Watches

urbino

Hey, guys, I'm looking for a nice watch, and I'm having the devil of a time finding the right combination of what I want. Plus, I know a lot of people collect watches, so maybe this thread's usefulness will live beyond my immediate need.

Back to me, though. Here's my must-have feature list:
black dial
black leather (rubber's okay) or silver metal band
no gold anywhere
luminous hands and hour-markers
easy to read the time at a quick glance
not more than 43mm
Swiss made

Here's some preferred features:
automatic movement
Arabic numerals rather than Roman or just sticks
date
GMT (whether on bezel or sub-dial)
round shape

Anybody have any suggestions? Also, anybody have experience buying online?

xmacro

Really depends on your price range. If you're looking for the upper-level stuff, check out Tageur (pretty sure it's pronounced Tag-h-yer)

urbino

Hey, x. Yeah, I've looked at the Tag Heuers. Nice watches, but, of the ones I've seen, none of them has all my must-haves. As for price, let's call $1500 my absolute high end. I'd like to stay comfortably below $1000.

Oh, and I should've also mentioned: the fewer buttons, the better. They just end up getting caught on the edges of my pockets and activating some feature that just wastes power.

Crusader1545

Have you checked out g shock? My dad had one for 20 years I bought my own for work you can beat it to hell and back and still look nice it's digitar though and mine is solar charged not exactly high end but great watch good looking to.

xmacro

hmm, might try looking at a few Rado watches too. Off the cuff, I found this site that may give you a few other names to look into (can't vouch for the site at all): http://www.thewatchery.com/group.asp?Group=elegant_man The "Under $1,000" and "Under $2,500" have some selections, though most seem to use the dash to indicate the time, instead of the numerals you wanted

Diamondog

I have a Tag Heuer Carrera Chrono Automatic, this is my dream watch and certainly can get in color you're looking for

urbino

That's a great looking watch, DD. Ought to last you the rest of your life and your kids' lives, too. Congrats!

For me, though, the buttons concern me. Every watch I've ever owned that had buttons like that, I was always catching them on stuff and activating something (like a stopwatch feature) without knowing it.

Crusader1545:

Have you checked out g shock? My dad had one for 20 years I bought my own for work you can beat it to hell and back and still look nice it's digitar though and mine is solar charged not exactly high end but great watch good looking to.

Somebody mentioned those to me a while back, Crusader, and then it slipped my mind. I'll check them out. Thanks!

Thanks for the info, x. I'll give that site a look.

kingjk729

Hey Urbino ........ here are some great links .... every so often there are some fantastic deals on there and you can get a hell of a deal ........ i have a knock off Breitling thats incredible ...... i have a friend who is a custom jewelry maker that was in awe of it when he saw it ...... i played along with him and told him that i had hit some numbers in the lotto and wanted something really nice ....... but i had to burst his and my bubble...............
1 ........ http://www.chronoshark.com/?pmc=sdf&SSAID=101512
2........http://watch.1saleaday.com/
3.............. http://www.watchdiscounters.com/cust/dailydealsteal.asp

If you are not in a rush you can really get a great deal ....... my wife got her Movado from the third link and she paid just over 400 shipped .... when we were in san fran we went to a huge movado dealer and the same watch was 1199 retail and the guy was gonna give us a great deal for 775.00 ..... we laughed at him and showed him hers for almost half the price ........................ Hope this helps buddy and good luck .............. oh yeah as a personal recomendation i would get the ZENITH on the third link ........ just my 2 cents

Rob1110

I have two Citizen watches and have owned various other, more or less low end watches and I love my citizens. They're well below your price range and can usually be found online for amazingly low prices if you have the patience to shop around a bit. Try using bluedial.com as a reference. good luck.

Crusader1545

Rob1110:

I have two Citizen watches and have owned various other, more or less low end watches and I love my citizens. They're well below your price range and can usually be found online for amazingly low prices if you have the patience to shop around a bit. Try using bluedial.com as a reference. good luck.

+1 to the citizens

cabinetmaker

I have a Seiko Titanium watch, light as a feather, and tough as nails. I think they have ones with roman numerals, but there is a dial on it. I find it totally unobtrusive.

lilwing88

Hey Urbino, have you checked out overstock.com? They have a great selection to browse through. I think the Invictas are pretty decent, for the price.

