OK, so you're a car guy...

[SoCalBlackbox]

I used to live in Beijing we would go to Silk Alley every weekend and buy watches which of course were copies. There were a lot of beautiful watches and if you knew what to look for you could get some really nice ones. I probably had 50 or so at one time but eventually gave them all away. I haven't wore a watch in years since I started using smartphones.

Rick

[fatmike]

I don't own a watch. No interest at all.

My cell phone tells time just fine.


/

[Tucker2]

Yep. Total vintage watch nerd. Particularly with Omegas. Latest is a '68 Omega Dynamic with a brown and grey face and original Omega band. Self high-five. Watches-to-buy-dot-com. Bad bad bad addiction feeder for those that love vintage watches. No affiliation.

[ekam]

Originally Posted by Tucker2

Yep. Total vintage watch nerd. Particularly with Omegas. Latest is a '68 Omega Dynamic with a brown and grey face and original Omega band. Self high-five. Watches-to-buy-dot-com. Bad bad bad addiction feeder for those that love vintage watches. No affiliation.

For me my grail Omegas would be the original Constellation (pie pan dial) and pre-moon Speedy Pro. Both are incredibly overpriced now due to high demand.

[cas951]

Originally Posted by fatmike

I don't own a watch. No interest at all.

My cell phone tells time just fine.


/

I'm with you on this one. I've rarely worn a watch ever since I started carrying a cell phone. I used to wear long sleeved dress shirt and use to hate wearing a watch since the long sleeve would always get caught on the watch.

However, I do own several watches and one I do cherish is the one that came with my car. I've ony used this once.

[OKCShooter]

Get a Sub and be done with it.

[Tucker2]

Originally Posted by OKCShooter

Get a Sub and be done with it.

Meh. Dunno. Have one. Never wear it. Do wear a Datejust quite a bit. Not sure why I like it more than the Sub. Still....oldie Omegas are the best/fun.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by OKCShooter

Get a Sub and be done with it.

+1 on the submariner

[Dgnarvs]

Love 'em watches. My mission is to get 1 of each brand that I like. Only mechanicals for me. I like my cars German and my watches Swiss!

Unfortunately, I stopped at 4...when I got my Box. Need to save up budget for possible repairs! The wife allows only 1 high maintenance hobby at a time!

[Top_Ramen]

Since you guys seem to be some watch gurus, do you guys have any suggestions for a decent durable watch under $400. I'm not too big on watches aside from a few g-shocks(I'm young.lol) and a vintage Seiko from Saudi Arabia from my father. I'm basically looking for something I can wear to the beach then wear to dinner afterwards and not feel stupid about having a plastic watch looking on my wrist.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by all_mota

Since you guys seem to be some watch gurus, do you guys have any suggestions for a decent durable watch under $400. I'm not too big on watches aside from a few g-shocks(I'm young.lol) and a vintage Seiko from Saudi Arabia from my father. I'm basically looking for something I can wear to the beach then wear to dinner afterwards and not feel stupid about having a plastic watch looking on my wrist.

Some pretty cool member here is making & selling those beauties. Your support would be appreciated!

Contact member MitchSF for a fellow boxster deal (I'm only guessing!)

http://www.ocean7watchco.com/store/

[Nine8Six]

there goes my watch



And this is what it looks/feels like when you crank it

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by all_mota

Since you guys seem to be some watch gurus, do you guys have any suggestions for a decent durable watch under $400. I'm not too big on watches aside from a few g-shocks(I'm young.lol) and a vintage Seiko from Saudi Arabia from my father. I'm basically looking for something I can wear to the beach then wear to dinner afterwards and not feel stupid about having a plastic watch looking on my wrist.

Here's the problem with that price point. Most watch brands (that advertise) are not going to sell you a movement (the heart of the watch) that is anything more than $5-$20 produced by the tens of hundreds of thousands unless you spend over a grand or so.

Yes, for $400, all the way up to $~1,000 like in the case of names like Tag Heuer, the big watch brands are selling you a 'throw away' quartz engine. Throw away meaning the cost to repair is easily greater than the cost to simply swap in a new battery powered movement. And no matter who makes the movement, the Swiss, Japan or China, it will never cost more than ~$20 make a quartz movement. Actually way less when you factor in mass production. Which means you are paying an insane mark up for the case, cheap glass, and bracelet. So don't spend a lot on these you're not getting much value. You're just paying for a ton of advertising and celebrity spokes models. But don't feel too bad, once you get into the higher end automatic movements (doesn't require a battery) then the mark ups become obscene. Take for instance the automatic chronograph seen on many $1,500 to $3,000 watches by nearly every mid to high end brand. That's probably $50-$150 "off the shelf" movement, meaning it wasn't produced in-house. They simpy ordered it from a supplier, put their own brand on it, made a few very minor decorative changes and presto.... $2,000 - $3,000 watch. That's the watch industry in a nutshell.

