The Watches Thread

[Mito Man]

I'm not entirely the second hand value argument works. I bought this watch for £500 4 years ago, it is now worthless.

Had I bought something automatic for say £3000, to maintain its value I imagine I would have to have it serviced by the dealership which would be £500? Then if I'm lucky and its still worth what it was when new I'd lose £500, or maybe there's the minuscule chance that it's worth over £3500 which is unlikely.

And that's before you take into account that this is the internet where everyone is a stock market genius and would invest the £2500 they had saved by buying an Apple Watch on the perfect stocks and make a 3000% gain in 4 years

Or buy your Rolex at list price, sell it after 5 years without having serviced it and make a grand or two profit.

There’s a few issues I see with this. Surely it needs to be a rare Rolex which will have a waiting list of a few years and cost much more than a few bags of sand? Then you’d have to keep it in very good condition so it’s not a daily watch. I don’t see how missing a service can help any item appreciate.

[GG.]

JIC - very much depends what you're buying. If you spend more than your £3k example (i.e. Rolex or much more, Audemars Piguet, etc.) then you can make significant money on them but there will generally be a waiting list involved.

If you get your hands on a BLNR or a Hulk, you'll double your money as soon as you walk out the store with it. Even run of the mill subs, etc. don't depreciate a penny in reality.

[Jobbo]

I bought my Tudor Black Bay for about £2k, sold it for about £2k after 18 months and it would now be worth £3k, 18 months further on. It won't have needed a service in that time. This won't apply to lots of watches, but if you buy a nearly new Seamaster (for example) taking out the initial depreciation then they tend to go up with inflation from that point on, until they become classic. Note: this will not apply to a TAG or plenty of other watches.

[Mito Man]

The Tudor is a somewhat better comparison, as I imagine you can walk into a watch store and purchase one, as opposed to conducting fellatio with the manager at Bucherer’s to get on a 2 year waiting list for an £8k watch to then flog off (although surely it’s even more difficult than this as otherwise everyone would do it).

Still I’m happy with my watch which has so far just cost me over £100 a year. Hasn’t made me any money but did save my life which is a little better.

[GG.]

Gah! After all that I just received an email 24 hours after placing the order saying it was out of stock on they're cancelling my order!!

Going to speak to them to see if I can get them to keep my money and honour that price when they get more into stock (assuming they are going to get more in).

There's no worse feeling that getting excited about something only to have it disappear into thin air

[mik]

Well if you are going to shoot your mouth off about putting it on a Nato.....

That is most annoying though. Should have put down a Daveposit.

[GG.]

I called them and they can special order one in from the manufacturer but they won't honour the sale price

I like it a lot but I'm not paying an extra £665 for it. Not impressed.

[DaveE]

If you get your hands on a BLNR or a Hulk, you'll double your money as soon as you walk out the store with it. Even run of the mill subs, etc. don't depreciate a penny in reality.

I know someone who had both on order from an AD a few years back - they both came in, so he got them both, stashed the Hulk and wore the BLNR.

He later sold the Hulk, and the profit meant his BLNR was effectively free.

[Jobbo]

GG, is that discounted price specific to a store or was that an online price? Chances are there may well be another in stock at a different EJ shop.

[GG.]

No it was the online price - they don't have any in stock anywhere in their stores or warehouse unfortunately.

[duncs500]

Strangely haven't touched this thread in over a year and missed it until I caught up on the thread while procrastinating today, so just wanted to say that I adore your Grand Seiko Preacher. I have been interested in them since reading about them in a book that you also recommended. Clearly a man of exquisite taste all round.

[Pete_]

My friend suggested to me the other day that my having a watch that gains 1.5 minutes per day isn't ideal and that I should get a new one. After being largely happy with my Seiko 5 for the last four years and not really wanting anything else, despite having some frustrations about my 5, this has opened up a wormhole for me where I've been thinking a lot about possible future watches.

It started with looking at other 5s, then SARBs, and then I found a comparison video between a SARB and a Maen Hudson 38 (and although I'm not normally into dive watches) I wanted one of those. They're not available right now but I've signed up to their email list. Then I saw a picture of a Tudor Black Bay 36 with a blue face and now I really really want one of those.

I'll let it settle for a while to see if that lust goes away, but out of interest where would you guys suggest purchasing used Tudors from?

Any other suggestions for watches with a simple design, 36-38mm in size?

[Alex_]

Tudors are widely available at most high street authorised dealers. Depending on the model, I'll be asking for 5-10% discount, although zero discount for some of the more popular model such of the Black Bay GMT and 58 (both still waitlisted). If you're interested, I've got a full set BB GMT brand new and fully stickered. Happy to sell it for the RRP.

[Alex_]

Picked up one of the new Seiko 5 Sports while I was in HK a couple of weeks ago. Seikos are cheaper in HK and shops openly offer discount, so it worked out about 60 quid cheaper than buying it here. So far, I'm impressed, fantastic watch for less than 200 quid.

[Pete_]

Thanks but I'm not really into Tudor dive watches, or dive watches general except for the Maen that I mentioned, the one I like is the BB 36 which is similar to the Rolex Explorer, but I think the blue dial gives it it's own unique feel.

[Jobbo]

Seiko Alpinist is 38mm and has a simple design. It’s out of production now but apparently a new version is coming out shortly which has an updated movement but is otherwise similar. If they offer a blue dial version, as I expect they will because the limited edition blue dial last one was very popular, it would be a lovely, cheaper, alternative to the BB58.

[Pete_]

Seiko Alpinist is 38mm and has a simple design. It’s out of production now but apparently a new version is coming out shortly which has an updated movement but is otherwise similar. If they offer a blue dial version, as I expect they will because the limited edition blue dial last one was very popular, it would be a lovely, cheaper, alternative to the BB58.

I like them but unsure about the proportions of case, it looks very chunky relative to the size of the dial in pictures at least. Maybe it's just because the compass reduces the size of the dial? To my eyes it would look better without the compass, and it's not a feature I've ever wanted my watch to have.

But I'd take a green face over a blue face for any watch that has that option!

[Alex_]

How about the Oris Divers 65s? Plenty of sizes and colours to choose from. I know they are dive watches, but so is the BB36

[Jobbo]

The Alpinist has a particularly lovely, sculptural case with very nice finishing and elegant curving lugs. I would rather not have the second crown, but the compass makes it an Alpinist so I put up with that. Shame you're not closer or you could have a look at mine in the flesh.

Having said that, I liked my Black Bay as much as my Alpinist so I don't think you'd go wrong with the BB36.

ETA - I keep referring to the BB58 but I mean the BB36 obviously!

[John]

My wife has recently bought a Black Bay S&G, it's quite nice.