Budget is $5,000 for EACH watch

Posted By: jeff stein

Date: 7/21/06 14:03 GMT

In Response To: Re: Five Vintage Chronos Under $5K ? Recommendatio (Alistair)

while there is a theoretical limit of $5,000 per watch, my friend would be happier if they stay under the $3,000 range.

RED underlined emphasis mine...

I'm the one who was confused and thought the budget was for $5,000 total, not $5,000 PER watch.

HOWEVER, I feel the $5,000 per watch limit is no challenge.

In fact I had a long (Hour and a half Plus Plus) phone conversation with Eric (eptaz - Moderator of the WUS Omega Forum) last night at about 10:30 pm...

Here's the schtick with the $5,000 per watch limit... What does a $5,000 per watch budget preclude one from getting?

Ceratinly they will likely preclude the "snooty brands" of AP, Blancpain, Bruget, JLC, and probably near-Snooty's like UN, VC and the like.

Rolex would nearly certainly be precluded from consideration as any real Rolex Chronograph fetches well over our $5,000 limit.

On the Omega's: Certainly the CK2915 flavor of the Speedmaster, these are getting in excess of $10,000 pretty regularly when they are offered. But that's about it. I would think that it's possible to land any of the 1986 series Moonphase's (SS, Ti, Ti/Au) for around $5,000... The last Grail Speedmaster (376.0822) I saw offered had a buy it now in the $4,795 range if I remember correctly), the CK2998's are certainly over $3,500 in value, and might just eeek out over $4,000 but I'd think that finding one by waving $5,000 around wouldn't be too difficult.

Zenith? Just about any vintage Zenith El-Primero, save maybe for the Espada (Triple Date Moonphase)

or the Titanium (and Titanium/Gold) Triple-Date Moonphases are (just) under $4,000 watches typically from my experience. I paid around $3,300 for this one about eightteen months back:

Just about every other Vintage Zenith El-Primero should be obtainable right around the $3,000 threshold.

Breitling? I can't think of any Stainless Steel Vintage Breitling that would fetch over $5,000.

And that's my point... If you have your choice of the watches of a brand are essentially unlimited there is not really any challenge to picking one to suggest.

Universal Geneve?

Even the White Dial with Black Sub Triple-Date Moonphase is about a $3,700 range watch. And that's probably the most desireable Vintage UG.

With Heuer's, about the only models that might be a stretch to buy under the $5,000 restraint might me a McQueen Monaco, or a Triple-Date White-Dial/Black Sub carrera.

his first three will be Carrera (re-issue), on strap; Carrera Cal 12, on bracelet; and Omega Speedmaster (861), on bracelet. these three will have totalled under $5000. so maybe there is some surplus in his budget??.

In my mind the problem isn't not enough money to buy 5 watches, but with this budget, you might want to consider more than 5.

over the weekend, I will make a list if the recommended watches . . . perhaps this becomes a page "Top Five Under Five".

I plan on doing something over the weekend myself, I think I'll come up with a little different approach though...

I think a far more interesting list would be Pick Five Vintage Chronoraphs under $5,000 TOTAL. I think it can be done fairly easily with lots of interesting choices. Then I might, for yucks, try to Pick Five Vintage Chronographs for under $3,000 TOTAL.

I think that's more of a challenge.

Jeff

Chuck