Cost of manufacturing Wrighty, all that engineering costs money you know.

I think they’ve been Swatch for nearly 20 years too.

Most of the prestige watch manufacturers now use ‘in house’ movements. A lot of them did use ETA movements but I guess they were struggling to justify the prices by using relatively movements. Panerai in particular being a case in point. Breitling too.

Up until around 10 years ago all mainsprings were manufactured by a company owned by Swatch group, they were the only people who had the machines and the skills to make them – if I remember correctly all the springs for these ‘prestige’ movements were made from a kilo of this material every year. Swatch got bored, told everyone that they were going to stop selling them from 2008 or so. Everyone else complained and Swatch were forced/encouraged/or they agreed they would phase the withdrawal over X years. Hence a lot of companies starting to make their own complete movements rather than using ETA’s or Valjoux kits.*

*writing this from memory so it may be a little incorrect but the gist is about right.

Want an exquisitely manufactured piece of engineering, with a fascinating story behind it?
Want it to cost a LOT more then a newer, digital, better functioning equivalent with 100s more features?
Want laymen to not have a clue what the thing is?
Want to actually use it, rather than just look at it on your wrist?

yep that make no sense. well done 🙄

I always get upset by the hate on here for that reasons Mods i would like to have my IP removed from the forum and be placed on the banned list.

I no longer want to be in the same room as some of the children on here.

Cheers

this may help ****

YAAAY! a flounce! Not seen one of those for a while!

TTFN Princess xx

Nice Flounce!

I see you already have the foil hat 😉

A flounce? What about? Surely if you’re a mug that buys expensive watches you can just stare it in the face and nod sagely that you’re better than everyone else.

Why are you more of a mug buying an expensive watch over buying an expensive bike, whisky, tv, hifi etc ?
Surely it doesn’t matter what people spend their money on?

Not for me.

Watched a telly-programme the other day about super yachts, and the sort of men who buy them. The problem that few seem to be able to overcome with any success, is that (like these watches) it’s basically penis compensation, they do it by spending vast sums of cash, in the squalid belief that they have to surround themselves with the finest “things”; and to win it has to be obviously expensive, which means that it/they end up being ostentatious.

These watches may be exquisite pieces of machinery, (again, like the super yachts) but they are tasteless, vulgar and obviously obnoxiously expensive (Which is the point of them, after all)

I’m sure my previous post explained that. Too subtle for someone who flashes round a piece of jewellery I suppose 😆

So nice watches are like envy wheels then 🙂

I don’t think Enve Wheels appreciate in value though.

Always love a good thread on STW ridiculling expensive ‘luxury’ possessions…

Then someone posts a pic of a 6k Santa Cruz and everyone creams their pants

I reckon the majority of the population would think that 10k on a nice watch is far less of a waste than 10 k on a fleet of push bikes that all do exactly the same thing…*

*Obviously they don’t but thats not what all my non biking mates think

I should add for balance I think spending 10k on a watch is a complete waste of time, however my bikes are probably worth that and are worth every penny…. 🙂

Then someone posts a pic of a 6k Santa Cruz and everyone some creams their pants

FIFY

envy wheels

A very relevant typo!

tpbiker – Member

Always love a good thread on STW ridiculling expensive ‘luxury’ possessions…

Then someone posts a pic of a 6k Santa Cruz and everyone creams their pants

A £6k bike is at least very very good at being a bike. A £10k watch is no better at being a watch than a £7 casio digital, and less useful if you want to build a bomb.

Depends how you define a watch. For some people how it looks is as important as how it tells the time.

Are these still regarded as “high end”?

No, they do not partake in ‘haute horology’ like patek, vacheron, JLC or Lange & Söhne etc so are definitely not high end.
Lots of other misinformation in this thread (like Tudor now having their own in-house movement and omega’s long history of movement innovation.(we can gloss over the co-axial escapement being invented by an Englishman))
Not go time to address each wrong or out of date point, if you had an interest in timepieces you would have found that info for yourself. 🙂

A £6k bike is at least very very good at being a bike. A £10k watch is no better at being a watch than a £7 casio digital, and less useful if you want to build a bomb.

