Over time, my friend may become a collector, but for now he is saying that he only wants to buy one watch. [I guess we have all heard that before.] The new Breitling Transocean (shown below) is an intersting choice. I have no idea about the pricing, but it's a nice looking watch.

Jeff

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: Okay, I'll play but I'll be making some of my own rules!

: Some questions to ask before we even start. Does the friend have a
: theme in mind? Do they even want a themed collection?

: Let's assume they do. And let's also assume the theme is sports,
: rather than dress, chronos.

: 3 names stand out in that field as far as I am concerned; Heuer
: Carrera, Omega Speedmaster and Rolex Cosmograph/Daytona. Good
: luck getting a straight Daytona for the budget, so that leaves
: us with two. We're looking fir a mix of modern and vintage?
: Let's fill the modern slot with a Speedy - much more faithful to
: the original in their modern incarnations than any Carrera.
: Let's also make it one of the larger ones. Because with the
: Carrera, we're going vintage and we're going small. First
: execution then, and let's make it a 45 as we have 3 registers
: covered with the Speedy. We'll go silver dial for contrast, and
: a scale watch for an injection of colour.

: And then we pause for thought. Wear the watches for a while. What
: do they give you and what do they not give you? Do you want
: another Carrera, more Speedies, something different like a
: triple calendar, different brands?

: I've been discounting the Navitimer, too fussy and cluttered for me
: ever to recommend. But if we want a Breitling, let's go for one
: of those new Transoceans. We now either have 2 silver dials and
: 1 black or vice versa. Let's stay modern but go a but more
: vogueish on colour and get one of the brown-dialled Bell&Ross
: 'Vintage' models.

: One slot left. Modern's covered, let's go vintage again. And Heuer
: again, why not. Blue dialled manual Monaco. Or White dialled
: Autavias.

: Hmmm, happy with that as a starter collection for now...