Talk to Me about Watches!

[JohnnyG]

Have a 1965 stainless Datejust 36 on a Jubilee bracelet from my dad that I just sent off for servicing again. It is a nice wearable watch and I have kept the patina on instead of letting Rolex do a full restoration. Was serviced and certified about 11 years ago so was time to do it again.

Others I own that I like are a few Tag Heuers, a Carrera Calibre 5 on bracelet, a more recent Formula 1 on bracelet (was my everyday work watch for over 12 years), and a 1964 Carrera Panamerica re-issue on a strap. Been about to pull the trigger on a Sinn 556 auto for a few years now and hate that I waited since the T-word on imported Swiss watches made it 2K+. Of course my holy grail watch is an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional steel on steel, Hesalite, and the engraved back. ALMOST bought one on my last cruise for $6700 (yes it was authentic with papers), but the wife was with me .

Since everyone likes pics:
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Who do you have doing the service on your watches? How much do they charge?
My neighbor has several original (old) Rolexs that he sometimes wears, one in solid gold, but they are all in serious need of servicing.
I had my 1970's Hamilton (Swiss made) serviced by watchrepairsusa, and they did a great job. It's now running +/- 2 sec/ day.

https://watchrepairsusa.com/
They weren't cheap though and took about 6 months to do the rebuild. My neighbor would never spend that kind of money on a service.
Any suggestions?

 

[KrisZ]

Who do you have doing the service on your watches? How much do they charge?
My neighbor has several original (old) Rolexs that he sometimes wears, one in solid gold, but they are all in serious need of servicing.
I had my 1970's Hamilton (Swiss made) serviced by watchrepairsusa, and they did a great job. It's now running +/- 2 sec/ day.

https://watchrepairsusa.com/
They weren't cheap though and took about 6 months to do the rebuild. My neighbor would never spend that kind of money on a service.
Any suggestions?

I would just keep those Rolex watches how they are. Unless your neighbor uses a genuine Rolex dealer for servicing, the chances of parts swapping with cheap fakes are simply too great of a risk IMO.

 

[PWMDMD]

Have a 1965 stainless Datejust 36 on a Jubilee bracelet from my dad that I just sent off for servicing again. It is a nice wearable watch and I have kept the patina on instead of letting Rolex do a full restoration. Was serviced and certified about 11 years ago so was time to do it again.

Others I own that I like are a few Tag Heuers, a Carrera Calibre 5 on bracelet, a more recent Formula 1 on bracelet (was my everyday work watch for over 12 years), and a 1964 Carrera Panamerica re-issue on a strap. Been about to pull the trigger on a Sinn 556 auto for a few years now and hate that I waited since the T-word on imported Swiss watches made it 2K+. Of course my holy grail watch is an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional steel on steel, Hesalite, and the engraved back. ALMOST bought one on my last cruise for $6700 (yes it was authentic with papers), but the wife was with me .

Since everyone likes pics:
View attachment 348963

Nice watch!

I inherited a 1987 Rolex 36mm two-tone "Thunderbirds"Datejust from my FIL. When I received it, it was in rough condition. Sent it into Rolex for service, they also replaced the crystal, and recommended a new jubilee bracelet, which I declined.

Watch looks like new, runs +/- 2 seconds per day, and it has a ton of sentimental value. My FIL was a great guy.

 

[GI_GRIFF]

I was looking at a Rolex for $6k that I liked. I just didn't want to drop that coin for something I didn't love. I have been looking at a Panzero Classivo and I like the style and it appeals to me. Under 1k is nice as well.

I know there are many here that are aficionados....Please, take me to school. I'm wide open to alternatives and would like to hear about Panzero as well.

I always wanted a Rolex Date just Oyster Perpetual. By the time I made enough to justify buying one, the price went up so much I just couldn't do it. I ended up with a new Oris Big Crown that I bought in Scranton PA at Bocardo Jewlers years ago. It is a great watch so far, it will outlast me. Here is a link to a new version of what I have.
https://www.oris.ch/en-US/product/watch/big-crown/new-big-crown/01-754-7798-4064-07-8-20-06

 

[blkwtr]

I bought this Rolex in 1990 and wore it to work every day until I retired. To keep busy after retirement I got involved in auto repair, HVAC, boating, home construction and other physical kinds of things. In 2014 I bought this Davosa and retired the Rolex. I have been wearing the Davosa 24/7 ever since.

