maybe ill take this occasion to vent. i mean, it's a naer thread anyway, so it's not like .. you know ..
i watch (lol) quite a lot of videos from Watchfinder & Co. and from Nick Shabazz, plus i got the r/watches on my home feed.
Watchfinder is all about .. "this watch is exquisite, notice the hand carved inlays made of pulverized diamond, tuned via a ionized platinum-filament-bound titanium spring.." which are all things which do absolutely nothing and wind up costing half a million dollah.
Sure; a fifty grand / half million watch LOOKS NICE, but i can't see any reason to buy it outside of being very rich and wanting to flaunt your riches, i'm talking Bentley-driving, Lear-jet-flying multimillionaires. And really, these aren't watches anymore, they are jewelry, afer all, a diamond is just a rock, and it literally does nothing.
Also please consider that these upgrades on watches exist because they increase accuracy, useability, add features, which are all useful aside from simple beautification. However most of these have become completely redundant since the invention of the quartz watch. There is no claim that an expense is motivated by any of these, if these are in your interest.
Obviously a simple mobile phone is better than a watch AND you will always have it, but with some concession to beauty, a nice watch that doesnt cost the world AND is accuracte can be had for $50, or slightly more. Anything more than this is simply a status sysmbol purchase.
r/watches is not as bad, but i do get sick when i see a scrawny wrist of a 18yo with a Nautilus or other 80-grand watch. I can tolerate a kid with a Lamborghini but a watch that cost as much as a house on a kid is repulsive to me. You do get the occasional broke guy on r/ who has some sense, and you'll often find people "promoting" their choice of Seiko 5, Invicta, Casio. Omega seems a favourite here, which isn't terribly bad since they top out at around 6 grand. It's still a lot of money, but for a very accurate watch that will last you a lifetime, and holds its resale value, i guess it can be excused. I've grown to dislike the look of Rolex, but in a sense Rolex and Omega are in the same ballpark. There is certainly more sanity on r/ although their love for crappy aftermarket straps is puzzling.
Nick Shabbaz is a far more practical chap - who is also a real character - and his target is sub-one-grand, generally between $350 and $500, focusing on things like Oceanus and Waveceptor, and tends to have a more realistic view on watches than Watchfinder or r/watches.
As you can tell i really like the Oceanus, i think it's not the most visually pleasing watch, but it is an incredible piece of technology when it comes to a watch being a watch, and i will always hold that if you actuially need an accurate watch, this - or something like it - is what you should get.
When it comes to watches as an item of beauty, first off let me give you a reality check, if you aren't attending any fancy dinner parties, nobody is gonna notice your swaggy five grand watch. And if people DO notice your watch, it's likely to cause more enmitty than joy. I guess it's ok to pick up chicks though, but then you should go with the classic Rolex, the most-easily-recognisable i-am-teh-rich watch on the market. Forget Vacheron Constantin and BS as such, you want a little sparkly thing that will catch the ey of a potential mate. Rolex it is.
If you are buying a watch as a beauty item, FOR YOURSELF, then remember that watches have ridiculous markups that would make a doctor blush. Citizen make a watch called the Chronomaster, it's a gorgeous little, simple but yet very accurate mechanical watch, and it goes for a tad over a grand and a half. As it only loses abotu 5 seconds a year, this is remarkable and deserves the money. However the same watch, but with the watch face covered with a special type of japanese paper called Washi, goes for over 3 grand. Twice the price for a 1 square inch of paper.
In the end i believe you can dress yourself up better by investing the money where it counts, on nice suits, shirts, Italian shoes, and if you really are keen on jewelry then rings, bracelets and chains are a better investment. Sure you can have a nice watch too but at that point just splurge five hundred dollars on a proper-made replica .. oh yeah.
The black beast of any watch aficionado, you can get replica watches, no not from Alibaba, but from companies which have dedicated years to perfecting these replicas, which hold up to a professional scrutiny. Realistically you get the same accuracy and features of the original watch, but at a fraction of the price, and you get the same level of bling. Five hundred dollars will get you a perfect replica of a 80-grand watch, and no watch aficionado has yet managed to bring up a valid argument why it would be a good idea to spend the other $79,500 to get the same thing.