Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

Cyclingtourist · 19-04-2021 10:58pm

Thirdfox wrote: »

Everyone always forgets about the Spanish Inquisition Malta

Maltese is the first language of Malta although English is widely spoken.

Thirdfox · 19-04-2021 11:16pm

https://www.visitmalta.com/en/language

The official languages of Malta are Maltese and English.

Now I imagine that Maltese is the primary language of Malta - but English is an official language too (in Ireland it has the same implications that forms etc. have to be in Irish as well as English). It's different to say Germany where many Germans speak perfect English but it's not an "official" language of the country.

The main point is our government often says we're the *only* EU country that has English as our national/native/official language - it's just factually incorrect. Hey the law firms say it to the US companies looking to do some FDI too - people just conveniently forget about inconvenient Malta.

Though it could be the case that Germans may have better English than Maltese etc. - I've yet to visit Malta though I hear the diving is lovely

- maybe a photo-op trip with the Equinox

Eoin · 19-04-2021 11:24pm

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Maltese is the first language of Malta although English is widely spoken.

I didn't realise this until just now but apparently there's a distinction between a "national" and "official" language, and English is an official language there. Edit: beaten to it.

Fittingly for the topic, it seems like a semantic argument. Off the top of my head, and without being arsed to google - I would imagine there are tons of Dutch with excellent English. We're probably not as competitive as we like to think.

Cyclingtourist · 19-04-2021 11:36pm

I spent a couple of weeks in Malta once. Lots of reminders of British rule and WW2. Two great sieges one by the Ottomans and the other by the Germans and Italians.

I liked it.

banie01 · 20-04-2021 8:10am

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

I spent a couple of weeks in Malta once. Lots of reminders of British rule and WW2. Two great sieges one by the Ottomans and the other by the Germans and Italians.

I liked it.

One of my wife's relatives led the defence of Malta and has a street named after him there

William Dobbie, quite a storied career too tbh.

Cyprus also has a huge amount of proficient English speakers and not surprisingly the high number of EU finance houses that English proficiency and favourable tax rates bring

blue5000 · 20-04-2021 4:51pm

Eoin wrote: »

I didn't realise this until just now but apparently there's a distinction between a "national" and "official" language, and English is an official language there. Edit: beaten to it.

Fittingly for the topic, it seems like a semantic argument. Off the top of my head, and without being arsed to google - I would imagine there are tons of Dutch with excellent English. We're probably not as competitive as we like to think.

You have reminded me of a cultural exchange I was on to S.France a long time ago. There was a Dutch girl there with a really strong English accent, I thought she was English, she was wearing a pair of steel toe Doc shoes with the leather cut out to show off the steel toe. So the first thing I said to her was 'Who's the knacker with the steel toe Docs?' Needless to say she wanted to know what a knacker was..:D

Lorddrakul · 21-04-2021 11:52am

So, I've spent the last few weeks trying to find the best bracelets for my Speedmaster Mark II.

Here are a few of the options:

President

Engineer

Ref 1498

I've modified the president above, as the solid milled end link didn't look right. I got a needle file and profiled the centre recess so it is a similar curve to the middle links. It now sits much better and looks very utilitarian.

So, it and the Engineer will be the ones to use.

The 1450 style just doesn't look right. It is a nice bracelet, well made, but just doesn't suit the watch.

Now I have the birth year watch I wanted, fully serviced, made everyday usable with NOS parts and a range of bracelets and straps to suit every occasion.

Eh, now what do I do?

The hunt is over - research done, references filed, sources consulted.

I'm wearing it daily and over a two week period it runs +2 to +3 per day.

The satisfaction of a successful hunt is left with a small hollow of no more hunt.

Pooh.

Cyrus · 21-04-2021 12:04pm

Folks i am seriously contemplating a full yellow gold oysterquartz day date, anyone care to talk me out of it??

this config

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbmXV25BnU

893bet · 21-04-2021 12:11pm

Cyrus wrote: »

Folks i am seriously contemplating a full yellow gold oysterquartz day date, anyone care to talk me out of it??

this config

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbmXV25BnU

From a google....it would be a no from me. If I was going solid yellow gold it would be a daydate 36 for price being similar.

But still no.

Too gaudy IMO. Can only attract negative attention.

Cyrus · 21-04-2021 12:13pm

893bet wrote: »

From a google....it would be a no from me. If I was going solid yellow gold it would be a daydate 36 for price being similar.

But still no.