 

[GaryMX5]

I don't have any watches of "investment" quality. I'm not a big fan of the large face watches either. I have two old Pulsars that are 40 or so years old that still work. I bought myself a Seiko Titanium for my 65th birthday ( I'm now 77) and it's running strong. Spent a whopping 200.00 for it back then . I like it's thin lightweight case and band and the smaller 38mm case size. My wife got me a Seiko chronograph for our 50th anniversary a few years ago. Very nice watch but a little bit bigger than I'm used to. I also have a 15 year old Casio plastic case with rubber strap cheapy that I use for snorkeling (it's 200 meter rated....which as we know is about 10 feet in reality). Possibly the most durable watch I own. My Timex leather strap Easy Reader is used for travel as it's easy to read without my glasses, durable, doesn't attract attention and wouldn't hurt if I lost it.

 

[bunnspecial]

I wear a Rolex ref. 16035, a 1980s Datejust with a two-tone Jubilee bracelet, fluted gold bezel, and a "champagne" dial nearly every day. That's the classic "old man" watch now, but to me it's also just a classic Rolex that will never go out of style. It was a gift from my parents when I graduated with my masters degree

I'm not a wristwatch guy, but have been pretty seriously collecting and studying American pocket watches for...well...a while now. My collection there is pretty narrowly focused(or really I have a few narrowly focused collctions). I'm known enough for one particular area of collecting that I gave a talk and exhibited part of my collection at the NAWCC National Convention last month. I just say that as a reference for how "deep" I am into collecting pocket watches.

As someone who has spent my fair share of time at the bench both repairing watches and studying construction, and backing that up with my nose stuck in a book to learn theory, there are a bunch of things I appreciate about Rolex that they do in almost every watch. The two biggest things are that the balance is freesprung with an overcoil hairspring. Almost no one uses overcoil hairsprings now, as they typically are handformed during manufacturing and are a bit fussier to adjust, but the pay-off is much better isochronism. Making every watch freesprung is a really big deal, as it eliminates a major source of positional error(the hairspring curb pins) but also makes regulating the watch a lot more complicated.

Even the old 3035 movement in my Datejust has shown itselt to be surprisingly accurate. With careful adjustment and regulation, it reliably holds time to within a couple of seconds a month with daily wear. In fact I only bother to set it with time changes or if I let it run down as it's so accurate. That's in the range off quartz accuracy.

A lot of folks like to complain about Rolex, and I have my criticisms of their marketing. At the end of the day, though, I think they make a solid product and there's a lot to be said for the design and construction of their movements.

 

[thastinger]

mmmm sort of.

If you wear it, its going to require service, and the bracelet is going to experience wear.

Yeah, I've had mine serviced 3 times and I've replaced a couple links and pins in the bracelet, but any watch you wear every day for 25+ years is going to require some sort of maintenance and repair.

 

[Passport1]

You gentlemen have shamed me into wearing one of my Rolexi. The others live in my gun safe.

 

[Dean]

Cool stuff. I have a Casio G-Shock ($77 IIRC), my second. Different strokes for different folks. For $5000 I'd get an AstroPhysics Stowaway.

 

[TMoto]

My dad wore a Bulova daily and my grandmother on his side bought me a Caravelle as a high school graduation gift. It's long gone now and I didn't wear a watch for decades. A couple years ago I got the itch and now I wear a Hamilton Khaki Automatic that I put a NATO strap on. Not overly expensive and I like the classic look.

 

[Al]

I have a Navitimer because of the Aviation connection. It does have a slide rule built in, and yes, I know how to use a slide rule, as well as a chronograph. I wear it, on average, about 15 days/month. I use the Chrono - to time events, when I am doing flight examinations in the simulator. Exactly how the watch was intended to be used. I don’t see the point in having something if you don’t use it.

I bought a serviced (by Breitling-supposedly) from a high end Jewelry store. C oule seconds per day. It failed a few weeks later. It is back at Breitling..missing in action for 14 weeks....sucks big time.

 

[GMFan]

My everyday watch is a Hamilton manual wind which was a wedding gift from my wife that had an engraving on the back. I also own an Omega and have a Timex Ironman and a bunch in between.

It’s too personal of an item to say “buy this” or “buy that.” Research and get into the hobby and buy what you like. Also your tastes will change over time. I like watches now that I didn’t like 20 years ago back when I started collecting.

 

[PWMDMD]

My everyday watch is a Hamilton manual wind which was a wedding gift from my wife that had an engraving on the back. I also own an Omega and have a Timex Ironman and a bunch in between.

It’s too personal of an item to say “buy this” or “buy that.” Research and get into the hobby and buy what you like. Also your tastes will change over time. I like watches now that I didn’t like 20 years ago back when I started collecting.

