What watch do you wear?

I've tried searching for 'buy strap' in this thread but it's hard to find relevant posts.

Are there recommended sites to buy straps from to the UK? I'm looking for a leather strap 26mm at the moment, but also for other watches and straps in the future.
 
Richdog said:
Well, after randomly suggesting it to someone else, I am now pretty in love with the Oris Artelier Complication and am considering it as my dress watch. Such a fantastic and harmonious design, beautiful even, with all of the complications that I personally find useful (date, moonphase, GMT dial). Low 38 hour power reserve but meh, not a deal breaker.

Oris Artelier Complication https://www.oris.ch/en/watch/oris-artelier-complication/01-781-7703-4051-07-5-21-70fc



I would say it looks better than pretty much anything have seen up to £6/7k, and can be had for around £1'250 with leather and £1'350 with metal bracelets. Grey market even cheaper. If anyone can suggest similar watches that look better from respected Swiss manufacturers then I would love to see them! :)
Click to expand...
Yeah I've been thinking about that one since you posted it. What's a good place to get them for the prices you've quoted?
 
Tefal said:
i think you have to view high end watches as art.

no mechanical watch no matter the cost, no matter the supplier will ever beat the accuracy of a 3 quid piece of qaurtz lcd **** you bought down the market.

so you have to look atr it as art, what is the perception of the maker/artists, are they current and do they have a "heritage" its about resale value and "perception" nothing is to do with quality (no one ever opens up their watch to check the machining) it is l;ike art, is the signature good or not.
Click to expand...

That's how the Swiss watch industry did when Quartz become cheap (Quartz was once expensive, like all new tech). Mechanical watches were once upon a time like your standard toaster, it's how you make a watch, it's this way and no other way. The old ads back in the 50's and 60's were working men, miners with these watches that can take the abuse. When Quartz came about they had to think of a way to spin it so that people keep buying an "inferior" product at a higher price so the marketing changed, now it's photos of rich men on a boat, or on a golf course or Lewis Hamilton.

Combustion engine cars will probably go the same way in 100 year's time.
 
I think that is a bit dubious, you can still get cheap mechanical watches today (probably cheaper than you ever could have in the past accounting for inflation) and yet some watches have always been exclusive. Certainly the very earliest of watches were very expensive items.

As for advertising, NASA landed a man on the moon with an Omega watch a whole decade before Quartz watches were produced and Omega were perfectly happy to milk that in the advertising/make it aspirational etc..

KItxguF.jpg
 
dowie said:
I think that is a bit dubious, you can still get cheap mechanical watches today (probably cheaper than you ever could have in the past accounting for inflation) and yet some watches have always been exclusive. Certainly the very earliest of watches were very expensive items.

As for advertising, NASA landed a man on the moon with an Omega watch a whole decade before Quartz watches were produced and Omega were perfectly happy to milk that in the advertising/make it aspirational etc..

KItxguF.jpg
Click to expand...

I knew someone would come in with that ad, hence I specifically picked my timeline of 50's knowing full well the late 60's had the space thing and 70's Quartz came about.

The whole idea of astronaut isn't about a life style, it's all about the harsh environment, like mining. Whereas when the marketing shift to boats and golf courses it's about life style, money, class, wealth.

My point is that it became more a luxury item as opposed to an everyday item.

And this is more about Swiss watch makers, like Omega, Rolex etc.
 
I'm not sure I understand your point, a Rolex has always been a fairly expensive item? You mentioned the 50s and 60s in your post - the moon landing was 1959 and they milked that through the 60s and beyond, that is the time period you referred to and predates Quartz by a decade whereas your previous post talked about Quartz coming and manufacturers reacting to that. I'm not saying that Quartz didn't at one point seem to threaten traditional watches but rather I'm pointing out that some of these watches have always been expensive items/luxury goods and you can still get cheap mechanical watches today.

