/fa/ - Fashion

>>18101456
Maybe I should clarify that a bit. There's nothing wrong with getting a watch at an AD/Boutique except the price. Rolex is one of the few brands where they gain on the secondary market, but for the vast majority of watches, they'll lose value immediately as you walk out the store. If you go the route of buying grey market, you have to do a tonne of research (mainly comparing prices, desirability of models, learning to distinguish the genuine from frankenwatches or fakes, etc.), but in the end it could save you if you're careful and persistent.

If, however, you just want to buy a 'nice watch', one for life, and then continue on, then for simplicity I'd probably just go into a boutique, get the watch I want, and move on. You'll have to wait if the watch is desirable right now (waiting for Rolex is normal for certain models, waiting for Omega for a few models, etc.) but if you just want, say, a two-tone Rolex Datejust, I'm sure you could get one from an AD in a month. Getting a normal Omega Speedmaster from an AD? Probably could walk in and out with one in the same day. Like so many things, the more precise you are about which model you want, the more help we can give here on /wt/.

>>18101478
Makes sense, and prices have gone up of course. As for 'knowing everything that has happened to my stuff'...quite honestly, with mechanical watches they are something akin to the Ship of Theseus. If you send your watch into servicing with a reputable brand (i.e Rolex, Omega, etc.), they'll strip it down, clean everything, replace any component that shows wear (including outer parts like the bezel and crystal), replace all pushers and crowns, polish everything back to factory condition (while losing some metal as a result), and handing the watch back to you. If it's been serviced, the lived 'history' of the watch is to a great degree erased. cont.

>>18021383
Gorgeous! Lately I've been tempted to get the Bronzo, but honestly...I think my days of huge watches are over. Just don't get the opportunity to wear them much.

Still love the 111...it has such beautiful proportions. Gotta get it serviced though... Nice to see another Paneristi here. I mainly wear Omegas now...what else have you got?

Post watches...then you win.

>>15857945
That's perfectly fair; and I can't fault you for it because I'd feel the same way at your age and from the same perspective.

To me, a watch was never a fashion accessory; it was a tool that helped me to live. I needed accuracy to the minute for the trains in London, and it was an added bonus that the seconds were also accurate too. That can mean the difference between a casual walk to my location with time to spare or a rush and dash because I missed my train and had to wait 5 more minutes with delays on the fucking District Line. So for me, it was practicality first.

But here's the question I have for you: If you have 200 saved up now, what stops you from saving up another 200 next month. And the month after that...and after that. In 5 months you have 1000, and you already are able to get a better watch that will last longer and be in all ways better than what you could afford before. So what is stopping you?

If it's only a very expensive fashion accessory, then from that perspective you have to remove concepts like accuracy, performance, reliability, etc. from the equation and focus solely on the look of the watch and how much it can impress someone. If that's the case, go with a Skeleton modern Rotary (not like the pics I had but from the actual website I linked), or any of the open-heart watches you can find on Amazon (just search 'open-heart watch' and you'll find thousands). At that point, find one you like the look of at the price point you want and click buy.

The difference between you and me is not how much money I make but the differences between how we view a watch. To me, watches are not disposable, so I'd be willing to delay buying one in order to save for one that I like. It's not an issue of 'comfort' in terms of how much one is spending, it's an issue of 'am I happy with the watch on my wrist' and by extension, 'is the money worth the experience'. It's like buying a ticket to an amusement park.

>>15325036
No problem; the 42mm has absolutely helped the popularity of the brand.

Regarding the collared shirts; there was a year or so when I had them tailored so that the left cuff was larger than the right, so it can work.

That being said, I'm not convinced that a Panerai is a great watch to wear with a suit at all; it's a fun watch, something utilitarian in origin and obviously made for easy legibility and water resistance. The same argument could be made for the Seamaster, Submariner, or any other dive watch that has been co-opted by the 90's nouveux riches to create a situation where 'expensive watch can be worn in any setting and look good'. That is in the current fashion situation, especially in corporate areas, and although I personally enjoy seeing a simple time-only gold watch worn with a suit, I know that a dwindling % of people feel the same way.
It also comes down to the company you keep, the practical situations you are in, etc.

Granted, all of that is irrelevant if you're wearing the watch because you love it and don't give a shit what people think. If that's the case, get your left (or right, depending on if you get the Destro) cuff tailored to be wider, and go to town. It's your watch, so enjoy the fuck out of it.

One other thing about Chrono24 for watches. With Chrono24, use their escrow service; you'll be able to get your money back if there's a problem, but if you are an idiot and choose to wire the money directly to the seller's account, there's nothing you can do to get it back.

