So, just sent my watch off for a service…

But there’s also a section who like things such as this. Makes you no less a person actually wanting one and then actually managing to buy one. I’d love a new full susser to replace my now seriously tired (nearly) 4 yr old one, but as I’ve got more important things (like treating my kids to the best stuff we can) to spend on then it’s well down the list. Each to their own I say and to those who can’t afford, unlucky!

Each to their own I say and to those who can’t afford, unlucky!

I’ve no problem with people owning or buying whatever they like, just amused by people who do so & then think others will/should be impressed!

I’ve no problem with people owning or buying whatever they like, just amused by people who do so & then think others will/should be impressed!

Exactly this. To be fair, I likely wouldn’t notice anyway.

Does mine count as vintage now? Animal watch bought in 1996 with my first uni grant cheque!

We have three guys at work that keep going on about watches, and how expensive theirs were.
All three have personalised registration plates on their big shiny black cars with blacked out windows. The plates all depict their initials or some tenuous link to their name (in case they can’t remember which car is theirs, I imagine).
They could have saved on this expense though, because to find their car, all they would have to do is look in the nearest disabled space.
Nobbers.

You are right though, none of them lives with their mum.

there’s a one armed geezer on bolton market who does watches, bet he’d fix it for a fiver.

Animal watch bought in 1996 with my first uni grant cheque

🙂 got one circa 97, still my fave watch but don’t bother wearing one most of the time now. Needs a new battery too and animal want £12 for it, robbing bleeders!

😉

Animal watch bought in 1996

I’ve got a circa 94 one that was still going great then somehow I seem to have lost it in the last couple of months – very annoying 😡 It must worth…I don’t know…50p?

Has anyone pointed out yet that you could have just bought a replica for £120 and the wife would be none the wiser?

http://www.enwatchesale.co.uk/replica-ebel-1911-btr-gmt-1215624-men-watch-p-5658.html

🙂

I must admit tho I do look at other peoples bikes and think jammy bastard I’d love one of those. Where as I don’t do that with watches. I just like mine because my wife bought it for me…

My Tag Heur Formula 1 cost £85 in 1989, last year it went in for a new battery, service and plastic strap = £250!!! I asked for it to be returned, but it seems they carried out the work because it now works again!!! (Anyone wanna buy it? Same as the one JMC won, complete with display box & card box.)

Where a Rolex will draw admiring glances, a Casio will leave a girl wondering if you still live with your mum

Proper lol, although I’m not a Rolex fan by any means.

Re the cost for the OP – I would live to see a breakdown of how this price is arrived at but you are looking at a highly skilled watchmaker doing a job that will have taken years to learn and involve many hours of labour. To put it in perspective, how much does a main car dealer charge per hour?

3 months seems a bit ridiculous though. Does it get returned to the factory at any point?

And if so, which of Jupiter’s moons is it on?

Where a Rolex will draw admiring glances, a Casio will leave a girl wondering if you still live with your mum

Has a watch ever drawn an admiring glance? Except in the narcissistic imagination of the wearer? Or from some other equal Patrick Bateman-a-like? Seriously? Every time I think of a statement watch like a Rolex, I immediately picture…..

They’re like wearing a Range Rover Sport, with a body kit, and a private plate on your wrist. It just screams ‘absolute stroker’!

Binners – agreed, and indeed Terry is a stroker of epic proportion. But for Mr Terry there a rolex is proportionally less expensive as a fraction of his hard earned and deserved (!) salary than a casio is to you or I. Is it gratuitous bling when you can afford it with ease? Do you and I look at a Rolex and not see its obvious engineering loveliness because of its social climber connotations?

A fair point. I’m sure its a beautifully crafted piece of engineering.

I know its just personal preference – each to their own, and all that – but I think from an aesthetic viewpoint, they’re just really, really ugly. I don’t like unnecessarily fussy stuff. And there’s far too much going on with watches like that. And those chunky metal straps are truly hideous! All IMHO, of course

Got an orange neoprene strap on mine binners, like a proper divers jobby! Does that increase my stroker level exponentially? I also wear mine in the sea….

obviously there is a sad section of society that thinks a bling watch marks them out as an important grown up member of society, you know what they say about fools & their money

And you probably know the saying about fools who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing? We can’t all win The Monty Python Yorkshirmen sketch!

I’ve not got a £4k watch, but do have an MG in the garrage which once serviced, taxed, insured and MOT’d costs about what the OP’s paid, every year! It gets used probably a lot less and can’t even tell me how much petrol is left accurately, let alone the time!

wrightyson – I think an orange neoprene strap sounds refreshingly, almost dangerously subversive actually.

