What do you consider a grail watch?

Ya gotta have hope… ( also it’s the hope that kills ya 😂)

The Holy Grail was a one of a kind, possibly mythic item that is priceless. To toss around the word "grail" for something that is readily available, to purchase, immediately grinds my gears.

I could see the term for maybe a limited edition or a rare vintage piece. Maybe that rare piece is expensive or maybe it's reasonable, but it hasn't come on market and you cannot buy it because it just doesn't exist. That could be a grail

Stop calling the watch y'all want a grail just because you want it

B. In my case, it’s unattainability is self-imposed. I have an internal limit on what I’ll spend.

My grail watch would be the Bulova Lunar Pilot. Not the quartz model Bulova currently sell, but the actual watch that was worn on the surface of the moon in 1971 (my birth year). It’s a grail because it’s an actual watch that exists, and I could technically afford at the last auction price it sold at by cashing out retirement savings. But, the current, owner would need to put the watch up for sale, the price would need to be for less than my total net worth, there’s no way I am going to sacrifice my financial well being for a watch, there’s no way I could convince my wife to sacrifice her financial well being for a watch.

So while it’s technically within the realm of possibility for me to get that watch, it’s so highly unlikely that it may as well be impossible. Again, it’s not just the money, but it is also the availability of a one-of-a-kind watch. Even if I won the lottery, I couldn’t buy it if the owner doesn’t want to sell it.

I fully admit B or C makes more sense than A, but I have less interest in talking about those ideas. A is a looser use of the term "Grail," but it's what I usually mean. People understand it usually anyway, because you're either mentioning an available watch, an unobtainable watch, or a nonexistent watch. That context tells everyone what you mean by grail, even if some use the word and different way.

I support this message. If there is some store within reasonable traveling distance with the item just on display (or worse, online) for a price, it's just an item for sale that one can't currently afford.

If acquisition requires a true hunt, establishing elusive connections, criminal activity, or risk to life or limb, that's a grail. It's not like Henry Jones Jr. just saved up and had a bank transfer sent over to the Knights Templar after enduring a waiting list to get his.

By definition, the classical one that is, this would be a grail. Maybe not mine per se, but still a grail. YMMV.

Other: certain models ie Zelos with production runs of 75 or less pieces. Price range mid tier 1000.00-3000.00. Upper tier 10k-12k. These are my grails and are hard to find.

For me I think of how Icon a watch is Rn my grail is an explorer 1. I could buy with some ease but i want to acheive a goal to tie to it

I lean towards the definition of "grail" as an unobtainable one of a kind item. However, I don't want a specific vintage watch linked to a certain owner or event. My grail watch is the Vianney Halter La Résonance. Six-figure price and limited to 7 per year, so certainly unobtainable for me.

It's a grail watch. It's that if I could have 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 watch. It's not simply a watch that you like and can buy if you just save for a few months.

And it sort've annoys me when it's used in that context … 𝙗𝙪𝙩 hobbies like ours can be really rigid and have these arbitrary rules and arbitrary language and that sort've annoys me too.

So whatever 'Grail' means to anyone else ... it's no skin off my nose.

(But it's that 'if I could have any watch in the world watch'. It just 𝙞𝙨).

🤣

My grail is the watch that, once I own it, makes me feel like my watch collecting is complete. Now that doesn’t mean I’ll never buy another watch again. Just that I feel my collection is complete. Anything else after Is just for fun and I can go without.

D. The watch that finally curbs your desire to buy more watches. “The One” 👑

for me a "grail" is a watch that I lust after, but am unwilling to pay the often over-inflated asking price(s) ... the Seiko SNA411 or 413 Flightmaster, Seiko Alpinist, Citizen CA7040-85E are some that come to mind ...

The next watch I want!😉

The perfect watches for me that I have yet to discover.

Grail watches don’t exist.

I came across either a video or read about Alton Brown’s ( Food Network, foodie, amateur chef personality) quest to recover an Omega that was stolen from the university days apartment he was staying in, the watch belonged to his father. The details are vague, the story almost fantastical but he did managed to recover his father’s timepiece with effort and dollars. That qualifies as a Grail watch imo. Money was involved but his determination tracking the precious object on eBay before having the watch restored by an expert watchmaker remains one story that is memorable.

There are both obtainable grails as well as unobtainable grails.

I don't have or want a grail. I like what I have and I'm content at this point. Nothing I lust after.