The Watch Appreciation Thread - Part two (Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre,

[md2010]

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Great Hodinkee post reminding us that we should spend less time hunting for watches to acquire and more time enjoying the ones we have:

Just Because: On Not Picking A Birthday Watch

50 is the new 40.

www.hodinkee.com

I think I'm getting close to the end of the horological road. I have more watches than anybody needs: ten total, and seven in the regular rotation. I'm looking for a watch to wear with a tuxedo, and then I should be done. Until my 50th birthday in a few years.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

One of these days md will buy a watch that fits.

 

[SprezzaBox Joey]

We love this clean intro option by Elevon to anyone beginning to build there watch collection

 

[d4nimal]

We love this clean intro option by Elevon to anyone beginning to build there watch collection

View attachment 1339451

I get that you're an affiliate vendor here, but if you've spent time on this thread or seemed to care about watches enough not to talk like a superficial ad in the customer service royal "we," I think you'd know that this isn't the place for that post.

 

[LA Guy]

Stoked. My Omega 105.005 apparently just had a pin loose, so hopefully, that will be back in my grubby little hands soon. And now just waiting on @DavidLane to make me one sweeeeeet Stingray fob or my two register Omega 145.017, which may become my lkely daily... carrier.

 

[md2010]

Is anyone avoiding any purchase prior to SIHH and Baselworld ? Some great watches has been realised so far IWC Portuguese Chrono with in-house movement , Rado Captain Cook in Bronze , Longines Hydroconquest with Green dial. Really looking forward to see what Tudor does.

 

[Scuppers]

Is anyone avoiding any purchase prior to SIHH and Baselworld ? Some great watches has been realised so far IWC Portuguese Chrono with in-house movement , Rado Captain Cook in Bronze , Longines Hydroconquest with Green dial. Really looking forward to see what Tudor does.

Not sure they would classify as great.
That IWC finally plugged the Portuguese with an in-house is hardly a news story - and 20-22(?) years of cashing in on an external movement! Kinda falls into the insult category. (IMO)

as for Longines and rado - iterations ontheme are hardly note worthy.

Guess, in short, let’s see how the players play-out.

self nominate for “negative nelly”

 

[Phileas Fogg]

It seems like the trend is to develop and use in house movements. I’m sure it’s in response to market forces.

I’m actually very intrigued by the new Hermès moon phase.

 

[cchen]

Is anyone avoiding any purchase prior to SIHH and Baselworld ? Some great watches has been realised so far IWC Portuguese Chrono with in-house movement , Rado Captain Cook in Bronze , Longines Hydroconquest with Green dial. Really looking forward to see what Tudor does.

Hoping Rolex updates the CHNR with a jubilee bracelet.

 

[Journeyman]

It seems like the trend is to develop and use in house movements. I’m sure it’s in response to market forces.

I think that it's due to various reasons.

One is market forces - consumers have been "educated" by Instagram, watch blogs and so on into thinking that a watch with an in-house movement is better and so this has pushed manufacturers to develop in-house movements in response to that (misguided) belief.

Another reason is the Swatch group - it owns ETA, which also owns Valjoux, and Swatch also owns Lemania (now called "Manufacture Breguet"). I don't know whether it ended up happening, but when Swatch bought ETA (which made a lot of movements, or ebauches, for other watch companies) there was a belief that Swatch would restrict the supply of ETA and other movements so as to guarantee that its own brands had sufficient movements. This pushed at least some watch companies to develop their own in-house movements so that they didn't have to worry about Swatch suddenly cutting off supply.

Personally, I don't really care about in-house movements. There are an awful lot of fantastic watches out there that have used movements from other companies, rather than in-house movements. Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona? Valjoux movement. Omega Speedmaster Professional? Lemania movement (also, coincidentally, used in some Vacheron-Constantin and other watches). Classic IWC Pilot watches? ETA movements. Certainly, many of these were not "off the shelf" movements - they were given additional treatment and finishing, but they were not in-house movements and they were not unique to those watches or those brands.

I would far rather have a watch with a reliable, time-tested movement that has a plentiful supply of spare parts and that pretty much any watchmaker can service or repair. The problem with in-house movements - particularly all of the ones that have been developed recently - is that you have no idea how well they will work in the long run, and if you want to have them maintained you will have to send them back to the relevant company's service centre, where they will probably keep the watch for six months and charge you an arm and a leg for a service or for spare parts.

 

[Kaplan]

Personally, I don't really care about in-house movements.

+1

 

[mak1277]

The issue for me related to in-house vs. off the shelf movements is the huge pricing disparity among watches with very similar in-house movements. I don't have a problem with off the shelf, but I have a problem with off the shelf watches that have (IMO) artificially high prices. I think this is a big reason that for me, the $1,000 - $3,000 price point is a bit of a no man's land. Besides design aesthetics, I don't see much in that range that beats out some much less expensive models in the $500 range (e.g., Tudor Ranger vs. Hamilton Khaki Field).

 

[Thin White Duke]

The issue for me related to in-house vs. off the shelf movements is the huge pricing disparity among watches with very similar in-house movements. I don't have a problem with off the shelf, but I have a problem with off the shelf watches that have (IMO) artificially high prices. I think this is a big reason that for me, the $1,000 - $3,000 price point is a bit of a no man's land. Besides design aesthetics, I don't see much in that range that beats out some much less expensive models in the $500 range (e.g., Tudor Ranger vs. Hamilton Khaki Field).

Yeah I think I read on here in discussion of Bremont watches where someone said that they often LOOK very nice but they have the balls to charge $5000 for a watch with an ETA (?) movement which you can get in a watch for a tenth of the price under a different brand. When stated like that I eased up on my admiration and mild desire for one of theirs.

 

[mak1277]

Yeah I think I read on here in discussion of Bremont watches where someone said that they often LOOK very nice but they have the balls to charge $5000 for a watch with an ETA (?) movement which you can get in a watch for a tenth of the price under a different brand. When stated like that I eased up on my admiration and mild desire for one of theirs.

Yes, but don't get me wrong, aesthetics are a huge part of the desire. I love Bell & Ross for example, even though you could easily make a case that they charge "too much" for watches with pedestrian movements.