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Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 4,487 ✭✭✭VW 1


    Interesting, thanks both. I'll order the battery and do it myself so. I don't generally swim, nor do I shower with a watch on, so the pressure test is relatively redundant anyway. Have had the watch 9 years and was the first birthday present I received from my now wife, so wouldn't want to chuck it for sentimental reasons!





  • Here's a video, it's self-explanatory. Some people leave the wings on and work around them but I would remove them for the sake of neatness.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yll7NIp-sMU

    To open the battery flap you need to pry a latch off it's retainer (0:21).

    Don't use a conductive tweezers to handle the battery (guy in the video does...).

    There's a tiny spring (circled), on this particular model I believe it can't fall out but keep an eye on it (and keep the watch level) in case i'm wrong.

    At 0:27 he does the AC reset, which involves touch a metal tweezers (or paperclip etc) to back shield and to a particular pad. Reboots the watch. It's only necessary if the watch has booted up with a garbled screen. Most of the time you don't even need to do it.

    Tighten the caseback screws in a diagonal pattern and don't overtighten them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,487 ✭✭✭VW 1


    Thanks a million. This corner of the forum and the helpful advice/kindness that always follows gives me faith in humanity!



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist


    New video by Adrian at Bark & Jack. I watched it and thought it was not the normal fare. Kind of wide screen hi-definition and then there's the content. Adrian inviting some guy into what looks like his country home for coffee and to tell him about his fascination with cool watches.

    It's apparently some kind of promo for Ebay and their watch 'authenticity' service.

    Favourite watches in my collection + new purchase - YouTube

    Personally I find his videos rather boring and lacking in entertainment value.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,014 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Yeah. I'd say the service is almost entirely aimed at current and recent models from Omega and Rolex, especially the latter to weed out the fakes and to keep confidence in the market. The vintage realm is far too deep a dive for such a service. Any such service would need a suite of experts and even then dodgy ones would get through. Plus outside of outlets like hodinkee that market is currently stagnant.

    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.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,487 ✭✭✭VW 1


    I took delivery of a letter on the 23rd about a customs charge on some Barton straps I ordered, letting me know I needed to make payment or the item would be returned to sender. The straps arrived this morning, is the customs charge a mandatory thing, or just something you need to pay to get an item released? Ie, do customs follow up for payment regardless?



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,303 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    I don't know, it is supposed to be mandatory and items not released until charges paid. That said, I have heard of lots of stuff generating the charge but being delivered without payment.

    On a related note, I have an order from Amazon.de that was shipped from India, but! Which was charged VAT at the Irish rate of 23% and it's showing on the tracker as held by customs for a charge. Nothing has dropped for me just yet tho and when it does I'll fire on the VAT paid invoice.

    It would seem everything with remotely incomplete or suspect declaration paperwork is being held and generating a charge or a Return to sender.



  • Registered Users Posts: 849 ✭✭✭Blanchy90


    Depends who delivered it, An Post are supposed to charge before they give it to you but Fedex pay it and send you a bill a few weeks later



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,014 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Oh sure OG, but it's going to be almost entirely aimed at the "I don't want to get stung by a snide Rolex" in the current market. That's where the market focus is. Now TAG are being faked alright, but the biggest fake market by far is Rolex and the fakers are getting better at it. Without such authenticity services the dealers know that market confidence could be a problem.

    Just up the page Swarzrh on holliers(lucky bastid😁) said this: There is a serious amount of Rolex been worn here. Went to a quite restaurant for lunch today and had my sub on , I counted 3 other subs , a hulk and a James Cameron.I wasn’t close enough to see if they were all real or not but they all had the Rolex glare and sparkle so would guess they are.

    "Rolex" and "fake" have become synonymous in the wider public's mind until proven otherwise. Given the cray cray price increases of late in what is an artificial market high mostly driven by dealers and flippers that association is one of the bigger threats to the market.

    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.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,014 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Vintage is a complete minefield OG. I'd bet the farm their expertise in that area is not much above covering their own arses. When the Antiques Roadshow and their team of backroom experts can come out with howlers around vintage watches it's a problem. The list of frankens and even outright fakes that have passed through august auction houses* and top line dealers is a long one and those examples would be well known models for the most part. Go to speciality vintage forums and a topic like "how to spot a fake [insert model here] could run to a dozen pages and some grey areas. Plus you can have perfectly fine examples that because of age would have had crystals replaced(fine), dials replaced(not so fine). I would reckon that other than fashion and the market cycle changing one of the biggest reasons the vintage market is more stagnant of late is down to lack of consumer confidence.




    *I would never buy a watch through an auction house speciality sale. That sales avenue is about the least protected for the consumer and is full of dodgy dealings. You've significantly more comeback as a buyer buying off ebay from a complete stranger.

    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.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,683 ✭✭✭Lorddrakul


    Ordered 2 pairs of generic 20mm end links from a UK place, which, with postage, came to a total of €24.42

    Curiously, An Post delivered it alongside a "customs" charge. The charge was actually VAT at €5.61, and An Post admin fee of €3.50.

    Now, all the info on this is about how your item won't be delivered if you don't pay the fee etc, and yet they both came through the letter box at the same time.

    Also, it's a bit **** rich charging €3.50 to collect a fiver in VAT, when it is done online via card. That should be a maximum transaction fee of 50 cents.

    Gouging feckers! It's almost as if they don't want us trading with the UK anymore.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist


    Quartz Crisis? What crisis, it was a f€cken revolution.

