Expensive watches???

Ok I must be out of the loop as I never knew watches could cost so much however a recent event opened my eyes.......

I recently had a call on a burglary where a very upset man stated he had two watches stolen valued at over 28 thousand dollars. If I remember correct one was made by a maker known as Zenith and the other was said to be one of 28 made by a french maker called George Burgeois or something like that.

He showed me a few pics and registration of each watch and I was shocked to notice how very ordinary they actually looked. I was expecting to see a watch laced with diamonds and having some form of james bond laser beam attatchment but they had nothing like that...amazing to know watches can cost so much.

And to think I complained at buying a 50 dollar watch for duty wear when this poor man lost 2 watches valued at that kind of cash. I was curious as to what watches the members here have or have seen that cost this type of money.....also what is it that makes some ordinary looking watches cost so much anyway?....Is it the actual workings of the watch or the rarity of the item or maybe just the maker?

To say the least I was shocked however did feel bad for the victim as he really did seem to be an avid collector. I really never did know there were other high end wrist watches out there as I have only heard of the Rolex being on top.....according to this man the Rolex is cheap in comparison to several others....both in cost and function.

So any input on this topic and do we have any collectors of watches here with items of similiar value?.....just curious as this facinates me for some reason.

Sorry but I just remembered we have an area for watches....please move this thread if possible in order to get more input....sorry for the mistake

Do a google search for "complicated watches". Patek Philippe makes some extremely expensive watches ($50k+).

A friend of mine who has his finances in order collects watches. One day he brought over a small box with about half a dozen of the watches in his collection so I could check them out. The real saleable value of those watches was more than my 2000 square foot house. No BS.

Appearantly there is a reasonably active speculative market for watches at this level. If you buy the right watch and sit on it for a few years you can make good money selling it.

Robocop said:

I recently had a call on a burglary where a very upset man stated he had two watches stolen valued at over 28 thousand dollars. If I remember correct one was made by a maker known as Zenith and the other was said to be one of 28 made by a french maker called George Burgeois or something like that.

Click to expand...

Well, I suspect that you're mixing makers a bit. I'll try to explain.

Zenith was founded by Georges Favre-Jacot, who was one of the "greats" in the history of watchmaking. Aside from generally being credited with starting the Swiss watchmaking industry (Zenith was one of, if not the first, of the organized Swiss watch factories), he invented the Jacot Lathe, used to polish cone pivots used in watch escapements.

Was the second maker more like Abraham-Louis Breguet? Breguet was arguably the most gifted watchmaker to have ever lived. His innovations include the overcoil hairspring and the tourbillon escapement. An original Breguet watch (not the modern, reconstituted, no-connection-to-the-original-in-any-manner-whatsoever Breguet watch company) is a treasure, and highly valued.

Expensive watches are valued for their workmanship, complication, and rarity. The most valuable become so for what's under the hood, not the fancy paint job on the outside. Any hack jeweler can set diamonds - it takes a true craftsman to make a movement from scratch. That's where the value lies.

-=[ Grant ]=- (trained watch & clock-maker)

If you have any mechanical knowledge, get someone to open the back of your 50 dollar watch and open the back of something like a Zenith. A high end watch are some of the most wondrous little machines you will ever see. Its even more amazing when you realize that many are hand made. The 50 dollar watch is just a couple of stamped or molded parts.

Here, right on the front page of Timezone. Look at this and tell me this isn't cool. It should help you understand why these watches cost what they do.

http://www.timezone.com/library/rdnotebook/200702288556

Watch the video:

http://www.seikospringdrive.com/sonnerie/sound/index.html

Well, regarding stratospherically priced watches, there are some companies out there that produce such. There's one comany whose watch starts out at $500K! ! ! But I don't remember the name since I could not even pronounce it. . .

There was a patek that set a record at a recent auction. I believe it sold for over $8 million usd.

So a $20000 watch isn't all that crazy

Makes my Omega SMP Chrono seem like a dollar store special.

Regular folks think CPF'ers are crazy for buying 300 dollar flashlights. With expensive watches it's the same thing. See www.timezone.com for a CPF-like site about expensive watches. One of the most respected is the Philippe Dufour "Simplicty" --totally manual, no features at all, you have to wind it up and it has no calendar or anything like that, there's a 2-3 year wait to get them at around 30,000 dollars per. Every single part in it, all the tiny gears and screws and everything, each one is handmade. Some pics of it are here: http://www.ninanet.net/watches/others08/Mediums/mdufour.html

Holy smokes. The workmanship on that is outstanding!!!

Oh yeah, one of my favorite watch reviews of all time, Walt Odets classic piece on the Rolex Explorer which will show you why the some watch buffs think Rolexes are basically overpriced mass produced watches worn by poseurs:

http://www.timezone.com/library/horologium/horologium0036 part 1
http://www.timezone.com/library/horologium/horologium631675591245315012 part 2

Here is a little watch guide.
http://www.chronocentric.com/watches/brands.shtml

Rolex is sort of the Maglite or if I'm being generous the Surefire of watches. When you get into the Spy's, Nano's, PDs, etc you are at a whole 'nother level.

If you have high speed you gotta watch the video link of this watch. The pics are worth it too:
http://www.timezone.com/library/rdnotebook/200503149532

My dream watch ..... ok, it's not a Patek ..... but it's frikkin beautiful !!

I'm a poor, poor man. I love knives, flashlights and watches. My wife hates my hobbies. However, the most expensive watch I've acquired so far is "only" a $1000 Seiko automatic. *shrug* maybe someday when the kids are all grown up I'll get an Omega which is my "holy grail"

I appreciate all the links and I never really knew there were so many custom watches out there.....something about the inner workings facinate me and I really must avoid getting interested in another hobby as this flashlight thing has already broke me several times already...hehe

Oh I almost forgot.....I found my notes from the burglary and the two watches in question are made by the makers below
#1 is a Zenith El-Primero
#2 is a Roger Dubuis Sympathie listed as #7 out of 28 made

Holy smoke he was right as I just looked them up on line and it shows them at about 17 thousand and some change...amazing

This is a very bad thread. Dangerous. Temptation. Must resist.
Holy cow ... I didn't know how fascinating watches were ... oo:
bernie

I was asked to build a display case for a guy who had the watch bug, I built a 20 by 20 by 5 inch deep cherry box with some really nice figure for him. I had a lady I know do the interior in silk, we charged him like 1200 bucks for the case, to hold 16 watches, he immediately ordered 2 more.
I delivered the 2nd two cases, and he showed me the first one, filled up. His wife walked in, saw what I was looking at, and asked me if I liked what a million dollars looked like. I nearly wet myself.

I have noticed that as flashaholics most of us also share a general area of similiar things we like......kind of like most of like various gadgets and other EDC type stuff and it appears watches are no exception

I am not sure if it is the precision nature or maybe the complex design of the small custom parts but there is just something about a really nice watch that simply facinates me....I never really knew it until I began researching it further but it is intersting to me

The pictures show both sides of this super complication watch. Even you have close to a mil to spend, you still have to wait in line for at least 2 years!

I appreciate the stunning mechanical design of all these watches, as examples of the craft or as art, and I think are worth the money for that reason alone. However, as timekeeping devices a cheap electronically controlled and operated watch will be able to keep better time and for longer in most cases. If I wore a watch it would be something cheap, rugged, and accurate.