The mechanical watch business is past due for a big contraction. While the number of potential customers for a $10k-and-up watch has never been higher, there’s a super-saturation of product on the shelves and the West Coast elite is increasingly choosing the iWatch, the Pebble, and similar disposable garbage over traditional Swiss automatics.
So if you have $3500 in your pocket, and you’d like to own a truly top-notch Swiss watch, with all the prestige and provenance you could possibly want, then today, my friend, is your day.
Jomashop has the Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback at what amounts to one-third of retail price. You might not be familiar with the Zenith brand, but it’s one with a distinguished history that stretches back over a century. El Primero was the fastest chronograph movement ever built at the time of its delivery. Rolex used it when they reintroduced the Daytona as an automatic-wind chronograph in the Nineties; the original one was manual-wound the same as its contemporary, the Omega Speedmaster. The major change Rolex made to the El Primero to fit it for Daytona duty was to… wait for it… slow it down.
This modern El Primero is actually a reissue/tribute to a 1997 El Primero Rainbow model, which had something to do with French aviation. It’s not the best-looking El Primero ever made, but it’s unique and distinctive. You can read a very glowing review here. If you have the cash, then I recommend picking it up. I can’t say you’ll make money on it, or even get your money back some day… but if you’ve waited your whole life to have the very best of something, here’s your chance.
I’ve got a friend in the watch/jewelry business.
The only watches they even want to buy used are Rolexes.
For the record, watches are now ostentatious jewelery - nothing more - and I don t wear them for this reason,
p.s. - That is one ugly-ass watch.
Well, of course watches are jewelry.
Those of us whose great-great-grandparents lived north of Mont Dolent can’t wear jewelry. So this is as close as you can get.
I’ll be humble and honest enough to admit that I just Wikipedia’d Mont Dolent.
Alert the media, and Johan too!
As someone who was in the super high end jewelry/watch buying world (Think Buccellati & Chopard as “cheap”), Rolex’s are pretty meh as watches go, but allow you to get out of hot spots (think war zones) unharmed. Build quality is excellent though. Bailey, Banks & Biddle almost destroyed Rolex, that’s why you can’t buy them at big chains.
Parts for this are probably made in China like a lot of swiss watched now.
How did Bailey, Banks & Biddle almost destroy Rolex?
They held a lot of their stock and when Bailey went bankrupt, they sent it all back and it was a huge financial burden for Rolex. Rolexes in 65+ doors full line is expensive.
You’ll never see them in a luxury/jewelry chain again.
I wouldnt say its ugly, but it’s too busy.
Nice watch. If I had the cash, I would be inclined to purchase the Big Pilot version. I’m not a big fan of metal bracelets.
I’m more in the market for a $500 automatic (Tissot, Hamilton, etc.), looking for more of a vintage look than a chrono.
Your thoughts?
Hamilton Jazzmaster…
or the Seiko Cocktail Time. I’d be inclined to get that, white face with blue hands.
I was just look at the Jazzmaster! Nice watch, very decently priced.
I have a Seiko automatic already, although the cocktail time is nice as well.
A lot of the Swiss watches at this end of the market seem to use an ETA 2824, or 2834 movement. It seems to be a “workhorse” type of movement, no?
Workhorse meaning CHEAP, yeah…
If you want to spend big bucks on a 2824 you can buy a Hublot Big Bang!
ummm…
It’s UGLY!
it’s EXPENSIVE!
and it uses a rather mundane movement!
Now that’s my kind of watch! I’ll pick one up tonight on my way home!
Thanks Jack!
Seriously though, the Jazzmaster is very nice, it’s on my short list for my next watch.
Someday, when the kids are out of college, maybe I’ll be able to afford my dream Rolex Cellini.
The cheap watch market powered by ETA movements has contracted because ETA movements are harder to obtain. Shock & surprise but the blingy manual watch makers now have to buy Citizen or Seiko manual movements if they don’t want the cheap Chinese movements.
