I've got $8M of watches. Their utility to me is just to brag about them. Which is funny, because I'm only met with downvotes whenever I do :). But therein lies the rub. At a distance, people hate, but up close, they love. It's a perceived distance to cooperation. There's ingroup profit in hate at a distance. But when you can join a better in group, or add a new asset to the one you're in, it turns to love. Thus, I co…
I feel sorry for you.
The frenzied world of rare watches
101–110 of 145 posts
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spot on. Bond wearing a Submariner with a tuxedo woumd be like showing up to a black tie event wearing a Casio G Shock today.
so funny you say that. I wear a g shock with my tux.
And you probably shouldn't. Great watch, but inappropriate with a suit or tux.
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: built for a purpose, I think a lot of folks today just see Rolex as a luxury brand, but when Sean Connery walked out of the waves in Dr No wearing a Rolex, it was because it was precisely the sort of robust, fault-tolerant timepiece a super-spy WOULD wear. Moreover, back then, they weren't NEARLY so expensive. Rolex's prices have drastically outpaced inflation FOR SURE. I had thought I'd buy a Subbie, too, but ev…
That watch was pure product placement, you can see the sequence here: https://timeandtidewatches.com/the-complete-list-of-bond-wat...
It was not product placement as we think of it today, i.e. paid product placement; sometimes filmmakers use products that the character would use without any other motivation, in order to add depth to the character. (Aston Martin didn't pay them, either.)
In 1962, pretty much the only watch that someone in Bond's role would have worn was a Rolex -- the whole idea of a waterproof dive watch was pretty novel at the time, since Rolex invented the idea in the 50s, and was already associated with intrepid adventurous types after Hillary wore one on Everest (again, because pretty much nothing else was up to the task).
I believe the Bond wore it Dr No on a NATO (nylon) strap, not leather; it's definitely a NATO in some of the later films, but shifts to the iconic bracelet eventually (e.g., certainly by the time Roger Moore wore one with an absurd magnet and unbelievable spinning saw in Live and Let Die a decade later).
Anyway, that site isn't a great reference. It's got some things wrong. The traditional story about the watch in that film is that they got to the beach scene without a watch for Connery, or without a proper one, and the scene was shot with Cubby Broccoli's watch to get at least the right brand in the shot. That story has been printed and repeated a shitload of times, but all the principals are long dead so I have no idea if it's been verified properly in recent times. (In Googling for references for this reply, I saw a new version of the story, which is that the watch was Connery's own; I've never read that before.)
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#104I wore exclusively mechanical watches for most of my life, starting with a Rolex I inherited from my dad in the mid-80s. When he bought it, Rolex wasn't yet as insanely upmarket as they've become. It was kind of the obvious token of upper-middle-class success of the era. Dad's is the two-tone DateJust on what Rolex calls a "Jubilee" bracelet, and you've seen the color scheme and overall look on a million knock-off Ci…
Opposite for me. I don’t like wearing a watch in the evening, and I always forgot to charge the Apple Watch because it would be by the sink where I prepped dinner or somewhere. I never have to worry about charging my mechanical. I wear a brand that people obsessed with watches that appreciate don’t care about (so they lose value) but are mechanically “perfect.” Not a status symbol, I don’t have to worry about wearing…
Why do you take it off when prepping dinner?
And yeah, I kinda miss the never-care-about-power aspects of my mechanicals, but holy cow the AW is so useful I don't really see myself going back full time.
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: built for a purpose, I think a lot of folks today just see Rolex as a luxury brand, but when Sean Connery walked out of the waves in Dr No wearing a Rolex, it was because it was precisely the sort of robust, fault-tolerant timepiece a super-spy WOULD wear. Moreover, back then, they weren't NEARLY so expensive. Rolex's prices have drastically outpaced inflation FOR SURE. I had thought I'd buy a Subbie, too, but ev…
Spot on. Bond wearing a Submariner with a tuxedo woumd be like showing up to a black tie event wearing a Casio G Shock today.
And kind of a "tell", in-story, that he was not some posh twat.
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#106No post body was provided.
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Opposite for me. I don’t like wearing a watch in the evening, and I always forgot to charge the Apple Watch because it would be by the sink where I prepped dinner or somewhere. I never have to worry about charging my mechanical. I wear a brand that people obsessed with watches that appreciate don’t care about (so they lose value) but are mechanically “perfect.” Not a status symbol, I don’t have to worry about wearing…
Have to chime in with my agreement here. As an engineer, to me the beauty of the mechanical watch lies in its embodiment of "form follows function". I read this entire article as I find the horology and the hobbyists fascinating, but my passion is strictly that of an engineer for his tool. I like robust, well made tools by companies that value craftsmanship and longevity. Status, collectability and such are superfluo…
The tension now in mechanical watches between craftsmanship/longevity/utility and status/collect-ability is weird, and distorts the market a little.
Rolex used to be a utility watch, not a luxury watch. That's clearly changed a LOT, even to the point that I occasionally hear people say silly things about babying them (e.g., not going in the water in one, which is crazy).
Omega was less inflated when I bought my Brosnan-era "Bond" Seamaster (2531.80) back in the late 90s (and fairly so; 90s-era Seamasters have ETA movements, but Rolex is in-house, and this matters to Watch People). It was less than two grand at the time, for a crazy-robust watch I can do anything in and wear anywhere. Now the Bond thing has inflated the value of Seamasters INSANELY so they, too, are out of reach for most people.
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#108Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Opposite for me. I don’t like wearing a watch in the evening, and I always forgot to charge the Apple Watch because it would be by the sink where I prepped dinner or somewhere. I never have to worry about charging my mechanical. I wear a brand that people obsessed with watches that appreciate don’t care about (so they lose value) but are mechanically “perfect.” Not a status symbol, I don’t have to worry about wearing…
Why do you take it off when prepping dinner? And yeah, I kinda miss the never-care-about-power aspects of my mechanicals, but holy cow the AW is so useful I don't really see myself going back full time.
I don't want anything getting in the band
Re: The frenzied world of rare watches
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Opposite for me. I don’t like wearing a watch in the evening, and I always forgot to charge the Apple Watch because it would be by the sink where I prepped dinner or somewhere. I never have to worry about charging my mechanical. I wear a brand that people obsessed with watches that appreciate don’t care about (so they lose value) but are mechanically “perfect.” Not a status symbol, I don’t have to worry about wearing…
Have to chime in with my agreement here. As an engineer, to me the beauty of the mechanical watch lies in its embodiment of "form follows function". I read this entire article as I find the horology and the hobbyists fascinating, but my passion is strictly that of an engineer for his tool. I like robust, well made tools by companies that value craftsmanship and longevity. Status, collectability and such are superfluo…
I completely agree, and as something I want to pass on to my kids and grandkids, I wanted something made with the utmost attention to detail and quality. Honestly, the story about this watch will probably come from being around for 50-100 years after I'm gone, it's got a mechanical gong alarm that sounds like the "class is over" bell from the 80s. The second I heard that I was sold. So I spent my first signing bonus on it... not super inspiring, this isn't the watch from pulp fiction