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

[Newcomer]

This was delivered on Monday. The quality and value that Halios brings is incredible, and the piece is excellent as well.
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-DL

That Halios is very pretty!!

 

[DavidLane]

That Halios is very pretty!!

Thank you, it's a really clean watch. I really can't find a negative. I will eventually put this on a navy nato strap at some point, but even the bracelet is good.

-DL

 

[Woofa]

Agreed. On that note, for whatever reason I've been taken with the idea of a big chunky dove watch. This wouldn't masquerade as anything other than what it is. I want it to be robust and not something you'd ever consider wearing under the sleeve of a dress shirt. Something that would look out of place pretty much anwywhere except at the beach or in the water. I'd say a real tool watch, but that term is overused and I'm afraid of being labeled a tool.

Anyway, the one I keep coming back to is the orange dial Doxa Sub 300T. I think @Dino944 has mentioned in the past he has friends who like theirs. Anyone else?

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I also still like Seiko's more classic dive watch styling, so I've thought about the King Turtle (SRPE03 or 05). Two different price points, but those are the two that I keep coming back to.

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I am also looking at fun dive watches in the under $2000 range and I am also looking at Doxa. One problem is that if you ate not around NYC you cannot try these on.
Don't you already have a whale shark? Is that not a chunky dive watch? I am looking at Oris as well.
lately I am coming to love the Formed Reef watch. You can choose certain colors of dial and bezel and I just like the look. I happen to like the green dial, blue bezel.

Does anyone have any info on this watch?

 

[NakedYoga]

I am also looking at fun dive watches in the under $2000 range and I am also looking at Doxa. One problem is that if you ate not around NYC you cannot try these on.

Yeah, I hate that. It looks like there are only a handful of ADs for these in the US, and nothing really appears on the other usual gray market sites.

Don't you already have a whale shark? Is that not a chunky dive watch?

I do, and it is--to a degree. I view it more as a GMT/travel use-case watch, leaving the "chunky diver" slot open for the Doxa. Whether this is me trying to justify the Doxa is another conversation altogether. It has a GMT bezel, not a diving bezel, so that's my position there. Really, though, the Whale Shark doesn't seem out of place in most situations where you'd wear any other stainless steel GMT. With the Doxa, though, I don't see myself wearing that anywhere but the beach, boat, etc.

As far as Oris is concerned, I have no complaints with mine except that it is borderline too big at 43.5mm. Adds to its charm a bit I guess, or at least that's what I tell myself. I've been eyeing their Big Crown ProPilot recently too if I were to buy a pilot style watch. As much as I want to like them, there's just something about IWC's pilot watches that doesn't do it for me. They look good for other people, but I can't see myself wearing one.

 

[Drek Galloche]

I think we need a watch tax to stop this largely tasteless compulsion that is detrimental to environment and aesthetical sensibilities.

I propose 1500% tax on any new watch under 50,000

 

[Woofa]

Looking at oris I like the new caliber 400 but now the price goes up. I really want to keep my purchase at or below $2000 and prefer new and not grey dealer. Right now I am about 50 /50 doxa 300 and the Formed reef. But formex is starting to pull ahead.

 

[NakedYoga]

Looking at oris I like the new caliber 400 but now the price goes up. I really want to keep my purchase at or below $2000 and prefer new and not grey dealer. Right now I am about 50 /50 doxa 300 and the Formed reef. But formex is starting to pull ahead.

You can still buy the Aquis new with the old movement--they're still on the Oris website. MSRP is $2,200 but you should get a discount taking it below the $2k mark without much effort at an AD.

 

[Woofa]

Yes, but I hate to buy an oris without the new movement. I did look at buying used or is, SE similar to yours for the Maldives. Like that it is titanium including bracelet and like colors.

 

[classicalthunde]

Slightly different topic - I have an old Illinois cushion case watch that has literally been sitting in my top drawer for a decade. Got it on a lark because I liked the number fonts, but it has a shiny black strap that I think its a bit too formal for the watch.

