I 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…
Annually?! It is recommended to service your Rolex approximately every 10 years depending on the model and real-life usage. https://www.rolex.com/watch-care-and-service/faq.html#:~:tex... .
The modern movements are a lot more robust. It wouldn't surprise me if a 50-year old watch had 1 year as the recommended service interval.
What is the allure of these things? They keep worse time that an ntp synced phone, have no internet connectivity and few features. It’s all conspicuous consumption, right? If you know, you know — a way to signal wealth without being too brazen.
The best are engineering marvels and last generations. Art with a practical purpose.
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…
https://richardheart.com/ Are you for real? You look like someone straight out of central casting for the next ponzi scheme docu-series on Netflix.
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…
That's great! Do you have a favourite? Do you store them or wear them? What's your daily driver?
To a much lesser extent (financially!) I was a bit of a sneakerhead. I still have unworn pairs but recently I've made a thing of wearing everything I own (because life is short!). But man, I horded! So curious about your collection though!
> it would not be something I would want to do without someone skilled in the craft. I mean how is that different than any other hobby? I've never made a watch but I forage for mushrooms, and you wouldn't want to do that without being skilled in the craft either. It's pretty much the same for any hobby; the whole point of having a hobby is to become skilled at some esoteric thing.
I would assume one could become skilled at mushroom foraging much, much faster and with much, much less tooling than creating a watch movement.
Sure, but anyone with 500k to buy a watch can surely afford to buy the tools.
I would assume one could become skilled at mushroom foraging much, much faster and with much, much less tooling than creating a watch movement.
Sure, but anyone with 500k to buy a watch can surely afford to buy the tools.
ok, sure they could? I don't get your point. The entry point to buy a mechanical watch isn't $500k USD. I have a 1860s mechanical pocket watch that I purchased for $60.
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 came into collecting modest watches around 2010. There was certainly a renewed interest in mechanical watches at the time, a lot of it being driven by things like MaleFashionAdvice on Reddit. I believe MFA had a significant hand in rescuing Seiko from obscurity with the SNK809 and SKX007. Old Seiko mechanical chronographs like the 6139 could be had readily for less than a thousand dollars. I had a beautifully resto…
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…
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…
That's great! Do you have a favourite? Do you store them or wear them? What's your daily driver? To a much lesser extent (financially!) I was a bit of a sneakerhead. I still have unworn pairs but recently I've made a thing of wearing everything I own (because life is short!). But man, I horded! So curious about your collection though!
My daily would be the ROLEX rose gold SARU full diamond bracelet and dial. Like collecting keyboards, once you find your end game, you really don't want to go back to anything else much. So thought I've got 26 watches or so, I really only want to wear the best of them usually. I veer from that if I'm wearing a unique color clothes, like leopard print or green, then I might switch to one of those watches. So the answer I guess is mostly storage. I embrace the idea that owning things should be fun, so wearing them is totally in the game. That being said, I don't actually use them to tell time, so I don't bother winding them anymore, they're just jewelry to me, and sometimes I'll wear one on each arm. This makes watch enthusiasts very angry. I strip away the complexity and show that it's really all just flexing, and our phones all do a better job telling time :)