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The Watch Fanatic Thread

cabowabo

By cabowabo
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utxmike05

utxmike05 1828

Posted
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2 hours ago, HoustonHorn said:

I'm not sure this is necessarily Covid, but another way that Omega and other brands are moving to change their distribution and managing inventory. If people have to send their watches in, they can check to see if its the original owner, where it was sold, etc. and all the stuff that Rolex does when you send it in for service. Maybe I'm wrong, that is speculation on my part.

I will say Covid is the perfect excuse for these shifts. I think they were planning this stuff all along, and now get to blame Covid instead of getting blamed themselves.

 

Not sure I am following... you are saying the Brands are against buying pre-owned or new grey market?  And they would be able to verify this when you send it in for repairs...to check if you are the original owner?

Forgive me if I'm way off lol

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DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt
DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt

well fuckin' A. file this one under DID THAT JUST HAPPEN? So I'm all horned up for a vintage moon watch, have tried to make something happen on a couple from my birth year, can't get the deal don

mapplewhite132
mapplewhite132

Have wanted a speedy ever since I bought my first omega. Now I have one     

RichUT
RichUT

On an anniversary trip with the wife in Greece and finally took the plunge on a proper timepiece. I was expecting to pick up a Panerai but something about the timeless quality of this guy spoke to me.

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G650

G650 14299

Posted
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2 hours ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

This is why I was trying to go through a local omega certified watchmaker.  The idea of mailing off a $12k watch and just waiting on it gives me anxiety just thinking about it.

 

I just went through this with my Overseas 

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Sam Lin

Sam Lin 3564

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On 1/30/2022 at 1:52 PM, AUinHsv said:

Probably starting a flame war but does anyone use the chronograph function on Daytonas or other chronos?  Every vendor seems to have a model but wondering if anyone uses it. On the other hand I haven't used the rotating bezel on my Sub very much either

I have one of these, Sinn 303 Futbol. I make sure to time soccer games with it, because it is a single-purpose watch and it is awesome. They put the soccer ball on the chrono seconds hand in the movement, so when it's timing, the ball is spinning. I was on the fence about buying it until I saw that.

https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/blast-from-the-past-sinn-303-football-watch-from-2006.1036771/

1905040833_sinnfutboltimer.thumb.JPG.1a83cf609a2f867edcf125ac2c2d0ba8.JPG

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HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn 1062

Posted
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Not sure I am following... you are saying the Brands are against buying pre-owned or new grey market?  And they would be able to verify this when you send it in for repairs...to check if you are the original owner?
Forgive me if I'm way off lol
I actually don't think Rolex cares too much because it benefits them. In fact, they just raised their retail prices. What they don't like is having it found out their ADs are dumping brand new watches to flippers and gray market sellers. Bad for their image when regular buyers can't even try a watch on in a Rolex store. But overall they pretty much just stay quiet. Rolex absolutely checks the serial numbers when they are sent in for service against their lost/stolen registry and will return it to the rightful owner. So box and papers only for anything non-vintage.

Other brands absolutely are taking measures to control inventory and that is a multi-pronged effort. It includes dropping ADs, reducing AD margins, opening boutiques, and to a lesser extent limiting production or creating limited models to create the assistance of scarcity and increase demand. Gone are the days of the CEOs pushing as many watches as they can make out the door and flooding the market to meet certain sales goals for the quarter.

They have changed it so that ADs can't immediately unload a lot of watches at 30-40% discounts while still breaking even or making a little because of the dealer markup built into the suggested retail price. That's why you used to see a ton of brand new Omegas and other brands watches immediately on the gray market at 20-30% discounts. I bought my Omega Speedmaster that way a little over a year ago.

That hurts and cheapens the overall brand value because who is going to pay retail at an AD (or maybe a little discount) when you can get it for a couple thousand cheaper online immediately. So an 8k Omega isn't seen as an $8k watch, it's viewed as a $5.5k watch because that's how much it sells for new on the gray market.

By constricting supply to the grey market and selling direct in boutiques, Omega stands to make a hell a lot more money on each watch and the value goes up because they aren't available at $5500 new anymore. I believe Breitling actually started buying back their new watches on the gray market for this very reason. I also heard they reprimanded ADs whose watches they found littering the market. Whatever "reprimand" actually means.

And to be clear, I'm using gray market as it relates only to new watches being offered at a significant discount and not pre-owned. Pre-owned is a used watch. They can't control that and really don't want to although the higher the used prices the better for the brand overall because the perception is much better.

But having brand new watches available at big discounts is a problem the brands are absolutely trying to fix and its starting to work. They want to be more like Rolex, and they should.