Too gaudy IMO. Can only attract negative attention.

yeah i know what you are saying, its a watch i like the look of but would i wear it

my missus has a lady president and its epic, i really like it, but its 26mm so less in your face

redlead · 21-04-2021 12:15pm

Cyrus wrote: »

Folks i am seriously contemplating a full yellow gold oysterquartz day date, anyone care to talk me out of it??

this config

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbmXV25BnU

No! It's not 1986 and you aren't the head of a Columbian drug cartel! :eek:

banie01 · 21-04-2021 12:16pm

Cyrus wrote: »

Folks i am seriously contemplating a full yellow gold oysterquartz day date, anyone care to talk me out of it??

That's a lot of gold!
I'm not a fan of it, but I think with a contrasting dial?
Maybe the green I'd be swayed into not minding it maybe?
Loving it would be a stretch tho

I have had the bracelet off the VC to measure up the lug and inset sizes and have had confirmation that a custom fitted strap is very doable!

I'm swaying between Ostrich or Alligator in blue...
May leave the Mrs make the call.

893bet · 21-04-2021 12:25pm

Cyrus wrote: »

yeah i know what you are saying, its a watch i like the look of but would i wear it

my missus has a lady president and its epic, i really like it, but its 26mm so less in your face

I quite like the look of them also. But would never wear it. And the first time I saw someone eyes trained to it while wearing it (which would be day 1 as it’s like a magnet) would be the last time I wore it.

On a strap it might be much better but they don’t have the elegance a Gold Calatrava has or Fitz gold ALS but I guess they are not trying to be a dress watch either.

Wibbs · 21-04-2021 12:36pm

I hold an affection for the oysterquartz and the overall design. IMHO one of the finest movements Rolex has ever produced. It just happened to have a battery. Very blingy in the gold. I like it and actually would prefer it to the steel(though IIRC they never produced the day date in particular in steel). Another one I like, even prefer, though it doesn't have Rolex's quartz in is the first Beta 21 powered Rolex Quartz. The "Texan" IIRC. Really blingy.

Fitz II · 21-04-2021 12:37pm

Qyster Quartz

Pros : Cheap, Rolex, Retro Cool, bit out there and different.

Cons : A bit undesirable despite what Thin Mosso says, Bracelet is not as good as day date, not a daydate, very blingy in Ireland

This watch say "Mangetout Rodney" to me and come on its a Quartz. Quartz is interesting no doubt but not at the 13k pricepoint. If its gold you are after buy a ALS

Cyrus · 21-04-2021 12:40pm

Fitz II wrote: »

This watch say "Mangetout Rodney" to me

Cienciano · 21-04-2021 12:56pm

Gold bracelet imho is fine on certain people. Young people, it looks terrible. If you're over 60 you can get away with it.

Wibbs · 21-04-2021 1:01pm

Fitz II wrote: »

This watch say "Mangetout Rodney" to me and come on its a Quartz. Quartz is interesting no doubt but not at the 13k pricepoint.

To be fair Rolex's in gold, or even two tone can all be a bit Mangetout Rodney depending on the viewer and the quartz movement in that blew the doors off the tolerances and finish and innovation of any automatic movement Rolex produced at the time(and even well into this century). The bracelet isn't as good as a modern Rolex bracelet, but it's head and shoulders above its contemporaries. Rolex were well known for coming out with below par bracelets. At their original mid tier pricepoint Omega were notably superior, Longines about the same or worse than Rolex.

Though I would agree it's just a bit too blingy for Ireland alright. They're very obvious in the flesh. Chunky. Pretty awful on a strap and nearly as blingy. I'd also agree re the price for a quartz. Not horologically as such, but the fact is the market sees quartz as bad and at that price? Nope.

Cienciano · 21-04-2021 1:12pm

I know a guy with a president, he's about 70, he's fairly loaded, everything he wears is expensive, he's american and is tanned and plays tennis so is fairly trim. He can pull it off. His wife has a matching one too. If you're a fat pasty balding irish guy, look like archie luxury or something, it's a bad look. The used car salesman look. Last person I saw wearing one was trying to sell me a couch in Mattress Micks.

But of course, if you like it, fúck what people think.

James Bond Junior · 21-04-2021 1:21pm

I tried a two tone datejust one a few months ago. Used example. It looked thoroughly and completely daft on me as a mid thirties pasty Irishman. Don't...

Fitz II · 21-04-2021 1:49pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Not horologically as such, but the fact is the market sees quartz as bad and at that price? Nope.

When you are dropping that sort of money these things do become important I am afraid. I double dare you to buy one and not consider all the other majestic mechanical things you could get :P

Wibbs · 21-04-2021 4:11pm

Fitz II wrote: »

When you are dropping that sort of money these things do become important I am afraid.