Hamilton makes a nice watch.

 

[PWMDMD]

A lot of folks like to complain about Rolex, and I have my criticisms of their marketing. At the end of the day, though, I think they make a solid product and there's a lot to be said for the design and construction of their movements.

My one rule in life is I will never beg an AD to take my money. Not going to buy anything else to get on a wait list either.

 

[dubber09]

I have a few mechanical and electro-mechanical watches and see why people like them but I personally prefer digital.
Was using Suunto Core till about a year ago and then decided to get Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar when it was on a very good sale, I was looking at them for awhile by that time. I like the fact the watch provides useful info like heartrate, elevation, can keep track of steps made, weather, map location and navigation, calendar events, sleep score, not using it to get messages, has built-in light and a few more features e.g fishing report, music playback, workouts etc. Battery charge with my use potentially lasts 30 days on average but I charge at about 20% left; 3% discharge a day.

 

[shortyb]

Who do you have doing the service on your watches? How much do they charge?
My neighbor has several original (old) Rolexs that he sometimes wears, one in solid gold, but they are all in serious need of servicing.
I had my 1970's Hamilton (Swiss made) serviced by watchrepairsusa, and they did a great job. It's now running +/- 2 sec/ day.

https://watchrepairsusa.com/
They weren't cheap though and took about 6 months to do the rebuild. My neighbor would never spend that kind of money on a service.
Any suggestions?

I use a local authorized Rolex dealer for the routine servicing. The initial service I did when I received the watch in 1996, went to Rolex in NY as the watch is considered vintage due to it's age and parts for those are much harder to source outside the RSC. Again, no cosmetic restoration was done and the service still cost $1300. Local jeweler takes care of the routine servicing in house now and it generally costs $800-$1000.

 

[GMFan]

Since we are posting our collections…

Left to right:

- Timex Quartz (my deceased grandfathers watch)

- Seiko 5 auto with blue face from around 2013.

- Seiko Orange Monster auto from around 2010. This is the only watch I’ve had to service so far.

- Ratio diver auto which my father gave me recently for Father’s Day.

- Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra auto from 2017 that I bought when I passed my engineering license exam.

- Casio Diver quartz

- Timex Ironman from around 2010 that is my old faithful beater

- Hamilton Mechanical which is my daily which was a gift from my wife on our wedding day. She had it engraved on the caseback. I’ve had it for over 5 years and it’s a very accurate watch for this price. My overall favorite.

Before I got into watches I always wore some sort of Timex Ironman but either lost them or threw them away when the bands broke or when I upgraded. I still have a Casio FW-91 somewhere in my drawer with a broken band that still works.

 

[Astro14]

Since we are posting our collections…

Left to right:

- Timex Quartz (my deceased grandfathers watch)

- Seiko 5 auto with blue face from around 2013.

- Seiko Orange Monster auto from around 2010. This is the only watch I’ve had to service so far.

- Ratio diver auto which my father gave me recently for Father’s Day.

- Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra auto from 2017 that I bought when I passed my engineering license exam.

- Casio Diver quartz

- Timex Ironman from around 2010 that is my old faithful beater

- Hamilton Mechanical which is my daily which was a gift from my wife on our wedding day. She had it engraved on the caseback. I’ve had it for over 5 years and it’s a very accurate watch for this price. My overall favorite.

Before I got into watches I always wore some sort of Timex Ironman but either lost them or threw them away when the bands broke or when I upgraded. I still have a Casio FW-91 somewhere in my drawer with a broken band that still works.

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That Hamilton is a classic. A very nice watch!

 

[BISCUT]

I knew I came to the right place! You guys are great with the posts and the knowledge.

@astro This represents a want, not a need. I don't like to wear much in the area of jewelry. I have 2XL hands, and rings annoy me. I like a quality gold or white gold chain in a few different styles. I do enjoy dressing up and going out. At times, I will wear a bracelet when going out, but usually a watch and chain is it. Since high school, I've liked a basic Seiko. My everyday watch is a Garmin or a clean slate Seiko.

I'm at a point and place in my life where a Rolex just sounds good to me. Or a different high-end watch. I'm not a "status symbol" type, but I do appreciate the legendary reputation and high-quality manufacturing. Much is advertising, but the quality of Rolex is steadfast. I'm similar with other products, especially products that are machined or hand-crafted. I'm wrestling with the obvious status of a Rolex and the price along with it.

There are a few I like in the Oyster Perpetual, Datejust, & Land-Dweller lines.

Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and ideas.