An Accutron 666 twin crown diver is on my wish list but it'll be a while before I have the spare cash to buy one (£250-£300). Is this a grail or just a watch I want?
Its your grail and therefore qualifies :wink:
Mine is still the Omega SMP, Omega's original Bond offering, although the watches I now own are more expensive and have more complicated movements than the SMP.
Money is not the issue, it's the love factor for me :wink:
Good hunting 8)
Only you know that.
Grailexpensive.
Money has nothing to do with it. It's a grail, not a trophy for who can spend the most :)
If you love it, want it, don't need to justify it or feel the need to explain it to anyone, it's a grail :)
Expensive is relative - grails do not necessarily have to cost a fortune.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I've always understood grails to be something that takes effort to attain whether that's financial or maybe it's scarce and takes research to get. Or perhaps for some it can be a cheap casio that has some personal/ sentimental value.
A grail would have to be difficult to attain for the individual. Usually this is due to cost but could also be to rarity/availability of the watch, for example.
I see a grail as something difficult to obtain for whatever reason. For me it's the Ball EMII TMT. Last time I checked there were two on eBay so I could get one without any effort at all. Getting one for what I think it's worth is a different challenge.....
Completely beat me to it. :lol:Originally Posted by Robinson
I think a grail is unobtainable.
Cost is only one consideration.
I have a wish list of a few pieces I might be able afford (one day)
but I can't buy for one reason or another.
One is a £50 G10 - too many other nice watches in the box.
The other is a £5,000 vintage Monaco = too nice to wear.
I had one these when I first joined the forum and the only thing that replaced it was a spring drive so yes, it's a grail.
john
THIN is the new BLACK
The 120 f300 is a grail too.
john
THIN is the new BLACK
A Grail need not be expensive; but if it's something desirable and hard to find, and a lot of other people also want it, then it may well be, in absolute or relative terms. For example, the CWC "Fat Case" Navigator - a G10 with a date window - was built only in 1980-83, and there are few of them around, especially in good condition, and for collectors of military watches, they are therefore about as hard to find as Rolex MilSubs. A CWC is generally a £50-£70 watch, but the last time a CWC Navigator of this sort surfaced it went for (IIRC) £210.
Expensive - in relative terms, certainly - at three times the price of an ordinary non-date model; in absolute terms, certainly not. You could buy 300 of them (except that there probably are not 300 survivors) for the price of a MilSub. Mind you, if you did, the price of any still in circulation might go up a bit...
My grail watch used to be a G-shock. However, as so as I get one I seen to find another Grail, usually double the price, and so it goes on, now lusting after a 666 SeaDweller!
i have more than one which were grails, there are many and varied reasons why they are a grail, to me when it arrives it ceases to become a grail
Sadly also true for me although fortunately some of the old feeling remains.Managed to get Prs20 LE but still longing for Omega 30t2 chronometer,ah well !!!
A grail is a want, sometimes rare, sometimes expensive, often both but it doesn't have to be either
But it's a pleasure to finally realise
Mark
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Often they are but definitely not a requirement. Just be happy with your grail, and if an inexpensive watch does that for you than you're lucky I think.
Expensive grails also have this countereffet: If you paid so much or even sacrificed for it then the chance of being dissapointed or scared it gets damaged is also there...
To me, a "true" grail would have to have one of these qualities (not necessarily all together, at the same time)
1. Be a significant model, something that stands out for at least one quality that puts it above others
2. Expensive, therefore requiring some some saving to be able to afford one, for the average Joe
3. Rare/Very rare model, out of production, that only pops up from time to time (especially in good condition)
Now yours has a bit of all 3 qualities.
1, because it's a desirable movement that's now discountinued (3) as well as being quite expensive.
BTW, I think you'll be lucky to find one in really good condition at your target price, been looking for less rarer Accutron once upon a time and it's really hard to find decent ones.
I really love this one:
Exactly!
And the problem is that after getting the grail (no matter if its a car, watch or a girl) its no longer a grail or even interesting :)
My grail is a new Calatrava. Has to be new.
So in my case the grail watch is expensive but to own a Patek is something to aspire to. IMHO
No... this used to be my Grail...
I think I don't have one right now.
Cost has nothing to do with it for me. It's just a piece that you strive for, whether you're saving up the money, or searching for something very rare, but cheap.
No of course not. If you have to ask is it a grail? The answer has to be no, it is not.
