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Current: Cartier Tank solo ss Next: Daytona yellow gold and steel, white dial Dream: Breguet classique with moonphase and power reserve indicator and an AP RO or Nautilus
Lol another one of these threads relevant to my interests.
Current: Rolex GMT Master 116713 (Two Tone), Panerai PAM 048, IWC Portofino Chronograph, Girard-Perregaux Richeville
Next: Royal Oak 15202, Rolex Daytona 116508 (YG and Green Dial)
Dream: A Lange Sohne Datograph, A Lange Sohne Zeitwerk, FP Journe Chronometre Bleu, Paul Newman Daytona Ref. 6241
Watches might be the one thing on which I'm willing to spend money (as opposed to crazy cars or houses).
Current: JLC Master Ultra Thin Small Second (daily use); JLC Master Compressor Chronograph (casual use)
Next: Maybe an IWC Portuguese, Lange & Söhne 1815 Annual Calendar
Dream: a thin Patek with decent complication (e.g. 5270, 5078, 5327), Lange & Söhne Tourbographe "Pour le Mérite", some high-end, customized JLC models (I visited their manufacture and they have incredible pieces)
Hard to consider a "regular" watch once you've gotten used to a thin model.
Frankly as a watch enthusiast I have never understood the appeal of Rolex watches, they simply exude all the wrong signals. I'd personally much rather go with A. Lange & Sohne, Vacheron Constantin or Breguet once my budget permits me to, haha.
This is generally people's first impression once they really get into watches, but over time your appreciation for how damn perfectly Rolex executes on sport watches will grow. Classic designs and impeccable quality.
With that said, my daily drivers are a Tudor Black Bay Black and an Omega Speedmaster. I also have a Panerai 111, which I am going to sell when I figure out the best medium to do so. It was my first "real" watch purchase (no offense Seiko!) and no longer enjoy wearing it.
Next watch is a Rolex GMT 116710 BLNR and dream watch is AP 15202.
I love how incredibly timeless Rolex designs their watches. Quality and finish are absolutely amazing. Somehow, prices seem to be quite robust too. Funny enough my current watch, the Rolex GMT 116710 BLNR, has a market value greater than what I paid for it. Of course, it's not a meaningful return, but it's dissimilar to most other "wearables", which simply depreciate to 0 over time.
In the end, though, I try not to get too carried away with the whole watch thing. There's too much good stuff around to buy, it would drive me crazy.
saving up my money for an ed hardy watch, those things are sick
As a genuine question, would be very interested to hear what it is about watches which makes people so willing to spend such large amounts of money on them. Personally I have had an Omega for the last 6 years which cost $3k at the time ($6k now), and don't plan on replacing it. Don't get me wrong, I of course appreciate a Portugese or a Royal Oak, but prices are so high for watches like this that I find it hard to justify having more than one. Am well aware that I am in the minority, but would genuinely be interested to hear what it is about watches that appeals so much to so many people.
For many it still represents a status symbol. Others like the engineering part. The whole "a watch is the only jewelry a man should own" argument is genius from a marketing perspective.
Personally, many in my family have worked in watch-making, so that was part of the "education."
I definitely see that, but with so many of the brands being part of public companies like Richemont or Swatch, looking at the sheer number of watches sold per quarter makes them less special for me and less willing to spend c.$10k on. I definitely get the jewelry argument, no doubt - I guess my main problem I have is the sheer cost, as especially if you own several of these watches there is a serious opportunity cost there. It's just the sheer number of watches being sold at this price which does personally surprise me.
Interesting - would be very interested to hear your/ your family's view on these mass-produced watch brands like Omega given they have worked in watch making?
My phone has a time keeping feature
Rolex is a bit tacky for me, IMO. If you work on the street, everyone has it. Hell the guy next to me on my desk has one. I went with something different, an IWC Portuguese.
Exactly. Watches are a status symbol. With a Rolex you're just like everybody else.
Rolex = 5" cock Vacheron Constantin = 7" cock A. Lange & Sohne = 8" cock Patek = 10" cock Patek Grandmaster Chime = 12" BBC
Let us not kid ourselves about why we buy watches. Unless you are a watch geek who really gets into the movements and such (nothing wrong with that but its not most people) then I believe one should embrace the fact that we buy watches for the effect they have on others. With that said, I will tell you a story of how I became a Rolex devotee with full expectation to get flamed for this story and line of thinking:
When i was in my mid 20s, an older relative of mine gave me a Cartier French Tank, which was my first nice watch and which I absolutely loved...I felt it fit me well: understated, tasteful, classy. I wore it happily for several years and still love it mostly for sentimental reasons and because of who gave it to me.
A few years later I got a nice paycheck and decided I wanted to buy another watch and went with a Rolex. I bought a simple, entry level Submariner....nothing too crazy but still a Rolex. Watch geeks rolled their eyes and I was somewhat embarrassed to have made such a clichéd choice.
I bought the watch on a Sunday and wore it into work for the first time Monday. That morning a very attractive coworkers of mine who I had barely ever talked to came over to my desk and said "bondarb...I cant believe you bought a Rolex without bringing me along with you!". Call me a chump, but I was basically hooked on Rolex from there.
