What sells watches? This is the 20 billion Swiss franc question in today’s challenging economic climate.For at least part of the answer to what sells watches (and how to buy them in down markets), we can learn a lot from two of the steadiest performers in the watch industry.
Around the beginning of September every year something stirs me up inside: it’s the promise of amazement at the Goodwood Revival. All that nostalgia; the smells, the sights . . . the promise of greatness! Follow me on a tour of the 2016 Goodwood Revival.
Pierce Brosnan’s personal and professional timepieces have included big names like Rolex, Cartier, Omega, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Panerai, but also intriguingly Speake-Marin. What influence do the roles he plays have on his personal watch taste? Martin Green provides the answer.
The watch nerd that I am, I rarely immediately wear my new watches; I like to put them aside for a few days and let the anticipation grow. When the day finally came that it was time to wear my new Rolex, I took it out of the box and proudly put it on my wrist. And then horror struck. I didn’t feel anything, not a thing! Zilch, nada, niente! What to do?
So now that the dust has settled on the recent Phillips Start-Stop-Reset auction of stainless steel chronographs in Geneva, a sale that saw 100 percent of its 88 lots sold, I’d like to focus on a watch that I thought stood out from the very strong field.
Rolex has always been proud of the durability and longevity of its timepieces. And in an increasingly competitive market, the brand with the crown in its logo made a big move in 2015 to confirm its leading position with the new Rolex five-year guarantee. Here is some help with the most frequently asked questions I’ve encountered.
The last time I wrote here on Quill & Pad about my relationship with the world’s greatest mass luxury brand was last year when I explained ‘Why I’ve Never Owned a Rolex – And Why I Might Yet.’ Well, to know me is to know that if I say I “might yet” buy something it’s likely only a matter of time. So, too, with this Rolex: the GMT Master II BLNR “Batman” with black-and-blue bezel.
Phillips’ next thematic sale of wristwatches, which is scheduled to take place on May 14, 2016 in Geneva, is called Start-Stop-Reset. It is an unusual sale in that it only includes chronographs, and even more unusually, the auction exclusively comprises stainless steel chronographs
Please join our Quill & Pad round table discussion on Baselworld 2016. This time we take on some of the same topics that GaryG and his collector group use to the discuss their impressions of a watch fair: best of show, worst of show, watch you would buy with your own money, watch you would buy if money were no object, investment watch, patronage watch, fun watch, and a fantasy money no object watch.
It’s pretty interesting to us to find out what you like to read most, and we hope that it’s interesting for you to read, too – particularly at the end of the old year. For this reason, we bring you the top ten most-clicked posts of 2015 on Quill & Pad. Without further ado, here they are in no particular order.