I have purchased four Rolex Submariners. Three I bought "used" but near new. I wore each one daily and never had any problems. The sapphire crystals are VERY hard to scratch and desk diving marks can be polished out by a skilled jeweler.

I kept the first three until their value exceeded my ability to control my impulse to make a profit-then sold each and then bought the next one for a bit less than I sold the previous one.

I have the last one in the safe, still love it, but think it is worth just about 4k +/- and will sell it off before too long.

I have a Tag, a Swiss Army Diver, a G-Shock, a Luminox and another Diver-all with sapphire crystals and I wear them a week or so each, then rotate.

I also have a bunch of 40s-60s Bulovas, Hamiltons and others (autos and manuals) which I sell off from time to time (some on our Classifeds here). I used to rotate them at the Office before retiring, but my outdoor lifestyle (rain and shooting) can be hard on them, so they reside in the safe.

I love wrist watches and find that they are far more convenient than a cell phone for time. It takes just a split second to see the time when driving or doing some task and that's a lot quicker and more convenient than unholstering my cell to see the time.

Bob

I have worn a watch since a teenager and began in aviation.I was rough on them,knocking off crystals or banging them up-none lasted long.I bought a fairly good chronometer in the USAF and it was always in the shop.I then discovered Timex at $9.95 and threw them away after a year.When I became a medical resident and had a few dollars my brother in law brought me a Rolex GMT Master (1968) for $165.00.
Later I bought a Gold and Steel GMT Master for $775 and even though I used them scuba diving I got a Submariner for $440.In all these years I have been unable to destroy them no matter what.All were refurbished up to brand new condition after years of use for $400 to 600 each.When I periodically check the prices on the previously owned market I wish I had put most of my savins in good watches!
Then don't require recharging, winding or new batteries and never leaked to 120 foot depth.They go and do everything with me.

First good watch I had was a Bulova Accutron that was wonderful. Gave it to my brother. Got a little rectangular gold Seiko... picked it up after stopping some gents from breaking into my car. They were in a hurry when they ran. Still have the watch. Bought a Seiko diving watch in 1990. It has had three batteries. It keeps absolutely perfect time. Wearing it right now. Excellent watch. Bought a Seiko Chronograph last year. Found it, in of all places, at Belks on sale. It was on a rack with some necklaces. The box was missing. Paid $71 plus tax. Didn't know boxes were so expensive!!! Very good watch. Well worth the money. Would not want to do without a good wrist watch.

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I guess the same internal workings of my brain that love blue steel and gunleather also appreciate a fine Swiss Automatic watch. I am enthralled with these mechanical watches that require no batteries.

The well dressed and armed gentleman must wear a quality timepiece on his wrist!

An IWC Mark XVI works for me.

The wristwatch isn't endangered around here. I wear 'em and enjoy the convenience.

I wore dress watches to the office, frequently this Longines.



I still wear this Omega Constellation.


I enjoyed this classic IWC but it stopped on me a while back. Need to get it tended to.




This Glycine military watch is my hunting/shooting watch. It is the most accurate mechanical watch I have.

Does Rolex make anything other than the cases? Years ago I was told by a factory authorized Rolex watch repairman that Rolex works were subbed out and he mentioned a couple companies that used the same sub contractors for their internals. He may have been blowing smoke but I've always been curious.

He was blowing smoke, Rolex makes everything in house as do most top tier watch manufactures like Jaeger LeCoultre, A. Lange & Söhne and others.

The Tudor, Rolex's low end brand, uses ETA movements and may outsource other parts, but any Rolex guy will tell you a Tudor is not a Rolex. ETA sells movements world wide and is part of the Swatch Group. Swatch is a large conglomerate that also owns Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines, Hamilton, and Tissot to name a few.