Rolex advert from the 1930s.. a celebrity and a fast car:

27mnCrv.jpg
 
Raymond Lin said:
That's how the Swiss watch industry did when Quartz become cheap (Quartz was once expensive, like all new tech). Mechanical watches were once upon a time like your standard toaster, it's how you make a watch, it's this way and no other way. The old ads back in the 50's and 60's were working men, miners with these watches that can take the abuse. When Quartz came about they had to think of a way to spin it so that people keep buying an "inferior" product at a higher price so the marketing changed, now it's photos of rich men on a boat, or on a golf course or Lewis Hamilton.

Combustion engine cars will probably go the same way in 100 year's time.
Click to expand...


I didn't know that that's interesting.

I agree on the combustion engine though.

With everything becoming electric, I can see there being a few heritage very expensive motorbikes and cars that are still petrol powered.

But very Impracticle due to the lack of infrastructure.
 
dowie said:
I'm not sure I understand your point, a Rolex has always been a fairly expensive item? You mentioned the 50s and 60s in your post - the moon landing was 1959 and they milked that through the 60s and beyond, that is the time period you referred to and predates Quartz by a decade whereas your previous post talked about Quartz coming and manufacturers reacting to that. I'm not saying that Quartz didn't at one point seem to threaten traditional watches but rather I'm pointing out that some of these watches have always been expensive items/luxury goods and you can still get cheap mechanical watches today.

Rolex advert from the 1930s.. a celebrity and a fast car:

27mnCrv.jpg
Click to expand...

That as is about endurance, speed, "harsh conditions". 300mph it says.

Of course they market to all sectors, like you have a toaster like Dualit but the point is that their marketing shifted "more" towards a luxury item. You can see lots of old ads where it's more about its durability, the diving, mountain climbing, extreme sports, and as you said, space. It is selling the durability, robustness, reliability, Men at work, men at extreme conditions.

Now it's a guy in a suit looking sharp.
 
Raymond Lin said:
That as is about endurance, speed, "harsh conditions". 300mph it says.

Of course they market to all sectors, like you have a toaster like Dualit but the point is that their marketing shifted "more" towards a luxury item. You can see lots of old ads where it's more about its durability, the diving, mountain climbing, extreme sports, and as you said, space. It is selling the durability, robustness, reliability, Men at work, men at extreme conditions.

Now it's a guy in a suit looking sharp.
Click to expand...

I think you'll find they still feature racing cars, drivers(you mentioned one in your previous post) and pilots etc.. in modern watch adverts today. When that guy did the highest parachute drop from the edge of space not so long ago a watch company, Zentih, were keen to get him wearing one of their watches and sponsored him, they were keen to put some marketing fluff about 'extreme conditions' too:

http://www.zenith-watches.com/en_en/icones/felix-baumgartner

This mission that had been in preparation for over five years provided an opportunity to obtain precious medical and scientific information in a real-life situation that will enable advances in spatial and aeronautical research. For example, the data gathered on the reaction of the organism at a speed greater than Mach 1 on the very edge of space brings the advent of space tourism substantially closer, while new systems of sub-orbital evacuation could be developed.


For Zenith, this adventure means much more than confronting its mechanics with the most extreme conditions.


Because the Red Bull Stratos Mission and the Manufacture follow the same star – that which guides entrepreneurial daring, continually pushes the boundaries of technical performance and opens up a place of freedom where anything becomes possible. For the sheer pleasure of achieving one’s destiny.
Click to expand...

That was in 2012, same sort of marketing you're talking about....


And if If you want 'guy looking sharp in a suit' then that isn't exactly new either:

czykEF9.jpg


I am interested if you've got an example of say Rolex's or other similar watches being advertised using pictures of miners? That was your original claim:

Raymond Lin said:
The old ads back in the 50's and 60's were working men, miners with these watches that can take the abuse. When Quartz came about they had to think of a way to spin it so that people keep buying an "inferior" product at a higher price so the marketing changed, now it's photos of rich men on a boat, or on a golf course or Lewis Hamilton.
Click to expand...

