Reply With QuoteAccording to your criterion, I've not had one yet. Guess that means I'm not a WIS.
Best wishes,
Bob
Firstly I appreciate we all have different levels of what "expensive" is classed as, so for the purpose of this exercise I'm looking for what your first purchase over £500 was.
I don't know about you lot but when I started this insane hobby it started around the £50-£100 mark (good old Seiko divers!) but within a couple of months I'd gone for my first big spend (many sleepless nights I can tell you!) and bought a Sinn U1 from this very forum:
That one has long since gone, though this week it's been replaced and is the first watch I've sold and bought another one later.
That way the start of my true slide into spending far too much money on watches... so what was yours?
According to your criterion, I've not had one yet. Guess that means I'm not a WIS.
Best wishes,
Bob
As already mentioned in another thread, a blue "soo-80's" 16613 at the age of 17 (own money, worked hard for that one btw...). The watch that started it all.
I'm not as think as you drunk I am.
LOL, I wouldn't say that... but I would say well done for enjoying the hobby and not spend more than £500 on any single watch!!Originally Posted by rfrazier
So given that you've not spent more than £500 would you regard any of your watches as "expensive"?
Breitling Chronomat Evo from Oliver (Bricktop) only last summer and I still love it :)
Seamaster 2254 was mine, late 2004 think it was, paid about £800 for it new. Sadly long gone!
Although I already had an Air-King and a Speedy the first watch I paid over £500 for must have been my now sold Seamaster in 2001...
"I looked with pity not untinged with scorn upon these trivial-minded passers-by"
Actually, I made a mistake, due to a lapse of memory. Before I got into watches, I had an Omega Speedmaster, then a Rolex Date. So, those would be above 500 quid.LOL, I wouldn't say that... but I would say well done for enjoying the hobby and not spend more than £500 on any single watch!!
So given that you've not spent more than £500 would you regard any of your watches as "expensive"?
Since I've been into watches, nothing over 300 quid or so, and that was for a vintage 18k Girard-Perregaux.
Best wishes,
Bob
Sub ND - at the age of seventeen. Didn't work for it one bit
48 odd days offshore, came home with cash burning a hole in my pocket :lol: Only to find out about waiting lists :evil:
Jubilee was a recent addition.
The most I've paid for a watch at the point of purchase is about £350 and that was a used MkII Sea Fighter. If the MkII Kingston ever sees the light of day, that will be my first expensive watch.
Martin
As I suspect will be the case for a few people of my age group my first "expensive" watch was a Tag Heuer 2000 Series
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
That would be my Stowa Marine Original:
Last year I bought my second 'expensive' watch; my Omega Speedmaster Reduced. (both pics are my own)
The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Chronograph! Bought it 2,5 years ago, still have it. Not sure if I'm gonna hold onto it though... :|
I had managed to build up a few watches in a vintage Omega collection before I broke the £500 barrier. I miss those old days when a new and exciting piece was not going to break the budget.
To me, my first expensive watch was this black Monza (about £350 I think) and the Carrera re-issue was my first to go over £500. Since then, never looked back!
Zenith Rainbow Flyback
With a big lump in my throat and my pulse racing I wire transferred the 550 Euros for my first "big" watch buy, a MIIK Blackwater, which I cherished until the day I went and bought my Omega Planet Ocean chrono for more than 5 times as much, which I am now serisously considering selling to make way for a 116710LN.
Omega Seamaster, bought from Fattorini & Sons in 1987.
The retail price was £555. so it nicely falls into the £500+ category. :)
As you can see it has seen some action but is one of my favorites.
I'm just a very naughty boy.
Good deals with- VINSTINK, kevkojak, Optimum, Omegary, seikoking, acg, SPEEDY, kfman, Card Shark, wajhart, Jot, danboy, zenomega, gaz64, minke, Mal52, Alas, norfolkngood, Sparky, rdwiow, mrteatime, gravedodger, joeytheghost, lordoftheflies, Silver Hawk, Filterlab, brooksy, marmisto, Fray Bentos, Bootsy, Harvey69, Mantisgb, bristolboozer, Jedadiah, newtohorology, Zephod, jimm1, Draygo, Raptor.
I may have forgot one or two, apppologies.
Tag F1 Chronotimer. Got it for half price in a sale. Impulse buy when I was buying a birthday present for my girlfriend. Never thought it would lead to this madness....
I've never spent more than £500 so mine would have to be the Citizen 200m quartz diver given to me by my folks when I was 14. Think it was £150, and at that age that was a huge amount of money to me. The watch felt huge, and I felt SO grown up walking around with something that huge/valuable on my wrist. Looked like this:
SMP Chrono.
Thought it was the only watch I'd ever need (which was perhaps true, I don't 'need' all the others that have joined it since!)
Came from Beverbrooks on 3 years interest free and is still a mainstay of the collection 8 years on. Really should get it serviced and refinished, its looking well worn these days........
Pre owned Tag Aquagraph for me. Took a lot of soul searching to spend £1000.00 on a watch and I thought it would be the one and only time I would spend that kind of money.
