What to pick….
I’m looking at getting my hands on my first dress watch and wanted to hear some recommended brands and suggestions why the price points are so different.
I am loving a Baume & Mercier and it seems like your can pick up an 18Kt automatic for £1-2K, Piaget and Chopard maybe a tad more, but Cartier you’re looking around £8-10.
Would love to hear some thought/recommendations
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Alex
A watch lover with a small collection, looking to understand more about different brands/movements and build my collection.
London, UK
Member since
Last active: 6 days ago
7.00” / 17.78 cm
You can consider also a JLC Reverso, in various configurations (mono face/ duo face) sizes and materials
Price point vary significantly according to brand, mechanism, case material, etc
Very hard to give advice given the broad question…you can pick up a fine dress watch for $200 or less; eg this Seiko SWR049P1:
Or 10k on a Cartier or Jaeger-LeCoultre…or 35k on a Vacheron Patrimony:
All depends on what you seek in a watch:
History (aka heritage / does this matter to you?)
Movement (quartz, mechanical, in-house, insourced…)
Material (steel, gold…)
Brand (VC, Patek, Piaget, Cartier etc etc: you also pay for the brand name and marketing budget; or a micro or a budget brand…)
If you really like the B&M you found: go for it! Solid brand, very nice watches. As said, you can spend any amount on watches, with little real (vs perceived) benefits if you move up the price ladder (apart from the intrinsic gold price…)
Very hard to give advice given the broad question…you can pick up a fine dress watch for $200 or less; eg this Seiko SWR049P1:
Or 10k on a Cartier or Jaeger-LeCoultre…or 35k on a Vacheron Patrimony:
All depends on what you seek in a watch:
History (aka heritage / does this matter to you?)
Movement (quartz, mechanical, in-house, insourced…)
Material (steel, gold…)
Brand (VC, Patek, Piaget, Cartier etc etc: you also pay for the brand name and marketing budget; or a micro or a budget brand…)
If you really like the B&M you found: go for it! Solid brand, very nice watches. As said, you can spend any amount on watches, with little real (vs perceived) benefits if you move up the price ladder (apart from the intrinsic gold price…)
This is really helpful.
I am looking for gold (silver doesn’t sit that will on me) and I THINK automatic, but again seems I can find a B&M or Piaget in my budget but something like a Cartier absolutely not.
Keen to understand (baring the name) what’s putting such a premium on it. Apologies, I know it sounds like a really silly question 😂
Just trying to establish how much better if at all the moment could be.
This is really helpful.
I am looking for gold (silver doesn’t sit that will on me) and I THINK automatic, but again seems I can find a B&M or Piaget in my budget but something like a Cartier absolutely not.
Keen to understand (baring the name) what’s putting such a premium on it. Apologies, I know it sounds like a really silly question 😂
Just trying to establish how much better if at all the moment could be.
If by moment in your last sentence you mean movement: it won’t be much ‘better’ in any real sense of the word. The Baumatic employed by B&M is excellent, the one in the Cartier won’t be better in terms of accuracy or reliability (will come at higher service costs btw :) And note that Cartier quite often uses quartz in their Tanks - nothing wrong with that, but again down to your personal preference. You basically pay a large premium for Cartier’s horological history and to quite a smaller extent for somewhat more refined dial design and finishing.
Tank
Baume baumatic, Chopard, Cartier, Tissot some Tag Heuer Carrera are dress watches