Just curious, what is the reason for your preference to Swiss movement? Is Japanese no good?

dennisking

Sorry, no Arabic numerals on the face but they are on the dial.
Edit, buy a used one, you should be in your price range

gripnrip

Man, I love watches. Other than my wedding ring, I don't wear any other jewelry. I have two Tag's-one I bought in the early 90's (it's now old school!) and I treated myself last summer to a Aquaracer Chronograph Grande Date. I would definately recommend Tag's for a mid-priced watch-last forever and are relatively bullet proof. If you want to put your hands on one before you buy it and you don't want to go a jewelry store, Costco usually has some really good prices on Tag's-you could find one in your price range. They also have good prices on Invicta.

One brand that I think meets all of your must-have criteria is Luminox. I have a 3000 Navy Seal Dive Series. I wear this fishing, riding the Harley, etc. RUGGED watch-plus they have a lot of models. Mine was less than $150.00 and only has one button. The only criteria this model doesn't have on your list is that it is quartz (not automatic) and does not have the GMT measurements. I would think twice about getting an automatic watch anyway, unless you wanted to spend a lot more for a high end brand. If you do not wear them regularly, you should have a watch winder. Also, they just don't keep the time as accurately as a quartz watch. A friend of mine that is a bigger watch freak then me buys regularly on ShopNBC.com. I haven't used them (like to buy locally if I can), but he has had good luck there. Hope this helps-have fun getting your new watch!

Jdorais

Crusader1545:

Rob1110:

I have two Citizen watches and have owned various other, more or less low end watches and I love my citizens. They're well below your price range and can usually be found online for amazingly low prices if you have the patience to shop around a bit. Try using bluedial.com as a reference. good luck.

+1 to the citizens

+1. I love my Citizen Titanium Eco-Drive.

Jdorais

dennisking:

Sorry, no Arabic numerals on the face but they are on the dial.
Edit, buy a used one, you should be in your price range

This my friend is my dream watch......

txjayhawk

I love watches...have a small collection going right now...I have a crazy looking Adee Kaye thats more of a conversation watch but my favorite is an ESQ by Movado....http://esq-watch.com/collection.asp....I have the black one. It is a fantastic watch.

Hays

Urbino my friend, you have struck onto my first love (before cigars). I absolutely love watches, and I think someone already mentioned the first brand that popped into my head - Rado. Excellent watches that will last forever, but I browsed their site and nothing entirely fits your requests. If you haven't checked em out though, I would at least browse their site: Rado Watches. On a cheaper side, Citizen is a very respectable brand, but most (not all) of their watches utilize their Eco-Drive movement. I know your requests, and I love automatic movements as well - in fact, it's the very thing that drew me to watches - but having a watch winder is almost a required accessory, and the Eco-Drive is a very respectable and impressive movement as well. I have a beautiful Citizen that I love, that was definitely at the top of the Citizen price range, but it's still comfortably below what you'd like to spend ($750). An option for you:
Citizen Stiletto

Tissot is a very respectable Swiss maker, and from checking their website it appears that they may have a couple matches:
Tissot Watches

urbino

Great info, everybody. Thanks! I'm checking out the sites you suggested.

I agree with all the Citizen fans. Excellent watches. I just haven't seen one that quite fits my criteria.

lilwing88:

Hey Urbino, have you checked out overstock.com? They have a great selection to browse through. I think the Invictas are pretty decent, for the price.

Just curious, what is the reason for your preference to Swiss movement? Is Japanese no good?

