Other Watches / Other Brands

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Uncle Seiko and Forstner have a few rivetless bracelets that fit the BB58. The Forster Model O looks really good. Great end link fit and a nice taper that the original doesn't have.

StrapCode offers some BB bracelets, too. You just have to dig a little bit to find them.
 
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So this Rolex thing is not what I thought. I thought Rolex would buy the watches, service them and sell them to ADs. It seems that actually it is the ADs who will buy the watches, send them back to Rolex for service and then sell them themselves. So Rolex's only involvement is the servicing... ADs will be able to charge whatever they like.
 
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Yes I think this is bait to keep their dealer network sort of happy. Must be a lot of complaints about Rolex not being able to meet demand and dealers just sitting there not being able to sell stuff to people with cash in their pocket.
 
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Yeah, after all.... the threat of losing your Rolex dealership is pretty empty at this point.
'You mean you won't send me any watches, just like now'
 
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Picked up my Tudor Nato last night (have to wait until Christmas) but looked around in Bluewater, noticed one store sold Panerai, I've been meaning to try on the new 40mm Quaranta. Was impressed and offered a deal by the SA.

Dial and size lovely, but I do prefer the base dials (12,3,6,9). Proportions were nice, and my fear of sub seconds being too close were avoided. I'd ditch the stock strap mind you.

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Cool that. Wasn’t a fan of Panerai’s in general, until I saw one actually on a guy’s wrist whilst at a Café on holiday. They are a lot nicer in the flesh than they appear in photo’s.

The guy just smiled when he clocked me, but the burly guy with him must have been his security as he was continually keeping an eye on people around and about, and kept an even closer eye on me at the next table after he saw me staring at his wrist. lol
 
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Cool that. Wasn’t a fan of Panerai’s in general, until I saw one actually on a guy’s wrist whilst at a Café on holiday. They are a lot nicer in the flesh than they appear in photo’s.

The guy just smiled when he clocked me, but the burly guy with him must have been his security as he was continually keeping an eye on people around and about, and kept an even closer eye on me at the next table after he saw me staring at his wrist. lol

Haha they are distinctive & I used to love the brand and new all the model numbers ect when I had my previous one. Always look great on people but the majority of the models are too big for the wearers and those wearers deep down don't want to hear it!
 
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Haha they are distinctive & I used to love the brand and new all the model numbers ect when I had my previous one. Always look great on people but the majority of the models are too big for the wearers and those wearers deep down don't want to hear it!
I guess it’s very subjective. I am sitting here glancing at the 43mm AR on my 6.5” wrist thinking it looks great, where others with larger wrists think it’s too big on them.

I guess you’re right in that the worst case is those who think they’re too big but buy them anyway and have to always lie to themselves that they look fine.
 
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I guess it’s very subjective. I am sitting here glancing at the 43mm AR on my 6.5” wrist thinking it looks great, where others with larger wrists think it’s too big on them.

I guess you’re right in that the worst case is those who think they’re too big but buy them anyway and have to always lie to themselves that they look fine.

For me it's all to do with the lug 2 lug distance, if the lugs overhang your wrist, IMHO it's too big. 43mm Aquaracer I believe has short l2l at 48mm - making it stocky, whilst the Seamaster at 42mm has a l2l at 52mm. Which was more then my old 44mm Panerai l2l 51mm.

Borderline l2l for me is 50-51mm, the BB58 is 48mm which is a sweet spot on my 6.5inch wrist.

But everyone's will be different of course.
 
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For me it's all to do with the lug 2 lug distance, if the lugs overhang your wrist, IMHO it's too big. 43mm Aquaracer I believe has short l2l at 48mm - making it stocky, whilst the Seamaster at 42mm has a l2l at 52mm. Which was more then my old 44mm Panerai l2l 51mm.

Borderline l2l for me is 50-51mm, the BB58 is 48mm which is a sweet spot on my 6.5inch wrist.

But everyone's will be different of course.
I hear you. I only have this and the 42mm Seamaster and love the fit on both. Certainly wouldn’t go bigger though.
 
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For me it's all to do with the lug 2 lug distance, if the lugs overhang your wrist, IMHO it's too big. 43mm Aquaracer I believe has short l2l at 48mm - making it stocky, whilst the Seamaster at 42mm has a l2l at 52mm. Which was more then my old 44mm Panerai l2l 51mm.

Borderline l2l for me is 50-51mm, the BB58 is 48mm which is a sweet spot on my 6.5inch wrist.

But everyone's will be different of course.
I'd say that thickness and shape of case plays a big part too. So does the bracelet end links, how well they conform to the wrist or not.
 
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Hearing a 7% increase across the board for Omega due the end of January (Speedy Sapphire to be above £7k), Tudor 10% increase from Jan 1st.

When did TAG increase?
 
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They were marking up TAG Heuer in Ernest Jones when I was in their Sept/Oct time.

It’s definitely getting mentally tougher when looking at prices now. £7k is a fair wedge, for me at least.
 
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They were marking up TAG Heuer in Ernest Jones when I was in their Sept/Oct time.

It’s definitely getting mentally tougher when looking at prices now. £7k is a fair wedge, for me at least.

For me also, £5k feels a big chunk for me and what I'd like to spend, even that is top top money
 
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Hearing a 7% increase across the board for Omega due the end of January (Speedy Sapphire to be above £7k), Tudor 10% increase from Jan 1st.

When did TAG increase?
I think TAG increases the price two times a year, typically 3-10% depending on model and price point. I expect an increase around 10% early spring.
 
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For me also, £5k feels a big chunk for me and what I'd like to spend, even that is top top money
Yeah, the more they up the price, the fewer units they sell. Panicking from this, they up the prices even more to cover for selling fewer watches. And so this madness continues.
 
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As long as they hold prices reasonably steady till after the release the new panda. I might be done with buying watches after that 😀 Then again...
 
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Yeah, it's getting way out of hand. I simply can't afford to spend £6000 on a new Monaco.
 
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Remember that the CH watch industry as a whole is now selling HALF the number of watches they still sold a couple of years ago…

Thinking that they can make up for that trend by simply raising prices over and over again is just stupidity. And yet - they all seem to go down that strategic road rather than trying something different.

If they ALL try to compensate fewer buyers/less units sold through price increases, a couple of brands are doomed in not such a distant future. That’s obvious…

(NB: As usual, this doesn’t apply to RLX.)
Edited:
 
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Yeah, it won't end well for some I'm sure. They're all trying to out-do each other, trying to position themselves above their competitors. Nobody wants to be left at the bottom. But maybe they're leaving a gap? Tudor is doing reasonably well at filling it at the moment to be fair, although even their prices are creeping up. About +£500 on the price of a BB58 since launch.