High End Watches

[Ki Choi]

Hey Mike:

Something's got to be wrong with your GMT MASTER II. Mine keeps near perfect time. I gain one min every three months or so. You should get it checked out. With my crazy travels for my day job, I got the watch to make use of the outer 24 hour dial for different time zones and keep the normal hands at Seattle time wherever I end up. It somewhat helps me to overcome the hardship of life-on-the road mentally.

I also have an old Omega Professional Speed Master - the original Moon watch - that was a special high school graduation gift. I have had for forty years... It's a totally manual watch that requires me to wind up every morning, but it kept relatively good time but not even close to the younger GMT Master II. My son used to ask me to take the watch off all the time so that he could play with it. He was very small... I used to tell him that I would give it to him when he graduates from college. That was many years ago and now he is just about to finish his degree so I'll have to send it off to Omega for cleaning and tuning. I had sent it off to the factory about twenty years ago for $250, and they sent the watch back to me looking new in a box and with a manual then. I would imagine it would cost at least double or more. But, if he can wear it for the next thirty years and hand it over to his son, it would aswesome...

[rugyboogie]

Watches that I own / owned in chronological order of acquisition.
The first one I do not have any more.

Anker, first watch that I purchased.
Timex, this went through a washing and dryer cycle, fell out on the floor in the elevator. Yes it kept on ticking.
Valgine , first dress watch
Pulsar Diver Watch, still wear this for every day work.
Casio computer watch
Pulsar Diver Watch
Casio computer watch
Suunto
Breitling
Perrelet

Both the Breitling and the Perrelet or on Watch winders

My fav is the Perrelet.

[brianherlihy]

I have a weird fascinations with watches, as i don't wear one and haven't bought one 15 years, but still follow them quite closely. I think this is a place where the 'best' is even more subjective than hi-end audio. Really the 'best' keeps the best time (and there are many watches - even digital - that keep 50 years precise time - for the real best go wear a dCS master clock around your wrist it will keep perfect time for a couple of centuries). but watches get interesting when you add complexities controlled by mechanics AND they can still keep the time well (see the astronomical clock in Prague). so you are more buying: style, story and complexity (to the degree you are interested in). price wise the market places the biggest premium on complexity, which Patek probably does do best. A. Lange and Sohne also does it very well and to me has a more interesting story (one of the few non-Swiss major watch makers from East Germany originally). I like Patek better due to style, b/c i don't have a wrist that can carry a A. Lange and Sohne or a Breuget (these watches are 13 to 15 mm high and my wrist looks stupid wearing something that big). anyway, i think watches are beautiful and appreciate all different types. the main watch i keep now, is my great, great grandfather's stopwatch which has a 'Pulp Fiction' type of history.

[The Smokester]

On an entirely different scale is the "Clock of the Long Now".

http://www.longnow.org/

[FrantzM]

I have a weird fascinations with watches, as i don't wear one and haven't bought one 15 years, but still follow them quite closely. I think this is a place where the 'best' is even more subjective than hi-end audio. Really the 'best' keeps the best time (and there are many watches - even digital - that keep 50 years precise time - for the real best go wear a dCS master clock around your wrist it will keep perfect time for a couple of centuries). but watches get interesting when you add complexities controlled by mechanics AND they can still keep the time well (see the astronomical clock in Prague). so you are more buying: style, story and complexity (to the degree you are interested in). price wise the market places the biggest premium on complexity, which Patek probably does do best. A. Lange and Sohne also does it very well and to me has a more interesting story (one of the few non-Swiss major watch makers from East Germany originally). I like Patek better due to style, b/c i don't have a wrist that can carry a A. Lange and Sohne or a Breuget (these watches are 13 to 15 mm high and my wrist looks stupid wearing something that big). anyway, i think watches are beautiful and appreciate all different types. the main watch i keep now, is my great, great grandfather's stopwatch which has a 'Pulp Fiction' type of history.

On watches one can only comment about what one prefers.. There is clearly NO objective criterion.. If it were for time keeping the original purpose of a watch ALL present day casio watches are superior to all Rolexes, ALL Patek and ALL mechanical watches regardless of complication or sophistication... So it is ENTIRELy subjective. For Hi-Fi we do have preference but there is a reference the sound of the opriginal even whatever it was amplifed or not ...
I also am not too comfortable with today's huge watches .. I continue to find them overly big, regardless of wrist size (mine is small) .. I am not too sure I like those things which look like a big Clock on people wrists ...
I like the Patekbut love Breitling. I find Breitling to be a good combination of style and real precision .. especially trhe pofessional series which can keep it up with the Casio, in the Quartz models

Frantz

Frantz

[DaveyF]

I have owned a TAG Formula 1 for several years, For everyday use I like it better than my Rolex Sub. I also have a Ebel, which is also a fine watch IMHO. The Rolex is great but a little long in the tooth now. I also have a Movado with mother of pearl face, BUT it's too
over the top and I hardly use it now, the TAG is definitely my fave.

[Jay_S]

The Rolex is great but a little long in the tooth now.

With appropriate maintenance these will run for many decades and still look great. Also, the value of older models slowly appreciates as Rolex continues to raise prices in good times and bad. The sub is still made of course, and there is great demand for some of the older versions.

[audioblazer]

some people are just crazy about watches. Recently was in London and enquired abt Rolex Daytona stainless steel. Not too pricey at Gbp 6k+ but the waiting period to get a new 1 from Rolex centre London merely 6 years. This is 1 new watch I would like to have. Understand from my friend Rolex Daytona Paul Newman Edition ( very limited) and bid for something like USD 300k+. Make all the hifi purchases pretty cheap comparatively

[flez007]

One of my favourite watches is the IKEPOD Megapod, it is sporty but light due to its titanium case, other watch I like using is a Jaeger ultrathin for daily use. Pictures coming...