I must admit I'd still struggle to exceed that limit but now £800 plus purchases don't seem to phase me as they would have done last year.
Mine was my Rolex 1655 - saved up like hell for it. £565 was over a months net salary in 1984, but I justified it as the last watch I'd ever buy (at least, that's what I thought at the time). When I finally got it, it wasn't the monetary cost that was the value, it was all the stuff I gave up to get it. Hence it stayed on my wrist ever since apart from an old Seiko Chrono which I used when the Explorer was away for service.
Now that it's semi-retired to dress & special occasions, it's not the monetary worth that makes it valuable to me, it's the memories of the stuff I did with it. Priceless.
Mike.
My first $500+ purchase was a pre-owned (for about 5 days) Mido Multifort Chrono, which I still own. :D
My first experience with flippers and had to ask around to find out if it was legit. Seemed rather a sales pitch to me "Only owned it less than a week, catch and release" :lol: Many here and elsewhere educated me as to the term "flipper" and I dove in and sent the paypal money. Never regretted it at all. Still had the plastic on the caseback, not a mark on it, and I got it for 35% of retail with stamped AD warranty and such!
Actually I got a vintage Longines from my dad when I was about 5-6 years old. Didn't appreciate it enough and wanted a Casio (like all my classmates). :lol:
When I was about 18 I bought this kind of Tudor Mini-Sub. Well it wasn't expensive, really... but it was my first "better watch".
Photo not mine.
+1. I remember collecting it from the guy. I paid in cash and as I watched him count out the notes I just thought "what the hell am I doing??" Paying so much for a watch did feel a little crazy and I was very 'wrist conscious' for a time
You suspect right, same for me.
Chris
The Seamaster Pro below was my first "serious" (and expensive) watch.
As others have mentioned I also experienced a "what have I done" couple of days after agreeing to buy this. But have completely recovered from that these days :D :roll:
Cheers,
Nigel
Remember mine well. 1990 (Sept). Just been made redundant from Barclays. Got my redundancy cheque banked, then went out on my last day with the other girls & boys and had quite a few beers. Ended up in Ernest Jones in Bristol and blew about £800 on a mid-size Tag.
I got home and my wife went ape s**t :blackeye: Kept the watch though, then sold it about 8 years later to one of my staff. Nice little watch, but recall the battery changes took forever and cost a bomb even then.
JLC Reverso Grand Taille was my first expensive watch, though it was a gift.
The first I bought myself was a Sinn 103 UTC. That was less than a year ago, and I've bought a few more "expensive" watches since. What am I doing?
me too for my 21st white faced 8)
needs a good service now tho :(
My first watch over £500 was a Tag Kirium cost me around £750, and is still the watch that i have kept the longest. Chopped it in for a Tag Senna.
Interesting that TAG seems to feature heavily... used to be a reasonable brand then I guess?
Here we go!
At least they don't all look the same! :D
Here we go!How do you mean?At least they don't all look the same! :D
still are imo, i wear this a lot and i really like it, very nicely made aswell :)
See that is nice... and they DO some nice models... my hangup is from when I grew up and every c0ck had a Tag and 9/10 times it was fake.... probably a bit like Rolex now come to think of it
My Stowa Airman, just flipped last week to pay for a '37
for me it was a tag heuer formula 1 chrono
For me it was a Breitling Colt for my 18th and been hooked ever since - dad to blame for that.
another for the Tag list (my beater now). Actually I think it was something like £450 but it was serious money in those days. Still keeps perfect time.
I'm just thinking about letting the Tag S/EL go if I can save up enough for my next watch.
Its been a roller-cosater ride ever since.
I just need more wrists!!! :D
After 10 years with a couple of Seiko 5s and Divers, I got a Fortis B42 Pilot Pro Chrono 2 years ago, new from an AD in Notts for a bit over £1k and since then have bought a Speedie Pro too. :drunken:
Crap! - I'm going to grow old very poor if that's the way things progress.....
That is lovely, definitely on my list of must buys one day (along with an IWC 3717) My first expensive purchase was an Omega Speedie day/date reduced in 2000 which I still have but never wear! I do find it hard to part with though!Zenith Rainbow Flyback
Sinn 103 St Sa for about £600, sold it about a year later as that £600 became more valuable than the watch!
Tag for me = Tenerife 1994 being hounded by the African lads on the beach to buy a fake :lol:
Exactly!!
Now when they were just Heuer... mmm, some lovely watches then :thumbup:
Tag, it's a Carrera Heure Remake from 1964.
The only watch i would never consider selling for sentimentel reasons.
Tag Aquaracer quartz. I still use it as a "beater" and sometimes when I go swimming.
Nothing wrong with it but I'd probably sell it if I hadn't bought it new. The price hit would be too big and I don't really need the money that bad. If I was there again, buying my first real watch, I'd buy automatic Aquaracer instead and not a silver dial one.
I've worn it mainly on a Hirsch blue shark and Railing straps as I'm no big fan of bracelets:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~pmm/temp/shark/IMG_0309.jpg
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~pmm/temp/railing_1.jpg
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