The Watches Thread

[PreacherCain]

“All performing the same irrespective of watch brand” isn’t necessarily true of bought-in movements - ETA certainly make their movements available in different levels of finish and feature set (standard, elaboré, top and COSC certified, IIRC) and that’s before the manufacturer applies any of their own modifications. Historically IWC and Breitling were known for making lots of changes to ETA’s offering, for their calibres.

[ste]

Those £60k duratecs have lots of expensive special stuff bolted on them to make them perform massively better than the one in a focus though. The movement performs the same in the expensive version and the cheap version of the watch. Only the bodywork changes.

Quite. I'm no expert, but I understand lots of these off-the-shelf movements are actually often modified too.

[PreacherCain]

I just said that, Ste. Yu been on the meths again?

[ste]

Obviously, it's a work day.

I saw a little red number up there ^ telling me someone had quoted me, I clicked it and it took me to Rich's post. I didn't realise you'd added a post. New fangled software, I'm putting a request into Mikey_P to reinstate Schnitz.

[Rich B]

“All performing the same irrespective of watch brand” isn’t necessarily true of bought-in movements - ETA certainly make their movements available in different levels of finish and feature set (standard, elaboré, top and COSC certified, IIRC) and that’s before the manufacturer applies any of their own modifications. Historically IWC and Breitling were known for making lots of changes to ETA’s offering, for their calibres.

[Jobbo]

“All performing the same irrespective of watch brand” isn’t necessarily true of bought-in movements - ETA certainly make their movements available in different levels of finish and feature set (standard, elaboré, top and COSC certified, IIRC) and that’s before the manufacturer applies any of their own modifications. Historically IWC and Breitling were known for making lots of changes to ETA’s offering, for their calibres.

What I've often wondered about the extravagant or modified ETA movements is... are they as much of a pain to get parts for as an obscure in-house movement?

[PreacherCain]

Parts that will work? Nowhere near as troublesome. The great thing about ETA movements is that they’ve been made for decades and parts are readily available; sure, if the thing you need to replace is a nicely finished mainplate or rotor specific to (say) IWC, you might have trouble, but you can always bung in a standard one to get the movement working.

Some manufacturer modifications are more involved (special alloys for the hairspring, or a screwed balance, say) and availability will probably depend on that manufacturer.

So, in summary, if you want to get a Tag Cal 5 going, ETA 2824 parts will work just fine. If you want to repair an Omega 8500, it has to go to Omega.

[ShockDiamonds]

Bought the Navitimer because I like the look and the movement is in house. I confess that when I bought the Super Avenger 2 I didn’t know that the movement was bought in. Only discovered that when researching the Navitimer.

[PreacherCain]

Would it have bothered you, though? IMO there’s a lot of snobbery about ETA movements: they’re robust, hugely reliable, capable of accuracy as good as any other mechanical, and easy to get serviced and repaired.

But then I just don’t get some aspects of the Watch Thing. Example - the Lemania 5100 movement. It’s aesthetically horrible, not even made of fully machined plates but stamped, plastic rotor supports etc etc - all things that would make movement snobs go nuts if they were true of ETA’s movements, but because it’s a “legend” the 5100 gets a pass. It’s completely daft.

Edit: personally, I like the 5100, the dial layout is intuitive and it is bombproof in terms of robustness. The 7750 does everything the 5100 does, looks nicer and is easier to repair, but people affect to despise it. As I say, weird.

[Delphi]

I've got a Tag Heuer Formula One Indy 500. I bought it because :-

a) I always wanted a Tag
b) I liked the look of it.

I've had it probably had it about 13 years now and I paid £585. Just had a quick look on-line and mine seems to have appreciated in value rather nicely.

Clicky

[JonMad]

Seiko SK007 here, on a black diver’s strap (the plastic one). Bought because a friend has got into watches (buying and selling increasingly collectible Rolexes and Omegas) and talked me into wanting one. £130 iirc which seemed good for an automatic. I also have a Seiko Kinetic Titanium that I bought in 2001 but hardly gets worn since I had the SK007, and which is then a bit temperamental for the same reason.