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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21474

Posted
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17 minutes ago, HoustonHorn said:

I actually don't think Rolex cares too much because it benefits them. In fact, they just raised their retail prices. What they don't like is having it found out their ADs are dumping brand new watches to flippers and gray market sellers. Bad for their image when regular buyers can't even try a watch on in a Rolex store. But overall they pretty much just stay quiet. Rolex absolutely checks the serial numbers when they are sent in for service against their lost/stolen registry and will return it to the rightful owner. So box and papers only for anything non-vintage.

Other brands absolutely are taking measures to control inventory and that is a multi-pronged effort. It includes dropping ADs, reducing AD margins, opening boutiques, and to a lesser extent limiting production or creating limited models to create the assistance of scarcity and increase demand. Gone are the days of the CEOs pushing as many watches as they can make out the door and flooding the market to meet certain sales goals for the quarter.

They have changed it so that ADs can't immediately unload a lot of watches at 30-40% discounts while still breaking even or making a little because of the dealer markup built into the suggested retail price. That's why you used to see a ton of brand new Omegas and other brands watches immediately on the gray market at 20-30% discounts. I bought my Omega Speedmaster that way a little over a year ago.

That hurts and cheapens the overall brand value because who is going to pay retail at an AD (or maybe a little discount) when you can get it for a couple thousand cheaper online immediately. So an 8k Omega isn't seen as an $8k watch, it's viewed as a $5.5k watch because that's how much it sells for new on the gray market.

By constricting supply to the grey market and selling direct in boutiques, Omega stands to make a hell a lot more money on each watch and the value goes up because they aren't available at $5500 new anymore. I believe Breitling actually started buying back their new watches on the gray market for this very reason. I also heard they reprimanded ADs whose watches they found littering the market. Whatever "reprimand" actually means.

And to be clear, I'm using gray market as it relates only to new watches being offered at a significant discount and not pre-owned. Pre-owned is a used watch. They can't control that and really don't want to although the higher the used prices the better for the brand overall because the perception is much better.

But having brand new watches available at big discounts is a problem the brands are absolutely trying to fix and its starting to work. They want to be more like Rolex, and they should.


 

I’m a somewhat uneducated observer, but the boutique thing started with purses.  The watch folks are just following that game plan.

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HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn 1062

Posted
Posted
I’m a somewhat uneducated observer, but the boutique thing started with purses.  The watch folks are just following that game plan.
Because the watch brands are owned by the same luxury brands, LVMH, Richemont, Swatch. It's the same folk. They know how to drive up demand. But they are making some bad choices as far as maintaining brand identity long term. So for that reason, I'm out. Check out the controversy over the Panerai "in-house" movements. There's some interesting articles I'll have to go back and dig up.

Found one, very long and watch nerdy but worth it if you're investing a lot of money into buying luxury watches. Know what you're buying. The luxury brands know how to cut costs and lie about what you're actually getting. Not only that, it seems pretty obvious some of the major watch sites are in some ways complicit. This news never really came out and I read a lot of watch stuff.

https://perezcope.com/2021/08/08/panerai-in-house-movements-a-pam-of-worms/

"Other ValFleurier calibers are shared as well. For instance Cartier’s 1904-SP MC, which beats as MB 29.22 in Montblanc watches, as 1100P in timepieces from Piaget and as 1326 in certain Vacheron Constantin references. Using the term “in-house” for all of these movements is misleading to say the least."

All in on independent brands.
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DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt

DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301

Posted
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3 hours ago, HoustonHorn said:

Because the watch brands are owned by the same luxury brands, LVMH, Richemont, Swatch. It's the same folk. They know how to drive up demand. But they are making some bad choices as far as maintaining brand identity long term. So for that reason, I'm out. Check out the controversy over the Panerai "in-house" movements. There's some interesting articles I'll have to go back and dig up.

Found one, very long and watch nerdy but worth it if you're investing a lot of money into buying luxury watches. Know what you're buying. The luxury brands know how to cut costs and lie about what you're actually getting. Not only that, it seems pretty obvious some of the major watch sites are in some ways complicit. This news never really came out and I read a lot of watch stuff.

https://perezcope.com/2021/08/08/panerai-in-house-movements-a-pam-of-worms/

"Other ValFleurier calibers are shared as well. For instance Cartier’s 1904-SP MC, which beats as MB 29.22 in Montblanc watches, as 1100P in timepieces from Piaget and as 1326 in certain Vacheron Constantin references. Using the term “in-house” for all of these movements is misleading to say the least."

All in on independent brands.

Fascists, man.

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cabowabo

cabowabo 4575

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43 minutes ago, utxmike05 said:

@cabowabo Love that Hammy.  Looks like it wears bigger than the case specs say (in a good way). Awesome. I have been into green/gray dials recently.  Enjoy!

