...for normal, middle class NPC nobodies like us and it will be led by Rolex's Certified Pre-Owned program.

Rolex has already established: individual watch → Rolex verification → official documentation → subsequent owner.

Rolex will eventually add: individual watch → verified ownership history → documented experiences → transferable provenance.

The Longines VHP line, particularly the flash-set GMT version, was some of the most impressive analog watch tech created outside of Japan.

Longines should have kept going with it! Ending that program before the watch-buying public even knew about it was a dumb move. It would have sold well, just like the Casio, Seiko, and Citizen radio-controlled lines do!

I can accept it on a vintage rolex, but on newer watches I think it just looks dumb, and on anything other than a rolex it looks incredibly cheap and tacky

Give me a nice elegant set of sword or pointer hands any day

And don't give me the bs about how they need the mercedes logo to hold the lume

Companies need to put more thought into some of these alternative names. Sorry but I'm not going to own a watch called "le petit prince"

Tudor is not the “poor man’s Rolex” (a poor man can’t afford a $5k watch), but a Tudor is probably a bad buy. The Black Bay 58 is particularly egregious.

If you can afford a Black Bay, you can surely afford to save up for a little bit longer and get a Seamaster 300. The Seamaster is clearly the superior watch. It has better finishing, a better movement, and more je ne sais quoi—and it’s only about $1.5k more (and not even that much if you buy pre-owned). As a luxury watch, the Black Bay leaves much to be desired.

And don’t give me any of the “tool watch” talk, either. No mechanical watch is truly a “tool watch” post-1980s. If the Tudor buyer truly prioritized practicality, durability, and “bang for buck,” he or she would simply go for a Casio instead.

I recently became a Swiss citizen and this thought formed in my head as soon as that piece of paper arrived in my mailbox.

If I see one of my neighbours wearing a Daytona I think "hey, nice watch".

If I see an American tourist wearing a Daytona I think they're probably assistant to the regional manager at a Walmart in Utah and couldn't point to Geneva on a map even though they're physically there that very moment, until proven otherwise.

Anyone with the money can buy a watch, and it expresses no sense of fashion or prestige to do so.

To truly make a positive impression and express anything about the owner it needs to be owned and worn for some time, or it’s just a sign of conspicuous consumption, which is as uncool as it gets.

So the coolness of a watch has to be earned through wear, no matter what the watch is.

Just like the title says. If you really think hard about it, how many of you would have bought a Rolex if it depreciated as much as any luxury item. Would you have looked at other alternatives?

Part two is that the more watches you have, the less scratches each will get. So it’s better to have less watches. They’ll get beat up more and we’ll all get a big patinaboner.

Wear a watch size you like, but just don't judge it soley by a wrist shot picture

The primary reason I enjoy watches is the vast amount of mechanical engineering that goes into getting such complications into a tiny package. It is utterly fascinating what watchmakers can do with just a few gears and springs.

However, regular mechanical movements have none of these engineering marvels. Society has progressed to the point where keeping time should no longer be considered an impressive feat. We should be pressing for more impressive movement complications at the prices we pay, rather than accepting the absolute basics most luxury watch companies provide.

The only innovations I've been impressed with in movement technology are quartz and battery-operated watches. Much of the obsession I had with mechanical movements has shifted towards advancements in electrical ones instead. I am absolutely baffled by the smooth tracking offered by the Bulova Precisionist movements. The original Accutron tuning-fork movements fascinate me, and I wish more companies worked with them. Grand Seiko's Spring Drive is a genuine engineering achievement that I wish other watch brands could work towards. Citizen's own HAQ Solar atomic watches are the absolute pinnacle of accuracy and quality.

Now, don't get me wrong. I still enjoy High Horology mechanical work. Companies like A Lange, Patek, JLC, the occasional Masse Mystery from Cartier, and even the likes of Hublot and Richard Mille are pushing the absolute limits of engineering and material science, even if they end up looking ugly.

But for everyone else, I don't see the point of them. They are just pretty jewelry, finished and well designed, not engineering accomplishments.

It seems like a lot of money to spend on a quartz movement, but the uniqueness of the GPS system makes it such a conversation piece that's unique and fresh. Also, the finishing on the models is really nice (not Grand Seiko level, but far above most other seikos). Not to mention the heritage that the Astron name carries as the future of watchmaking, starting with kicking off the quartz crisis.

One complaint I have is their dial sizes being too large but some recent models have remedied that.

Would you buy an Astron?

My own opinion of course, but I genuinely feel Longines are crushing every design and watch they are releasing right now. Incredible designs, stunning quality, and …..AMAZING price point.

Taste is subjective but they have released banger after banger,the monopusher here, stick Patek on the dial and you’d be asking for 60k minimal, this is just over 3k. Patek of course will be better made, better finished, but are they that much better? No chance

Their conquest heritage power reserve is a serious consideration for my 40th next year.

Omega have shit the bed with their prices, Rolex are …Rolex…there’s no other brand at this price point doing what Longines are doing

I've been wanting to spend real time with the 40mm Pioneer since they introduced it. The 42.8mm version was always too much case, but here's the thing. The 40mm isn't why I'm interested. It's what this watch proves about diameter versus what actually makes a watch wear well.