Oh I agree. Though they seem to hold their values over the years, or at least they did. There was always a niche Rolex/High end quartz market that stayed relatively buoyant. What I noticed about them a few years back was yep a seller would get his money back, but he was selling to that niche segment so it could take a goodly while to sell. Mechanicals of any decent brand sold far more quickly.

I just looked at Chrono24 and by god they've gone up in "value". The Rolex effect I presume? One reason on top of the historical interest I got into the early quartz stuff many moons ago was they were really good value and off the majority radar. When new they were the flagships of their brands and much pricier than the mechanicals which were seen as old tech at the time. So you could get once flagships, with the best cases, dials, bracelets etc for buttons compared to mechanicals of their era. Looking at Chrono24 that ship has largely sailed.

Cyclingtourist · 21-04-2021 6:42pm

Pre-owned bicycles went up during Covid.

This may not be of interest to you but I sold one of my bikes yesterday, hell of a lot easier to do than it would have been in 2019.

Fitz II · 21-04-2021 8:02pm

Wibbs wrote: »

I just looked at Chrono24 and by god they've gone up in "value". The Rolex effect I presume? One reason on top of the historical interest I got into the early quartz stuff many moons ago was they were really good value and off the majority radar. When new they were the flagships of their brands and much pricier than the mechanicals which were seen as old tech at the time. So you could get once flagships, with the best cases, dials, bracelets etc for buttons compared to mechanicals of their era. Looking at Chrono24 that ship has largely sailed.

These Quartz are laggards compared to their mechanical counterparts. Far less valuable and a far more flat trajectory. The Rolex effect is missing them a bit in the last decade anyway. compared to the notorious hard to shift 36mm president day-date.

Wibbs · 21-04-2021 9:08pm

Fitz II wrote: »

These Quartz are laggards compared to their mechanical counterparts. Far less valuable and a far more flat trajectory. The Rolex effect is missing them a bit in the last decade anyway. compared to the notorious hard to shift 36mm president day-date.

Oh very much so Fitz. That's been my general observation on niches of that kind. They get to a value and stay flat, or very slowly increase. There are small but fairly consistent niches in the vintage market outside the background trends that are less prone to trends that can come and go. Early wristwatches, Trench watches and the like, is another niche like the Oysterquartz and high end early quartz(Beta 21's/JLC Masterquartz etc). Allowing for inflation and the wider growth of the hobby, good ones were always between 500-800 quid on average and have been like that since even before the interwebs really started to bite in the market. Higher prices were and are in dealer's imaginations hoping for newbies to bite. A very narrow niche indeed like very early digitals are similar.

One niche that was like that, but then went nuts after being cool hunted by Hodinkee and the like are vintage military watches. Though that market has softened of late, with bugger all supply because long standing collectors are hanging onto their stuff and cost of entry for newbies went way up. Early Rolex were stable in price, then went absolutely nuts in the late 90's, early 00's then near overnight wen back to their previous values.

Though again the vintage segment is very different to the new(or current) luxury segment. Outside of 1940's PP's in steel, or Daytonas with different coloured lettering going for half a million quid at a Sotheby's auction, a very rarefied market, it seems there are far more buyers in the new luxury end of the hobby willing to spend five figures. A lot, if not the majority of sought after vintage models tend to be sub five figures and few enough would be more than 20k.

IrishPlayer · 21-04-2021 9:32pm

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Pre-owned bicycles went up during Covid.

This may not be of interest to you but I sold one of my bikes yesterday, hell of a lot easier to do than it would have been in 2019.

Have been on the hunt for a bicycle myself at the moment ( XL frame hybrid style for commuting to work and hopefully some longer cycles on days off, possible watch cycle GTG?:)) Have a saved search on Adverts.ie, the minute something comes up, the vultures swoop in!:pac: haven't even time to get an offer in!:rolleyes:

Back to watches.....
Haven't been on here for awhile, busy with work and an on going battle with the doctor's regarding knee surgery for my mother. Still waiting on a package from Japan that is watch related , went EMS this time, really slow at the moment, the waiting is torture!

Going with the gold watches discussion above, I have an itch myself for one after spotting this Bell

Very rare 21Jewel model which was an Export model as a transition from 27 to 17 Jewels. Now sold but had been in contact with the owner, Ralph who also collects Bells, having a Dolphin himself. The bracelet is made by Stelux,

really adds to the look,ended up not going for it due to a mark on the dial, another the same is currently up at the moment,but missing the bracelet :rolleyes: I wonder are gold watches making a comeback?

