the house on the phone, on my bike computer and in the van....and i am still punctual

it's not terribly surprising though is it? You look at your phone instead of your wrist, it takes slightly longer to do but you still know what the time is?

It my current stage in life (25) about £3500 tops, bought a Tag a few months ago so that should keep me going (and wasn't nearly £3500 either!)

£50

3 - 4k, I'm currently looking at a seamasterwhich is just over 1k. the watches for 50k and above may seem unnessecary, and probably are, but if i had the money I'd never buy one, simply because thay are all very ugly indeed, give me a submariner or a panarai over one of them diamond encrusted things any day!

For those who'd spend thousands on a watch, is it the case that the price of the watch is a small amount of your disposable income or that, like MTT, you consider the purchase as an investment (i.e. you'll try to sell at a profit at some future date)?

I'd have to be making ££ to have enough cash about after a car upgrade and sorting the house out (and hundreds of other things!) to spend money on a watch. What's the appeal?

[i]not trying to insult, just interested[/i]

acjim - I've never spent thousands on a watch, but I would if I could afford it. I just love watches, in the same way that someone might spend a lot on a picture, an antique, or, dare, I say it, a bike.

I just love nicely engineered things. I don't yet own a decent watch but am looking forward to doing so. It would cost more than my monthly salary take-home to put it in perspective, but I would treasure it forever. Eyes on a Planet Ocean personally.

I'd pay quite a bit for the right watch, for years now I've wanted a steel Rolex cosmograph Daytona, they normally go for around £7k upwards!

I'm aiming to get myself one for my 40th, so i've got 11 1/2 years to save up!

sorry wwaswas, my point was i just dont see the need for a watch, could afford a nice one and think that some look pretty, but its jewellery for men pointless,while your out buying your watch get a matching man bag
its nice to just amble through the day not worrying about time,do what you want when you want its liberting

I suppose, for me, watches just fufill a completely perfunctory task and nothing else. If you can see art in them then pay as much as you like especially considering how much I'd like to pay for some dining chairs 😉

Watches do nothing for me. Clockwork is nice engineering sure, but when you can get a 99p digital quartz watch that works better, it all seems futile.

And those huge saucer sized flash bang wallop ones that get advertised in airports with Lewis Hamilton - do me a favour. Chav bling for wannabe millionaires.

I have a Longines Elegance which isn't particularly expensive but is what I want a watch to be. However, I haven't worn a watch in over 10 years as hate the feeling of being shackled to time...besides, if I need to know what time it is I have a mobile telephone which has the time as a bonus feature....

I can appreciate a good watch as a) a piece of functional art, and b) something that I would use/wear every day for the rest of my life.

I got bought a lovely Christopher Ward for christmas which must have been about £170ish and that as much as I can see me justifying for the next 10 or 15 years. If I won the lottery? - maybe up to £10k, but it would have to be a) absolutely the *right* thing, and b) the last watch I (or my descendants) ever buy.

About £75-95 for a Nixon. Mine's been great. So tough.
They have the right style for me in the range. Couldn't bring myself to pay any more.

£100 max. Usually not more than £50 though. Watches get ruined too easily to spend much on them. It's (or should be) a tool, not an ornament. I can't be bothered changing watches all the time, from 'best' to 'everyday', so I wear the same one until it's ruined or the strap has gone manky, then get another.

Probably about £100, last watch I bought was a g-shock that I think was £60ish. I would pay more for an hrm though.

[i]nothing havent owned one for 20 years,hate living life by a watch[/i] But you still look at the time on your phone, van, bike comp etc. So you still live life by a timepiece.

'How much better does a £2k watch tell the time than a £100 watch' was the question I came to while thinking about expensive watch purchases earlier this year. I ended up getting a £90 Nixon as it looks nice and tells the time. I have nothing against people buying more expensive watches, just couldn't justify it myself.

For me, it's about the pleasure I get from owning something a little bit special, that I like the look of and that is well made. Certainly not bought to re-sell, with servicing should last a v. long time and ultimately would be nice to pass on to the next generation. Oh, and once you get a watch with saffire glass, thay don't scratch nearly as easily!