Not to sound xenophobic but only a couple of the Chinese watchmakers manufacture exceptionally faithful ETA copies that meet or exceed Swiss standards but most of the copies are craptastic.
I think the market for high end watches keeps escalating when it comes to certain brands especially Rolex and Patek Phillipe both new and used. Not to say they are the best at what they do but they certainly are good at marketing the fact that they are best. Other brands it seems more variable
I’m a fan of zenith brand especially chronographs, but my next chronograph is going to be the new stainless steel Rolex Daytona with the ceramic bezel,
Shit, another Ryan? There’s two of us?
Which one of you is the one that was on tinder?
Does it work with Android? Or just iOS?
I still wear the Seamaster 300 my grandparents gave me for my 14th birthday nearly daily 12 years later. I work with people who are “into watches” yet they buy the same Chinese quartz junk. I don’t understand why my generation doesn’t realise that there is more intrinsic value in a 300 dollar Seiko w/ Japanese automatic movement than there is in five throw away Michael Kors fashion watches. Or to have one good watch is better than a drawer full of ugly fashion watches.
I also don’t get the obsession w/ Shinola — fabricated small/local brand “Made in Detroit” back story…quartz movements, assembled in the states- I’ll agree that they seem solid and well made but that’s about it. /crankyoldman
It’s not really made in Detroit. The leather is from Chicago or Florida, the case and glass/mineral is from China, and the movements are pre-fabricated in either Japan or Switzerland, depending on the model.
Their employees are paid $12/hour.
Shinola is more a marketing company than manufacturing company.
Shinola Watches – Made in Detroit?
https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/shinola-watches-detroit/
That’s what I was trying to get at — not really made in Detroit, assembled in Detroit at just over subsistence level wages, and co-opting cities gritty image and “comeback” for multi-millionaires gain. Opportunistic. At the end of the day — they’re just fashion watches.
Dude who owns Shinola used to run Fossil POS watch company as well as other fashion watch companies (his brother now runs Fossil).
Shinolas “American” bikes are assembled of 100% Chinese/Taiwanese parts pretty much.
Shinola is brilliantly executed marketing company.
Can’t agree with you on the bikes. The frames are made by hand in Michigan. I know the framebuilder; tried to get them to build 50 frames for me in 1994 but I was cock-blocked by the fellows who had most of their production already contracted.
The “gruppo” is Shimano stuff but there’s literally no alternative except Campy in that business.
Regardless as to what % of Shinola’s content is truly Detroit or even U.S. made (most of it isn’t), Shinola is a very cynical company and mostly a marketing exercise (of a quite brilliant type):
http://www.complex.com/style/shinola-detroits-misguided-white-knight
“To paint this Rockwellian picture Shinola has spared no expense. They brought in Sky Yaeger, the designer of Bianchi’s Pista model, among others, to design their bikes. They spent $14.5 million on their NYC TriBeCa flagship. (I wonder how much they invested in the real estate they occupy in Detroit? The details of the company’s agreement to lease 30,000 square feet in the old GM Argonaut building have not been released.) They have filled out their retail stores with products from HICKOREE’S, Steven Alan, Archival Clothing and Common Projects. They even hired Bruce Weber for an ad campaign. Instead of starting in his parent’s garage, Shinola is a trust fund kid that decided one day he wanted to start a company and had his dad buy him all the cool stuff. And much to my chagrin, all this money seems to paying off. Shinola’s roster of stockists is impressive. Their initial offering of watches sold out before they were even assembled.
Shinola is using my city as its shill, pushing a manufactured, outdated and unrealistic ideal of America.
The most irksome thing about Shinola and its opportunistic promotional campaign? While they’ve mastered opportunistic marketing, they get the most important aspects of being a “design firm” all wrong. See, the products just aren’t that great.”
