Watch gang

scudzilla

Seen an ad on Facebook from a crowd called watch gang, idea is you pay 100euro a month and you get a watch a month that has a value (yeah, I know rrp's are misleading) of over 250. Anybody used them? Seem to have given decent watches out

banie01

I've seen the ads, I have no idea if they are any good or indeed if any of the watches they ship are worth the subscription.
If memory serves they also randomly allocate a "top tier" Rolex, Tudor, Omega, Grand Seiko or so on, on a raffle basis to their subscribers on a monthly basis too.

Or am I mixing them up with a different subscription crowd?

scudzilla

banie01 wrote: »

I've seen the ads, I have no idea if they are any good or indeed if any of the watches they ship are worth the subscription.
If memory serves they also randomly allocate a "top tier" Rolex, Tudor, Omega, Grand Seiko or so on, on a raffle basis to their subscribers on a monthly basis too.

Or am I mixing them up with a different subscription crowd?

Yeah, that's the one. Sometimes it's hard to believe positive reviews on Facebook, I've had a look and it does appear to be genuine.

banie01

scudzilla wrote: »

Yeah, that's the one. Sometimes it's hard to believe positive reviews on Facebook, I've had a look and it does appear to be genuine.

I don't know anyone else other than myself with any actual interest in watches apart from on here
My actual real life friends think I'm a twit for spending anything on a mechanical watch cos a digital or smartwatch does so much more!

banie01

Just had a look thru their past watches.
It really seems to be a wide range of Homages of okish quality.

Spinnaker, Carbon 14, Chronologia, Jacque Lemar, Jack Mason Racing, Nautis, Weil and Harburg.

All very much lookalikes IMO, some nice pieces but it's building a lot of quantity over quality in the off chance of striking a rare gem or winning a raffle.
Even the platinum level membership seems to be more decent quality homage than premium tier.

Personally...
I'd probably go on a Parnis or DHgate spree.

Now I'm far from an expert on a lot of the brand's they shipped to black level members and I'm not gonna lie that I've heard of any but 2 of the brand's I listed above.
Maybe I need an education?

Thirdfox

scudzilla wrote: »

Seen an ad on Facebook from a crowd called watch gang, idea is you pay 100euro a month and you get a watch a month that has a value (yeah, I know rrp's are misleading) of over 250. Anybody used them? Seem to have given decent watches out

100 euro a month is quite a lot to be honest - that's 1200 a year or 2400 after two years. I love affordable watches but I love the fact that I chose each one and each one had significance or use/interest to me.

I fear with this scheme (and I admit I haven't looked too much into it) you'll end up with 12 watches that are fine - but might never have been to your taste.

Like Banie said - if I was doing random pick'n'mix I might as well go on aliexpress/dhgate and get the 10-30 dollar watches to see what designs I might like.

If it's homages I sometimes buy them because I'm not sure if I want to splash out on the actual article - case in point - had a Borealis Seahawk...liked it so much that I "upgraded" to the Tudor Pelagos later on.

But the point is - hmm after two years you could afford to buy a Tudor Pelagos instead of 24 affordables - we only have one wrist after all, I personally would definitely want to pick out each watch I want rather than have it chosen for me. Even if it wasn't 1 Tudor, it could have been 6 affordables that I really liked - one chrono, one diver, one dress etc. etc.

Goes back to watches = man jewellery - would a lady partner subscribe to a group buy forum who mailed her out a random ring worth 250 for 100 a month? Jewellery is particular to each individual - so I guess all their watch choices will be chosen to have the broadest appeal to everyone, meaning that it may not have the best appeal for yourself.

My recommendation is to save your money and either:
1) buy super cheapies for fun to see what you might like - 50 euro Vostok!
2) save and see what affordables you might like - a nice Steinhart etc.
3) save for something you know you'll like - at 2600 you'd get that Speedmaster that was on our buy/sell thread

There's no rush to get up to a 12 watch collection I think - half the fun is picking and choosing which particular piece you want to get/swap in/swap out etc (at least for me).

Having said all that - of course if it happens that all their watch choices are exactly what you want (do they tell you what watches you are getting in advance?) then that could be a good deal for you - or if you can just do 1 month or something and it happens to be the watch you want - I don't know all their terms and conditions (or if the group is a legitimate group or potential scam/ponzi scheme etc.)

Eoin

The reviews might well be legit, but they may be from consumers who snap up the watches on Amazon that are always "on sale" with a 80% reduction on the RRP. And they might be decent watches in their own right, but I find it hard to imagine there's many bargains here.

I did have a quick poke around the site, and one of their $700 watches was available new on eBay for under $200 from 2 different sellers.

Looking out for the occasional deal on the likes of massdrop might be a better bet.

Cienciano

I had a look into it before and it's the biggest load of shíte. Look at the horrible watches you'd get for the cheap rate. At the end of the year you'd end up with 12 shítty Aliexpress watches, maybe 1 you might like.