The Watch Appreciation Thread (Reviews and Photos of Men's Timepieces by Rolex, Patek Philippe, Brei

[TheWraith]

^ Thanks Roger. It looks even better than I thought it would. I'm very pleased with it.

 

[in stitches]

good stuff, seattlesf and wraith!

 

[TheWraith]

Thanks Stitchy

 

[mimo]

Dino, have you seen the Emperador line of Piagets?

I also saw these yesterday. It's very unusual because the case is actually round, and then has that cushion shape around the dial. It's pretty quirky, and not unappealing.





It's about $30k at list in white gold, I think.

I didn't really love it, to be honest, the way the flat circle of the outer edge of the case looks kind of detracts from the cushion and that cool, interesting dial. A much more integrated and balanced case for me is this one; though a bit bigger, it sits very pleasantly with all those softened edges, and the movement finishing is also really impressive:




It really is the most delicious shape. Not for everyone at 44mm, but even with my medium sized wrists, it felt very wearable when I saw this exact model a while back. I also saw one the other day - a perpetual calendar in rose gold - on the wrist of a Swiss grey dealer I met. I think he was quite surprised that I recognised it, as I was wearing a Seiko at the time!

Today's choice. Not just milk. MUSCLE milk. Not just yogurt. POWERFUL yogurt. Tag line reads: "Find your inner abs." No kidding. I will totally be shredded for summer now.

Last night I went for a shuffle along the beach, and saw a guy running wearing a Nike T-shirt that was emblazoned with the legend "Wang Energy". Quite some claim, I thought. No wonder he works out.

My vintage Rolex Date watch arrived today. Looks great on the wrist.

Yes it most certainly does. Congratulations.

 

[TheWraith]

^ Thanks mimo.

 

[Cleav]



My vintage Rolex Date watch arrived today. Looks great on the wrist. I'm thrilled with it

Wraith, mate that is the nuts, fantastic man, very well done!

 

[Gianni Cerutti]

Much talk recently of simple dress watches. As it happens, I was innocently visiting the bank at lunch time when I accidentally fell into a watch shop. And this snuck, all too briefly, onto my wrist:



Piaget's not really a maker to which I've given a great deal of thought, but I must say the clean simplicity of this Altiplano Ultra Thin, leapt out at me. It's a similar size and shape to the JLC Grande Ultra Thin (40mm), but I think a touch thinner, and this is in white gold. It's also automatic:



Nice little rotor there, although I guess being automatic makes it more one for the pragmatists than the purists! Being gold, it costs half a Pimpepsi* at list price (*the new unit of denomination for the price of white gold watches - half of a Pimpepsi is roughly $20k). But in pure design terms, the hands and the offset small seconds make it a lot more interesting than the GUT to look at. It's a big old dinner plate of course, but if that's your thing, it sits nicely on the wrist (mine is about 7"-7.25" for comparison). Anyway, I was quite charmed. There are a lot of options in life if you have 20k burning a hole, but this strikes me as not an unreasonable one. And if you want people to notice it's gold, there's a rose one too. Just saying.

Incidentally, taking pics with my new phone is a nuisance: I finally got one with a decent camera, as I'm now working for a company that represents Nokia, and the Lumia cameras are great. Unfortunately, being a cheapskate I begged a "trial" rather than choosing and buying one. And someone there was funnier than me and gave me a bright red one. Which is fine. Except when photographing shiny things close up. Here's an alternative subdial and hand option on that VC Overseas I liked:



The Vacheron Overseas Chronograph Double Red Special Edition.

WOW...beautiful watch and very nice photos

 

[Newcomer]



Wraith, mate that is the nuts, fantastic man, very well done!

I couldn't agree more!

Wraith, it looks absolutely lovely.

That Patek travel time that was posted a few pages back was also sublime.

Wear both watches in good health gentlemen!

 

[Dino944]

My vintage Rolex Date watch arrived today. Looks great on the wrist. I'm thrilled with it

Hi Wraith, congrats on your vintage Rolex Oyster Date. It looks great. Wishing you many years of enjoyment from it.

I also saw these yesterday. It's very unusual because the case is actually round, and then has that cushion shape around the dial. It's pretty quirky, and not unappealing.



I didn't really love it, to be honest, the way the flat circle of the outer edge of the case looks kind of detracts from the cushion and that cool, interesting dial. A much more integrated and balanced case for me is this one; though a bit bigger, it sits very pleasantly with all those softened edges, and the movement finishing is also really impressive:

Hi Mimo, I really like a lot of what Piaget makes these days, but the Emperador cushion case, itsn't really my taste. While I think they have put some interesting complications in these watches, I just am not in love with its case. I find the rounded case and cushion shaped bezel/crystal a bit awkward. Its different so I can appreciate that, but I'd rather have one of their Altiplanos or a rectangular Emperador.

I love RD's case shapes, although for what they cost I'm just not sure I'd buy one. There are other offerings from other brands that would be ahead of this in terms of future potential purchases. Still I have tried on a few RDs and they do look distinctive and feel great on the wrist.

 

[jbarwick]

Dear TWAT, I must confess, I like the Louis Vuitton World Time watch that recently debuted at BaselWorld. It is an overly priced fashion branded watch that few will like but I love the design. Something about the aesthetics has me taking peeks of it just to find new nuances that I like. If anything it is like being married but always taking an extra second to admire the beauty that is our TWAT-goddess when Frilly posts a pic.

Why do I love it? Well the hand painted dial is just full of lovely colors that has me looking at the different cities and emblems associated with them. The outside rings then marry up with the 24 hour and minute rings ending in the middle with a rather large pyramid with terrible branding of “World time” and “Louis Vuitton”. You then have a silly yellow hand that is part of the pyramid that crosses through both the hour and minute rings to point towards one of the cities. It just somehow all fits together and works for me. I love it.

Now the bad. It is $67,500! The LV logo and silly yellow hand are actually on the underside of the crystal and not on the dial as the dial is part of the movement. Maybe it provides some sort of 3D aspect but I will throw it in the bad for now. It is white gold but if you are paying that much, platinum comes to mind.

If it were not so bastardly expensive and something like <$3,000 and I would try to find a way to try it on. So TWAT there it is…I love a fashion brand watch that few will love but somehow it tickles my heart strings.

 

[in stitches]

sorry, but i hate that in so many ways. nothing to do with LV, just the overall design.

 

[Kaplan]

*checking today's date*

 

[in stitches]

oh snap! lololol

 

[jbarwick]

Not an April Fool's Day joke. Was going to post a few days ago. Where do I send my TWAT cred card?

 

[in stitches]

your cred is still good here. even though that watch is, um, yeah.