[i]'How much better does a £2k watch tell the time than a £100 watch'[/i]

Not at all, possibly worse if the £100 one is quartz. But to some, like me, it's like saying how much 'better' is one picture than another?

'How much better does a £2k watch tell the time than a £100 watch'

Probably worse, and the £100 watch is probably less accurate than the casio up there---^

Honestly, very little. It's not something I attach any real worth to. I bought a rocker style watch many moons ago which cost about £50 and complimented my heavy metal roadie wardrobe quite nicely I thought. I liked it's chunky ruggedness and it made me feel extra manly. Then a few years later boy bands were blooding wearing something similar and I couldnt stand being asked where I got it by every hipster in every shop I went into.

So I've consigned it to the shelf to gather dust until it becomes unfashionable again. I just use my phone to tell the time.

I've got a TAG which I bought around fifteen years ago, a black case Series 1000, which cost £250. I recently bought an MWC G10 milspec watch with self-illuminating markers, like a Tracer, for £85, which is more accurate! If I had the money to spare, though, then £3500 on a Bell & Ross, because they're super tough with fantastically clear easy to read dials, not like these super complicated bling watches with dozens of supplementary dials. They're only to show off with, because telling the time with one takes too long.

Does it really matter how accurate the watch is?

I love the wwhole spunky marketing that some companies use, ie - Accurate to within 1/10000000th of a second every year. Like your going to lose sleep over where that extra time went.

I spent £100 on a nice titanium watch, plain analogue thingy by citizen. I liked it becasue it was plain, and the size suited my wrists better. This was the first watch I wore regularly after about 10 years. I still take it off for sleeping. I was dead proud of it at first but now I'm not that bothered. Couldn't find it this morning.

Can't stand people who have their watches on a really loose bracelet and spend loads of time shaking it about / re-adjusting it.

I quite like G-shocks, but they'd look huge on my wrists. I'd spend more money on a HRM / Altimeter than a regular watch. But that'd be about £300.

I've got a couple of nice watches. A Panerai and a JLC Reverso.

Both cost a couple of grand but I don't consider them an investment. For one thing I actually wear them rather than keeping them in a safe.

I bought them because I like watches, particularly from an engineering point of view.

And neither watch is any better at telling the time.

My Tag F1 cost £150 I think - it's still going strong 15 years later (on about the 8th strap). Worn for mountain biking, snowboard/skiiing, surfing, etc. etc.

So it's worth paying for something that will last, but thousands for jewellery on your wrist? Bonkers. Mind you I hate all jewellery.

I've broken a lot of £70ish watches recently - I think that mtbing has taken its toll with them. I guess that I could just have a casio cheapie as above but I do prefer a watch that's aethetically pleasing.

I decided to get a slighly more expensive watch this time (£150ish) to see if that fared any better but I was lucky enough to get a Citizen as below, reduced to £85 so got that. I can't imagine that I'd every spend more than a couple of hundred though.

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I have a Rolex Oyster bequeathed to me. I bought a Tag Professional series a few hundred. And I have a G-Shock Solar Atomic bought for £40.
For me, if you're going to push the boat out - get a decent and tasteful swiss one. Otherwise G-Shock all the way.

I would spend loads if I could afford it, a mate recently bought a £22K rolex, he got a 5K one for his dad whilst he was there, git!

I currently have my Oris TT2 in for a service thats going to cost about £130, but in the meantime I have bought a Next dress watch for less than the price of a battery replacement on the Citizen that I had planned to wear whilst the Oris is away for a month.

I use a CVC standard issue for biking purposes, I never forget having to search for a decent watch that got ripped off in a fall once, took my nearly 40 minutes to find it, mate's weren't impressed.

What's more tacky than a fake Rolex? A real one.

I have a Rolex Submariner now for many years and its consistantly poor at accuracy against the casio at the top of the page. Its a certified chronometer whatever that means. In my case, certified to quite a wide margin, but at least its officially inaccurate. It has survived years of caving, mtb, climbing and building abuse including falling down several flights of stairs. I'm happy with it as I hope will my nephew be, when he inherits it.

