Watches

BeerCan said:
If you do get into watches don't let cost or other people's opinions sway you to much. Wear what you like, that's what it's about.
Lot's of my friends collect watches but never wear them. I think that's a mistake, watches are for wearing like cars are for driving.
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If you are buying for the enjoyment of the hobby I agree.

If you are buying as wealth preservation or potential appreciation I disagree.
 
UncleDave said:
If you are buying for the enjoyment of the hobby I agree.

If you are buying as wealth preservation or potential appreciation I disagree.
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Yep … one of our young engineers was bragging he had a $30k watch collection … Told him, no you have spent that amount on watches and should quit before you get a couple pay raises and really waste money …
 
4WD said:
Yep … one of our young engineers was bragging he had a $30k watch collection … Told him, no you have spent that amount on watches and should quit before you get a couple pay raises and really waste money …
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Dead nuts on comment.
 
Trav said:
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
I buy watches that will please me, first and foremost. Of late, that means German watches, because of their value proposition -- still high quality, at a more moderate cost -- and also as a fan of tool watches like fliegers, and Bauhaus-themed design. Hamiltons also fall into that mold.

For some, part of that self-satisfaction is derived from others' perceptions, as jewelry and symbols. That was implied earlier in the discussion, but I suppose it also applies to the upper echelons.

Frankly, for most people, a Rolex, Omega, or other expensive brand they see at the mall jewelry store represents the pinnacle of the watch world.

An "understated" PP that may be passed off as a CK at first glance, or anything like that which will fly under the radar, and require further explanation is going to be lost, other than the "expensive watch" part, and then, the "I could have bought a car for that kind of money" thinking takes over.

They're sleepers for the horology fans, but basically meaningless for most.

One of my favorite watches is a tank commander's watch a friend brought back from a visit to Russia before the Soviet Union collapsed.

t's not a great watch by most objective standards, but subjectively, it brings me joy, and that's what's important.


Some of the Russian stuff is very cool and not over priced. These are a couple I have, the Zeppelin 127 is made in one of the old East German watch factories which decorated and assembled the Russian mechanical chrono movt.
The black Buran Siberia uses a pocket watch movt, very cool.

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Not as cool as your offset crown, but i have this Vostok ct-8 luminous. I bought it a decade or so ago, have not seen any like it. I wore it a lot so its not new looking.

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Today the original Seiko "Cocktail Time" Designed by Japan's top bartender. :) This version has a slightly better movement than the current version. I put a GO watch band on it because the one that came with it was hideous.
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My current collection is D series Rolex GMT Pepsi.....New 2017 Rolex Ex 1 .......S series Rolex two tone Datejust.
Omega Hand wound Moon watch 1995
Omega Seamaster AT bought 2015
Breitling SuperOcean bought 1996
Tudor Chrono bought 1998
Tudor Sub bought 1999
 
4WD said:
Yep … one of our young engineers was bragging he had a $30k watch collection … Told him, no you have spent that amount on watches and should quit before you get a couple pay raises and really waste money …
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I'm active in vintage/antique watch circles(along with a bunch of other things), and one perpetual discussion that we have is what differentiates a collection from an accumulation.

The consensus a lot of us have reached is that a collection tells a story. What story it tells is entirely up to you, but fundamentally that's what it is. Put another way, if you want to call a group of items a collection, you should be able to explain why every item you're including belongs there.

One of my "sub collections" so to speak in my larger watch collection is my collection of Waltham 1883 model Crescent Sts. The last time I bothered to count, I had 53, and I've added a few more since. Some folks see that as pointlessly buying the same watch over and over. To me, my collection tells the story/evolution of one of a mainstay, extremely high quality Waltham watch over the course of a 25 year production run. I have one from the first run, one from the last run, and a bunch in-between. Every single watch in that collection is different-in particular the damaskeen patterns(the elaborate lightly engraved, or really kind of "scratched" to put it crudely) are different on every one. That in and of itself make for an interesting collection, as it's actually something kind of unusual for every watch of a grade to be unique in that way(Waltham did it with a handful of grades, but by and large with any maker one grade had one pattern, or at least if it changed it changed wholesale for an extended period of time). That aside, though, does anyone but me care about me getting excited over a 15j fully marked Non-Magnetic, or a 15j with a gold regulator star, or a 17 that's seemingly all original with the early style plate screws? Actually, there are a few people as nutty as I am who do care, but I could count them on one hand.