Where as I've now shown that 10 years before quartz we had the Moon Watch from Omega, that before Lewis Hamilton advertising watches we had Sir Malcom Campbell breaking the land speed record in the 1930s and also that men in sharp suits isn't something new either.
 
Last edited:
dowie said:
I think you'll find they still feature racing cars, drivers(you mentioned one in your previous post) and pilots etc.. in modern watch adverts today. When that guy did the highest parachute drop from the edge of space not so long ago a watch company, Zentih, were keen to get him wearing one of their watches and sponsored him, they were keen to put some marketing fluff about 'extreme conditions' too:

http://www.zenith-watches.com/en_en/icones/felix-baumgartner



That was in 2012, same sort of marketing you're talking about....


And if If you want 'guy looking sharp in a suit' then that isn't exactly new either:

czykEF9.jpg


I am interested if you've got an example of say Rolex's or other similar watches being advertised using pictures of miners? That was your original claim:



Where as I've now shown that 10 years before quartz we had the Moon Watch from Omega, that before Lewis Hamilton advertising watches we had Sir Malcom Campbell breaking the land speed record in the 1930s and also that men in sharp suits isn't something new either.
Click to expand...


I made a similar post 4 years ago.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/24900359/

Some reading.

https://www.timepiecechronicle.com/features/2016/6/14/the-real-impact-of-the-quartz-crisis

https://www.calibre11.com/heuer-quartz-revolution/

By the late 80s, the Swiss workforce involved in watchmaking was less than one third the size it had been in 1970. The resurgence was to begin with the launch of the quartz Swatch in 1983, leading to the Swiss industry’s current state of health now.
Click to expand...

You can't deny the impact of Quartz, the change in marketing, the shift from a more utilitarian to luxury branding and marketing. Of course there will be an element of luxury too before Quartz as watches comes in all price point, but when all these lower market segment of the automatic watches went under, the bigger boys had to do something.
 
Raymond Lin said:
You can't deny the impact of Quartz, the change in marketing, the shift from a more utilitarian to luxury branding and marketing. Of course there will be an element of luxury too before Quartz as watches comes in all price point, but when all these lower market segment of the automatic watches went under, the bigger boys had to do something.
Click to expand...

I'm not denying that quartz had an impact on the watch market (that hasn't got much to do with what I commented on) I'm just questioning the statement you made above re: advertising and am demonstrating that some Swiss watch brands have always been expensive items and that the marketing around them hasn't changed too much/is still aspirational. Perhaps you could give an example of the sort of advertising you're referring to re: working miners etc.. that we don't see today? Most of what I could find from adverts back then are say associating watches with pilots, the military, fast cars, adventure or simply being fashionable/luxury items and we see the same things today.
 
Further to the above, I do find the whole 'performance' aspect of the expensive watches rather silly, particularly these 'deep sea' mechanical diving watches. I mean, great, for anyone that dives at 4,000m (?!)... in any case, I'm pretty sure that's not the device the deep sea welders will be using for survival :o

If it looks cool, sure.
 
Well people generally use a dive computer these days but will often still have a watch and depth gauge as back up, doesn't have to be the latest Blancpain or Rolex though and yep most people who buy those sorts of watches will likely never take them anywhere near the water :D
 
The 300m thing is more dinner conversation thing really I suspect. Most of the owners and these watches will not go anywhere deeper than a bath, I doubt they would even wear it when going swimming. Besides, most mortals will be dead at 300m seeing the world record for scuba dive is 330m.
 
Raymond Lin said:
The 300m thing is more dinner conversation thing really I suspect. Most of the owners and these watches will not go anywhere deeper than a bath, I doubt they would even wear it when going swimming. Besides, most mortals will be dead at 300m seeing the world record for scuba dive is 330m.
Click to expand...
Raymond, a watch rated 300m doesn't mean it goes down to 300m... it's usually just subjected to a static pressure test and probably can handle around 20-30m max depth in practise. Read up on water resistance ratings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom