The Watch Appreciation Thread - Part two (Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre,

[culverwood]

The red Reverso is a beauty. Everything a Reverso should be.

 

[Winot]



Next to my Grande GMT:

How have you got on with the Grande as a GMT watch? I currently have a Reverso Grande Ultra Thin and a Nomos Tangente GMT and am thinking about selling them both and buying a Grande Reverso Ultra Thin Duoface for my business GMT 'needs'.

 

[mimo]

to further egg mimo on...

144, 756, 856, 900*, 6099...all look good as indestructible GMT watches. Prices vary a lot though; I'll wait. I just wish I could see them somewhere in person.

And then there's that whole Navitimer thing...903...who needs a GMT anyway?

Ugh. This fascination is mind-bending.

*Big...maybe that counts as "try hard" in the @Belligero book. But I love the look of it on a bracelet.

 

[HEPennypacker]



How have you got on with the Grande as a GMT watch? I currently have a Reverso Grande Ultra Thin and a Nomos Tangente GMT and am thinking about selling them both and buying a Grande Reverso Ultra Thin Duoface for my business GMT 'needs'.

Go for it! I love the Duoface. Especially the limited edition blue one. Mine has been an excellent watch. It's basically two watches in one: When I'm in my home time, I typically use the white side at work and the black side in more casual settings. When traveling, I typically set the black side to the current time zone and leave the white side on my home time. While it's simple enough to add/subtract in my head, sometimes (for instance, when jetlagged), it's easier just to flip the watch over.

Having now experienced the ultra thin line, I would probably get the Duoface if I were starting over today. But I like the complications and 8-day power reserve in my Grande GMT, so I will probably keep it.

 

[usctrojans31]



I've been looking into sinn lately after reading the thread. I really like the look of the watch, kind of weird there seems to be only 1 US ad as far as I can tell.

Yes, distribution is essentially naught. Same with Dornblüth

 

[tigerpac]

Quote:
I'm sure you guys have seen this but just for anybody who hasn't http://www.watchbuys.com/store/pc/WatchBuys-Road-Shows-d35.htm

 

[Dachshund]

And today as I'm walking through first class I see two different Hublot Chronographs. One a fairly sedate steel looking Classic Fusion model and one a giant gold and ceramic Big Bang monstrosity.

Saw a beautiful Zeitwerk in the wild a little while back, on the wrist of an entrepreneur hosting a breakfast seminar. I doubt many people in the room recognised it. Same dude apparently left a similar valued watch in the bathroom in First on a flight a while back. Shudder to think.

 

[Dino944]

A few questions I'm pondering over for future purchases:

Nautilus vs RO
If nautilus, 3700 vs 3800 vs 5800 vs 5711?
If RO, 5402 vs 15202 vs 14790?

First you have to decide which you prefer. I like both, but if I could only do one, the RO is my favorite of the two. I prefer the RO the case and bezel shape, and it started the entire genre of steel luxury sports watches. Both are very distinctive pieces and you can't go wrong with either.

As for which model, the 14790, 3800, 5800 and are all smaller versions of the RO and Nautilus. Not sure if you have a small wrist and would find those more comfortable. However, all of the watches are pieces you should try on to decide what fits you best.

The 5402 and 3700 are the original Jumbo Royal Oak and Jumbo Nautilus. They are the most historically significant watches of the bunch. They share the same base movement (developed by JLC...but only ever used by AP, PP, and VC). Neither have a seconds hand, and both have solid steel case backs (rather than the display if that matters to you). Not sure what your budget is but these 2 would cost substantially more than a 15202 or 5711, and sometimes on 35-40 year old watches, condition (possibly worn links ...there are no new bracelet links available for the 5402) may make them less ideal if you were thinking about making them a daily wearer.

The 15202 and 5711 are the spiritual successors to the original RO and Nautilus. A few changes have happened over the years, the 15202 has a dark blue dial (rather than so sort of dark gray dial, a dark blue date wheel rather than white, a display back, its bracelet is just slightly thicker, and it has a more robust clasp. The Nautilus stopped using the same base movement as Patek many years ago, the 5711 has a second hand, it has a display back, and like the RO it also has a more robust clasp. The Nautilus does have greater water resistance 120m vs 50 m, but I'd never use mine in the water so that was irrelevant to me.

I went with the 15202 as was my favorite design for a long time, and I've used it as a daily wearer for several years. I also know people who wear their Nautilus every day. Either way, you can't go wrong they are both great watches. Let us know which you eventually choose.

 

[Kaplan]

Some watch shop pics from Bruxelles, about a week ago:

their windows:

And from another shop:

What I wore for the trip:

Mk XV on a brown IWC Spitfire strap (by Camille Fournet, according to my AD).

 

[troika]

Quote:
I went to one of these a few months back in SF, super friendly staff who let me try on everything I could....

 

[cchen]



First you have to decide which you prefer.  I like both, but if I could only do one, the RO is my favorite of the two.  I prefer the RO the case and bezel shape, and it started the entire genre of steel luxury sports watches.   Both are very distinctive pieces and you can't go wrong with either.

As for which model, the 14790, 3800, 5800 and are all smaller versions of the RO and Nautilus.  Not sure if you have a small wrist and would find those more comfortable.  However, all of the watches are pieces you should try on to decide what fits you best.

The 5402 and 3700 are the original Jumbo Royal Oak and Jumbo Nautilus.  They are the most historically significant watches of the bunch.  They share the same base movement (developed by JLC...but only ever used by AP, PP, and VC).  Neither have a seconds hand, and both have solid steel case backs (rather than the display if that matters to you).  Not sure what your budget is but these 2 would cost substantially more than a 15202 or 5711, and sometimes on 35-40 year old watches, condition (possibly worn links ...there are no new bracelet links available for the 5402) may make them less ideal if you were thinking about making them a daily wearer.  

The 15202 and 5711 are the spiritual successors to the original RO and Nautilus.  A few changes have happened over the years, the 15202 has a dark blue dial (rather than so sort of dark gray dial, a dark blue date wheel rather than white, a display back, its bracelet is just slightly thicker, and it has a more robust clasp.  The Nautilus stopped using the same base movement as Patek many years ago, the 5711 has a second hand, it has a display back, and like the RO it also has a more robust clasp. The Nautilus does have greater water resistance 120m vs 50 m, but I'd never use mine in the water so that was irrelevant to me.  

I went with the 15202 as was my favorite design for a long time, and I've used it as a daily wearer for several years.  I also know people who wear their Nautilus every day.  Either way, you can't go wrong they are both great watches.  Let us know which you eventually choose. 

Thanks for this! Yes I do have a smaller wrist which is why I was considering the smaller and less pricey variants. I have tried on all of them. The smaller ones are fine, though the jumbo and 5711 are also not too large on my wrist. I'm concerned more about the servicing costs of the older models and have been looking for examples in good condition that have been serviced. 5402's and 3700's are skyrocketing in price so seems like by the time I'm ready to buy they are more than I'd like to spend. The 5800 is almost never available and costs the same as a new 5711 so probably isn't a consideration.

 

[tigerpac]

^Also, be mindful of service history if you go with one of the older pieces. Also, service prices can be more in the future on the older pieces.

 

[Dino944]

Thanks for this! Yes I do have a smaller wrist which is why I was considering the smaller and less pricey variants. I have tried on all of them. The smaller ones are fine, though the jumbo and 5711 are also not too large on my wrist. I'm concerned more about the servicing costs of the older models and have been looking for examples in good condition that have been serviced. 5402's and 3700's are skyrocketing in price so seems like by the time I'm ready to buy they are more than I'd like to spend. The 5800 is almost never available and costs the same as a new 5711 so probably isn't a consideration.

As Tiger suggested, on older pieces you can run into some expensive service costs. A friend of mine bought a used 3800 and after a little over a year of ownership he sold it. It had been someone's daily wearer for 20+ years and he had noticed it was not keeping good time and it seemed to have issues with it maintaining or accruing a power reserve when worn. He brought it to the Stern Agency in NYC, and they told him it would be about $4,000 to service it. They needed a full overhaul and a new gold rotor (the gold rotor was nearly $2,800). They said over time wear and tear and taken its toll on the part where the rotor attached to the movement and that was causing it to wobble and not efficiently or effectively provide power to the movement. He asked about just doing either the service or replacing the rotor, however, they said if he did not do both, they would not warranty the work that was done as they stated it needed both to be completed. It sort of soured him on the ownership experience and then he sold it.

So it makes sense to always buy the best example you can, with a service history, so you don't run into unexpected expenditures.

 

[Keith T]

$4 grand !? Ouch.

Very expensive lesson.

 

[roomiller]

Hodinkee is seemingly revealing a collab watch tonight. I never actually read the site unless I'm linked to it but it's still very troubling that one of the more popular publications and tastemakers in the this hobby of ours continues to create conflicts of interest for themselves.

In other news, the fiance and I are going to go do some tire-kicking this week or weekend. Thinking I want to try a BLNR, pepsi 16710, AP 15400(this will be a bit of a stretch), and then the above chatter has me wanting to try a Reverso Duoface as a complete change of pace. Probably do a little bit more window shopping, but those are the one's that really intrigue me. Anything else in this price range you gentlemen of excellent taste think I should look into?