My favourite watch. Not that I can possibly justify it - and I am 50 later this month!

you could follow in my footsteps ..have an affair ,a marriage break up, a bout in a clinic and protracted estrangement from loved ones........hmmm

nice watch

Watches are so 20th century, if I want to know the time I get my phone out of my pocket. I'm really glad that I don't have to wear something round my wrist all day anymore, I used to hate it.

Yes absolutely you should go ahead and buy yourself a nice watch. However, in my experience, Omega is not of sufficient build quality to justify the price.

So,the options are - spend more and get a timepiece of unassailable quality - or spend much less and get one whose build quality is unlikely to disappoint.

If the first option is an option then the option for which I would opt is an IWC. If not, spend around £400 and get a Seiko. It will not let you down. It won't have the same cachet but the thousand or more you save could be used on hookers and cocaine or a really good lightweight bike.

The choice, of course, is yours.

a good, mechanical watch is a real pleasure and Omega has some nice models. But you might like to consider whether you want something with a generic movement (most Omegas, most TAG Heuers, most Hublots most watches under £1000) or something where the movement is made in-house. And these tend to go for upwards of £1500. Manufacturers who make pretty much all of the constituent parts include Jaeger LeCoultre, Rolex, IWC, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, Patek Philippe and on and on. And, of course, the sky is the limit when it comes to price. The good news is that decent watches do retain their value.

I'm wearing a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Duo now.

I love watches, & have had several different ones during my adult life.I currently wear an Omega constellation (sorry, but unable to put a phoyo up), & it is a wonderful piece of kit, & I cant ever imagine that I would ever want to buy another watch.

Like most material things, it is possible to spend more, so it comes down to what you like & how much you want to spend.

I would agree with Sheev, if your budget is around the £500 mark, a top end Seiko would be a good choice , & without a doubt, there are other beautiful watches on the market. You pay your money, you make your choice etc...

Happy shopping.

I think you mean counsel.

After all, most councils are bureaucratic, intimidating, and definitely not wise.

I've not worn one since. It's liberating.

Time's a state of mind, yeah?

I like but I don't buy. Purely because I will scratch them and the running costs are pretty phenomenal (a service costs £100 plus). So I stick with nice watches that are not too expensive. My current watch is one of these -> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Golana-Internal-Bi-directional-Rotating-AQ100-2/...

It does all the things I need and looks nice. Before that I had a Seiko which cost me £60 on Ebay and it gave me 10 years good service. I only got a new one because it wasn't keeping time and the service cost for a automatic watch was more than I paid for the thing.

to be honest I cannot realy see the point of buying any other brand if one is going to spend a lot of money on a watch

I also have a Tag Monaco but it strikes me as a bit of style over substance.

Mind you, I wear either rarely as I tend to jsut look at my mobile phone or computer screen for the time or around the floor where I work which is beset with all manner of clocks

Why spend loads of money on a watch when you can get one that will tell the time just as well for £20? There must be something you could spend your money on that will give you more joy than a watch.
It isn't as though women are going to see it and throw themselves at you or men are going to admire you because you spent loadsamomey on a bloody watch. For example, you could buy a decent bit of hi-fi, a bit of a holiday, some new clothes (have you seen yourself lately?).

Mind you,I don't see the point of jewellery either (I'm not even sure I can spell it) much to my wife's chagrin.

*gets coat*

Mine cost £5.99 from the local Nickel And Dime. It tells the time as accurately as I will wish it to. It will also go tits up after 18 months or so. So I then buy another one. Another £5.99. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Why spend more?

Why not get a tattoo on your wrist saying "I've got £1,500 going begging that I could've spent on a watch.."?

A bloke I know wears a Rolex submariner. His is very plain stainless steel watch designed for professional divers. It has a company logo on it and a nitrogen relief valve on the side.

Last month, another of those watches sold at an auction in New York for $178,000.

Ray isn't selling his. It's his watch. He likes it. He worked for the company. It saved his life a couple of times. He's worth several million anyway. No-one's having his watch.

A friend has written a book about him.

Thousands of pounds on a timepiece? Shit. My GLW bought me a Storm watch (it's very nice, thanks, and doesn't make my wrist smell) for about £80 a few years ago, and that felt like a slightly obscene amount to spend on a watch...

Am I hanging in the wrong place?

Up until about 3 years ago, I had no interest in watches at all. I wore a cheapo one and didn't give it a second thought. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, I became interested in timepieces. I don't have the readies for a Patek Philippe, an IWC or a Vacherin Constantin, but I've bought a few cheaper watches that I like, including three 'automatic' (i.e. mechannical) ones, which are a particular thrill.
So far on this thread, most of the timepieces that have been mentioned have been either:

a)very expensive watches
b)throwaway cheapo watches

I've tried to concentrate on the segment in between, and there are are some lovely timepieces around for pretty reasonable prices. I don't want to fill the Word website with hundreds of pictures of watches, but five lesser-known (?) makes that are worth investigating are:

1) Debaufré

2) Archimede

3) Davosa

4) Sinn

At the moment I'm wearing a Stowa Antea Creme. Personally, owning it and consulting it gives me a great deal more pleasure than looking at my mobile to check the time, although I can understand that others might feel the opposite.

5) Stowa

i never wore a watch or used an alarm clock.

I could tell the time within 5 minutes of the actual time very consistently and could wake up according to schedule with similar reliability

can't remember when I lost the facility

possibly when I discovered spliffs

Had it for my 19th birthday and still going strong nearly 30 years later.

I must confess to being a bit bemused by this thread. A watch is just something to tell the time by and anything more than that smacks of conspicuous consumption! These watches all look very nice...but I've never felt the need to have a couple of grand on my wrist - just asking to get mugged.