Not a very good comparison though is it when you look at the OP, you’re not going to be handing a £7 Casio to your heir, quite unlikely a £6k bike either.

A £10k watch you will, and if the new owner doesn’t like it they can sell it and spend what ever it’s worth on whatever they do like.

Tag line seems pretty spot on.

No one buys a Patek Phillipe to tell the time! Much more practical investment than a painting too….

Omega, Brietling etc. are still high end – a £5k watch cannot be considered anything but high end – it’s out of the reach of ‘normal people’. Would be a very special one-off purchase for anyone except the very well off. But the bar has been upped by a group of even higher end stuff. Just like Supercars have been trumped by Hyper cars. A Ferrari 458 is a supercar, and still considered as a high end car, even though it’s no longer the best and most expensive you can get from Ferrari – not by a long way.

[video]https://youtu.be/i81NndQdVSA[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/SGPjFFMD3c0[/video]

After reading this thread,i’m going to buy one and wear it with my
singletrack t-shirt just to tick you chaps off

I must say some of them are really pretty.

Seiko make their own movements, their top-end watches, with the Grand Seiko movements, are a match for anyone, chronometer grade, but Seiko can’t be bothered with all the accreditation that goes with it. I’d dearly love a Tuna Emperor, but really my SPORK is such a nice watch to wear it’s very difficult indeed to justify the expense.
Shared movements are nothing new; my 1972 Yema has a Valjou movement, identical to movements used in Breitling watches of the same period, except the Breitling ones had a fancy finish to the outside.
I can sort of understand some of the animosity towards expensive watches; some are so ostentatious in the level of ‘bling’, encrusted with jewels, etc. that they’re just grotesque, and are clearly just to shout LOOK AT MEEEEE! I’VE GOT MORE MONEY THAN YOU LOSERS AND I CAN PAY THE PRICE OF A HOUSE FOR A WATCH!
Others are just so damned complicated, with so many complications that they become almost unusable as a timepiece, rendering them largely pointless, being just a more subtle version of the above.
There’s a third sort, though, pricey but perfectly usable watches, the so-called ‘tool watch’, my favourite type, that doesn’t shout it’s value in any sort of overt fashion, which is where the top-end Seiko watches appeal to me.

I thought this was going to be a thread about cats

Nice flounce though. We’ve not had one for a while. I thought the Maxxis calendar girls might induce one, but instead we had to wait for someone to rustle their petticoats in defence of something even more tacky and tasteless. Good work! 😆

Why are you more of a mug buying an expensive watch over buying an expensive bike, whisky, tv, hifi

All those things are expensive because they DO something well. A bling watch doesn’t do its job any better than a cheap one. So it’s value has to be pulled out of thin air, invented by the avaricious, the impressionable or the vain. Or those selling them. Reasons will be invented.

You can’t really compare such a watch with say, a work of art. Art communicates a worthy emotion, a watch tells the time.

There are many things to spend your money on – experiences, activities, art, whatever, but a watch? I can’t reconcile such a thing with any of my values!

I know this post will annoy some people, so don’t take it too seriously and be offended! 🙂

Nobody can define what art is – it depends on the individual, and all those Art experts out there talking crap about a pile of bricks or an unmade bed are just as full of as much BS and any product marketing executive out there justifying the worth of any product.

The value is not in the quality of the movement – its in the brand. Seiko has not invested in increasing the value or prestige of its brand. It’s completely deliberate – it all depends on where the company wants to pitch itself.

There is more to the value of a product than just how good the actual product is or how much it costs to manufacture. Look at Apple. It’s products are not necessarily any better than the competition but yet people are prepared to pay a premium for. You can see it in any product type out there. Consumerism – it defy’s the laws of logic and common sense.

but Seiko can’t be bothered with all the accreditation that goes with it

It’s not exactly that demanding.

that doesn’t shout it’s value in any sort of overt fashion, which is where the top-end Seiko watches appeal to me.