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/13782/bikes_battle_shinola_is_misleading_people_a_detroit_competitor_gripes
“Texas-based Bedrock Manufacturing notoriously attached their Shinola venture to Detroit after test studies showed that consumers would pay three times as much for a product associated with the tenacity of a bankrupt city.[25] What do you call the adoption of one culture by a second group whose only culture is profit? “Cultural appropriation” sounds too innocent and even potentially transformative (like a cool mash-up) and doesn’t convey the imperialism at play. A better description is consumer culture scholar Jeff Pooley’s “the colonization of the apparently earnest.”[26] …participants in the CCS/Shinola union enact the racial and class divide at play in the gentrification of a Detroit that’s “rising from the ashes” but also pre-existed within the Fordist automotive industry.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola
I don’t really like the watches but I’m guessing Detroit can use the $12 an hour jobs.
Decent looking watch at an okay price. Although I do find the bracelet looking a little flimsy.
But at the end of the day, 99% of the people who you’ll show it to will ask just one question: Is it a Rolex?
Extra $50 off with the code SDZEN50 as well on that El Primero Stratos Flyback, making it $3,400. Splendid deal, though that blows my budget for Allen Edmonds, cigars, and fine cognacs for the month.
Sorry Jack, I’m confused. Is it a diver or is it a chronograph? Lately I want a simpler watch that’s fun to look at, maybe even a bit loud. How’s this Seiko Recraft from the bottom shelf?
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SNKN39-Analog-Display-Automatic/dp/B00RZCX19S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464897865&sr=8-1&keywords=seiko+recraft+orange
Good-looking watch. Make sure you get the Japanese-made one, if you can. Even though there’s really no difference between it and the Malaysian one!
Jack, I’ve been researching Seiko automatics for some months and the 5s have a Malaysian movement and are assembled in Singapore. Not made in Japan any more.
I myself want a 5, but would need to have it modified to look like a ‘proper’ aviator one.
You mean ALL of the 5s are Malaysian now? That wasn’t the case as recently as six months ago.
What I found is most of the ‘cheap’ ones. I can’t find most of those models in the local Seiko site. They are an ebay only deal. Buyers must be beware because there are lots of fake ones out there.
As with many things, I could be wrong.
nice watch….but will it fit up your ass, if you need to hide it?
Moderating comments, Jack?
System function or weeding out disagreeable comments?
Disregard. Website stated “in moderation” or something but posted almost immediately thereafter.
Wait - it does say “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
WTF Baruth!
I excerpted a LOT of text from several articles citing how/why Shinola is way more marketing company than “manufacturing” company, and is actually owned by a large corporation that literally pays slightly higher than Wal-Mart type wages, so maybe that’s why my comment is queued.
The anti spam function is VERY leery of links.
I agree that Zenith watches represent a great value, but nothing in my opinion beats a Grand Seiko in the 3-6k range. The finish work and detail are unmatched until you you get into the big 4 (PP, AP,VC, ALS) which are clearly in a class of their own. Just picked up a Grand Seiko GMT and I can’t take my eyes off of it.
I’m a confirmed Seiko Guy, and I agree regarding Grand Seikos. The vintage ones are appreciating in value but still affordable. Sleeper pick: vintage King Seikos - cool and collectible but pretty much undiscovered as of yet (that is to say very affordable).
All this presupposes you can be happy wearing a 36mm to 38mm watch, which is smallish by today’s standards. On my girly wrist, this is not a problem.
A grand Seiko snowflake gets me hot and bothered like no other watch available today. I think its inherent quality and craftsmanship blow away anything within a 5x multiple of price.
Damn kids and their 529 plans. And racing.
I really like the looks of the Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback - handsome, perhaps a bit busy (what chrono isn’t?), but with the colored accents, the functions have a defined appearance.
And as I’ve written here previously, I spent a considerable amount of my working years as a student at a very fine jewelry shop where Rolex watches were far and away the best-sellers. I’ve also a few Rolex collecting friends who contend that with careful shopping and thoughtful consideration, one can pick up a Rolex, wear it several years, sell it for a profit, and in essence, wear a luxury watch for free (as long as you don’t mind the initial outlay of cash).
