The essence of classicism- Classic watch discussion thread!

[DukeGrad]

My friend
omega anything, less than Rolex and same quality.
The seamaster or speedmaster
Most of the watches are made by swatch except rolex and omega
As well as Patek and IWC.
Over the past 20 years luxury watches have made some changes, they outsource their movement or something else.
So do your research
The seiko grand is a gorgeous watch but up there
Let me point out some german watches that do not get the shine so to say
Glashutte germany is where the watch industry began. A lang sonne is one fine maker, expensive but you can get vintage which is my recommendation, after ww 1 and before ww2.
IWc is the first swiss watch that is a great buy as well
The above 2 are made where they state, and the mechanics are made in house. New prices out of town, but look.
other german include Sinn, jorg schauer who does stowa. and muehle glashutte, these are made as well As rolex or any other.
Glasgutte original senator is a great reachable watch. In the same house UNION gkashutte is made a nice price made. By a great company
Look at Nomos a nice priced watch1200-3000 dollars, nomos is a nice steal made in house as well as the mechanics.
A watch that feels and looks like a rolex is Steinhart nuce swim or flight model
imo german are suoreme ti any swiss and a big market for the vintage ones i mentuoned

Good luck
Jim

[Trouthunter]

Since you are considering Patek, how about jumping to one of the silkiest auto movements in the industry - IWC. Styles from dress to sport, you choose. IMHO some of the best out there. Pics to follow...

[Trouthunter]

[SubmarinerLV]

Since you are considering Patek, how about jumping to one of the silkiest auto movements in the industry - IWC. Styles from dress to sport, you choose. IMHO some of the best out there. Pics to follow...

This particular thread is just general thoughts and musings, I merely picked 5 watches to try and get some discussion going! As far as IWC goes I am a massive fan particularly of their pilots watches!

Regards Grant

[DukeGrad]

Gentlemen

I agree the IWC pilots is a beuaty.
Again, check out vintage IWC for Henry Moser and cie. He was the originator of IWC, his company became IWC. He did nice, old pilot and ilitary watches through Laco, and himself.
Henry Moser was a supreme watchmaker who started he industry.
To advoid cost, look at the vintage.

Again, if piolot, military look at Sinn/Muehle Glashutte/Jorg Schauer all very nice watches.
Stowa again, an old German watch run by J Schauer is a nice piece, and cheap.
It depends what your price point is??

Understand, not many of the luxury watches are made like they used to be.
For instance, Glashutte is made in Glashutte, the watch, and the mechanicss as well.
Swatch makes for about 80 percent now.
A lot of the high end have cut costs by doing this.

Good luck.

Again, there are a lot of cheap watches that are great out there.( Steinhart) for some reason has upset the Rolex and Omega crowds for his well, solid steel watches. For about 500-600 bucks.

Have nice weekend my friends
Jimmy
Have nice day

[little Big feather]

Steinhart is just a 'Branded' watch....They make nothing...They buy cases and dials and mvnts. and they even have another company put it together.
Not any diff. than Invicta, except Steinhart only uses Swiss parts...Or so they say.There are companies who 'make' watches and there are companies
that 'sell' watches.....Do not confuse the two. Some even 'make' a few and then buy other components from other makers and then 'sell' as their own.
By the way...Most of the Rolex and Omega crowed think of pianos when you say Steinhart.....not watches.

[The Knize]

Re no watch with black tie, far more often than not, when I am in black tie it is more business than pleasure, so am not likely to be in a psychological state where I have no care of the time. So I am pretty likely to be wearing a watch in violation of what I know to be the rule, unless it is a wedding reception or the like. Charity affairs count toward the business end for me!

I suspect the rule against watches and black tie goes back to when a watch was a pocket watch. I do not know what that tells me because I sure would not wear a pocket watch with a black tie waistcoat. I assume a pocket watch should always have a proper chain, and I do not think that is going to work with black tie to my eye.

Maybe a cell phone is the modern equivalent of a pocket watch!

I agree that a guy probably needs at least two wrist watches--one more formal than the other. But pretty much wear anything with a suit on a day to day basis. For a really important event, I would tend to wear something more formal.

My watches modern and vintage are not all that expensive. I would say that each has a rather classic appearance though.

[Doc4]

Re no watch with black tie, far more often than not, when I am in black tie it is more business than pleasure, so am not likely to be in a psychological state where I have no care of the time. So I am pretty likely to be wearing a watch in violation of what I know to be the rule, unless it is a wedding reception or the like. Charity affairs count toward the business end for me!

Maybe a cell phone is the modern equivalent of a pocket watch!

Your "I still need a watch if I'm still 'working' at the event" I think hits at the heart of the 'rule' against watches with a tux. But since, as you rightly note, that suit-&-work vs. tux-&-play dichotomy can't always work ...

I'd say the wristwatch with a tux is a pretty low-level faux pas as long as the watch is the right sort. (Black leather strap, white face, restrained hour markings or numbers, no extra dials or display functions, as small & thin as you can manage.)



Cellphone? Well, just not on the hip!!

[moshulu]

A classic watch is a gentleman's watch. So it should be modest, elegant, understated. Its simplicity should be of the kind that comes from self-confidence, and can only be obtained at significant expense. Thus the watch should be expensive, but not overpriced. It should stand out from commonplace watches, but not in a vulgar, flashy way.

[Face&Head]

I'm a IWC fan as well and I think the Portuguese, in Chronograph or not, is a very versatile choice.

[moshulu]

I'm a IWC fan as well and I think the Portuguese, in Chronograph or not, is a very versatile choice.

The Portuguese comes in many varieties. This is the one that, for me, best embodies the classical style:



My only quarrel with these watches is their excessive (and, alas, trendy) size (42mm). Unless he has a truly giant wrist, a gentleman's watch should be no bigger than about 37mm. It's too bad that the price of these watches is well above $10,000. With luck and perseverance, the Mark XII (discontinued in 1999) can be had for a small fraction of that amount.