I'm not just limiting that "collecting" definition to watches, but really to anything. Lately, I've been dabbling a lot in fountain pens, and Montblancs in particular. I've gone a few ways in that, and have kind of a "road map" of where I want to go. I got into collecting the model 12/14/22/24 because they're affordable, but I've decided I really don't like the 12 and 22 so I've been paring those down. Of the series, the 14 is my favorite, and my current quest is to find one in every nib size. I started chasing the common 14x models, and decided I wanted to get one of every nib size/grind. I have a 142, 144(old), 145, 146, 147, and 149. I have multiples of several of those. The only I'm missing is the "modern" 144, which I also kind of don't care about. Now that I have a 142 and 144 in celluloid, I want celluloid 146s and 149s also, but the latter are really big buck pens. The 146 is my absolute favorite pen, and I'd like to collect it "by the decade" to get the major production changes, but also flesh out nib sizes along the way. I could go broke on 149s, and right now only have two, but again would love to go by major variation and get every nib size in there. How many of these do I use? Primarily my first 146 that's a long-time favorite with an M nib, and then a B nib 149(the OB 149 in the mail now may bump it).
 
Ive been a watch "nut" most all my life....my father worse a gold Rolex that was given to him around 1950 when he graduated from Texas A&M with an eng degree. During WW2 he was in the Army in the Philippines and saved the life of a geologist that was related to the Marland's who founded Conoco Oil in Ponca City OK. They told him after the war if he ever needed a job come see them....after he graduated he took them up on the offer and became and off shore drilling superintendent. We moved around when i was kid all over the world. My father was a heavy smoker/drinker from Army days.....in 1970 he had emphysema and was told moving to a dry climate might help him....so we moved to CA were Conoco was drilling some offshore Long Beach...with Arco and Chevron.The Marlands gave him a Gold Rolex on the back was the date they feed him from Japanese Prison camp and gave him a job "and the gold Rolex"....the only job he ever had in his life.
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Later he bought a Rolex Sub for himself since he needed a rugged tool watch...being a kid i loved the way the second hand swept round then James Bond wore on in Goldfinger....just like the one my Father wore.
By HS between Soph and Junior year I bought my first Rolex Sub.....which begins the 60 plus years ive spent LOTS of money on watches....when my wife was alive she never understood why i can buy a 100 dollar Seiko and need to spend 8k on a watch.
I bought her a 2 tone Datejust which her kids fought over when she died she also had an Omega deville.
Now i have a fair collection .....as we say in collecting to much is never enough.
The real sad part is I have no living relatives so when i die I dont know what to do with my collection.....i have gave away a Rolex a year ago to a kid who loves watches and wife just had kid number 3....sadly he said "I will never be able to own one unless I win the lotto" I gave him a 36 mm explorer 1 last year. I thought he was going to faint. I told him my situation.....who knows I may give him a sub? soon....he a very good kid...well he is 34 but a kid to me.
 
Here are two of mine. I love Dive watches and they are pretty much all I own. The Doxa pictured here is my favorite watch of them all.

The reason being was that as a kid, I read all of Clive Cussler's adventure novels and in most of them his main character wore an "Orange Face Doxa dive watch" I thought an orange face watch sounded cool and always wanted one. At the time I didn't know that Doxa was even a brand or that they had made an orange face dive watch.

I didn't discover that they really existed until about 2002 when I google searched Doxa and their early watches pulled up. It also pulled up that Doxa was re-releasing some of their dive watches. Long story short, I bought this version new in 2003. It has an automatic movement and I had some issues with it staying running in it's early years and it went in for service under warranty a couple of times.

I wore it probably 95% of the time and it got pretty beat up and the bezel quit working correctly and it finally stopped running again in 2015. I also have a black faced version of this watch with a perfect case and bezel. Someone told me it was easy to switch movements between the two watches so the other day I did it. During that process I discovered that the rotor for the automatic movement was stuck on my orange face version. I got it unstuck and installed it in the other case. It's been running fine for the past two days. I did discover a screw that had fallen out of it during this process and I think that is what jammed up the rotor.

So now my favorite watch looks almost new and is running fine. The other watch in the picture is one I just received today and is one of a few of this same brand that I own. It has a quartz movement. I guess you can tell I like orange face watches. LOL

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