Pimpernel Smith
Tone Deaf Daddy
- Messages
- 10,809
The dial is busy, but in keeping with the railroad style.I didn't know this one: very interesting. Honestly I find the dial too busy, but the case shape is just perfect.
Wish I had bought that 4 or 5 years ago now. If I remember right it was about €1400, well worth it and would be in my watch rotation today.
The buzz word was an ''exit watch'' awhile back. That one watch which you'll buy and sport for all seasons and make all others redundant. Well, if you like watches, one watch will never be enough.Some men have just one piece, no matter cheap or expensive, others love to build a collection. Of course wealthy people can afford more expensive watches, but you can be happy also with mid-range ones. Some collectors are more interested in vintage, others wear only new time-keepers. Furthermore there are guys who continuously buy and sell their pieces and others who never or hardly separate from their jewels. Some are looking for the "final" watch, the coronation of a collection, others like to have several pieces to alternate and to match with different outfits and show in different occasions. I think that every strategy is respectable, as long as it makes one happy.
Most wealthy people I know are not into watches at all, or bespoke suits, shirts or shoes. All these things are minority sports. They all have expensive luxury cars mind you.
There comes a time, when dress and heritage military watches are the way to go. You can turn up at four weddings and funeral without the bling factor.I enjoy choice, also in a rotation items last longer.I also wouldn't want to wear a dive watch to a funeral.
Italians are a great watch owning nation.In Italy a popular and appreciated brand Eberhard is almost unknown elsewhere. I have this Extra-Fort Grande Date with a peculiar cream-rose dial:
View attachment 37415
Back in the day, it was a big status symbol in my industry to have a Rolex. It was a sign you had worked abroad in the Middle East on top dollar tax free and had paid off your mortgage. It became a caricature of contractors chasing the money and quickly went out of vogue.waiting on it to be shipped. hopefully the new one will work
maybe, maybe not. maybe the idea of having three or four $400 watches is more appealing than having one $1200 watch. some people like variety.
i know we like to be aspirational on this forum, and god knows we need it sometimes, but not everyone has the means to be able to do so. i'd like a fucking rolex. i dont have $10k sitting around to be able to buy one.
The Daytona thing is still around. One of my business associates bought one about 2 years ago, to celebrate how great business was doing. One of the new ones and yes, it looks magnificent. But you can't wear that at street level here in the Netherlands, you start flashing that around in The Hague or in Amsterdam and you will get robbed. You don't want a watch you have to hide.
The Daytona is a bit like the Porsche thing: middle aged dudes buy one, for several months it gives them a buzz and they flip it, realising this was not the answer they were looking for.
Chronomaster in the UK, often has very good priced El Primero Rainbow Flybacks, but I am reliably informed in the early 2000's the QC and movements were not good. So be careful when buying second hand.I have an Eterna, which could be or definitely was a competitor to Zenith and Omega. I would happily get a Zenith if priced right. Do I want to join the drug dealers with their Omega's and Rolex's?
Not really. I would prefer an AP, JLC, Breguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, or Girard-Perregaux. But then I would have to give up the high class hookers and drugs. Okay, Deliveroo and vacations in Croatia.
In the 2000's my Kazakh colleagues all wore Longines. It intrigued me, as they were all connected and part of the elite of their country and I thought they would all be wearing Rolex and above. Eventually, I found out that after the fall of the Soviet Union the first Western watch brand in was Longines and that had a big cache amongst the elite of Kazakhstan and remained so.
For me, if I see someone wearing a watch I'm interested in, I will speak to that person. That could be in a lift, in a break from a meeting or in a bar, or whatever. People like that by the way.