Extravagant Purchases...

bompington

MattC59 wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

I suppose some people would regard buying this as a display of extravagance.

http://www.officialwatches.co.uk/details.php?prodid=45

I would disagree.

My brother has this watch............ very nice, but a little rich for me.
Can't criticise though, I'm after an Omega Seamaster, which essentially does the same job as a £9.99 Casio

Oh come on, my casio only cost £6.99

guinea

I've bought a number of watches.

Panerai 111
Breitling Superocean
Maurice Lacroix Grand Guichet
Mountblanc Timewalker
Omega De Ville Chrono

I'm not going to total up the value. Too scary.

guinea

MattC59 wrote:

My brother has this watch............ very nice, but a little rich for me.
Can't criticise though, I'm after an Omega Seamaster, which essentially does the same job as a £9.99 Casio

Actually a proper* Seamaster will do a far worse job of timekeeping than any Quartz/Digital watch. None of my watches keep within 1min a week.

*where proper mean automatic or manual. Any watch costing more than £500 that runs on batteries is a fail watch IMO.

Pokerface

AidanR wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

AidanR wrote:

£73,500 (minus tax)

Nice!

--

Edit D'oh! Too slow.

There's no tax on prize winnings. Score.

Double nice.

I assume you play online? The guy who used to live in the flat above me makes a living doing it (!).

The show had nothing to do with poker and everything to do with bluffing. And general knowledge.

Pokerface

mrushton wrote:

Watches (various by Panerai/Rolex/IWC/JLC) are my achilles heel but I have calmed down for the moment. It got to the stage where I flew to Paris one Saturday to commission a watch-strap for the Panerai from a custom maker. it wasn't that expensive and the flight was only £70 but in terms of madness - expensive.

My two Serottas and the one my partner has altho' they were ex-demo. The list could go on into fashion, shoes (Berluti v.lovely and expensive) but I won't. suffice to say I was lacking something in my life and when I met her the extravagance stopped. However, I'll have to look at that Panerai again

ABP in Paris by any chance?

AidanR

Pokerface wrote:

AidanR wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

AidanR wrote:

£73,500 (minus tax)

Nice!

--

Edit D'oh! Too slow.

There's no tax on prize winnings. Score.

Double nice.

I assume you play online? The guy who used to live in the flat above me makes a living doing it (!).

The show had nothing to do with poker and everything to do with bluffing. And general knowledge.

How thoroughly misleading!

Radioactiveman

guinea wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

My brother has this watch............ very nice, but a little rich for me.
Can't criticise though, I'm after an Omega Seamaster, which essentially does the same job as a £9.99 Casio

Actually a proper* Seamaster will do a far worse job of timekeeping than any Quartz/Digital watch. None of my watches keep within 1min a week.

*where proper mean automatic or manual. Any watch costing more than £500 that runs on batteries is a fail watch IMO.

Friend of mine is a watch repairer and quite often comments that high end mechanical watches are just expensive bracelets. A cheap digital watch keeps time much better.

rolf_f

These bottle cages - £60 more than the Elites I'd planned on, no more functional but sooo much prettier!



And the Omega on the left - scariest Ebay purchase ever but it was a good one. Still, whilst expensive, so much cheaper than the crackpot priced, more superficial modern bling watches that it can't really count as terribly extravagent!

[/i]

Radioactiveman wrote:

Friend of mine is a watch repairer and quite often comments that high end mechanical watches are just expensive bracelets. A cheap digital watch keeps time much better.

I wouldn't take my watch to him then. If he can't appreciate the beauty of a really good quality movement then he is in the wrong business. Unless by watch repairer you mean replacer of watch batteries!

Pokerface

Radioactiveman wrote:

Friend of mine is a watch repairer and quite often comments that high end mechanical watches are just expensive bracelets. A cheap digital watch keeps time much better.

Indeed. Until the battery runs out. 8)

Radioactiveman

/Rolf F He repairs grandfather clocks,Omega,TAG,Rolex and all kinds of time pieces. ofc he appreciates the intricacy of the movements but as I said a cheap digital keeps better time and if you were to compare watches purely based on their timekeeping a digital wins

Unless they have invented a perpetual machine there will always be mechanical losses.

Some really expensive watches here as opposed to pocket change.

http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/expensive-watches

mrushton

Pokerface wrote:

mrushton wrote:

Watches (various by Panerai/Rolex/IWC/JLC) are my achilles heel but I have calmed down for the moment. It got to the stage where I flew to Paris one Saturday to commission a watch-strap for the Panerai from a custom maker. it wasn't that expensive and the flight was only £70 but in terms of madness - expensive.

My two Serottas and the one my partner has altho' they were ex-demo. The list could go on into fashion, shoes (Berluti v.lovely and expensive) but I won't. suffice to say I was lacking something in my life and when I met her the extravagance stopped. However, I'll have to look at that Panerai again

ABP in Paris by any chance?

No, they were shut when I got there :evil: but there was another one that I was going to and they did a splendid job.

Pokerface

mrushton wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

mrushton wrote:

Watches (various by Panerai/Rolex/IWC/JLC) are my achilles heel but I have calmed down for the moment. It got to the stage where I flew to Paris one Saturday to commission a watch-strap for the Panerai from a custom maker. it wasn't that expensive and the flight was only £70 but in terms of madness - expensive.

My two Serottas and the one my partner has altho' they were ex-demo. The list could go on into fashion, shoes (Berluti v.lovely and expensive) but I won't. suffice to say I was lacking something in my life and when I met her the extravagance stopped. However, I'll have to look at that Panerai again

ABP in Paris by any chance?

No, they were shut when I got there :evil: but there was another one that I was going to and they did a splendid job.