I have a Rolex Submariner...its consistantly poor at accuracy ...Its a certified chronometer

A certified chronometer should be accurate to within 4 seconds a day I think. If yours is a lot worse than that it may be worth getting it serviced.

Good reading, thanks for the feedback. I side with the buy it - wear it crowd. I see a watch as a piece of quality craftsmanship, often a talking point, an investment. I try to avoid gratuitous displays of wealth (not that i have any), Rolex, Breitling, B&R etc… and go for understated Omega, IWC, JLC (some!), Patek.

And those huge saucer sized flash bang wallop ones that get advertised in airports with Lewis Hamilton - do me a favour. Chav bling for wannabe millionaires.

What's more tacky than a fake Rolex? A real one.

I'm kind of with this sort of thinking. I find some of they big 'divers' watches very ugly and tacky looking. I have small wrists and hands, so those kind of watches just look stupid on me, anyway.

I spose of you actually are a diver, they might be worth getting. I dunno.

Spensive watches are just jewellery, though. But people spend thousands on utterly useless bits of jewellery, because they look pretty. I've no real problem with that. Gold and diamonds are nice. So are silver and lots of other stones. Rubies have a lovely colour.

If money were no object, I'd like a nice watch, but it would have to be something I find aesthetically pleasing. I actually really like those simple Swatches, that are just plain black, with a white face, and just tell the time. They are too flimsy to last, though. I have quite a nice Seiko that was about £100, but I need to fix the strap.

I once, in a moment of madness, bought a Seiko Kinetic watch; Titanium case and strap. Medium sized case, perfect for my girly wrist. Was quite nice.

Then I came to my senses, and realised I'd spent £400 on a watch, when I had a perfectly good one anyway, that looked ok. So I took it back. The dial was actually out by a tiny bit, meaning the hands din't line up perfectly at the 12. Poor construction. What a waste of money.

If you're gonna spend, at least get something that looks good...

I'm a serial loser and breaker of watches. Or at least was, until I got the current one. I think I must have gone through a watch a year easily, lost em, showered with non-waterproof ones, stood on em, dropped them from heights, crashed and broke the rubber straps etc.

Now I have an 'aviatime' digital watch than cost £3.99, which appears to be surviving just fine, and isn't even badly scratched, despite me wearing it everywhere for at least a couple of years, swimming with it on, riding with it on, showering with it on etc.

It's more accurate, lighter weight and probably more reliable than a mechanical watch too. I couldn't cope with a big lump of metal on my wrist all the time (and experience shows that I will forget to take it off when I go riding or whatever, so I would never have a 'best' watch).

Joe

A decent watch has to look subtle. There's nothing worse than a watch with multiple dials the size of tinned tuna in garish colours.

I don't wear a watch at the moment, and haven't done so for around 4 years or so.

Having said that I am looking to buy one this year as I don't have a decent watch and secondly I want something that I can keep for a long time which I can value as mine and potentially pass on.

I just cannot decide what to get, not that I have started to look. The choice seems quite bewildering. oh budget £500-1000 ish

interesting subject for me. I inherited a gold/steel Rolex oyster perpetual from my Dad. I don't really wear it because it's a bit bling for me.
I had it valued for insurance 4 years ago at £3500 and again a week ago. It's now nearly £5500.
Thinking of selling it actually, it's a beautiful thing but if i don't really wear it, what's the point?

I spose of you actually are a diver, they might be worth getting. I dunno.

Surely divers will use a dive computer nowadays rather than rely on some device and doing calculations & guesswork?

Joe

I spose of you actually are a diver, they might be worth getting. I dunno.

He probably meant muff diver. 🙂

rich_tee - I would take a look at Stowa Marine Original, Omega De Ville;

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I side with the buy it - wear it crowd

yes but you never actually USE IT do you though? youve never been on time for anything ever ;0)

If I could afford it £7-8k max, I think most of the super-expensive stuff is just tacky and over the top

Those look lovely MTT, especially the Stowa. Having had a cursory gance on their website, I also like the Antea. I also like the fact it's not an everyday name brand.

have not owned one for the last 20 years so £0

rather spend the money on something else

I own a couple of watches but none very expensive. None get worn either, I hate things clinging to my wrists, getting in the way and having to take them off when working etc. Phone in pocket.

