Any Rolex Watch Experts?

[matt1978]

I guess everyone has a weakness for something.

Some people spend 1000's on sound systems or cameras, some people are always off on exotic travels and some people are in the pub every night.

In my eyes, that's what life is about, I don't get these miserly people who have money but have nothing exciting in their lives to spend it on. I'm not talking about people who are just about making ends meet, but people who have some spare cash at the end of every month but don't have any hobbies, interests or passions to enjoy.

Each to his own on whatever it is that motivates people to spend but I think it's nice that they have something to give them some motivation

 

[slim_boy_fat]

My current watch cost me £3 and still hits the top on the BBC bleeps...Can someone please explain why anyone pays hundreds of pounds for new seals on a watch so they can submerge hundreds of feet...is there an underwater society i dont know about where people hang out but need to know the time so they dont miss the last bus back up to the surface?...surely a water seal upto 10ft would be ample and cover most swimming pools

Aye, by which time you're into saturation diving depths - and you don't find a qualified sat diver under every stone you turn over......

 

[skotl]

Here's my answer, in multiple parts:

First off, as to the "why", especially when we all agree that a £5 digital watch is far more accurate - it's the sheer engineering involved, which I'm pretty sure most folks on here will get

The next bit is a tad personal and I'll not go into it too much on here, but I went through an immensely painful period that cost me a lot of heartache and a lot of money. I got some of the money back (and there was still a lot of personal pain in that process too, for me and someone in my family) and I said to my wife "I want to have something to show for this - something that I can look at and think that at least something was for me", so I put the money aside for a couple of years while I researched what I wanted. And I love it, and I'm proud of it.

As it happens, the watch I chose is not a common model and it's not yer gold and blue version (which is nice if you like it, but not my cup of tea). Net result is that I paid around £3.5k secondhand ~seven years ago and now it's worth around £5k. So turned out to be a decent investment, but most watches decrease in value so don't use my (lucky) experience as a barometer!

It's my luxury - it ain't flash (most people don't notice it) but I know what it is

 

[addjunkie]

ll

Don't wear it when out drinking and deciding to leapfrog parking meters!! It will fall off, be lost and you won't even notice until next morning and never see it again...... .......don't ask me how I know.....

I know this, my first one was lost over the side of a yacht, got caught on the rails, in the dark pulling the anchor up, probably still going if i knew where to look exactly.

@skotl has hit the reasoning on the head, my first was family tradition, I got it for my 21st from my grandmother. The next was post separation, at a loose end, always liked the model I bought, but could never justify the cash, walked into jewllers to buy my daughters xmas pressie, glanced in the used cabinet and it just winked at me and said. Yes youve always wanted me now get the bank card out. So I did. Was quite a turning point for me, do what you want, not whats expected. Paid 2500, 20 years ago, was a year old. Now worth about 5000.

Then the bad side in me wrapped it put it with the kids pressies for under the exs tree as i had to be there xmas morning. "to dad love Santa", lets say I wasnt offered lunch!

Its supposed to be water proof to 1000 feet, but my head would squash down there,but have tried it down to 60 meters, well it is a divers watch, but quite hard to read conpared to a modern computer.

As for sat divers, last one I met at work was wearing a white gold submariner. And last I looked bored in Heathrow they were 24 k.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Well apart from the real/fake/copy/clone Rolex I now possess but won't for long either way, I have a couple of nice (in my opinion) Seiko's and a Pulsar, I don't know about saturation diving but they have survived the shower a couple of times and that's the deepest I plan to go.

I have never really been into materialistic ownership of 'nice' things, no problem with other's enjoying what they want to but it's just not me, happy with what I have.

 

[Wedg1e]

I don't generally wear a watch but if I needed to I could choose between the Seiko wife no.2 bought me in the late 90s, the Skagen that Nursy bought me or the Casio my mother bought me for my 16th in 1980...! I think the Casio's on its third battery..

 

[rtbcomp]

I wear mine when I go out on trips, which considering my phone, tablet and camera can all tell me the time it seems a bit daft.

For the record it's a ServiceS watch, c1960 given to me by my grandad for passing my 11 plus.

 

[wookie]

I wear mine when I go out on trips, which considering my phone, tablet and camera can all tell me the time it seems a bit daft.

For the record it's a ServiceS watch, c1960 given to me by my grandad for passing my 11 plus.

So you wear it for sentimental reasons, nowt wrong with that

Me, I have a Storm watch that I spotted on holiday years ago and I just liked it, so I treated myself, that reminds me I need to replace the battery as it's stopped again.

 

[rtbcomp]

I keep it for sentimental reasons, I wear it because it tells me the time; so much more convenient to glance at my wrist than to fiddle around with the phone &c.

 

[bump]

I wear A Storm watch on a daily basis. It's not a pricey watch at all.

Without it my wrist just doesn't feel right, think It's just a used to the weight sort of thing.

