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Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus


    no, its coming from France, no issue, have bought several (and even some from the UK site that i asked them to route through france)



  • Registered Users Posts: 64,547 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    Nope. Both Ireland and France are in the EU, free exchange of goods.


    I bought a watch from watchfinder (based in France) recently which had to come from HongKong first into their office in France. There was VAT due when coming into France and WF agreed that they would cover it, so even in that case the watch is coming from France to you, so again nothing due. Hope that explains!



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,027 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Where it's different this time compared to the so called quartz crisis of the 1970's is that the Swiss biz is a niche today. Apple watches aren't really replacing Swiss watches. If the market of back then was like today it would be like the Swiss sell the vast majority of all wristwatches on the planet and there are hundreds of Swiss companies doing it. Along comes Apple and takes half of all that business in a couple of years and Swiss sales fall off a cliff.

    This time Apple have essentially created a new and separate market to the Swiss. Sure it will nibble at the edges of their market and could hit them harder down the line, but I suspect a large percentage of Apple watch customers wouldn't be in the market for a Swiss watch anyway.

    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,692 ✭✭✭Lorddrakul


    The Apple Watch is not a watch. It is a small iPhone accessory that is worn on the wrist.

    Among other things, it can also tell the time. It is not a watch in any real, comparable sense for the traditional watch industry.

    It would be a bit like comparing the sales of laptops to typewriters.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    Same, I have a smartband on my right wrist that's a tool for notifications, health and activity tracking.

    When I check the time? It's still a look at the watch on my left wrist.

    Smart watches and their ilk aren't in competition with the traditional watch imo.



  • Registered Users Posts: 32,802 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    But it kinda is a watch, or at least it is worn by millions of people in place of a watch.

    A watch is worn fundamentally so you can see what time it is. If this gadget tells them the time, then its a watch as far as they are concerned. Even better for most the fact that it offers so many more features than a watch.

    Haven't got one myself. Wore a tracker for a short length of time but soon threw it to one side as I didn't really need a gadget to tell me I wasn't sleeping enough. Think I'll be sticking with a traditional watch.



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,687 ✭✭✭893bet


    It is a watch but it ain’t competing with the Swiss watch industry which is for the most part high end.


    Aint to many out there that have dropped heavy hitting Swiss brands permanently in favour of and iwatch. Overall I would say the iwatch could easily end up being a gateway to an interest in watches.



  • Registered Users Posts: 547 ✭✭✭RMDrive


    Interesting discussion. IMO the Apple Watch is definitely competing with all other watch brands ... simply because most people will only wear one watch on their wrists at a time. So the person who would have thrown on a wristwatch before going to work every day, may now throw on their Garmin or Apple Watch. I see this every day at work - indeed at a monthly meeting I attend where a few years ago you would have expected to see a few Rolex and a few VC/Patek, several of those people now wear activity trackers instead.



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Cyrus


    I see that a bit its almost a reverse snobbery thing or something, i make millions but i wear a fitness tracker 😁 because i am humble



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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,394 ✭✭✭micks_address


    I really like wearing a mechanical/quartz watch but i also would really love a discreet wristband health tracker that would do steps, etc... i had a fitbit flex wristband which pretty much fit the bill in terms of tracking but had a crap 2 day battery life. every other tracker seems to have a watch face which i dont want.. i picked up a oura smart ring before xmas for pretty much nothing secondhand and it dont mind it but my wife thinks it looks daft. tried an apple watch last year.. even tried wearing it on my right wrist with a watch watch on my left and felt daft. the apple watch definitely competes with watches.. i mean when you see TV hosts that would have worn something expensive from Switzerland now sporting a apple watch its pretty obvious. What it won't do is replace watch enthusiasts watches... which most people on this part of boards are here for their enthusiasm for non smart watches.



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,687 ✭✭✭893bet


    I have no doubt that is the case.


    But I doubt they flipped on the 30k Patek because they now have an iwatch.



  • Registered Users Posts: 32,802 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Yeah its not competing with the Swiss and high end market, but it is competing with the folk who wear lower end watches and stuff from the likes of Argos and high street jewellers. The typical Timex, Casio, Citizen watch wearer.

    And I'd say it is making massive dents in their sales.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,526 ✭✭✭Fitz II


    Have to agree that smart watches are not direct competitors for mechanicals different audience really, but they are competing for limited wrist space. I think they get more people into watch wearing so can't be a bad thing as a certain percentage will catch the bug.


    I wore one for a bit found them intrusive always reminding me of stuff, and the ones I had were not always on so time telling not ideal.


    I see lots and lots of them around, and I have absolutely no problem with them at all. If anything they have taken the advantages the quartz watch has and improved it with almost unlimited functionality



  • Registered Users Posts: 547 ✭✭✭RMDrive


    For some of them maybe, but this is a bunch of 50yo+ people who are mostly carrying some excess baggage (like myself). Activity tracking is going to appeal to them in and of itself.


    True, but are they going to buy another one given that they are only wearing their existing Patek 20-40% of what they used to?



  • Registered Users Posts: 32,802 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Going off on a tangent here, but did anyone watch Sunderland Til I Die on Netflix?

    In the first series, the chief executive Martin Bain seemed to be a watch fan. I think I counted 4 different ones on his wrists in the show.


    Edit: this guy counted 5

    https://twitter.com/kcmanc/status/1086948680006017026?lang=en-GB



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,578 ✭✭✭scwazrh


    Smart watches are more accurate , easier to repair ,cheaper to run ,have greater functionality ,dont need service history and help to show that you are not someone afraid of modern technology .

    Yet we all prefer the more expensive , less accurate , delicate watches that hark back to an older time of craftmanship .Similar to why true enthusiats would buy an older 911 instead of a new Taycan...Maybe theres still a future for mechanical items after all .