I wear a sun-dial on my wrist.

Dad's got a couple of Patek Philipe's, which are really beautiful bits of engineering.
Quite fancy one of the Tag Monaco's myself, but i could never commit to spending so much on something i'd probably forget to put on.

I've not read all this. Presumably the relentless upward price movement of "investment" watches is not sustainable - it is another feature of turbo-charged consumption, like the modern art market, out of which the arse can only be falling. That said, many are very lovely things.

Personally I have never spent more than about £90.
🙂

I've never seen the appeal of watches either - purely functional bit of kit. Most I've ever spent was about £120 on a Polar HRM (that was trade price not retail). My current watch is a Kahuna which I won at Enduro 6 in about 2003, it's had a battery change since then but it keeps time and date fine and looks nice enough.

I've got better things to spend my money on.

most I've ever spend it around £300 and I still lost it (**** knows where, it just disappeared). So now I spend no more than £50.

Personally if I were to invest in a new watch I'd go for the Geomesh one...
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rich_tee - Member

Those look lovely MTT, especially the Stowa. Having had a cursory gance on their website, I also like the Antea. I also like the fact it's not an everyday name brand.

Yes, thats why i like them, they look a little less attractive given the exchange rate. The Marine Original is a fairly well known design, it's based on other watches from Dornbluth 99.1 ($$$$$) and IWC Jones ($$$$$$$$$$). Take a look at Sinn watches if you like more robust looking designs.

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coffeeking - only 1 in 10 people understand binary.

MTT I might be one of them then 😉

Max I have spend is 150€ on a 2nd hand sunto Ti watch with Barometer and compass.

Two useful feature to know
more or less where you are
how big/hard the bike ride was.

Compass died after 6 month of PhD (scriptory was on the top of a 50MHz NMR machine) and I can't get the altimeter to go under 1784m so probably borked too... And the glass is all scratched

But then I never really cared about it just used it, I think I am a watch and glasses = disposable person.

[i]I spose of you actually are a diver, they might be worth getting. I dunno.[/i]

Hmmmm, my dad was a pilot in the RAF, for most of his career he wore a fake Seiko bought in the Philippines, then he got a cheap Casio digital.

I have always loved nice watches. Had so many. My current one is the most exspensive. Its a Omega Seamaster (James Bond one with the blue face) Cost me about 1k. got it 4 years ago and had no problems. Diamond is great as it means you really need to go some to scratch it. Have looked at a nice Breightling which is about 3 1/2 k but think this is the most I would ever go.

Have a few more but none of them are worth over £200

I was bought a watch from the more tasteful end of the G-Shock lineup as a leaving gift from my last employer.

I was shocked to be told later - whilst delving about in mud up to my elbows trying to attach a rope to a half buried Land Rover - that I was wearing a hundred quid's worth of watch. Seems like a ridiculous amount of money to have strapped to my wrist. So much so that I hardly wear it now.

This thread has shocked me.

I have a £3500 Tag Monza Calibe 36 and a £200 Panerai Luminor Marina Replica to make the strap last longer on the Tag! At £200 for a croc strap I want it to last as long as possible!

MM

I used to be into nice watches but haven't worn one for years. It would have to be a useful technical feature which would make me use one again.

I do like this though

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...and in answer to the original post I would spend max £4-5K but not in that position anymore thanks to two children!

MM

When I was 21 I treated myself to a Breitling diving watch and I have worn it virtually every day since - 20 plus years. I have a Polar for roadie/running stuff and was given a Gshock recently. However, I prefer an analogue display so the "posh" watch still gets abused as my daily watch.
I now don't see the point in expensive "bling" when you can buy cheap, rugged, accurate watches.

Flamejob, that's like the Bell & Ross I mentioned earlier on, but without the supplementary dials, and a more rounded case. I love the bold numerals and big hands, makes it easy to see the time with a quick glance. Lovely watches.

I'm currently wearing a Dreyfuss & Co swiss made automatic as my everyday watch until I get the insurance payout for my collection which got stolen. I'm a massive fan of Omega (my Grandfathers fault & I inherited his very early Seamaster which got me started).