 

[Coo]

When you actually start looking at watches....Rolex can actually be fairly inexpensive....no one calls them "cheap"

Good find though, hope it's what its meant to be

 

[Gritineye]

Went on a tour of Turkey a few years ago, a visit to a super posh (ripoff) watch outlet was included, luckily I was wearing a £5 Casio, one look and the swarm of sales staff went off looking for easier pray :-)

 

[rory1]

I never realised that there would be so many Rolex wearing mig welders! The hourly rates where you boys live must be cracking!

 

[Shox Dr]

Some 28yrs ago while on honeymoon we took a cruise from Cyprus to see the Pyramids, when we got to Port Said, we were mobbed with people trying to sell us fake watches. I noticed that if you took the watch off the guy to look, it was next to impossible to get him to take it back. I managed to get by the first few, but the next guy wasnt letting me past... so I said to him. 'You look with your eyes not your hands' and with that he shouted something and it was like the parting of the waves, not one more bothered us

I can only think, he shouted 'dont bother he's from Yorkshire .

I've had a Citizen Ti Ecodrive for the last 25yrs, hardly losses time, and never stops. Spends all its days on the window sill in the bedroom, unless I put a shirt on.

Always liked some of the Longines

 

[addjunkie]

I never realised that there would be so many Rolex wearing mig welders! The hourly rates where you boys live must be cracking!

They were dodging bullets, machete wearing johnny foerigner and the deadly mosquitos. Not to forget the sucicide taxi drivers and the dodgey dusky maidens whos sole purpose in life was to fleece you in the after glow.

 

[Rocketman]

Here's my answer, in multiple parts:

First off, as to the "why", especially when we all agree that a £5 digital watch is far more accurate - it's the sheer engineering involved, which I'm pretty sure most folks on here will get

The next bit is a tad personal and I'll not go into it too much on here, but I went through an immensely painful period that cost me a lot of heartache and a lot of money. I got some of the money back (and there was still a lot of personal pain in that process too, for me and someone in my family) and I said to my wife "I want to have something to show for this - something that I can look at and think that at least something was for me", so I put the money aside for a couple of years while I researched what I wanted. And I love it, and I'm proud of it.

As it happens, the watch I chose is not a common model and it's not yer gold and blue version (which is nice if you like it, but not my cup of tea). Net result is that I paid around £3.5k secondhand ~seven years ago and now it's worth around £5k. So turned out to be a decent investment, but most watches decrease in value so don't use my (lucky) experience as a barometer!

It's my luxury - it ain't flash (most people don't notice it) but I know what it is

Why would a £5 digital watch be far more accurate?? My g-shock isn't as accurate as my 20 year old omega, there some pretty good reasons for that not least the omega is a chronometer. We are talking on the omega when it was new about 2 seconds a year out, 20 years on it's not quite that good but still better than my g-shock.

 

[skotl]

Some 28yrs ago while on honeymoon we took a cruise from Cyprus to see the Pyramids, when we got to Port Said, we were mobbed with people trying to sell us fake watches. I noticed that if you took the watch off the guy to look, it was next to impossible to get him to take it back. I managed to get by the first few, but the next guy wasnt letting me past... so I said to him. 'You look with your eyes not your hands' and with that he shouted something and it was like the parting of the waves, not one more bothered us

I can only think, he shouted 'dont bother he's from Yorkshire .

I'd had a Citizen Ti Ecodrive for the last 25yrs, hardly losses time, and never stops. Spends all its days on the window sill in the bedroom, unless I put a shirt on.

Always liked some of the Longines

Boy at work spent $30 on a fake Rolex in Dubai. Three months later he complains (and yes, he's a yorkshireman) "ee, tha gold's coming off me rolex". This was met with much hilarity - "it's not gold, and it's not a rolex!"

 

[Shox Dr]

Why would a £5 digital watch be far more accurate?? My g-shock isn't as accurate as my 20 year old omega, there some pretty good reasons for that not least the omega is a chronometer. We are talking on the omega when it was new about 2 seconds a year out, 20 years on it's not quite that good but still better than my g-shock.

My understanding of a 'Chronograph' is it keeps a set time, it may well be 59.999 sec to the minute, but it keeps that whatever the conditions. A 'Watch' can vary +/- whatever.

 

[skotl]

My understanding of a 'Chronograph' is it keeps a set time, it may well be 59.999 sec to the minute, but it keeps that whatever the conditions. A 'Watch' can vary +/- whatever.

What you want is a COSC Certified Chronometer. Every Swiss watch that claims to be a chronometer must be calibrated and have its individual certificate of calibration with it - these papers add 25% to the value of the watch.

Each movement is individually tested for 14 days and nights, in 5 positions and at 3 temperatures. Each movement is individually measured. To earn the title of 'chronometer' a watch must meet the criteria in ISO 3159. Any watch with the denomination "chronometer" is provided with a certified movement.

That obviously pushes the price up somewhat

Edit: and the article points out that a chronograph is effectively a mechanical timer (like a stopwatch) as distinct from a certified chronometer.

 

[addjunkie]

A chronograph is also really obsolete now as its main function was to calculate longtitude, when navigating. Now a 99 quid gps does that..better than any man with a watch, compas and sextant