What's your wish list.....

Wibbs wrote: »

As TF noted earlier Citizen, Seiko and Sea-Gull are "inhouse" and have been forever. I could add the French LIP and Mortima to the list. Mortima, the now defunct purveyor of very cheap and cheerful watches were more inhouse than any Swiss. they made everything in the factory, dials, cases, hands etc, even their own straps, jewels and springbars. And haute couture watchmaking they were not. American brands were far more inhouse, when they were still around. Of the Swiss brands? Well the Swiss had always outsourced from the early days. Initially with handmade parts and then when industrialisation came along(nicked from the Americans) they continued that parts bin trend. Well it worked and worked very well.

When the wristwatch came along the Swiss brands would buy cases from company A, very often movements from company B, dials from company C and so on. Rolex were the king of this. In the early days they weren't a manufacturer at all, more like a parts assembly house/wholesaler. A rare few like Zenith, IWC(who were more known as movement makers until the 40's) and Longines were movement wise fully inhouse until the late 60's. Few enough of any of the rest were.

People originally bought watches depending on the retailer, often by the jewel count, then came the brand name(again an American import notion, Rolex being the pioneer of that in the rest of the anglosphere), the movements or where they originated would have barely been in the mix for 99% of customers.

Now I do get why it's a wish/concern for buyers today, but it's quite the more recent concern.

Try anything else nice on ?

It would be far more expensive to go that route. Bracelets cost a fortune. A sub is about a grand cheaper than a bluesy, a genuine bluesy dial is about €400-500 and a bezel insert less than €100

If I went the bluesy route and had to change the bracelet, I'd probably buy a jubilee to be even more different 😂

If / when I return to original, it is back to being the sub date that I bought. Even if that leaves me with the dial / bezel insert that might be unsellable (in Ireland), it won't have cost me much

Sub date is always an easier sell than a bluesy

Thanks for your input though and that of the others, I have never done anything like this before or even considered it. Damn Rolex, they simply won't make the watch that I want 😂

Bluesy not a bit purple for all that no ? I can’t imagine it looking like you expect

Purely on the wish, rather than any active effort, list...

A Speedmaster Mark 4.5

I love the dial, and the movement is a marvel for the time.

My favourite automatic Speedmaster.

My list is all over the place but here it is warts and all.

Casio G Shock metal

Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 410z movement

Rolex GMT-Master II 16713, faded aluminum bezel and chocolate dial ideally on a jubilee if possible

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Duoface Tribute Duoface Calendar 3918420

A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1

and for some reason I am really liking the retro Omega Seamaster 300 heritage in black

I think that would end up looking a fake smurf ? Steinhart have what you need.

worth trying one on (if you havent) i thought that would be my dream watch and it lasted no length with me! its very blingy.

Was my dream watch too. But when I tried it on, I dismissed it for two reasons: watch too small and in particular the dial felt very small. And that was the blue sunburst dial I was interested in most. I kinda like the bling and I didn't feel it was overwhelming

You might as well go try it on somewhere, Weir's now have a decent rotation of exhibition only watches. It is likely to pop up soon enough. Otherwise it might turn out that you have been wasting your own time!

Haha, it used to be too small, but I lost weight last year and strangely my wrist has gone down from 8" to 7.5". You'd think there is no fat on the wrist, but the tape measure says otherwise. Tried on a batgirl in Weir's a few weeks ago and the size was fine (used to be too small). So I figured that a same size pre-ceramic sub also would be fine now

I do mind the modern ceramic bezels, in particular the blue ones. Ceramic on Rolex looks cheap and fake to me. I do like the old aluminium bezels, in particular the blue one on the bluesy. I don't mind the gold on the bezel or case, it's subtle enough compared with the bracelet