Seppia wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:41 am
@Sclass: ... (in the same way as a Civic is much more reliable than a Ferrari).
The quality on Patek is real
Sorry for the confusion
Luxury watches today are all extremely overpriced (but so are all luxury goods ...,
2- they are “just” the engine. Many other things go into the quality of a watch. Same comparison that you made with cars, many Audi run on the same engines as Skodas, yet the cars are very different in many aspects.
many excellent quality Rolex fakes, which is not the case for other brands. Google “TC Sub V7 extreme” and you will NEVER buy a five digit sub online again
No confusion Seppia. You get it. A Ferrari and Civic have their roles. Actually your comment about Skoda engines in Audi is spot on. That is exactly what Longines is doing when they put an ETA 2825 in a luxury watch. The example that comes to mind locally (shame no Skoda here) is a Toyota Camry engine in a Lexus ES. It’s a great car and it is reliable. But at the end of the day you’re getting the heart of a Toyota at the Lexus price. Yes, there is more vibration control, sound insulation and leather but the most expensive part of the car is cheap and mass produced. Excellent quality and highly reliable but cheap and mass produced. So I feel there is a degree of deception going on.
This happened during the resurrection of the mechanical watch industry. It was almost killed by quartz and then you started seeing some houses using ETA automatics and marketing them as something unique and exclusive. This marketing strategy really took off in the late 1990s. It saved the big Swiss houses. During the transition you could buy Longines Quartz watches (Mon Dieu!
). Pretty soon the line between luxury watch and fashion watch got blurred. You were no longer buying craftsmanship but you were being marketed craftsmanship. While it saved the industry, it changed fine watchmaking.
The Rolex uses their own movement. And perhaps this is why the used market values an old Rolex more highly than an ETA powered Longines. The market votes with its money. They really fall into a small group of Swiss houses that make their own movements.
Wow...and that TC Rolex fake is impressive. My friend has something like that. He has a datejust he calls a “Swiss replica” he bought in Europe. It looked very convincing up close. Without opening the case it is hard to tell. I’m not a Rolex expert but I was able to turn the set stem clockwise and see the hands rotate counter clockwise which told me the movement was probably ETA. Hopefully the women he picks up at the bar won’t try that.
My wife once warned me that some watches in Watch Magazine could be faked. They had the cases open. Patek or Vacheron I recall. I told her if the fakes could do the work necessary to make the movement look like this I’d pay them for their work.
Fine:
Check the radius on the machined edges. The parts are ground, not stamped. Counter sunk screw holes. Chamfered screw heads. A mix of polishing and fine graining on the surface. Done by hand.
Mass Produced:
Although decorated, this is a cheap mass produced movement. Check the edges. Sharp. Stamped from sheets. The bluing on the cheap screws looks painted on, not true heat bluing which has a iridescent glow. The screws are not chamfered on the edges. The machining is gouged up in places. Coarse irregular graining done with a rotary cutting tool to appear “high end”. There are irregularities on the edges. Trash. This is a $2000 watch.
Both are quality watches. It’s just the deception of craftsmanship in the second one I dislike. Well, I like them, I own many ETA Swiss watches but I paid the appropriate price.
Nice Submariner BTW. I didn’t notice the first time through it didn’t have a date. Very cool.