In order to scratch my watch itch I think I am going to get a new strap from @DavidLane to throw on it. I reached out to him months ago and his recommendation was the brown vintage goatskin which I am inclined to go with, but I figured for discussion and due diligence sake I'd open it up to the group at large for suggestions

 

[Loathing]

The difference between our opinions is that you dismiss it for idealistic reasons - the style is anachronistic - whereas I do because I think they did a poor job of it. Especially with architecture, and especially in Britain, it is common to live in towns that are still in good part hundreds of years old, and even if time filtered, many of the builders and architects were distinctly average. So you absolutely can be happy blending styles decades or centuries apart (as you do when you park your GT3 in front of your building, but I digress). And what about the neo-Palladian estates in favour where you are? Those civilisations haven't been around for millenia!

I'm with you on Poundbury. The problem is the quality rather than the supposedly anachronistic style. The same applies to McMansions - the problem isn't that they imitate historic buildings but that they are such ill-proportioned and pale imitations. There's no logical justification (without adopting unfalsifiable premises) for arguing that we should only be building modernist buildings now, or only wearing modernist watches.

@Loathing perhaps we understand "aristocracy" differently, as our respective origins might imply. To me they are simply people who have taken power by force and then set up a system to maintain their genes at the top for centuries, usually through developing sophisticated propaganda in particular involving being at the head of the local religious organisations. The Western aristocracies are in their dying throes, at least the noblesse d'epee (the only one that counts, if you are to believe ANF members, across the Channel from you) but in the rest of the world, they are very much alive and well. And customers of exactly that kind of thing.

I was really being tongue-in-cheek and adopting Foo's use of "aristocratic" for its positive connotations, which I think is the standard usage in this context in any case. I.e., to mean the rarefied taste of old money as distinct from the unsophisticated taste of the nouveau riche.

 

[Loathing]

What are people's thoughts on this Patek? It's a 1974 Ref. 3602. It is a wildly unfashionable style at the moment with its hobnail/clous de Paris bezel and all-gold case and dial on a glossy black strap. For me it has a lot of charm, and because it's an unpopular model I think I could get one for about £6-7k. I can see it on the wrist of a Japanese businessman in booming 1970s Tokyo, or a foreign financier hobnobbing in the heyday of the Hong Kong Club. I'd be tempted to put it on a matte olive green strap to dress it down a bit and wear it with anything.

People often criticise the hobnail as "not being very Patek" because it goes against the Bauhaus origins of the Calatrava and was supposedly only introduced in 1973. I've seen this repeated in this thread a few times even. My understanding is that actually there was variant of the original 1932 Ref. 96, called the 96D, which was released in 1934 and had a hobnail bezel (the "D" standing for décor). I've never been able to find a photo though - I wonder if anyone else has? In any case, for me the hobnail has been one of the signature features of Pateks for at least 50 years, and I have no interest in slavish adherence to Bauhaus functionalist principles anyway, particularly for gold watches, which are fundamentally superfluous pieces of decorative jewellery.

 

[Drek Galloche]

Slightly different topic - I have an old Illinois cushion case watch that has literally been sitting in my top drawer for a decade. Got it on a lark because I liked the number fonts, but it has a shiny black strap that I think its a bit too formal for the watch.

In order to scratch my watch itch I think I am going to get a new strap from @DavidLane to throw on it. I reached out to him months ago and his recommendation was the brown vintage goatskin which I am inclined to go with, but I figured for discussion and due diligence sake I'd open it up to the group at large for suggestions

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White face watches have a privilege of looking great on light caramel or grey alligator straps.

