Watches - another OCD problem
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Those small, hand wound, no-date GS are absolutely lovely and are great value when compared to the rest of the range.
Agree whole heartedly. I saw this watch in St Martin but it was sadly just out of reach. What a lovely thing it is….
Has anyone seen the new King Seiko watches? ~$1800 with subtle colored dials and wear well. Movement is a little less than mind blowing though.
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Dial is a stunner and I also really love those kind of cushion case lugs. It is a beautiful watch and I bet they wear like a dream.
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@Giles shame you don't do smaller watches, because Hodinkee have a lovely old Aqua Lung No Radiations listed. Unfortunately, it's only 37.5 mm.
Fortunately, Rolex have you covered. The new Sea Dweller Deepsea Challenge is a 50 mm diameter lump of over-engineered titanium, with 11,000 metres of water resistance. That's nearly twice what Omega managed with their laughingly named Ultra Deep.
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@Graeme my titanium watch collection would be begging for that deepsea if it wouldn't look comically big on my wrist.
Have you read anything about them expanding the titanium options? I remember reading about a Ti Yachtmaster a while back. I would like to add a dive watch and right now the 50 fathoms is the only thing that appeals to me.
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Enough with the text, Rolex. It reminds me of this terrible political cartoonist Ben Garrison who is so bad at what he does that he has to label everything in his “art” so people will understand his crude metaphors. You don’t need to annotate every single feature in the timepiece
And the proportions. Such a tiny dial relative to the size of the thing. Swing and a miss.
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See that the Blancpain is sold and for a bit more than I would have paid. Hodinkee did have the no date, no rads release a while ago that I would have loved to get if they hadn’t sold out so quickly. The usual crew bought them up and were reselling them as quickly as they received them for quite a bit more…
I really dislike this trend and wish people bought what they truly liked and appreciated instead of trying to make a quick buck. Hate to admit it, but I love seeing some of these guys getting burned in the process when one of their great turnaround sells turns out badly and they end up loosing money.
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newbie watch servicing question. If you have a hand-wound watch and it’s keeping near perfect time, should it be serviced at the intervals recommended by the manufacturer, or don’t mess with it if it ain’t broke …?
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@Bill C you can probably go a bit past the manufacturer's recommended interval. Modern Rolex and Omega watches have intervals of seven to ten years (I can't remember exactly), which is perhaps more realistic than the old three to five years. The big risk is that the lubricants in the movement dry out and things get damaged.
As for the Rolex, I think that most of their watches are ugly, but the Deepsea Challenge is over-the-top, so I kind of like it. I probably wouldn't buy one, though.
I do agree with @goosehd about the whole flipping and re-selling trend. It focuses attention on a few brands and gives authorised retailers a god complex. I like the Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A, but for the same money I'd be tempted to pick up the Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF that I saw in Sydney a couple of months ago. It's got a titanium case and 8 Hz movement, so more interesting from a technical standpoint.
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thanks @Graeme for your advice - much appreciated
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@Graeme I was also lucky enough to try on that Alpine Eagle 8HF at the London Bond St Chopard boutique, and also stupid enough not to buy it.
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@Graeme I have to stop looking at watches for a while, as you know the Patek Gods shone on me again recently so the bank account needs topping up.
Some of you who follow this thread may recall that back on page 434 I posted about a trip in June to Geneva I was invited on by Patek Philippe to see their museum and manufacturing facilities. At the end of this trip all the guests were asked for a wish list of timepieces to add to their collections. Despite being warned off of asking for a Nautilus, I did just that.
Well 4 months later I got the call that a 5712/1A-001 Nautilus was mine if I wanted it. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago. I really like it, the dial has character, it has the micro rotor movement which has a tenuous link to the original 3800 Nautilus designer Gerald Genta. Genta worked originally as a watchmaker at universal Geneve and was apparently involved in the team that made the Polerouter watch in the early - mid 1950s, this watch used a calibre 251 movement which looks to have been the first movement to use a micro rotor.
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While I have been blessed with a Nautilus it looks like I am going to have to build a new relationship with another AD as I got the bad news that Wempe UK, where I have been looked after very well, are closing in the New Year.
The reasons for the closure was described to me as not "making enough money on watches". They are suffering from people walking in to the store with a specific model or make in mind to buy, GMT Master, Nautilus, Submariner (insert any hot watch name here).
Wempe carry many lovely brands that don't get the attention or sales as customers are targeting specific models (I am guilty of this myself). Not enough customers walk into a multi brand dealer like Wempe and browse the watches on display, try a few on and purchase something from that visit.
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oh my days! that is the grail