>sometimes something that is too good to be true is really just that. Look for average prices on all of these sites, and then you'll have a feel of what is crazy cheap and what is reasonable given the condition and current marketplace (i.e. if people are buying or not).

>>15143158
C"mon man...you have 4 divers watches in there...2 chronographs, both of them Hauers for some reason, 2 too-many Nomos and a Doxa that should remain in the Clive Cussler novels.

Diversify.

Keep the first Nomos, get rid of the Muhle, keep the Marinemaster, gert rid of the Protrek, get rid of the Hauere Careera, Get rid of the Nomos time zone shit,
Get rid of the Hauer,Doxa, and useless white-bread.

Instead, add
JLC Reverso, Rolex Day-Date, Grand Seiko whatever, Add in a Patek and a Breguet with differing complications depending on variety, and put in an independent like Journe to round it off.

For god's sake man, the world is smaller now than it used to be.

>>15116161
Because I'm already 4 cups in and at some point you begin to realize that people who complain about Panerais have never tried them on in real life, that people bitch and moan about Rolex without understanding that they're an industry leader in real-world performance for a mass produced watch, and that so many Anons would lose the urge to waste money on shit watches if they made enough money to buy good ones. That's the catch: that when you actually make enough money to save up and buy that Rolex/Omega/Vacheron that you end up thinking, 'why?'

Then you come to the conclusion that none of it matters, and that what you actually need to do if you ever ask the question of 'what watch should I buy?' is go into a fucking jewellry/watch boutique and try on a bunch of watches. Find what works on your wrist, what sings to you, and then budget and save for it. Get what you want, and stop asking people what THEY'd prefer.

We wear watches for status, for telling time, for mechanical precision, for history, for love, for tradition, for innovation, for everything that we are interested in. It's a fucking expensive hobby.

>>14909424
Regarding the engines; consider that there is a lot of swapping of engines and parts in the industry, even in the high end. Using an ETA in a movement, finished and regulated to COSC is justifiable for a higher price because of the labour. The extra couple of thousand tacked on is for the name and branding and 'exclusivity'. I agree with you that there are more man-hours put into creating in-house movements...but once they're designed and produced, it's 'mass production' once again. Rolex is a perfect example of this; no matter how in-house their movements are, it's mass produced. So...is it justifiable to pay for something mass-produced?

Regarding the JLC point, this is exactly what I'm talking about. The only reason no one cares about JLC movements in VCs is that the quality of the movement is high. But this is the point I'd make about the ETA and Valjoux movements. They haven't put a Valjoux into a Rolex in many years, and Omega has done away with the ETA as far as I'm aware. But they're both great movement companies producing COSC capable movements. That's tough to do, especially with ones that are self-winding. They'll never be 'beautiful' movements, nor will they ever be haute horology. They're massed produced so the plebs can afford an expensive watch that isn't too expensive and still feel good about it. Feelings are all that matter with luxury goods. That's why people buy tourbillons.

>>14909479
I love you too Anon. Now go and spend money on a luxury item you don't need. :)

>>14909501
The place I saw the most of these was in London UK. I've never seen more of them on business people riding the tube as I saw there on a daily basis. Pretty scary since I never see them elsewhere (must be the demographic and Bond connection). Reliable watch though; if you service it properly, it lasts a lifetime.

>>14909614
Impossible to calculate. You'll have a higher chance if you go vintage.

>>14909701
No prob Anon.

>>14534262
Back in the day, you absolutely had mechanicals for every working man. That, and the fact that parents would often gift their sons a first watch when they turned 18/21/first job/whatever. If the father died, the first-born son got the father's watch.

Watches truly were passed down, but if you needed a new one, 1 week's salary was all that was required. Today that seems somewhat ludicrous, but it's only because mechanical watches had no purpose when the quartz revolution occurred, so to restore perceived value to mechanicals, the industry marketed based on 'heritage', 'hand-craftsmanship', 'status', etc. The same con job that the diamond industry has been peddling since the crash before WWII.

>>13875283
To have a future excuse when spelling goes to shit, however tonight it was another Anon who mentioned not getting drunk alone. While I appreciate the sentiment, which is normally shared between friends, I did want to respond to him about it.

Normally I do try to talk about watches though, or at least questions that have plagued me and that I think are important enough in the general balances of horology to throw out to you guys. No matter what, I always learn something, and hopefully from discussion we all learn a little something too...though in truth I'm only a specialist in very specific watches, and even that I'm not as well researched as any of the watchmakers who occasion this board.

Why do you ask Anon? And/or, what are you drinking tonight?

>>13875290
No, I've never personally refinished a bracelet, and given what my Seamaster requires, I'd never choose to do it on my own. It's a pain in the ass. So, you've got the wrong McFly.

>The other...but this one was somehow more sentimental.