The Japanese make some excellent watches (like Citizen, for example). It's just the traditionalist in me that likes a good ol' Swiss automatic movement. Partly it's because I've got a Swiss Army watch that I've had forever and love. The thing's built like a tank, and still runs like the day it was made. It's just gotten a bit beaten up over the years, so it's not really suitable for nicer occasions anymore; that and it doesn't quite have all the features I mentioned.

urbino

This Oris at Overstock comes pretty close. I've also seen some Hamiltons that come darn near the target, but it seems like they don't do luminescent hands ands markers on many of their watches. Maybe they just don't mention it. Any of you enthusiasts familiar enough with Hamilton to know?

urbino

This Tag Heuer at BlueDial.com comes very, very close. Just lacks numerals. Reckon I could get them to knock 1000 bucks off it?

urbino

dennisking:

Sorry, no Arabic numerals on the face but they are on the dial.
Edit, buy a used one, you should be in your price range

Very nice. But the ones I'm seeing on the interwebs are 4 grand, used ("pre-owned").

urbino

Some Hamiltons that come darn close, but they all seem to lack luminescent hands/markers:

Jazzmaster Petite Seconde (no GMT)
Jazzmaster Traveler, but with a black or metal band (no numerals)
Khaki Navy

Hays

Urby

Have you ever had a watch with luminescent hands? It's really not as useful as you might think, in my opinion. Having had multiple watches with luminescent hands, I've always had the same experience - you're only going to really notice the luminescence in dark environments, and it will generally last a maximum of 5 minutes post exposing the watch to light (in my experience, that is). Overall, I've never found it an overly useful feature, and is not something I would personally nix a watch for.


EDIT: Oh, and I'd consider it HIGHLY unlikely that you'd find even a used Rolex in your price range. I've been looking for a while, and most I see are at least in the $2500-$5000 range used. I have been looking purely as a collectors piece, however - I don't have very much respect for Rolex as a watch maker.

xmacro

--wrong thread

Fourtotheflush

Ive got a Skagen that is very affordable thats nice and may come close to your needs. I also have a Movado that is no where close to what you are looking for, but looks nice!
....so all the chicks tell me.

urbino

Hays:

Urby

Have you ever had a watch with luminescent hands? It's really not as useful as you might think, in my opinion. Having had multiple watches with luminescent hands, I've always had the same experience - you're only going to really notice the luminescence in dark environments, and it will generally last a maximum of 5 minutes post exposing the watch to light (in my experience, that is). Overall, I've never found it an overly useful feature, and is not something I would personally nix a watch for.


EDIT: Oh, and I'd consider it HIGHLY unlikely that you'd find even a used Rolex in your price range. I've been looking for a while, and most I see are at least in the $2500-$5000 range used. I have been looking purely as a collectors piece, however - I don't have very much respect for Rolex as a watch maker.

Hey, Hays. My current watch has luminescent hands. I've generally found it useful. They don't stay glowy way into the night, or anything, but they do for a few hours, at least, and that's been helpful on more than one occasion.

Overall, I find luminescent hands more useful than the extra accuracy of a quartz movement. If I need something balls-on accurate, I'll pull out my cellphone; its network time is more accurate than any watch is going to be (except the ones that track the Naval Observatory signal, I guess). What I want a watch to do for me these days is tell me about what time it is with just a quick glance (and do it with a little panache); if it's off 5 minutes either way, that's fine. My job and lifestyle just don't involve any activities that are more time-critical than that.

urbino

Heh. Yeah, those Movados are very visually striking. This one really isn't what I'm looking for, either, but I do kind of like it. Even though the numbers are kind of funked up, they're still highly legible.

Hays

urbino:

Heh. Yeah, those Movados are very visually striking. This one really isn't what I'm looking for, either, but I do kind of like it. Even though the numbers are kind of funked up, they're still highly legible.

That is probably the trippiest Movado I've ever seen....and probably the only Movado I've ever liked! Did you ever check out Tissot Urbi?

urbino

I did. There are several on Amazon that I like the looks of, but they've all got more buttons than I want.

I'm leaning toward one of the Hamiltons. They come the nearest to having everything I want, everything I've read about them has been good, and I like their style. On the other hand, I ran across some Montblancs, yesterday, that I like a lot.

I might just wait, save up a little longer, and bump my budget a bit. If this AuthenticWatches.com site is legit, they've got some good deals on a couple of Omega Seamasters.

Hays

MontBlanc and Omega are both solid companies, just out of the price range you specified (as you said). I haven't had any experience with AuthenticWatches.com, but I have to say that the name alone makes me question the actual authenticity. In addition, most fine watchmakers that I've seen state that they will not honor warranties on watches purchased from online retailers.