 

[NakedYoga]

What are people's thoughts on this Patek? It's a 1974 Ref. 3602. It is a wildly unfashionable style at the moment with its hobnail/clous de Paris bezel and all-gold case and dial on a glossy black strap. For me it has a lot of charm, and because it's an unpopular model I think I could get one for about £6-7k. I can see it on the wrist of a Japanese businessman in booming 1970s Tokyo, or a foreign financier hobnobbing in the heyday of the Hong Kong Club. I'd be tempted to put it on a matte olive green strap to dress it down a bit and wear it with anything.

People often criticise the hobnail as "not being very Patek" because it goes against the Bauhaus origins of the Calatrava and was supposedly only introduced in 1973. I've seen this repeated in this thread a few times even. My understanding is that actually there was variant of the original 1932 Ref. 96, called the 96D, which was released in 1934 and had a hobnail bezel (the "D" standing for décor). I've never been able to find a photo though - I wonder if anyone else has? In any case, for me the hobnail has been one of the signature features of Pateks for at least 50 years, and I have no interest in slavish adherence to Bauhaus functionalist principles anyway, particularly for gold watches, which are fundamentally superfluous pieces of decorative jewellery.

View attachment 1645526

I'm not a gatekeeper of whether it's a "true Patek" or not, nor do I care, so my vote is go for it. I've no opinion of any value on the cost as I don't know anything about the market. But, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, I like it. I generally don't really like gold watches, but I find this one elegant, owing in no small part to the hobnail bezel. I'll reserve judgement on an olive strap until I see it.

 

[classicalthunde]

White face watches have a privilege of looking great on light caramel or grey alligator straps.

This tan pebble grain calfskin is currently sitting in third place...

 

[Dino944]

What are people's thoughts on this Patek? It's a 1974 Ref. 3602. It is a wildly unfashionable style at the moment with its hobnail/clous de Paris bezel and all-gold case and dial on a glossy black strap. For me it has a lot of charm, and because it's an unpopular model I think I could get one for about £6-7k. I can see it on the wrist of a Japanese businessman in booming 1970s Tokyo, or a foreign financier hobnobbing in the heyday of the Hong Kong Club. I'd be tempted to put it on a matte olive green strap to dress it down a bit and wear it with anything.

People often criticise the hobnail as "not being very Patek" because it goes against the Bauhaus origins of the Calatrava and was supposedly only introduced in 1973. I've seen this repeated in this thread a few times even. My understanding is that actually there was variant of the original 1932 Ref. 96, called the 96D, which was released in 1934 and had a hobnail bezel (the "D" standing for décor). I've never been able to find a photo though - I wonder if anyone else has? In any case, for me the hobnail has been one of the signature features of Pateks for at least 50 years, and I have no interest in slavish adherence to Bauhaus functionalist principles anyway, particularly for gold watches, which are fundamentally superfluous pieces of decorative jewellery.

View attachment 1645526

I'm not usually a fan of a hobnail bezel, but it's often because when Patek has done one in recent years it was paired with dainty little welded on lugs that are easily damaged/bent, or sheared completely off the case if they come in contact with something hard. That is a common issue with Patek ref. 3119 and its replacement 5119. Those watches looked and were to delicate for me. Or when they did put a hobnail bezel on a watch with thicker lugs it would have a crown guard, which just didn't work for me on a lot of modern Calatravas.

Ref 5119

The advantage of the hobnail bezel, is its hides scratches that would easily be visible on a smooth bezel On this piece I think the thicker more traditional Calatrava lugs on 3602 give it a little studier look, and make it something that would be more wearable for me. The baton hands on this are different. They are a bit sporty with the black line running across them (often seen on Daytona hands of the last 30+ years), rather than the traditional Dauphine hands I associate with the bulk of Calatravas (yes occasionally, Patek has used other hands on Calatravas). In addition, I just realized this one unlike most Calatravas, does not have a seconds hand. Although a gold/champagne dial is generally not my first choice on most watches, it does work with this...although I wish it did not have a gold outline around the date. I'm curious about the size of this older Patek...I'm guessing it could be 32 or 33mm in diameter. If it puts a smile on your face go for it.