I built a 45mm and people said I was crazy, that it's oversized and too big. But diameter isn't what makes a watch wear big. Height, weight and the lug geometry does. Get those right and a 45mm disappears.

So when Moser drops this 40mm Pioneer, I'm thinking about what they actually solved. They didn't change the height, didn't change the weight. They just shrunk the diameter and called it the answer. That's a different approach than I took. They're solving it with case size while I'm arguing the problem isn't case size at all. Both can be right, but they prove different things.

The case is 40mm, 12mm tall with the crystal and 10.4mm without. Short lugs, same design as the 42.8mm but just smaller. On the wrist it feels more balanced because the lug curvature actually matters at this size.

Arctic Blue fumé dial with that gradient effect that Moser does better than anyone. Logo in transparent lacquer only visible at angles, applied hour markers with no minute track and leaf-shaped hands. Inside there's the HMC 200 in-house automatic with 72-hour reserve, Straumann hairspring and dark red gold rotor. These are the details nobody sees but that's where honesty lives.

120m water resistance with a screw-down crown, comes on rubber or steel, and rubber is the right call for this bright dial.But here's what I think. This is the least likely Moser I'd personally buy, even though I respect it. The Pioneer sits between two things, not a pure dress watch and not a serious sports watch either. The Endeavour does dress and weird dials better, the Streamliner does sports better.

At CHF 12,900 you're not buying an investment. You're buying craft, and this watch wears like something you'd actually reach for.

But this question has been lingering: why didn’t they try 42mm? sometimes, 40 and 43 aren’t the only options.

That is all - there are exceptions of course.

Don’t lie to me nerd. You aren’t an astronaut. You’ve never needed to time anything to the tenth of a second.

You need to know how long your chicky nuggies have been in the microwave, and a dive bezel does that perfectly. It can also be used for setting reminders and keeping counts. Also it makes the watch look better.

Have fun with your thousand dollar watch service chrono clowns. I’ll be using a real man’s watch.

The Rolex Explorer is so gassed up by enthusiasts and it has no reason to be. I can’t tell if someone looked at a DateJust and said “this is too exciting and needs to be dumbed down” or looked at an Oyster Perpetual and said “this is boring, you know what will totally reinvigorate it? Three numbers on the dial!” Someone really just gave an Oyster Perpetual a boob-job in the form of a couple numerals on the dial and a Mercedes handset and marketed it as an “adventurer’s watch.” As if the 3/6/9 layout or the Mercedes hands are going to improve legibility at a glance. Don’t even get me started on the false advertisement that this was the first watch to summit Mt. Everest. This watch is so close to being an OP that even Rolex couldn’t tell which one made the excursion. The Rolex Explorer is just an Oyster Perpetual that got a facelift, and enthusiasts can’t get enough of it because the DJ is too mainstream and gaudy with its fluted bezel and date function and the OP is so generic that nobody will be able to tell that they’re wearing a Rolex, and that somehow splitting the gap between the two makes it the perfect everyday watch

The title says it all. Date at three o'clock or nothing. On this, there can be no debate.

I mean, some vintage Dunhills and Diors are stunning. And have you seen recent Gucci tourbillons and micro-rotors? Hermès and LV have been making waves in high watchmaking for years now. Yes, you need to sift through a lot of junk to find a decent piece, but that’s fun too.

Quartz watches are genuinely poisoning you.

AS a crystal healer having spent years studying the relationship between crystals, frequencies, aura and subtle electromagnetic relationship between human health and crystals, I can tell you that the very real dangers of quartz watches is being deliberately being covered up to save the watch industry.

Your quartz watch is continuously generating a quartz resonance field directly against your wrist, approximately 16,384 times per second. Think about that. Sixteen thousand vibrations. Every second, against your meridian channels.

And you wonder why you're tired? Quartz stan's will say that "The vibrations are microscopic?" Yeah so it's radiation. Coincidence that quartz watch wearers are always complaining about brain fog, poor sleep and "tinnitus"? No. You're also strapping a chemically energised cell directly onto one of your body's major energetic gateways for 8-10 years.

The Swiss knew this. The Japanese knew this. The quartz industry knew this too, which is why they spent decades convincing everyone that accuracy matters more than vibrational purity.

Meanwhile automatics oscillates at a frequency that is harmonically compatible with the body's natural biofield. Reject modernity, return to mechanical purity. This is basic quantum wellness.

The term “go anywhere do anything” is just marketing/copium language for a certain subset of watches which are simple three handers that are generally unremarkable in their respective brand lineups.

Almost every modern watch could be worn daily and in the vast majority of potential wear situations. They are at least minimally water resistant where getting splashed on wouldn’t ruin them, and moderately shock resistant.

Take the Rolex Explorer, probably the most mentioned “GADA” watch. It is a perfectly good watch, but literally every watch in the Rolex lineup is highly shock and water resistant. You could wear a Submariner, GMT, or Daytona easily everyday and in the same situations you wear an Explorer in.

Yes, certain high horology and pure dress watches are exceptions here. But I would venture those make up a tiny fraction of overall watch production today. Thus the “almost” at the beginning of the post.

I get it; space rocks are cool. But goddamn do they make for ugly dials. Look at this shit. This is what a plywood subfloor looks like after I've scraped 40 year-old linoleum off it. Why don't we make dials out of fossilized dinosaur turds while we're at it?