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

They are making more really fine watches today than ever before. Unfortunately I can't afford any of 'em! Fifty years ago, when hardly anyone but professional pilots and CIA agents knew what they were, I wanted a Rolex. Now, they're too commonplace. I'd take a Ball Engineer though. I wear a watch all the time...have since I was about 8 years old. I have a couple of good Seikos, but the one I wear everyday is a very plain Luminox I found on sale at Cabelas for $69. I really like the tritium gas tubes for visibility at night.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Always worn a watch starting with Timex. When my employer of 12 years eliminated my position, I had saved enough to by my dream watch, a Rolex Submariner.

This is not a bling watch but a practical dive/wet watch and I used to dive/fish a lot. I've worn it everyday since '98 and never had it serviced, doesn't owe me a dime and if I needed some cash or decided to sell it I'd be ahead of the game.

The beautiful dress Movado museum watch the bride bought me gets a new battery every year and is worn maybe once or twice.

I know orange is the last color you can visually
acertain at depth, I never go beyond that depth.
I usually dive at five, with still spectrum colors.

Mike- Could be. I stopped wearing one when I retired. I don't like being reminded of how little time I have left.

Got a Patek Phillipe on 42nd St for 25 bucks.

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Sure you did

Like many here, I appreciate and enjoy a fine wristwatch. Due to the very modest working class family I was fortunate enough to be raised in, having something nice wasn't in the picture. Shortly after I married my wife of now 33 years, my Father-In-Law died much too young at 57. Ed was a Senior VP at Movado in New York City and I inherited several of his watches. A couple of Movados, but his Omega DeVille is the watch I wore daily for the next 25 or so years. A few years ago when I had a good year at work on stock options, I splurged on myself (one and only time in life so far) and bought an Omega Planet Ocean, which I now wear daily. Sure quartz watches are more accurate, but in the world I live in it doesn't really matter if it's 6:13 or 6:14, so I'm certain I will always opt for a fine mechanical watch.

Isn't it grand that a fine mechanical timepiece doesn't need a battery?

+1 for the earlier comment on the Omega. Great watch...gota love it.

When I purchased my Skyhawk, the only question was "to titanium or not to titanium?" In the 1970's I had a poster from the recently-opened and nearby USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson. On that poster was the XB-70, one of the meanest-looking monsters every to grace any military prototyping program. (To this day, when I go to the museum I spend significant time just standing under the XB-70 and admiring it.) It was made of titanium, which at the time might as well have been called "unobtainium". Now I wear a watch made of the same metal, boosting my personal "coolness coefficient" much closer to a perfect 1.0.

I had a business interview with a potential client a couple years ago. The man with whom I was chatting noticed the Skyhawk and then removed his watch to show me an identical model. Well, it only looked identical until I picked it up. It was significantly heavier because his was made of stainless steel. I handed him mine and he was shocked at the weight difference.

Titanium is like a miracle metal. You can't possibly hurt it with sweat, that's for sure.

I have worn a wristwatch since my folks gave me a Timex around 50 years ago. I have never had a Rolex or Omega or other ultra expensive watch but I would like to have one if someone wanted to give me one...not bloody likely! Since I am retired from public service and have a daughter at university, its rather unlikely that I will ever have such a toy. My best watch is a Citizen Eco Drive Skyhawk that my wife gave me a few years ago. It has kept time perfectly. I don't really use the other features on it. MY wife picked it out because she thought I would like all the dials and etc on it. I have another Eco Drive and a Timex Expedition.

I don't feel fully dressed without a watch. I never think to look at my cell phone for the time. I rarely need to be anywhere at a specific time anymore. I guess I am a geezer now and set in my ways. I always wear a hat or cap when I go out. I don't have any tattoos or ear jewelry. I wouldn't get caught dead out wearing flipflops or old sweats in public. My father was career military and I learned that a man had a shave and a haircut and wore watch when he was properly attired...

I haven't seen anyone mention Suunto sport watches. I first heard of them a few years back after talking with a special forces major on his way back from the Afgan theater. He was wearing a Suunto Vector which has time, baromoter, altimiter, compass etc. Made in Finland, not cheap but not to expensive ($200 up). Great for working out, running, range, and excellent for hiking in altitude to calculate vertical distance. Fairly indestructible if you replace the battery AND gasket. Kind of large, so hope you better like a big display.

