Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Thoughts on Michael Kors watches
Options
-
15-10-2015 7:43pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 59021
I dunno E, over the years I've had a couple of ronda powered watches and all of them have crapped out and needed new movements(or headed for the bin). I've a military issued Marathon Navigator on its third movement. Maybe that's just me and whatever foul emanations that spring from my wrist.
though the earliest quartz and on up to the 80's ones run fine for me. If I was buying a brand new quartz these days I'd be looking for something with a Casio, Seiko, or Citizen movement as a general rule(the Bulova ones look good too).
The other problem I have with the cheaper end "fashion"* watches as a whole is the fit and finish, or lack of it. They look OK even good in photos, but in the flesh they tend to look cheap. Consistency is another thing. Some Fossil models look pretty damn good in the flesh, while others don't.
*Names like Cartier and especially a crowd like Hublot could be seen as "fashion" watches too, but that's a whole other debate… ;-)Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
Join Date:Posts: 20125
I dunno E, over the years I've had a couple of ronda powered watches and all of them have crapped out and needed new movements(or headed for the bin). I've a military issued Marathon Navigator on its third movement. Maybe that's just me and whatever foul emanations that spring from my wrist. though the earliest quartz and on up to the 80's ones run fine for me. If I was buying a brand new quartz these days I'd be looking for something with a Casio, Seiko, or Citizen movement as a general rule(the Bulova ones look good too).
The other problem I have with the cheaper end "fashion"* watches as a whole is the fit and finish, or lack of it. They look OK even good in photos, but in the flesh they tend to look cheap. Consistency is another thing. Some Fossil models look pretty damn good in the flesh, while others don't.
And I think Citizen movements are standard in a lot of fashion watches - possibly within the Fossil group too. Seiko sell their movements too, I think?
My point is that a lot of fashion watches are perfectly fine, once you ignore that they're over-priced. I was given 3 Tommy Hilifiger watches as gifts, and each and every one broke very quickly. That's a problem and not the same thing.
And if we're going to talk about paying over the odds because of the brand name, I think some of us here would be guiltier than we'd like to think!
It's all getting confusing these days with the likes of Ralph Lauren producing what seem to be actual high end watches (don't they have a tourbillon model in fact?), Invicta using a Valjoux 7750/ETA/Seiko(?) movements etc...0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59021
So the history goes, though the one they picture alongside that story is a later watch. I know of now pictures of the original watch, so I'm a little suspicious TBH. Gerard Perregaux claim that they produced the first mass produced watch in the late 1800's on the back of a contract from the German navy and again the pic they have is of a much later WW1 watch(with radium dial which couldn't have been present in the 1880's watch) and not a single example has ever turned up. There is an awful lot of - to be kind about it, spin, to be not so kind bullshít - marketing behind many brands and their history. Look at Patek releasing an overpriced GMT pilots watch last year on the back of "our history in pilots watches". Eh..no… you made two prototypes. Two. They looked to have been for the Nazis too judging by the design, though nada mentioned about that, then again IWC got away with that connection with their Big Pilot. Don't get me started on IWC…Mredsnapper wrote: »Wasn't the first 'flieger' a Cartier? What sells sells mind you, so Patek needed a "pilots watch" in their lineup. Even a fantastic and truly innovative company like Omega is constrained by the market, ignores much of their innovation in advertising and pushes Neil Armstrongs watch or James Bond's, again because we all want to be astronauts and/or Jimmy Bond. Though judging by my collection, I'm either a member of the Nazi party or a crew member on Space 1999. :eek::pac:
Oh how very true.And if we're going to talk about paying over the odds because of the brand name, I think some of us here would be guiltier than we'd like to think!
Omega "nato" strap anyone? *runs*
Yep. Well the fashion brands are seeing how much margin is on the mid range mechanicals and want a piece of the action and with so many good and reliable third party movements that are remarkably "cheap" within the trade it's a no brainer really. We see this even in the vintage world where a bought in, non "in house" movement can be no barrier to values. QV 1960's Heuers.It's all getting confusing these days with the likes of Ralph Lauren producing what seem to be actual high end watches (don't they have a tourbillon model in fact?), Invicta using a Valjoux 7750/ETA/Seiko(?) movements etc...Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59021
Oh sure E, I agree a 1000%, t'is a very tangled web of desire and name cache and the like. Which makes it interesting too.
I would also reckon it's much more convoluted and image pressured these days compared to the past. Not saying it wasn't all roses in some utopian days gone by, but there's much more BS nowadays. Well we didn't have nearly the level of focused marketing and the like pre say 1980ish, even pre 1990ish. It was all about what was new and in the shops and technologically cool. EG my da bought a Longines VHP quartz in the mid 80's because a) it was "his" brand and b) it was new and the future and extremely accurate(and it was not cheap, nigh on a 1000 punts IIRC). Plus watch collectors were extremely rare oddities. The vast majority of men had one watch, maybe two in a lifetime. Unless they were Italian, they often had more. Vintage watch collectors were even rarer. When the oul cheap(and expensive) quartz came along, the "old watches" were near worthless, unless they had gold cases.
I personally saw small boxes full of steel cased "old watches" go through mid 80's general auctions for buttons. Like ten or twenty punts in old money. All sorts of brands too. Omega got a little extra cache, but we're talking like a fiver more per box. Rolex had more again, but again not by much, unless as I say they were in gold. Actually Rolex were considered pretty naff and tacky, used car salesman type of thing. Brands that are very well known today like IWC or Patek? Pretty much unknown back then. I only knew of Patek cos my dad had one(and I thought of them as oulfella watches.:)). He was unusual in having a few watches and knowing of some of the brands(he was the one who got me into Longines). IWC only hit my radar when they brought out their first DaVinci and put small ads in the Times. I actually turned down a black dialled IWC in the mid 80's because I'd never heard of them. DOH! It was probably a mil spec one.
Of course pre interwebs information was incredibly hard to come by. as were the vintage watches themselves. What little I got was from a couple of friendly jewellers and their trade catalogues. In places like the UK and the US they did have some semblance of a community and trade shows and dealers, but here in Ireland, nothing. A watch that ticked was either an heirloom worn under some sufferance on high days and holy days, or you were too poor to buy a Seiko digital.
Size is another majorly fashionable thing. I've a 30's Zenith "extraspecial" at 41mm, family piece and all that and boy did it get looks and comments back in the day. Like "wtf is that monstrosity?". Barely noticed these day.
Oops, as per usual I went off piste and rambled a bit. Nostalgia innit. For me it always boils down to Buy what you like(™). I've regretted a few sales alright and more than a few I didn't buy, but rarely regretted buying based on that principle. Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59021
The women's market segment in watches is a huge one. I'd not too be surprised to find it's on average bigger than the mens. Among normal people I know more women with more than one watch than I do men. Of brand ambassadors I can think of more women, though that might just be me being a perve. The biggest difference is Women(™) care less about the movements and certainly didn't buy into the 90's Swatch revival mechanical has soul thing to nearly the same degree. Where does Patek use quartz movements? Why did FP Journe design a quartz movement(that left much to be desired IMH). Women's watches. Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
-
Northern Monkey wrote: »My other half is heading down that path as well. She's been looking at the 30mm Aqua terra. It's really nice, but I think it's crazy money for it.
You should convince her that Michael K watches are the way to go...save yourself a small fortune
0 -
Mredsnapper wrote: »You should convince her that Michael K watches are the way to go...save yourself a small fortune
Thankfully it is self funded 0
Advertisement