Do any of you worry about having several thousand pounds strapped to your wrist? I don’t think I would be able to relax on a night out, constantly worried someone was going to mug me?
Never really bothered me, but none of my watches were terribly expensive. That’s changed a bit over the last few years, with my Yema Rallygraf. My first ‘bought by me’ watch, and in 1970 it cost £50, quite a lot of money considering I earned a bit less than £10 a week! Birthday money helped, and I wore it continually until the mid-80’s when I bought a TAG Heuer Series 1000 ‘night diver’. Cost £250, and because it was a bit tougher than the Yema chrono, that got worn to death, on the bikes, at work, everywhere. It’s got a black PVD coating which is worn and chipped, as is the bracelet, I eventually swapped that for Animal Velcro straps, because the bracelet rattled a lot when riding, and used to leave black sweaty marks on my wrist. The Yema developed a bit of an issue but I wasn’t wearing it much anyway, and I’d bought several other watches, like a Yokobies mod Series 5, and a couple of cheap Casios.
Several years ago I found someone who could fix the Yema and service it, after the mainspring broke, which cost £460, which I considered worth it for its sentimental value, so I started wearing it again. Then I came across one online that had been auctioned in London, so I contacted them to find out what it had sold for – £3800! It’s no longer an everyday watch, but I do still wear it, I made a leather strap with the buckle from an older, worn-out strap, and I treasure that one. The TAG is now increasing in value, since it was discovered that it’s a ‘James Bond’ watch – Tim Dalton wore one in ‘The Living Daylights’, so it’s becoming a collectible now.
My daily beater is a Heimdallr ’Steel Tuna’ homage, which has in turn been modded, with new face and hands, and a fully lumed bezel insert, and a replacement movement, work carried out by one of this thread’s regulars; I’m reluctant to name him, I don’t want to be responsible for him getting a flood of requests for repairs and mods, so I’m keeping quiet, but it has a Seiko auto movement, it looks great, it’s very tough and I absolutely love how it looks; I do have another Heimdallr SKX007 mod homage, which hasn’t got much of a look-in lately, I just never take the Tuna off. Neither cost more than about £130-ish, I can’t justify paying more.
I really should start wearing the TAG a bit more, though, but it’s a bit small compared to the Heimdallr watches, and I’m more comfortable with the bigger case, even on my skinny wrists!
Oh, I meant to add, I was reading a Wired article earlier about Bremont watches, and their new building, very much worth a read…
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/bremont-british-watches
If I could actually afford a really good, expensive watch, other than a Tudor Pelageos, it would be a Bremont.