One I quite fancy is a Mondaine automatic for the big red second hand sweeeping round. I saw one in a shop the other week but it was €600 so that put me off a bit.

[PreacherCain]

Nice one, Jon - the entry level Seikos are ludicrously good value (in house movement, too, for those that care... ) and there are plenty of bezel, dial and hand mods out there if you fancy a change. I got a "field watch style" Seiko 5 auto as a beater and for £90 it does everything I could possibly want and quite a lot more.

I have mainly been liking the Presage "Cocktail" dress watches of late, they look beautiful and at £300-ish new offer tremendous value.

I've got a Tag Heuer Formula One Indy 500. I bought it because :-

a) I always wanted a Tag
b) I liked the look of it.

I've had it probably had it about 13 years now and I paid £585. Just had a quick look on-line and mine seems to have appreciated in value rather nicely.

Clicky

That is Watchfinder, though. Imagine what they paid for it...

[ste]

Do Watchfinder sell anything and if so, to who?? Loads of their stuff is practically RRP on watches that are available on the highstreet.

Is there a better sales place for used pieces with more realistic prices Preach?

[Alex_]

Watchfinder is very expensive. They sell pre-owned/vintage watches way over what other people are selling them for and gives low-ball offers when you wanna sell a watch to them. Nothing new I guess. I use Chrono24 to compare prices and judge the current price for watches I'm interesting in buying.

[Alex_]

I was in London last Wednesday and went to Burlington Arcades to see vintage watches. I was like a kid in a candy shop but the prices are truly eye-watering.

[PreacherCain]

Do Watchfinder sell anything and if so, to who?? Loads of their stuff is practically RRP on watches that are available on the highstreet.

Is there a better sales place for used pieces with more realistic prices Preach?

As Alex says, Chrono24 is pretty good (though from a risk management perspective probably only a little better than eBay). There is a LOT of private trade done on forums - some open (OTD, watchuseek) some with membership requirements (tz-uk) but again there's very little recourse if things go wrong. I've heard good things about Blowers jewellers, but most of the brick-and-mortar places are much of a muchness.

As Alex also says, prices up West are comical. I've always hankered after a Flightmaster, and was all set to have a close look at the one they had in the window at Somlo in the Burlington Arcade. Till I realised they wanted £7,500 for it, at which point I pissed myself copiously and went on my way with shoes full of warm, laughter-induced urine.

[ShockDiamonds]

Would it have bothered you, though?

In all honesty, no. It only became relevant when buying the Navitimer (which is the GMT) because I generally try to get the best I possibly can for the money I have available. And at this price point, given I'd already succumbed to the urge to buy an expensive watch, it's easy to get sucked into the idea of having something made entirely in house (as opposed to assembled).

[Jobbo]

I read the other day that Watchfinder's offers to buy watches have dropped a fair bit. Suspect they either have too much tied up in stock already or they're struggling in some other more serious way.

[ShockDiamonds]

Their initial offer on the Super Avenger 2 was between £2.2k and £2.4k, which seemed good compared to Goldsmith's £2k when the latter saw it in the store. Then got into the whole 'need to post it' discussion with Watchfinder, thinking about the costs, potential issues and in the end decided the likely 200 to 300 quid gain wasn't worth the potential aggro and flogged it to Goldsmiths.

[ste]

Do Watchfinder sell anything and if so, to who?? Loads of their stuff is practically RRP on watches that are available on the highstreet.

Is there a better sales place for used pieces with more realistic prices Preach?

As Alex says, Chrono24 is pretty good (though from a risk management perspective probably only a little better than eBay). There is a LOT of private trade done on forums - some open (OTD, watchuseek) some with membership requirements (tz-uk) but again there's very little recourse if things go wrong. I've heard good things about Blowers jewellers, but most of the brick-and-mortar places are much of a muchness.

As Alex also says, prices up West are comical. I've always hankered after a Flightmaster, and was all set to have a close look at the one they had in the window at Somlo in the Burlington Arcade. Till I realised they wanted £7,500 for it, at which point I pissed myself copiously and went on my way with shoes full of warm, laughter-induced urine.

Burlington's great for window shopping though, but I'd never consider actually going in and buying there.