A discussion with fellow collectors that is bound to elicit interesting responses is two-tone watches. People tend to either love them or hate them. The lovers consider them the perfect mix between a sporty looking watch and a dress watch. People who don’t care for them may think of them as a weak compromise at best. What do you think?
Let’s be honest: nobody needs a high-end mechanical watch. That we want one is based on the different levels of how a particular watch appeals to our emotions. And in the heat of passion, we sometimes tend to forget that, as in any normal industry, companies sometimes cease to exist for a panoply of reasons. What should you consider if you own, or would still like to own, a watch made by a now-defunct brand?
If there is one complicated element that has been in a whirlwind (pun intended) of developments, it has been the tourbillon. And while tourbillons are still fairly expensive, you don’t have to spend $100,000 anymore, as many brands now have great offerings for even a third of that amount.
A once-in-a-lifetime conference for lovers of military and navigational watches is set to take place in London on October 21, 2017. Setting the perfect scene for this day conference, the venue is the beautiful ‘HQS Wellington,’ an ex-Royal Navy ship moored on the Thames in central London. Click to find out more!
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.
The date: January 13, 2012. The place: Glashütte, Germany, where one of my best friends had arranged for the two of us to visit A. Lange & Söhne. The vision: my friend extended his arm from the sleeve of his shirt, and what I saw left me reeling – my first view of the Lange Datograph Perpetual in white gold. I was confident from that very moment that this was a watch for me, but pursuit of the piece took four long years.
How many years before we even start to recognize what the most popular timekeeping devices over the last 70 years were? Another 20 years? Forty? Who will use timekeepers? And for what purposes? What will they look like? I posed these questions to a few top watch industry professionals; their replies were perhaps surprising.
Like many collectors, I’ve bought and sold a number of watches at auction over the years. So with the autumn watch auctions nearly here, and me being a systematic type of guy, I’ve taken the time to analyze my philosophy of auction bidding. Here I share some of the tactics I use with the hope that some may be useful to you in your own bidding.
Wouldn’t it be splendid to have everything your heart desired? Well, it’s a nice fantasy but it’s not going to happen for me. And besides, I’m not so sure that the experience of “selling to buy” isn’t actually a significant part, albeit a bittersweet one, of the collecting experience.
Quill & Pad’s resident retail expert John Keil has just launched WatchGauge, an interesting new online retail venture that is worth bringing to your attention. The aim of WatchGauge is to help the consumer wade through the crowded and sometimes murky waters of the emerging micro brand scene.