You do realise how pointless a 1000m rated watch is? 🙂

Although I agree with most of what you posted!

I spent £500 on a Tag about 20 years ago but then I was young and foolish!

To be honest, I quite like the look of Panerai watches but I just too tight to spunk that amount of money for something that keep worse time than my £100 Seiko solar.

Look at Apple. It’s products are not necessarily any better than the competition

They are, you know.

I love my iPhone so much that I had it gold plated and encrusted with diamonds. Pretty cool eh?

all those Art experts out there talking crap about a pile of bricks or an unmade bed are just as full of as much BS

For me, art has to say something. The bed or the bricks said something. So did the urinal. The watch doesn’t say anything good, to me at least 🙂

I think you’ll find the watch makes a statement Molls. The same statement a private number plate makes 😉

For me, art has to say something. The bed or the bricks said something. So did the urinal. The watch doesn’t say anything good, to me at least

Mine tells me I’m late, or even better, on time. 🙂

My first (inherited) watch was on the wrist of one of the survivors of HMS Coventry. That and the story of the person who gave it to me means an awful lot. I invest in watches so I can hopefully do the same to my children.

Everything we buy is subjective, I own several original paintings and some prints. I’m pretty certain most people on here would be aghast at what I hang on my wall. If what I spend my money on really offends people on here I truly am sorry they feel that way.

LeeW – Member

Mine tells me I’m late, or even better, on time.

I was just reading an article where a watch salesman explained why watches that don’t keep good time are better than accurate watches, because they’re making a statement that you’re not somebody that needs to worry about being on time. And after all, inaccuracy is more poetic. Another feller said if he wants to know the time, he checks his phone. But if he wants a broad idea of what the time is, and a deeper time-reading experience, he checks his watch.

I do know exactly what the time is, therefore I know it’s too late to tell these guys to get in the sea. But still, it is the obvious place.

🙂

I’m within a 10 minute walk of at least three Richard Mille dealers, they are the most gopping things I’ve ever seen. Truly awful. I’m sure someone loves them though.

You can’t really compare such a watch with say, a work of art. Art communicates a worthy emotion, a watch tells the time.

Disagree mate, for some i’d say there is a similar emotion in owning an expensive watch.

What i don’t get it how emotive people on here seem to have got about people buying a high-end watch. I feel sorry for people that go around seethingly envious of what others can afford. Why does anyone care? I couldn’t care less what others spend their money on.
I do not own, nor intend to buy, an expensive watch – i like Nixons :).

You can’t really compare such a watch with say, a work of art. Art communicates a worthy emotion, a watch tells the time.

A Patek Phillipe is not a watch. The advert merely discerns between those who get that and those who don’t.

WK2 marketing at Bus School and top prof walks in to the lecture room, points to his Rolex and asks shy Asian lady, “What’s this?” She replies, “It’s a watch.” Cue a few repetitions and an increasingly embarrassed lady who could not see what the prf was getting at – it was marketing after all!!

Even after the prof’s hint, “If I wanted something to tell the time, I would have bought a swatch.”. Slightly painful (for her) but clear illustration of the point.

I feel sorry for people that go around seethingly envious of what others can afford

It’s not envy. My bike collection could easily cover most of these watches so it’s not like I couldn’t find the money.

A Patek Phillipe is not a watch.

Yes it is. It’s just a watch. The emperor is naked too.

Well only a fool would pay £ks for something that only tells the time mol!

Take that as you see fit! 😉

for some i’d say there is a similar emotion in owning an expensive watch.

I’d say that’s an emotion that you’ve been fed. You like it because of its cachet, its reputation, how it was made and yes, what it cost.

Now I’m sure a lot of the art world is driven by the same waffle. Most of it, probably. That’s why I would rather have a print than an original famous painting. Because the content is still there.

If there was a way to perfectly duplicate a Patek Phillipe watch for 1/50 the price, would you? I bet not.