You're probably better off is I found ABP to be highly overrated and just a little bit crap.

Ben6899

Radioactiveman wrote:

Friend of mine is a watch repairer and quite often comments that high end mechanical watches are just expensive bracelets. A cheap digital watch keeps time much better.

True. My battery powered Tag Heuer Formula 1 keeps better time than the mechanical Monaco, but if I wear it every day (which I do) then there isn't a problem.

And it looks the dog's IMO.

ilm_zero7

simple rule - anything in carbon fibre is not an extravagance but a desirable essential

bexley5200

carbon fibers only plastic

rolf_f

Radioactiveman wrote:

/Rolf F He repairs grandfather clocks,Omega,TAG,Rolex and all kinds of time pieces. ofc he appreciates the intricacy of the movements but as I said a cheap digital keeps better time and if you were to compare watches purely based on their timekeeping a digital wins

Doesn't make a mechanical watch purely a bracelet though. After all, it isn't as though there is any useful benefit to the accuracy advantage of quartz movements. The meaningful advantages (for 99% of the population) of quartz are solely cheapness and durability and if you don't need those, the benefits aren't there.

antfly

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Ben6899

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

No batteries.

Radioactiveman

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Posing

Mad Roadie

Radioactiveman wrote:

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Posing

+1

Ben6899

Radioactiveman wrote:

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Posing

+1

I'm one of the biggest posers you'll ever meet.

milan_ns

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Awesomeness?

markyboy2005

guinea wrote:

I've bought a number of watches.

Panerai 111
Breitling Superocean
Maurice Lacroix Grand Guichet
Mountblanc Timewalker
Omega De Ville Chrono

I'm not going to total up the value. Too scary.

Nice, current collection for me:

Omega seamaster, Pro - co-axial
Heuer Monaco
Petek - nautilus
Omega DeVille

I see it as an investment - buy and sell second hand.

My bosses boss in HK makes more from trading watches than he makes in salary and he is one well paid dude.....

Wheelspinner

Back when I wore suits for work, nice ties were definitely a weakness.... I was packing up a few things from the wardrobe a while back, and did a rough sum of the cost of my tie collection... it ended up frighteningly close to a 5 figure number... :shock:

Half a dozen watches, including a couple of Seamasters...

Krell electronics (ask Nap D)

4 cars, 1 motorcycle and 5 bicycles is probably a teensy bit extravagant for one person too...

ex-pat scot

5 bikes.

You've not even started!

Don't start worrying until you're close to double figures

redjeepǃ

I've got a 1959 solid gold Rolex Prince, does that count as an extravagance?

rolf_f

antfly wrote:

What are the benefits of a mechanical watch?

Look at it the other way - my Omega cost about £350 I think - it has one of the best mechanical production movements ever made. Buy a new Omega and it will set you back at least £1000 and it will have a quartz movement. Generally, mechanical movements are better value for money just in terms of the workmanship - a new Omega with a mechanical movement will probably cost a couple of grand but at least you are getting something for your money; something hand made, carefully assembled, individually tested - not mass produced in China.

Quartz is fine for a cheap watch but basically wrong for a quality time piece!

Good example - Breitling make a bid deal about their supply of clocks for Bentley; all that masters of their trade crap. Apparently, the Breitling clocks in Bentleys are the same as the ones in VW Polos - the only difference is the printed face. Somewhat says it all......

guinea

I bought it to replace a Seiko kinetic that needed it's capacitor replaced for the 2nd time and I couldn't be bothered to pay it again. Never buy a Seiko Kinetic.

The first automatic watch I bought was a Breitling. I got it less than 1/2 price and got the strap changed free of charge to the latest model in Selfridges in London. I thought I'd bought the best watcvh in the world.

How surprised was I when after 1.5 years it started losing time. Apparently you need to service these things. Anyway it was still in warranty to it was serviced free. It came back looking and running beautifully. However, I started to research these things and learned a few facts.

1. Mechanical watches can run 42 seconds fast or slow a week and still be Chronometer Certified as being accurate.
2. Servicing costs run far higher than replacing batteries every 3 years.
3. Mechanical watches are beatifull and you can get addicted to watch porn
4. Like bikes the number of watched you should have is the number of watches you have +1
5. Like bike you can get very easily snobbish about brands. This is hugely stupid. I wouldn't ride shimano and i wouldn't wear a (new) rolex.
6. Very few of the watches you see have the internal movement made by the brand on the front. Of all my watches only the Omega has an in house movement. When you buy a Breitling, a Panerai, a Hublot, Tag, Ebel, Maurice Lacroix, Hamilton, etc you are probably getting an ETA or a Valjoux movement dressed up. Some of the manufacturers (including some listed) do both.

JonEdwards

Well buying a £12k BMW rather than a £5k Ford was probably one of the dafter ones, but the BMW just makes me smile so much when I sling it into a corner at some improbable speed and it just goes round.

£180 on a pair of RM Williams boots. That was 7 years ago though, and they still look mint (very carefully looked after) so they're actually quite good value.

Having 6 bikes when 2 would do... (one road/commuting effort, one MTB)

As far as watches go, I have a Christopher Ward, which looks near as dammit as good as something far more expensive and gets reviewed as being equal in quality to the usual Swiss brands. It's quartz rather than mechanical, but then I did need something I could abuse (water & shock) without it getting too upset, so the quartz thing is a neccessary evil.

Leesykoi

My 10yr old stainless steel Rolex Sub and the vintage (from year she was born) stainless steel Rolex Oyster for the missus.

We both wear them every day as our day to day watch's. Bought a Tag Monza a few years ago but never got away with it.

Lee.