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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 - MemberThose 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.
The Corum video is amazing, but the watch itself is just tacky.
iamtheresurrection - IIRC the Omega Coaxial isn't just a converted ETA movement but you're quite right about some of the others. If it doesn't have the Coax it's a tweaked ETA (not that there's anything at all wrong with that).
IWH - I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I'm pretty sure the co-axial is still based on the ETA 2892, but the derivative is nevertheless exclusive to Omega and a bloody clever tweak (English invention too).
Why, why, why do I frequent this place?
I have just bought an automatic for riding my bike, FFS, I was perfectly happy this morning!
Still, it cost less than half the price of the service on my Oris, so it must be a bargin (sic) 😉
Those Corum watches are genuinely tasteless shite. It's been a while since I've seen the obvious "Considerably more money than thou" bollox that those watches represent.
I'd spend whatever I could afford on a watch I liked. I'm not a Tag or Rolex fan, but did buy myself an Omega Speedmaster reduced just over a year ago when I just happened to have been given my redundancy cheque and there was a sale on at the jewellers, got it for just under half price.
I've been left some money from my grandparents, just waiting for some land to sell and then will treat myself to another watch in remembrance of them, not sure what yet probably wither a IWC or Panerai, or if the land sale goes sky high at auction may be a Blancpain.
I don't like watches and rely just on a mobile phone. Don't like the feeling of one around my wrist. One day I will inherit my grandfathers 1920s patek philippe, I've no idea how it would be practical to wear a watch of that value without being worried.
Seiko military automatic will be my next watch.
SNX427K2 nylon or SNX42
[url= http://www.skywatches.com.sg/seiko_military/Seiko_Military.htm ]Seiko.[/url]
🙂
I have this now.
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😀
But I also like this Seiko.
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🙂