  • Registered Users Posts: 64,547 ✭✭✭✭unkel




  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,027 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I dunno if smart watches are easier to repair S. They very much have a shelf life, not least because of advancing tech. If you had a 90's digital with all the trimmings and couldn't find a working one on ebay to canabalise for spares you're likely screwed.

    Your two paragraphs kinda illustrate what has very much changed in the world of watches. Up until the Swiss revival of mechanical, watches were more how you describe them in your first paragraph. They were jewellery yes, but had a distinct practical function, innovations like water resistence, auto winding, chronos, alarms, even changing styles plugged into that 'modern'. Later innovations like electronic and quartz really plugged into the we're moving into the future mindset of the buyers. Very few would have wanted to hark back to the old unless it was a treasured watch of a family member, or they were older themselves and bought what they knew. Look how quickly quartz took over and when digitals came out which were as modern tech as you can get people dropped the old en masse.

    Now for the vast majority of people in this 'postmodern' world they still buy modern tech, if they wear a watch at all. Quartz is still king and as Apple shows smartwatches outsell everything the Swiss produce and that's just one smartwatch from one brand. Add in smartwatches from other brands, fitbits and the like and wrist furniture is still very much modernist. The Swiss mechanical revival itself got a massive shove in investment from the equally massive sales of cheap, plastic, very modish and modern, quartz Swatches.

    Then you have the enthusiasts. While you certainly had strong sales of 'good watches', mechanical and quartz, usually one off lifetime purchases, wedding, birthday pressies and the like(TAG Heuer being king in that bracket for a time), the enthusiasts were a tiny niche of weirdos at the fringes. It's really only grown beyond that niche in the last decade or so. Hodinkee which drove much of it in the mainstream is only going since 2008 and only really started to gain traction in the last ten years. John Mayer's talking watches was a breakout piece for them and that's from 2013.

    In the end the vast majority of people outside of investors and actual enthusiasts want to buy the Taycan.

    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,526 ✭✭✭Fitz II


    Good point..here I am in mondello in my 911. 😜





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  • Registered Users Posts: 64,547 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    And do you still have that, or what do you have now, Fitz? 😂



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,526 ✭✭✭Fitz II


    Too uncomfortable for a every day car...although was a good jammer, sold i (for more than I paid for it...the rolex of cars).....have driven a good few air cooled porsche and honestly I dont get it. I would have a late 70's 911SC or a targa just for the look but as a driving machine they dont hold up well today in my humble opinion. They look cool I see the appeal there, and you get your "purest" badge. But for driving...not so much.


    came from this....V10 M5 (The omega of cars resale value wise) and a V8 6 series (piece of wallowy crap)

    But after the Porsche I had the three of these at the same time

    E30 I restored myself...(sold it an should not have, its was a beauty and like she rolled off the factory floor in the end). Pic of what I spend every weekend doing for 6 months.....



    Straight 6 M4 daily

    Here I am with my best friend doing some drag racing


    And a e46 straight 6 M3 for a track car (again restored by me, pic of it on my cousins lift doing some jobs, think I replaced the brakes that day and stripped a bolt on the carrier, took me 5 hours retrieve it)

    Oh and I ran a detailing forum/website for a while with a couple of other fellows, but the business failed acrimoniously between the lads and I was left holding the baby, still find cleaning a car to be one of the most therapeutic things a man can do. Clears the mind. Few other in the back catalogue...Rx8, few mazdas, about 3 other beemers.

    But I still do enjoy learning what a true enthusiast would buy......😜

    Post edited by Fitz II on


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,087 ✭✭✭Krombopulos Michael


    I had a Pebble Steele smart watch. Great watch and enjoyed it....until they sold out to Fitibit who after a short time killed all the servers for Pebble. There are some ad-hoc ways to get the watch to work, but the community died off.

    Decided to go back to normal watch, bought a Seiko SNJ025 from a boardies and havent looked back.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,027 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I had a series 3 Apple watch for a while, but sold it on. I rarely if ever wore it tbh. I'm trying to buy a very early first series example from a guy I know. He's resisting. 😁 Mainly because it's the first of that line, so as a bit of a whim and I'd likely only use it as a watch.

    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,692 ✭✭✭Lorddrakul


    I'd actually like to have a no display activity tracker to wear on my right wrist while I wear a proper watch on the left.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,364 ✭✭✭Ryath


    Whoop doesn't have a screen, it's pretty pricey though with their subscription model. €30 a month or €18 if you pay for 18 months up front.

    Considering my own options have a Fitbit Inspire that I wear on my right wrist more than 2 years now and considering replacing it. I hardly ever look at the screen so a band and notifications on phone would be enough for me. Fitbit Lux is a little smaller and I'm already on the fitbit ecosystem. Sort of tempted to switch to a Garmin Vivosmart 4 as I already use a Garmin Edge for cycling and a 910xt for running and swimming so would be good to have all that data in one location as well as my daily activity and sleep tracking.

    Ouraring looks interesting, bit pricey though. I'd say in another generation or two a ring based device could a great option.




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,012 ✭✭✭njburke


    My first watch book has arrived, had a little look through and was pleased to see there's a doxa ,accutron and some Casios in it. It's a coffee table type book, short story from an owner of an iconic watch. No Seiko in though, or Nina Rindts Heuer.




  • Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭Roycropper63


    lads am having a senior moment here. if buying a s\h watch from the uk is it vat i have to pay plus admin charges? and is there a way of using ebay to translate descriotions etc>

    thanks Roy



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,578 ✭✭✭scwazrh


    Yeah 23% vat plus admin fee which is small enough . Vat is the killer .

    for eBay there’s browser plug ins for translation or copy the text and paste it into Google translate



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  • Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭Roycropper63


    thqnks S



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