Regrets, I’ve had a few – how to handle watch buying remorse
Editor’s note: In an ideal world, buying an expensive watch is a stress-free and seamless affair. But as Cam discovered, that’s not always the case … I think we’ve all found ourselves in a similar situation to this before: you wake up, the morning after a big night out and all is seemingly well. At least until the night’s events start trickling back into your mind’s eye, and an odd sensation begins to stir deep down inside, giving you the feeling that things are not quite as they should be. You then roll over and notice something lying there next to you, something that in the unforgiving morning light is not what you were first expecting to see … Flashing before your eyes is a notification from eBay, exclaiming, “Congratulations! You won this item.” And before you even have time to react, the regret has started to sink in. Frequently associated with the purchase of expensive items like a house or a car, buyer’s remorse is a very real thing in the watch world. After all, we all know that our much-loved pieces of wrist candy can sometimes come attached to hefty price tags. However, it’s not always the money…
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In this series of articles, we pick five interesting, less-often reported watches that tick a lot of boxes that seasoned watch collectors frequently look to fill. To make this a worthwhile exercise, we’re defining affordable as anything below $5000 AUD. Do you ever get the feeling the entry-level price point is dominated by bland dress watches and a slew of decent, but identikit divers? Sure, we don’t expect to see perpetual calendars or tourbillons slumming it down here with us commoners (and if you do see a kickstarter campaign threatening to disrupt the watch industry by creating a tourbillon for under 1000 bucks, please run a mile), but it’d be nice if our humble collections had a bit more variety in them, right? And before you say it, I’ve already got a date watch. Heck, I’ve even gone as far as an ETA 2836-driven day/date model. But what about that next level? What is there that could fill that void and not leave our bank accounts equally spacious? Step forth the GMT. With plenty of mid-range options, the GMT offers an elegant upgrade from a time-only ticker. They are actually useful, too. Perhaps even more so than the ubiquitous timing…
Editor’s note: For all that Hublot is a name strongly associated with big, bold colours (and rightly so, might we add), they’re not afraid to show their more subtle side on occasion. Take, for example, this Classic Fusion Titanium Greed – what a dial! This week we’re looking at Hublot watches that aren’t the Big Bang. Yep, you read that right. For all that the brand is virtually synonymous with their iconic (or is that iconoclastic?) sports watch, it turns out Hublot isn’t afraid to show their softer side on occasion. You know what else Hublot has never been afraid of? Colour. Both these characteristics are very much in evidence with this stylish Classic Fusion Chronograph in green. First of all, a quick primer on the Classic Fusion line — the collection, introduced in 2010, is intended as a slightly more subtle (dare we say dressier?) offering than the traditional Big Bang, while still possessing some of those indisputable Hublot hallmarks — the ‘H’ screws on the bezel, the solid end links on the strap, and those contrasting ‘ears’ on the case at three and six. It’s a softer Hublot, sure, but it’s still a Hublot. It’s also an incredibly…
What goes around comes around – especially when we’re talking style. So here we are, three decades after the first steel-and-gold rush, having another two-tone moment. But there could be something a tad anxiety-inducing about those bi-colour watches. If you buy two-tone, does it mean that you’re only half committed to full yellow metal? Or, perhaps worse, is two-tone really just the poor man’s gold watch? The answer is different today from what it was back then. In the 1980s heyday of the two-tone watch, wearing one came with the risk of being sneered at by steel-watch wearers as a wannabe tycoon, and by gold-watch wearers as … well, a wannabe-one-of-us. Not yet Big Enough to afford the full brick. Because the 1980s was the Decade of Big. Big hair (bouffant for men as well as women – with a slicked-back Wall Street power ’do for variety); big shoulder pads; big – no, huge – mobile phones. In short: big, loud, swaggering displays of wealth. It was the decade of Trump 1.0 – and the Decade that Taste Forgot. (I’m not making this up; I’m old enough to remember it.) Suddenly, the gold watch was no longer Uncle Fred’s hard-grafted-for…
One of the longest and most sustained watch ‘trends’ in recent times is that of vintage and retro styled pieces. In fact, you could argue that it’s now a bona fide category in its own right. And underlying this entire movement is the concept of patina. Sure, retro design plays a part, but the real charm is in those faded paints and the kind of look that only comes from a long life well lived … Patina is even more important in the secondary market — particularly the high-end auction space, where ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ patina on the right watch reference can make a massive difference in the number of zeros in the final hammer price. Suffice to say it matters, but patina is also an incredibly vague catch-all term, used and abused by enthusiasts and opportunistic dealers alike. Which is why this long and very informative read from Gear Patrol on the rise of patina is such a helpful article. Definitely worth a read. Something you can do at Gear Patrol.