I can't say there's an upper limit to what I'd spend, much like with bikes. It's not an investment (to me although a number of the watches that were stolen had appreciated in value) but something I take pleasure in owning. Give me a nice Seamaster, Railmaster or a Planet Ocean and I'm happy. The only Rolex I'd consider is the Explorer series (and that's only because it looks like a Railmaster).

I'm going to buy myself a Longines with the insurance payout and replace my Casino Royale Planet Ocean (#00287 if anyone sees one for sale) and then I'll take it from there. Considering getting a Pannerai because they are beautiful but otherwise I'll be going for vintage.

I appreciate not everyone can see the point in an expensive watch but I get a great deal of pleasure owning something so well made as a Swiss mechanical timepiece so to my mind it's worth it.

Those diamond encrusted rapper watches do my nut in though.

despite what I said earlier I really like those Bell and Ross jobs - shame there are too many other things to spend money on!

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My names Bob and I'm a serial watchaholic....

The most I'd spend would be commensurate with whichever watch I fancied, could afford and wouldn't mean prostituting myself or selling the wife/a kidney. Narrowly avoided directly answering the question there but probably in the £10k's assuming the situation met the tests above.

I currently own a Rolex Submariner, a Breitling Chronomat Evolution and an Omega Seamaster Coax plus a Seiko Divers Watch (for diving as a backup to a Dive Comp.) and a couple of HRM/Altimeters.

I really like owning good quality kit and the watches give me a lot of pleasure (sad though it may seem to some). My favourite is the Roly. I've had it for 15 years, it's had one service (circa £500) and looks as good as new. I'd sell all the others but not that bad boy 😛

[b]Good reading, thanks for the feedback. I side with the buy it - wear it crowd. I see a watch as a piece of quality craftsmanship, often a talking point, an investment. I try to avoid gratuitous displays of wealth (not that i have any), Rolex, Breitling, B&R etc… and go for understated Omega, IWC, JLC (some!), Patek.[/b]

An awful lot of boutique Swiss brands including Omega, Tag, IWC and Bell and Ross buy their movements from ETA (A Swatch owned brand, Swatch also own Omega) and 'modify' it in some way to make it better/justify the price - delete as appropriate. With regards Bell and Ross, they've have only been making watches themselves since 2002 (their first watches were rebadged versions of somebody elses). They feel like a triumph of marketing to me.

I'm a Rolex fan, I admit it. Apart from a few Zenith movements they used a little while ago on one of their watch ranges, they continue to make all of their own movements. They were second to market a self winding mechanism (after Harwood), were the first to recieve a Chrono certificate and if you believe the press they invested the rotating bezel (not sure on that one).

The top ETA movements are incredibly well made - no doubt. But for me, I want a watch made by the watch maker themselves, not modified. I also want a bit of history and heritage. Of the big brands, Rolex tick that box the best for me.

My tuppence. Ready to be shot down...

I have a Longines, I'd only replace it if it broke(I've worn out 5 steel straps so far), then I'd get a Panerai.

Check out [url= http://www.replicawatchesuk.co.uk/index.php ]these jokers[/url] between £300 & £700 for a fake. God you would have to be a real muppet to by an expensive fake.

Circa 20k spent here..... 😀

Should perhaps explain though that that was on the credit card (Tesco's to be precise..) buying everything associated with phase one of the house renovation. Mrs MM allowed me to convert the clubcard point to Goldsmiths vouchers and I bought an Omega Speedmaster - something I'd always wanted, can't see me parting with it....

As with others above, I'd love to have a 'stable' of watches but just don't have the funds (flying back out of Geneva airport recently was a tough test..). In my heart of hearts though I do think the mainstream brands are mostly marketing as opposed anything else...

Lottery win? - I'd be off to find the man in the hut on an alp that hand makes them still....

[url= http://www.corum.ch/dev_0206/index.html ]watchmaking porn...[/url]
takes you to the Corum site.
If it does not take you to the Film Gallery page hit the Communications tab then film gallery.
'The Bridge' watch vid shows some true craftsmanship....

I like my rolex, it was cheap though.