With rare exception, I have not worn a watch in the 4 years since I retired. l "lived by the clock" for almost 40 years and was tired of it. I have a good Seiko that I got in Long Binh back in 69, but it seems heavy. I now have a Timex that I wear when I fly so I know "how much longer till we get there?"

I wear a Seiko Chronograph 7t32-7f09 that my wife purchased for me almost 13 years ago. Battery, seals and crystal replaced by Golden Isles in Ga. and she runs just like the day I acquired it.I have a Timex Indiglo as a back up. I feel naked without a watch and because of my job I need one with a second hand

Some here might remember the genius of Frank Zappa.Some how he used a wrist watch as a measuring device.

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Dum vivo cano

1984 Rolex Datejust two tone. Probably the most copied design ever. No one looks at it twice. No one thinks that it is really gold, but I know.

Regards,

Tam 3

My old faithful just back from a service. Good tool watch for sure, something about wearing a watch has always worked for me. Omega would be my #1 choice but this one suits me fine......

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Within a couple of days of starting to carry a cell phone with me, I chucked the wrist watch and never looked back. I wonder how many pounds of carry, dollars of gear replacement, and pointless "Look at mine" contests I've spared myself. Anyhow, only time you'll catch me with one of the things is when I'm on an airplane, which is an event of decreasing frequency.

Hmmm. That reminds me. There is a Seadweller somewhere in the sand on the bottom of the ocean by that sunken Russian destroyer off the west coast of Cayman Brac. I remember helping the owner look for it. (No luck.) He might have gone back later with an UW metal detector, but at that time there were none on the island.

This fellow was from NY, diving with his son. Kind of loud and overbearing on the way out. After the "Rollei" was lost, he was a lot quieter on the boat ride back. I always enjoy telling owners like that guy, "That's a nice Rollei!" - just to act interested. (I know a Rolex is a watch and Rollei was a camera.)

I am taking the alternative approach compared to you folks who use cellphones in place of your watch. Someday I hope to ditch the cellphone, rather than the wristwatch - or maybe both.

All my metal watches have long since been retired, since no one knows how to work on them at less than new replacement cost. I have been getting along nicely with the $30-a-copy all plastic Timex Ironman Triathlon series. Compared to a steel watch, they're so light you hardly know you have one on.

"Within a couple of days of starting to carry a cell phone with me"


There's my problem, I can go for months without even turning my cell phone on. I have friends who are constantly on them, or have them in their hand. I can see why they wouldn't need a watch.

I wore a watch daily for many years, depending on my job at the time. When I worked with chemicals and machinery, they were a poor idea at best, and a dangerous one at worst. When I wore a suit to the office in my years as a Financial Advisor, the watch was a status symbol. I still have a 30 year old Seiko my parents gave me, but it is no longer stylish, and I haven't worn it in years. I have an old and apparently fairly valuable (no idea how much, jewelry told me to be careful with it...may mean $50 for all I know) that looked "old-school" and kept excellent time when I remembered to wind it.

My problem now is that running restaurants for a living, I'm constantly in water, blood, oil, you name it. No reason to carry one either, got clocks on every wall of the kitchen I think!

I appreciate the beauty of a nice watch, just like a nice handgun.

Nowadays, I do some hiking, and I am thinking about a Suunto. Certainly no thing of beauty, but dang functional.

I'd rather have a few handguns than a Rolex now, used to think I'd like one though.

The Highlander

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I hope I copied that right

I have no Rolex. I have an Omega and a TAG. But I like my Accutrons best. A Railroad Approved 214 and Spaceview 214.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Got a nice gold plated wrist watch when I retired from Ma Bell in 1988. Never have worn it except to attend class reunions & funerals. Battery is dead & can stay that way. Punched the time clock too many times. Besides the only time I need a watch is half hour before sunrise, that's when the shooting starts.

I've got an all stainless version of the same watch. I bought it in the NX at Subic Bay in 1972 for $190.00. I've worn it almost every day since. Great watch with classic looks and zero "bling"

Jeff