So if you're okay with wearing a quartz watch (the $5 movement) then I would simply suggest looking on the discount websites like Overstock and WorldofWatches (they have their own cable channel I think in Florida markets) and pick a watch with a decent warranty, typically the watches that say Swiss Made on the dial, that means that as a % of parts and labor a majority (but not all) was manufactured/assembled in Switzerland. If no country is listed on the dial then it means its made in China so be careful about overpaying more than you already are. Especially the quartz chronographs, even if Swiss Made it's most likely an ETA G10 movement which costs about $10-$20 to make which the brands use as justification to double, or triple the price of the watch yet they're not really using any better materials for the rest of watch like the case or glass.

Some of these Luminox (Swiss Made) are as cheap as $200-$300 and seem to fit an active person.

[Top_Ramen]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

Some pretty cool member here is making & selling those beauties. Your support would be appreciated!

Contact member MitchSF for a fellow boxster deal (I'm only guessing!)

http://www.ocean7watchco.com/store/

I checked out the site and going to be keeping this in mind thank you!

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Here's the problem with that price point. Most watch brands (that advertise) are not going to sell you a movement (the heart of the watch) that is anything more than $5-$20 produced by the tens of hundreds of thousands unless you spend over a grand or so.

Yes, for $400, all the way up to $~1,000 like in the case of names like Tag Heuer, the big watch brands are selling you a 'throw away' quartz engine. Throw away meaning the cost to repair is easily greater than the cost to simply swap in a new battery powered movement. And no matter who makes the movement, the Swiss, Japan or China, it will never cost more than ~$20 make a quartz movement. Actually way less when you factor in mass production. Which means you are paying an insane mark up for the case, cheap glass, and bracelet. So don't spend a lot on these you're not getting much value. You're just paying for a ton of advertising and celebrity spokes models. But don't feel too bad, once you get into the higher end automatic movements (doesn't require a battery) then the mark ups become obscene. Take for instance the automatic chronograph seen on many $1,500 to $3,000 watches by nearly every mid to high end brand. That's probably $50-$150 "off the shelf" movement, meaning it wasn't produced in-house. They simpy ordered it from a supplier, put their own brand on it, made a few very minor decorative changes and presto.... $2,000 - $3,000 watch. That's the watch industry in a nutshell.

So if you're okay with wearing a quartz watch (the $5 movement) then I would simply suggest looking on the discount websites like Overstock and WorldofWatches (they have their own cable channel I think in Florida markets) and pick a watch with a decent warranty, typically the watches that say Swiss Made on the dial, that means that as a % of parts and labor a majority (but not all) was manufactured/assembled in Switzerland. If no country is listed on the dial then it means its made in China so be careful about overpaying more than you already are. Especially the quartz chronographs, even if Swiss Made it's most likely an ETA G10 movement which costs about $10-$20 to make which the brands use as justification to double, or triple the price of the watch yet they're not really using any better materials for the rest of watch like the case or glass.

Some of these Luminox (Swiss Made) are as cheap as $200-$300 and seem to fit an active person.

Yeah an automatic is what Iwas looking around for. After having my father's old Seiko auto, the movement and the feel of it surpasses any quartz that's in my price range at the moment. I appreciate this input very much. I'll probably hold off on a watch until next year so I can find something I'm absolutely crazy about rather then just settling. I can't justify spending $2000 on a watch right now since that money is going into a new suspension for the box.lol

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by all_mota

I checked out the site and going to be keeping this in mind thank you!





Yeah an automatic is what Iwas looking around for. After having my father's old Seiko auto, the movement and the feel of it surpasses any quartz that's in my price range at the moment. I appreciate this input very much. I'll probably hold off on a watch until next year so I can find something I'm absolutely crazy about rather then just settling. I can't justify spending $2000 on a watch right now since that money is going into a new suspension for the box.lol

I can't justify spending $2,000 on an automatic $100 movement no matter how flush with cash I may be. And no way in hell can I justify spending $5,000 on a watch with essentially a $700 movement and parts no matter how good the resale. Watch branding imho has always been about 'status' but you don't really get the engineering (in most cases) to justify the luxury pricing. Most are simply made on a high tech assembly line just like the quartz watches, there's little old school workmanship like on a Franck Muller Tourbillon for instance or cutting-edge stuff like on this insane Dubuis with four balance wheels..

But I get the collectors, at least they are dealing with finite, hard to come by quantities. But the problem with collections is that the more you use the more you hurt the value of that collectible.