Haven't any new watch spots in Knight Rider, but I finally got some of the previous spots posted up

https://watchesinmovies.info/tv/knight-rider-1982-season-1/

mailforkev · 22-04-2021 10:20am

Stumbled upon some Millionaire Pawnbroker show on Virgin last night. A woman was trying to flog a couple of Rolexes, a "Daytona" that she bought at a car boot sale for 25 quid and another old gold one that belonged to her grandad.

The 25 quid Daytona was obviously fake but of course, they dragged that out for 10 mins while the pawnbroker inspected it, even though he clearly would have known straight away.

The other watch was more interesting. It looked like muck, clearly a fake Rolex. However, it turned out to be solid gold. Yer man broke it up and gave her almost 3 grand for the gold. Why would anyone go to the bother of making a solid gold fake, the mind boggles.

Creamy Goodness · 22-04-2021 10:37am

mailforkev wrote: »

Stumbled upon some Millionaire Pawnbroker show on Virgin last night. A woman was trying to flog a couple of Rolexes, a "Daytona" that she bought at a car boot sale for 25 quid and another old gold one that belonged to her grandad.

The 25 quid Daytona was obviously fake but of course, they dragged that out for 10 mins while the pawnbroker inspected it, even though he clearly would have known straight away.

The other watch was more interesting. It looked like muck, clearly a fake Rolex. However, it turned out to be solid gold. Yer man broke it up and gave her almost 3 grand for the gold. Why would anyone go to the bother of making a solid gold fake, the mind boggles.

Saw a different episode of this, where a lady was given a Patek Philipe 5327J (I think it was, they didn't give the ref number) that her granddad won in a poker game and she was looking for 15k to pay for some medical bills for her kid, she went to the pawn broker. The broker took it to an "expert" looked at the movement and said "it's real, you can't fake that movement" which I'm guessing was to play up the show a bit.

She was floored when the broker offered £75k (or it was 85k can't remember) for the watch (and another 60k - or 50k can't remember exactly - for a set of diamond earrings she had). Imagine if it wasn't part of the show, the broker could have made and even tidier profit by just giving her £20k and he'd come out it a good guy :pac:

Cyrus · 22-04-2021 11:13am

mailforkev wrote: »

Stumbled upon some Millionaire Pawnbroker show on Virgin last night. A woman was trying to flog a couple of Rolexes, a "Daytona" that she bought at a car boot sale for 25 quid and another old gold one that belonged to her grandad.

The 25 quid Daytona was obviously fake but of course, they dragged that out for 10 mins while the pawnbroker inspected it, even though he clearly would have known straight away.

The other watch was more interesting. It looked like muck, clearly a fake Rolex. However, it turned out to be solid gold. Yer man broke it up and gave her almost 3 grand for the gold. Why would anyone go to the bother of making a solid gold fake, the mind boggles.

i saw that, utterly bizarre wasnt it

Lorddrakul · 22-04-2021 1:08pm

IrishPlayer wrote: »

Have been on the hunt for a bicycle myself at the moment ( XL frame hybrid style for commuting to work and hopefully some longer cycles on days off, possible watch cycle GTG?:)) Have a saved search on Adverts.ie, the minute something comes up, the vultures swoop in!:pac: haven't even time to get an offer in!:rolleyes:

Back to watches.....
Haven't been on here for awhile, busy with work and an on going battle with the doctor's regarding knee surgery for my mother. Still waiting on a package from Japan that is watch related , went EMS this time, really slow at the moment, the waiting is torture!

Going with the gold watches discussion above, I have an itch myself for one after spotting this Bell

Very rare 21Jewel model which was an Export model as a transition from 27 to 17 Jewels. Now sold but had been in contact with the owner, Ralph who also collects Bells, having a Dolphin himself. The bracelet is made by Stelux,

really adds to the look,ended up not going for it due to a mark on the dial, another the same is currently up at the moment,but missing the bracelet :rolleyes: I wonder are gold watches making a comeback?

Haven't any new watch spots in Knight Rider, but I finally got some of the previous spots posted up https://watchesinmovies.info/tv/knight-rider-1982-season-1/

Love that bracelet, apart from the two tone, of course.

Looks very like the original Accutron Astronaut 'coffin link' bracelet: here
Bulova-Accutron-Astronaut-Coffin-Link-Steel-Bracelet_3_800x.jpg?v=1603650171

Bulova-Accutron-Astronaut-Coffin-Link-Steel-Bracelet_3_800x.jpg?v=1603650171

Lovely.

Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

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