Bottom line is that Rolex is a "prestige brand" broadly and not just to those who know watches and so if you are going to pay up for a watch I think you might as well get something people recognize and makes an impact. Sorry if this is offensive but you should know that most watch brands are unknown to women and you get no more impact from wearing, for example, a $20,000 Jaeger LaCoulter Reverso (which watch geeks love) then you would wearing a cool looking novelty watch for a few hundred bucks. Don't blame me blame society or maybe blame Rolex's excellent marketing team!
So these days I wear two watches, one for casual situations like bars or sporting events and one for more dressed up (but not formal) occasions. The dressed up one is a blue and gold Rolex submariner, which I enjoy seeing is usually the most visually garish watch in business meetings I am in especially these days. The casual one is a Panerai luminor marina which I have put on a really funky custom alligator double strap. Both get tons of comments/compliments and are conversation starters, both reflect elements of my personality, and I don't really care what watch snobs think of either of them!
I am not really into watches, so I don´t have a clue on what´s good or not. But Cartier French Tank or Jaeger LaCoulter Reverso (not the brand, more the design) is a watch I would expect my grandma to wear, no offense. I would never believe that it costs 20k. I would not even wear it if it would be for free. People at school would probably make fun of you too (not knowing about the brand/price, just based on design). But again I don´t know what watch experts/fans look for. Just judging from the design it looks pretty lame. I think not only has Rolex a strong brand but its design looks really nice and classy. I am a college kid and just curious, what do you guys actually like about watches like this one? Would you buy it without the brand/price factor just for the design?
this is old but I just had to respond: it's uncultured college swine like you that make us youth look bad...the Reverso is a masterpiece of a watch comparable in statement (for the watch-fluent) to an entry-level Patek.
These are classic watches with an appeal of ELEGANCE. Rolex is nice but that's why snobs hate it - it's like a high school senior saying he wants to work at GS but knows no other investment bank. It's like an idiot talking about art and knowing only of Picasso. It's like someone not from New York saying they prefer a bland 50th floor midtown condo to the prewar charm of Park Avenue.
Rolex is barbaric and uncouth next to a Jaeger LeCoultre or Cartier Tank, which leverage the square design of eras past. These were the standard back when this was a men's world with real men (I know, it's hard to fathom that a smaller dial means more manly but, again, this was when men weren't so fragile about their masculinity like today lol). Anyway, real men, not a generation of college hardos that decided they wanted to go into finance after watching Wolf of fuckin Wall Street lmao.
The kids today seem to know only of Rolexes and Gucci loafers - exhausted cliches fueled by herd mentality. I say this not necessarily to rant but to provide some utility to you here - when you're this level of basic (think a college girl in leggings and an oversized hoodie kind of basic), people notice, and immaturity is counted. It shows naivete etc - YES even in these little things. MDs for instance can be old-timers - they dig young guys that remind them of their time and detest the new era, about-to-be-new-money schmucks. So anyway take it or leave it but sometimes it's better to learn the culture of things BEFORE you have the money, which sounds counterintuitive but just trust me.
It's funny, I used to think that as I moved up in the bank I'd get nicer timepieces (I got cussed out in a store once for referring to them as watches), at some point it doesn't really matter.
1) More and more senior guys are wearing cheap watches or sports watches. On a day that we were talking about this trend, went to meet a c.$20 bn PE fund manager, the guy was wearing a $20 Casio. Had an MD that wore a $60 - $80 Nike watch (with his $5,000 suit) just didn't care.
We were speculating that these guys are wearing cheap watches because they are so far above the game we are playing they don't need a $100k timepiece. Or, they are wearing the sports watches because they already have more money than you, are smarter than you, and now they are 'more manly' than you because they run and swim and whatever else.
2) I realise that I can't afford a mortgage and get a watch that will blow people away (everyone has a $10k - $20k timepiece), so I go for more unique pieces, something different from what everyone else has, you can find some really cool stuff: my colleague has a navy divers watch from the 50's, I've seen some WW2 era pilot's watches, there's lots of interesting pieces out there.
I hope you guys realize it's actually a thought-out condescending move. I hate seeing these CEOs and fund managers rock the Swatch. They do it in the same arrogance that silicon valley devils wear shitty t-shirts to work.
C-suite and buyside execs know they make enough $ to not care. It's easy to decide "hell let me be ironic today and sport a $10 watch". But subconsciously this is sort of a microaggression towards lower employees that put a considerable chunk of their bonuses towards a luxury like a 5-digit price tag watch. They do that because they're not used to the luxury and it's exciting - execs are essentially silently communicating the message "ha you peasant, you make 200k and you're blowing a whole 10% on a watch while I make 20m and I'm wearing a ($10) watch 0.000001 of my income - get your priorities straight"
I hope this makes sense (pulled all nighter sorry). Like, Mark Zuckerberg would dress in a hoodie and flip flops so that if anyone challenges him about it he can whip out the "dude, I'm the billionaire founder of a" bla bla. It's douchey as hell, hence why Eduardo Saverin says "sorry I didn't wear my fuck-you flip flops" to Mark in their last fight.
Lloyd from GS wore a clear swatch - that's a fuck-you watch whereas a 500k Patek isnt.