Invicta seems to be the only budget brand out there that will put a Swiss Made automatic movement into an inexpensive watch. It does the job for $200-$300, some of their watches are even COSC certified as far as keeping time but probably not worth the mark up for that seal. And I wouldn't put too much faith in the warranty of any automatic watch at that price point, so don't drop it.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by all_mota

Since you guys seem to be some watch gurus, do you guys have any suggestions for a decent durable watch under $400. I'm not too big on watches aside from a few g-shocks(I'm young.lol) and a vintage Seiko from Saudi Arabia from my father. I'm basically looking for something I can wear to the beach then wear to dinner afterwards and not feel stupid about having a plastic watch looking on my wrist.

Look at Invicta. You can get some great deals on shopnbc. They still have normal size watches. Too many places just have the ginormous oversized ones now

Invicta makes some really nice automatic models that are reasonable priced
A lot of them have sapphire crystals as well

I have Had a few for many years and they work great

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by JayG

Look at Invicta. You can get some great deals on shopnbc. They still have normal size watches. Too many places just have the ginormous oversized ones now

Invicta makes some really nice automatic models that are reasonable priced
A lot of them have sapphire crystals as well

I have Had a few for many years and they work great

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Steve0x, I have one of those Invicta Rolex "homage" watches too. It's an automatic with a Sellita movement (who supply ETA).
I think I paid $220 for it on that WorldofWatches site from Florida. It was a flawless beater watch. It keeps excellent time.
I also bought a Rotary Mecanique for like $200 from them as well. Pretty insane prces for Swiss made watches.
Just shows you how marked up all these watches are. It's worse than the mattress industry.

Some (most?) of the invictas are huge and gaudy, but some are very nice. I love mine.

Another one I would love to pick up if they ever come in stock is the maratac mid pilot watch. Very classy.



CountyComm - Maratac Pilot Automatic Watch

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by steved0x

Some (most?) of the invictas are huge and gaudy, but some are very nice. I love mine.

Most of their skews are for normal sized vanilla looking quartz watches. Those must be their most profitable items, the $80-$100 price point for watches that only cost a few bucks to make. Which is probably what the average watch-wearing person spends on a watch. Those 45+mm watches they sell probably get the most attention but it's really a niche market relative to total sales, probably because the average wrist is under 8 inches.
I tried finding a beater watch at one point and visited all the major retailers with watch departments. I was shocked at how poor the quality was for any watch below $100 given that this is the meat of the sales curve so to speak and these watch makers now have the manufacturing capability to produce greater durability. I ended buying a Timex chronograph from Sears and unsurprisingly it turned out to be of very poor quality. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" was long gone. For about $30 more, but still under $100, I bought the 40mm Invicta Pro Diver. Night and day. Those people at Invicta obviously spent some time in China sourcing the best possible materials that could still bear a profit at the bottom of the price ladder. I actually compared it to an 80's Rolex that my friend was wearing. Although the internals were obviously apples and oranges the case and bracelet were much better on the cheap Invicta. I guess manufacturing in China has really ramped up vs. what was available in Europe a few decades ago.

[Porsche Chick]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Most of their skews are for normal sized vanilla looking quartz watches.

It matters not at all, but it's SKU's, short for stock keeping unit. I've noticed how exact you are, so I wanted to throw that in. Plus show off that I know that arcane bit of info.

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Most of their skews are for normal sized vanilla looking quartz watches. Those must be their most profitable items, the $80-$100 price point for watches that only cost a few bucks to make. Which is probably what the average watch-wearing person spends on a watch. Those 45+mm watches they sell probably get the most attention but it's really a niche market relative to total sales, probably because the average wrist is under 8 inches.
I tried finding a beater watch at one point and visited all the major retailers with watch departments. I was shocked at how poor the quality was for any watch below $100 given that this is the meat of the sales curve so to speak and these watch makers now have the manufacturing capability to produce greater durability. I ended buying a Timex chronograph from Sears and unsurprisingly it turned out to be of very poor quality. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" was long gone. For about $30 more, but still under $100, I bought the 40mm Invicta Pro Diver. Night and day. Those people at Invicta obviously spent some time in China sourcing the best possible materials that could still bear a profit at the bottom of the price ladder. I actually compared it to an 80's Rolex that my friend was wearing. Although the internals were obviously apples and oranges the case and bracelet were much better on the cheap Invicta. I guess manufacturing in China has really ramped up vs. what was available in Europe a few decades ago.

I do love my pro diver. I have only ever seen one of their huge watches that fit the wearer and it was on a flight, and the guy across from me was in the military and probably was 250 lb of solid muscle. He had one of those giant Russian divers and it looked just right; everything else would have looked tiny on him.