Yeah, it definitely wears more like a 42mm than a 40mm.  I think this is a function of the thickness and the lugs are a little too long than they need to be in my opinion.  I bought it on the leather strap because that was the cheapest route to go on Ebay.  The OEM mesh can be bought for $130 straight from Hamilton, but they are out of stock right now.  I picked up a $20 mesh on Amazon to tide me over until I can get the Hamilton mesh.  

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HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn 1062

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The worst part about Swiss Francs is when you convert them to USD, it's more USD.

Irwin, about 6 years ago I did not own a working watch. I bought my wife a nice watch for a birthday/anniversary.

5 years ago I made my first "luxury" watch purchase, an IWC Spitfire. At the time they had a blue Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph for sale for just over $20k. I thought that was insane and there was no way anybody would ever WASTE that much money on a watch.

It was the most beautiful watch I had ever seen and one of the most beautiful things I had seen. But $20k was outrageous and nobody in their right mind would spend that for a watch.

That watch is worth at least double that now.

I'm any event it can be a slippery slope. Right now the watch market is crazy, so there's definitely an opportunity to get a watch at pretty much any price point without a large drop in value the second you walk out the door. Obviously the brand and model matters. Some are better than others. But it's a good time to be buying a watch. If you're interested in something or would like recommendations I'm sure some of the people in this thread will be happy to recommend something.

Also, if you're interested in trying out a higher priced watch but not sure. Breitling has a subscription service that let's you try out 3 watches over a year and you earn some points that can go towards the purchase of the 3rd watch. Not for everyone, but might be worth looking into if you like Breitling watches. Interesting concept at least.

But Breiing has been down for a while with, imo, some large, gaudy, ugly designs (and that's saying something if you've seen some of the stuff I've posted that I love). They are on the way back up and they have a good heritage and the designs are starting to really improve.

Watches - a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

Posted
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3 minutes ago, HoustonHorn said:

Not me, I could watch that all day. Incredible engineering and precision at such a small level.

I totally dig the engineering, detail, and imagination, but yeah, no. You can't even tell time on some of them.  Way too gimmicky for my taste.  A couple look like something you'd win at a carnival grab claw game.

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topochico

topochico 1049

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7 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Watches That Are Mechanically Impressive Novelties but also Total Fucking Nonsense 

I almost picked up a UN Freak a few years after they came out for a great price. Then I imagined actually trying to use it as a watch. It was pretty amazing though. 

 

51C70386-CEF5-4A5C-AEC8-DFF035FD0360_1_201_a.jpeg

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HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn 1062

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13 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Watches That Are Mechanically Impressive Novelties but also Total Fucking Nonsense 

In some sense, any watch is total nonsense. But if you actually depend on a watch to tell time, then anything more than a $5 quartz watch is total nonsense. I'm betting not many people here wear a $5 quartz watch.

That said, none of those are something I'd wear. I just get the appeal. A cool mechanical piece of art that will likely increase dramatically in value over time.

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Sam Lin

Sam Lin 3564

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, HoustonHorn said:

I'm betting not many people here wear a $5 quartz watch.

Does $20 count? My daily wear has been a cheap Casio DB-34 quartz for probably 30 years. I bought a bunch of spares when they were discontinued, and swap innards or cases when they fail. I get 5-10yrs out of each (typically break a strap lug off the case, it's just molded plastic), and hope these last the rest of my life:

casio.jpg.decefcd949daedf5e00d4f40aa6df62d.jpg

 

Recent surgery, you can see the "movement" is modular and just drops in and out, so I mix and match movements and cases to repair, depending what failed:

casio2.thumb.jpg.1367a34d11176ee509182482cdbc4966.jpg

Edited by Sam Lin
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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Can we talk straps?  Specifically looking at non-metal options for my Seamaster?  Kind of lukewarm on NATO straps?  Anyone know of or used ARTEM or others like them (sailcloth)?

Maybe like this?  But in blue or gray?

2608fd04d89cea4c4d835827643e42fc.jpg

 

Omega.jpg

Never liked the NATO straps.  Rubber is a good choice because it's sweat impervious.

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Sam Lin

Sam Lin 3564

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14 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Which shipping batch are you?  I have some visitors coming soon who can bring me mine, only if it wont be delayed, and Ming has not communicated whether they have parts shortage (like everyone else)

4873, think that's end of April for both colors.

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HoustonHorn

HoustonHorn 1062

Posted
Posted

Delugs makes nice straps. I'll go back and get you some names. The Artem sailcloth I got was pretty decent for the money. A little stiff but will wear in over time.

Looking for something exotic, I've bought several from Lonestar Leather on Etsy for pretty cheap and they are quality. There are some expensive bespoke strapmakers as well.

 

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