Wristwatches, watches and watch-like gadgets
- Thread starter weltweit
- Start date
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
Patek and Rolex make all their own movements, which proper watch nerds care about a great deal.
If you think you're immune to marketing, you're a bit naive.
Ponyutd
Greebo likes this....r.i.p.
Classy.Mine's a 1953 Omega 30mm, a bit like the one in the picture, except that the outer band on the face is black (and it's in cleaner condition). An amazing watch; not only beautiful, but also the most precise wristwatch calibre ever tested at Neuchâtel, Geneva and Kew Teddington. After 60 years, my wind up watch keeps time like no other. To my mind, it pisses all over most of the modern Omegas (and a lot of other high-end brands), which just look crass. (Not sure how much it cost, because it was a present.)
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
Old Omega manual wind dress watches are incredibly good value. You can get 9k and 18k gold ones for not much over scrap value. They're a fantastic choice if you want the traditional thin, leather strapped gold watch to go with a suit.
bi0boy
Power User
Patek and Rolex are the same company. They've only recently started making some of their own parts, they still buy from Swatch.
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
bi0boy
Power User
You've got absolutely no idea what you're talking about
Ok those two a different, meh.
They both buy parts from Swatch though
Swatch reaches agreement over watch movements
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
Rolex and Patek don't use ETA movements, and a badly written and imprecise Reuters article won't prove otherwise.
They've both used bought in movements for chronographs in the past from Zenith and Lemania respectively IIRC, but neither do any longer. The Lemania based Pateks were heavily modified anyway, sometimes to the extent of adding on calendar functions.
bi0boy
Power User
I didn't say they did, but tell me they don't use an Swatch parts. Nivarox springs for example? They're assemblers basically, and that can just as easily be done in China.
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
Maybe, clearly you know more about
You're welcome to buy a Chinese perpetual calendar if you want, although they cost about the same as the Swiss ones, and don't look half as nice.
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10718394197&cm_cat=50005700
bi0boy
Power User
Are Brembo owned by e.g. Ford? And springs are a bit more to a watch than brake pads are to a car.
And did the German competition authority intervene in a supplier to BMW and Mercedes' because they had too much market control?
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
As far as I can tell Patek and Rolex do in fact make their own balance springs on current models.
I'm not much interested in what someone who doesn't wear a watch thinks they're worth. Clearly they're worth nothing to you. I don't make a habit of going onto car threads and telling people they're wasting their money.
I'm not much interested in what someone who doesn't wear a watch thinks they're worth. Clearly they're worth nothing to you. I don't make a habit of going onto car threads and telling people they're wasting their money.
punchdrunkme
the fuck I do?
ExtraRefined What is the story with the rolex? Tried googling it and couldn't find anything. Interested to know.
Athos
Well-Known Member
bi0boy said:
A lot of what you pay for with modern high-end watches is the name. But, as long as there's a market for that name, then you probably get what you pay for. If you spend £2,000 on a Rolex, it's likely to go in value over the same timescale as a £200 watch will depreciate. My beef with a lot of them is their ugliness and their ostentatiousness.
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
The Military one? The MOD issued them from the 1960s-1980s roughly, to various outfits but mostly Navy divers, as they were the best tool for the job at the time; this of course being before they were toys for city boys. They're modified from normal Submariner 5513, having MOD issue numbers on the back, and different hands. When they were no longer issued, they were sold off at cost to their holders.
They're usually referred to as "Milsubs", there's more info here amongst other places.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
i've got a fake submariner, looks like this,
except the bezel is made of tinplate instead of ceramic, the magnifying bit isn't as good and the little luminous bobble fell off.
it has got a screw in crown and a very smooth movement, keeps good time and only cost me fifty quid.
except the bezel is made of tinplate instead of ceramic, the magnifying bit isn't as good and the little luminous bobble fell off.
it has got a screw in crown and a very smooth movement, keeps good time and only cost me fifty quid.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
a real rolex is a masterpiece of engineering. mine is a masterpiece of sheer cheekyness.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
That article doesn't say what you seem to think it does. Swatch is the largest watch company in the world and has acquired many high end brands. That doesn't mean it makes them all. Rolex, Omega, Zenith etc., all have there own manufacturing plants and any externally sourced parts are made to their specifications. Watch enthusiasts are extremely selective about the provenance of their movements!
bi0boy
Power User
I just think watches are such a wankfest it makes me sick.
I mean look at these cunts
editor
hiraethified
What, all of them?
Back on to my (non wanky) watches, here's the others I'm going to flog soon. They're both tough as nails and have given good service for many years, but they're battery powered and I'm solar all the way now!
Ax^
Silly Rabbit
is their a back story to your hatred of watches?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
There are some dreadful adverts for expensive watches, apparently designed to sell them exclusively to the cunt market. Watches themselves are good though.
There are some dreadful ads for fountain pens as well, though not quite as bad as that, but that doesn't put me off them. Well actually I'm not sure I'd buy a Mont Blanc - not a modern one anyway, maybe a vintage.
There are some dreadful ads for fountain pens as well, though not quite as bad as that, but that doesn't put me off them. Well actually I'm not sure I'd buy a Mont Blanc - not a modern one anyway, maybe a vintage.
bi0boy
Power User
ok I got laughed at at school for having a watch that was only waterproof to 10 metres, whereas 25 was considered pathetic, 50 metres barely acceptable and 100+ required to be anywhere near cool.
But mostly it's because all the watch adverts I've seen are just about flogging over-engineered fluff to people who use private banking. I wonder what the average markup is. I'm all for having an accurate time piece if that's what you need, but don't kid me that it's worth paying silly prices for one.That can't be justified unless you succumb to marketing twaddle about extreme usage, sentimentality or what not.
bi0boy
Power User
I bet most decent expensive fountain pens write far better than cheap ones.
Time is time though. As long as a watch is sufficiently accurate for your purposes, which let's face it for most people are not millisecond-critical, then why do you need to spend more money? How many people are actually going to need their Breitling to work properly in Antarctica or when they sky dive from space?
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