Jack, as for the the Shinola bike comment, I’d contend that in addition to Shimano and Campy as gruppo default component OEMs, I’d add SRAM to the mix — based in Chicago, their components are primarily US built while their other component brands like Rock Shox and Zipp come from factories around the world, including Taiwan, China and the US. All top notch. SRAM’s urban collection even contains an e-shift gruppo. I suspect that SRAM may add too much expense to the Shinola bike’s final price, but seeing as Waterford is building their frames (from whence the legendary Schwinn Paramount race bike was/is built) one is paying for American (marketing) quality which is a fine fit with SRAM.
Anyway, back to watches. I’m a bit of an outdoorsman, and more and more, am transitioning from the city to a simpler life in the mountains of Appalachia in the vacation and resort industry, primarily catering to those who want an active experience — day to weeklong hiking-camping excursions, boating, fly fishing, river rafting, mountain biking, road cycling, and sports car/motorcycle highway carving.
So I want a no-fuss, no-muss survivor of a watch that has as many functions as a Swiss Army Knife. I think I’ve found it at Jomashop.com:
http://www.jomashop.com/tissot-watch-t0914204705701.html
The reviews are positive — at least the ones I’ve found. The T-Touch technology, now combined with solar charging, has proven itself over the years. In black, it’s understated and appeals to my inner Glock/AR15/Emerson operative wannabe. It has multiple functions which are quite useful if you spend a lot of time outdoors.
Just wondering if you (or any readers here) have had any experience with the Tissot brand or the T-Touch technology specifically?
I have a reader who is a Tissot collector. He has five or six of them. Loves them all. Never a problem.
I have a Tissot PRS 516, no T-touch, or solar charging, just a nice chrono.
It’s my favorite watch by far (not that I have a lot of watches).
I also have a Movado Chrono that cost about $300 more than the Tissot, I find the Tissot to be the better built, much higher quality watch. The Movado to me is more of a fashion statement, where the Tissot is actually usable.
Just my nickels worth.
Since this has turned to into watch discussion, does anybody have any thoughts on German watches, namely Junghans Max Bill, and Graf Zepplin. I really love the retro style of these watches, and they seem very reasonably priced. Does anybody know much about these brands?
Look at Laco too.
As well as Nomos, Sinn, and Damasko
I’d add Stowa to the mix, simply because they are on the less expensive side of the price curve. I visited their workshop in Engelsbrand last year, and really fell in love with their customer service model. I ordered a Partitio, which is a simple-but-well-done Bauhaus-style piece. All in, it was about $700-ish for a well-crafted German-made case sporting an ETA2824 movement with no date function. That’s Hamilton territory for something a bit more unique.
My other favorite German manufacturer is Nomos. Their stuff is quite a bit more expensive, but they manufacture their own movements (although most are cloned/licensed Swiss movements).
Top of the line German would be A. Lange & Sohne. No experience there.
i’d say most german watches are good quality, but second hand value isn’t great, so you better like the design and plan to keep it for a while 😉
i’ve been wearing my Sinn 103st for about a year and half, and still love it. build quality is great, and it it still keeps chugging along even after a nasty fall on my road bike where the watch was torn from my wrist and tumbled across the asphalt. 200m water resistance without screw down pushers is also a great feature, and i go swimming with it all the time.
one thing to keep in mind with junghans watches is that they coat their acrylic crystals with some sort of anti scratch coating, so you cant use polywatch to remove scratches without sanding it off first.
as for the el primero in the article, i would personally save up for one of the classic el primero designs instead of going for one just because it was cheap.
my personal favourite is the 40th anniversary version, but i’d settle on a plain silver dial version if i had to buy new.
http://www.jomashop.com/zenith-watch-03-2040-400-69-c494.html