They’re still ugly though 😉

Don’t understand this expensive watch business, but coming on a bike forum (even this one) and **** on about watches is asking for mockery.

and I claim my £5

I just had all my fivers serviced – cost me a tenner each!

‘Tis funny how this comes up every few months on a forum where many wouldn’t think twice about paying £4k for a push bike. It always polarises those that can’t begin to see how anyone would spend so much on that and those that do.

For those wondering, it never reaches a sensible conclusion just goes quiet for another couple of months before going round all over again 🙂

Has anyone pointed out yet that you could have just bought a replica for £120 and the wife would be none the wiser?

It looks like that?!?

Blimey, I really expected

Gawd, I wish I had money to burn.

I don’t understand the hysterics over expensive watches. A five grand watch might seem ludicrous to some people but’s it’s hardly the definition of opulent consumption. If you drink 5 pints of lager every Saturday night you spend about 5 grand over 5 years.

In a similar vein a nissan micra is probably a more reliable and useful car than a fancy penis extension, but I know what I’d rather drive 🙂

John Terry’s watch is a limited edition. It’s powered by the up and down shuffling motion of a five knuckle shuffle. He recharges his many many times during the day. 8)

‘Tis funny how this comes up every few months on a forum where many wouldn’t think twice about paying £4k for a push bike.

I think most of us would think twice about that much, but in any case – bikes DO something. Watches don’t – at least nothing remarkable.

Expensive watches ONLY exist as a place to put money. They have no other quality besides being expensive. That’s it.

Errrr, ‘that’s it’ in your opinion. Others may exist. Not very liberal of you there Moly. Tut tut.

A £5k bike works a lot better than a £100 bike.

A £5k watch doesn’t tell the time any better than a £5 Casio – and often worse.

I don’t think they’re a waste of money necessarily – I’ve never lost significant money when selling old watches. In fact in some cases have made a few quid. But would agree they’re not much more than (well engineered) man-jewellery and no different to women wearing expensive jewels or those ridiculous handbags that cost the GDP of a small country – if it wasn’t for my stupid expensive watch how would the fit young men I’m trying to pick up in the bar know that I was loaded? 😉

if it wasn’t for my stupid expensive watch how would the fit young men I’m trying to pick up in the bar know that I was loaded?

You could always light your Cuban cigars with £50 notes

You could always light your Cuban cigars with £50 notes

Apparently it’s against Wetherspoons’ code of conduct 🙁

Errrr, ‘that’s it’ in your opinion. Others may exist.

Yep, entirely my opinion.

As for being illiberal – I’m not trying to stop anyone from having nice watches 🙂

There are many things in life that you can choose to spend money on where a cheaper functionally equivalent option exists – pens, clothes, cuff links, ties, luggage, shoes, food, fragrances, pets, hi fis… Just because I can’t understand why people spend money on some of these doesn’t make their choice any more right or wrong than someone who chooses to spend their money on a watch, but don’t let that stop the arguing…

pens, clothes, cuff links, ties, luggage, shoes, food, fragrances, pets, hi fis

A long list of things I’m proud to say I’ve never spend more money on than was required 😉

(and I don’t think I’ve ever bought cufflinks, ties, or fragrances)

I bet your mother buys them for you 😉

I inherited one tie from my father that I use for funerals and weddings, I’ve got some of my grandfather’s cufflinks about somewhere but I never use them because I have shirts with that clever modern invention – buttons.

And I attract women with my natural musk.

Oh, and thanks to an advert over there —>

May I present you with a watch owner:

A long list of things I’m proud to say I’ve never spend more money on than was required

Same here! Except the hifi, which I cobbled together with discount and obselete ebay parts for about £500 in total, between 1999 and 2004 or so. It sounds a lot better than a £50 radio though.

That chap looks like he’s wearing an Android watch though – interesting!

So you’ve only ever eaten the cheapest thing that satisfies your appetite and nutritional needs and only drunk to quench your thirst? Surely anything more than that is frivolous expenditure?

Hmm….. I don’t think food is comparable. I’m certainly not eating in fancy restaurants and drinking expensive wine, but I’m not eating tesco value either.

There’s bargain bin stuff, there’s good value, there’s nice, and then there’s bonkers. And then on top of that there’s ludicrous.

I have a watch – it’s not a £5 Casio, it was abotu £150. It was also a gift, and I never wear it either 🙂 My wedding ring was £90 too.

Welcome to the STW puritans thread. Only unnecessarily expenditure on high end bikes allowed. Any other category considered frivolous 🙂

Oh no, I do spend money on stuff, but only stuff that actually DOES something. And I’ll spend more on stuff that does something better than a cheap version.

Value comes from function in this house 🙂