I think it's important a grail isn't too expensive, as it has to be achievable. Thus although an ultra-complicated, limted run Patek that costs as much as a house is a dream watch, a 6 figure sum is neither going to be affordable or justifiable to most people - so it's not really a grail. I think there does need to be an element of sacrifice though - so a grail is often relatively expensive compared with the rest of your collection. Also, it can't be too easy to obtain, or else there is no quest to find the particular watch. (This is why vintage/birth year watches work as grails, since they are not neccessarily very expensive, but they can take a bit of tracking down).
But of course it has to be expensive. How else will you sell that grail later? :blackeye:
Brane
[quote="abraxas"]
That's absolutely gorgeous
Seeing that has got me all excited. I'd be wanting a 1970 d.o.b. model to make it even more graily
Was i dont believe they have to be expensive at all no,
Interesting watch! :D
No... this used to be my Grail...
I think I don't have one right now.
A watch could be a grail if its either
a) Very hard to find
b) very expensive
I cant see how it could be anything else??
Grail is a strange term
I'd like no.1 of each of the three series of the 50th Anniversary Fifty Fathoms - may that would could.
But for all time watches, I think the Omega SMP300 2531 along with any of my Rolex SD 16600's fit my bill of the watches I would always have aspired to and bought if I was looking for a watch.
Having now got in my collection all but one watch that I really feel the need to add, I am quite content, I only need a COSC 14060 submariner and until new models are launched or released then that is me :D
It's just a matter of time...
Mine is the Tag Heuer Monaco. I don't know what it is about this watch but a blue faced one just screams classic to me. I've seen them second hand for reasonable prices but it screams keeper to me. So much so that I'd want a brand new fresh out the AD one. It's something I've put off but every time I see one in a shop window sigh a little and whisper "one day you shall be mine".
My grail is a Patek World Time........maybe one day
Your 'Grail' is your 'Grail'- money doesn't come into it (to me anyways). If you set your sights on a watch that has piqued your interest, hopefully mainy for aesthetic, and secondary, purely an appreciation for horological concerns, then whatever the price of that watch may be is money well spent. I have obtained 2 'Grails'- both cheap and both equally as lovely, mechanically and aesthetically. rcok on the Seagull '63 reissue and the PRS-29A.
My dream watch would be the PRS5 in the '63 case.....one day it may come to fruition 8)
My 'grail' was and is my Sinn 356 (I finally got a couple of weeks ago). I loved it the moment I saw it on Chronomaster all that time ago, but was waiting for one to come up S/H at a time when I actually had some cash to spend, and preferably in German rather than English. This one came up at a perfect price, in really good condition, and in German so I pounced.
Is it as expensive as the Navitimer 806 I had been lusting after before I set eyes on the Sinn? No, but it was more of a challenge finding one.
Thanks for reminding me, I have to send mine off to Paul at electric watches for (more than) a bit of TLC..
Carcking watches and imho way undervalued both in respect and £'s.
Cheers
joe
Hate the term grail.
Took me yonks to track down a PRS18A & a Braoadarrow PSR-3 though - neither of which are exactly expensive.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
In my opinion I would have to say sort of, yes. And rare - preferably out of production.
The accutron, nice as it is, is just another watch. Plenty of them available, at a reasonable price (altough not in your price bracket; I think that's way too cheap), so it shouldn't take much to obtain one.
To find a grail, you'd have to put some effort in it: saving, self control (not spending the money if you can't find one immediately - I have none it seems), and luck to find that rare piece...
Here's a pic of the accutron I used to have:
I suppose my grail is the Omega SMP 2531, so not too expensive.
I'd also like a Tag Heuer Monaco, but it's the Omega that is my real want.
There's a perverse effect with cost - the easier something is to achieve the less it is appreciated. So while I don't think expense is necessary for something to be a grail, if a watch isn't expensive then it's less likely to be given the same respect.
No, but mine is (Seamaster 1000m). If only Omega would bring out a reissue along the lines of the PloProf. Then I could but it interest-free from Goldsmiths!
"A man of little significance"
Yes, and unattainable
Wow not seen one like that beforeThanks for reminding me, I have to send mine off to Paul at electric watches for (more than) a bit of TLC..
Carcking watches and imho way undervalued both in respect and £'s.
Cheers
joe
a grail is that which is a bugger to obtain for whatever reason, expense/availability etc
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