Abalone dials - inevitably disappointing?
This came up on WRUW but I thought it might be worth a general post.
Firstly I love abalone dial watches or rather I love the abalone dial watches shown in the stock images.
But the challenge with abalone dials is that the stock images always (and not unreasonably) show the “best” ones but, because they are all different, the one that’s shipped to you could look v different … and so is almost inevitably disappointing.
And I am speaking from experience as I have had a couple of duff ones. I have even tried asking watch manufacturers to send me a picture of the very watch I am buying but they won’t do this as the watches are packaged ready to go and are often being dispatched from a warehouse somewhere else.
After successive disappointments I am now very wary of buying them unseen and really need to see the actual watch I am buying. This makes pre-owned a good way of buying these.
Here’s a good example - and not picking on the brand at all as, in my experience, it is the same for many - one pic is a stock image of the no date version showing essentially a lovely dial almost made of a single slice of abalone and really stunning. The other pic is from an eBay listing showing the date version of the same watch and you can see that the dial is a mosaic of bits of abalone and nowhere near as attractive as the stock image.
I have been very disappointed a few times now and have eventually learnt my lesson, which was not without its costs, as I unloaded the inevitable disappointments at an equally inevitable loss (using actual pictures rather than stock images).
Driven to watches (researching and collecting affordably) by the boredom of COVID lockdowns. My - possibly attainable - grail watch would be a 6245 (Seiko or Grand Seiko) in nice condition … someday.
Yeah, that's the risk with any of those sorts of dials. It's part of the reason I've never picked one up.
Yeah, that's the risk with any of those sorts of dials. It's part of the reason I've never picked one up.
Learn from my pain. If unseen, stay clear.
Not inevitably disappointing. I only have one abalone dial watch, and mine matches the marketing images pretty closely, along with a few other pictures I’ve seen of it in the wild. But there’s always an element of luck with natural materials.
Marketing:
Mine:
Caveat emptor...
Not inevitably disappointing. I only have one abalone dial watch, and mine matches the marketing images pretty closely, along with a few other pictures I’ve seen of it in the wild. But there’s always an element of luck with natural materials.
Marketing:
Mine:
Firstly both v nice and certainly yours is a good looking watch.
But you will note that the Islander stock photo shows a dial made of a single slice. If you look closely your watch clearly is made of different pieces of abalone most obviously around the 8 o’clock index.
Now I would be very happy to have received your watch but it is different to the stock image in that important respect. And that was the point I was trying to bring out.
Definitely there’s an element of luck but so long as they pick the best ones for marketing materials the only way is sideways or disappointment.
I have do one that I have kept as it’s pretty good and I’m happy with it.
I was really trying to raise this for the community so as to manage expectations. I wouldn’t want other enthusiasts not to have their eyes open … and I would want others to benefit from my own pain/cost.
Caveat emptor...
Thank you - underscores my point as you cannot check what you are buying here because the stock pictures may be significantly different from what you receive.
Not inevitably disappointing. I only have one abalone dial watch, and mine matches the marketing images pretty closely, along with a few other pictures I’ve seen of it in the wild. But there’s always an element of luck with natural materials.
Marketing:
Mine:
I think it looks amazing
With my black mother of pearl dials I find myself taking lots of requests for the type of figuring people want with the dial. While a back and forth, rummaging through and unwrapping watches to hastily photograph is a really poor use of time, I’m happy to find people one that they’re looking for as long as they can describe the characteristics.
But yes, these types of dials are highly variable and depend greatly upon lighting.
thanks for this piece, I am an advanced diver and think its a great idea, some smart entrepreneur will in fact find a way to send actual pictures so that one is left disappointed
With my black mother of pearl dials I find myself taking lots of requests for the type of figuring people want with the dial. While a back and forth, rummaging through and unwrapping watches to hastily photograph is a really poor use of time, I’m happy to find people one that they’re looking for as long as they can describe the characteristics.
But yes, these types of dials are highly variable and depend greatly upon lighting.
Good on you - I think it’s warranted and appreciated. MOP is considerably less variable than abalone but I can see it still being a concern for customers, all the more so as the price point rises. And you’ll get repeat customers and good recommendations.
I won’t be going back to those where I was disappointed.
thanks for this piece, I am an advanced diver and think its a great idea, some smart entrepreneur will in fact find a way to send actual pictures so that one is left disappointed
I can see that and I can also see commercial implications in that they will incur extra costs but also they won’t get away with flogging the really duff ones. So prices would go up - but so would customer satisfaction, sales, etc. … that virtuous circle!?
Mine experience was the reverse. I thought it was going to look like a hot topic clearance shirt but it really catches the light well.