    Top left is the Steinhart automatic (€480) just out of the watch winder and it's an hour + a couple of minutes fast. Top right is a Citizen Eco-Drive (€98) that was lying in a watch box for 6 months and needed an hour or two on the windowsill and resetting. Bottom left is a Casio Wave Ceptor (€80) that shows the perfect time/day/date without any human intervention and bottom right is the Hamilton Khaki Field (€300) that needs hand-winding twice a week and only shows the correct time because I reset it using the watch to its left.

    Quartz is great, low maintenance, lower priced, more accurate, can be adapted to show atomic time..........



  • Registered Users Posts: 777 ✭✭✭Roycropper63


    ct i share the casio and citizen. nice to have as part of my small collection.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist


    Both fantastic watches, a perfect field watch and an atomic timepiece perpetual calendar that's got a light for viewing the time in the middle of the night.

    Anyone on a tight budget would be doing well buying either.



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,520 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus




  • Registered Users Posts: 16,303 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    Almost completely slipped my mind. P&P have listed my VC and now the wait to see if their confidence regarding price is correct? Begins 😉

    I know they are pro's and selling is their game but, their photos really do make it pop. I think in our little corner, I'm the guinea pig for their consignment service? So I'll be sure to keep everyone abreast of how it goes.




  • Registered Users Posts: 64,467 ✭✭✭✭unkel



    That's a link to all 457 VC Overseas. Which one is yours? 😂



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,906 ✭✭✭hitemfrank


    In the app it opens to his one for me.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,303 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    Weirdly! On Desktop I cannot find my watch listed, but!

    As Frank has said, on mobile it does open the correct listing in the app. Below is their website listing.




  • Registered Users Posts: 64,467 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    Bloody hell! That's better than BTC 🤣



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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,303 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    I know!!! Blue dial madness? Or a complete over estimation of the potential value?

    I look forward to finding out and in the meantime, I'm trying to do a deal on an Omega 2535.80 to at least keep a blue dial in the rotation 😉

    Less said about my BTC positions currently the better tho😏 I went to all cash positions in Crypto at the start of Sept with a very confident buy of 35.5k set for BTC....

    Much to my chagrin, it hit $39.5k and rather than pile in? I held my nerve and have it watched it soar without me this time....! Its a mantra I have repeated for years! Don't try and apply rationale to crypto, it doesn't work! Its certainly hit my paper worth and added a few taxable events to my next return. Equities are really doing a good job for me currently tho, and if Boeing continues its slide into this week? I'll own some more "blue" things by the end of it I suppose🤣



  • Registered Users Posts: 993 ✭✭✭Time


    Quartz is also more boring, there's something to be said for the ingenuity that goes into creating a complicated movement for a watch.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist


    If you're the type who likes gazing through an exhibition caseback or boring your non-nerdy friends describing the finer points of mechanical movements then yes.

    I've got the quartz version of the Omega Seamaster Professional 'GoldenEye' and it's just as good looking and comfortable as the automatic. 'But the second hand doesn't smoothly sweep', so what.

    Sure if you're into mechanical things then fine but otherwise the advantages of quartz are undeniable.



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,661 ✭✭✭893bet


    Why you waste money on that Omega AT then? The exceptional co axial 8500 is one of the main reasons I purchased it.

    Yoh could have had the quartz version brand new for a grand less than you paid for the auto second hand.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,525 ✭✭✭Fitz II


    I like quality mechanical watches not because they are superior, but because they persist despite their flaws and are cooler because of them. Mechanical watches are so unnecessarily complex and intricate, trying their best to do a job half as well as a 10 euro quartz.

    You can make this same argument about ebikes, ICE cars versus EV's, books versus kindle. Real versus synthetic diamonds, precious metal versus non precious alloys, emails versus letters, computer synthesis versus real instruments, digital versus film photography, digital versus vinyl music and on and on.

    I dont think anyone denies the advantages of quartz, all the big swiss brand make quartz models. but quartz watches dont seem to be as cherished or as precious in the hobby. Personally I find quartz watches far more boring than mechanical ones, but each to their own. You can continue the conversation to its logical conclusion and just use your phone, I use a watch more as the only acceptable piece of male jewellery, and a cheap looking quartz watch does nothing for me. Maybe a good quality one is good but then you really bore your non-nerdy friends describing the finer points of haute quartz movements, and in the watch space your ability to bore others is not really effected by the movement of your wristwatch. The top tier manufacturers tend not to show their virtuosity in quartz either.


    A good line from a TV show I was watching about a expensive watch the other day springs to mind. Fellow shows his friend a Patek and says "its the most accurate watch in the world"... comedic pause, "every time you look at its it will tell you precisely what your time is worth".


    Post edited by Fitz II on


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist


    Can you provide a link to an Omega Aqua Terra 'Skyfall' brand new that's for sale?



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,661 ✭✭✭893bet


    Not much point looking for a watch brand new today when you have the watch 12 months or more?


    Or did they not make the blue version in quartz and you are trying to be smart in a your usual passive aggressive way instead of just stating that they didn’t make it?


    Eitherway the quartz version of the Vertical teak dial (in what ever colours it came in) was around 2k RRP and regularly on TZ for 1200-1500.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,599 ✭✭✭Cyclingtourist




  • Registered Users Posts: 2,573 ✭✭✭scwazrh


    I prefer mechanical watches but I’m not against wearing or buying a watch with a battery providing there is something else to them be it solar powered, kinetic or a unique style . I would also like to try a spring drive at some stage , most likely the GS snowflake .

    I find quartz watches and particularly g-shocks can be a bit of fun for low cost and a nice reminder that watch collecting doesn’t always have to be about high cost luxury brand watches.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,661 ✭✭✭893bet


    You are most welcome. Glad I could help.


    Tally ho



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