How do you define a “Grail” watch?

Something I greatly desire but will likely never acquire.

In the strictest sense, a "grail" in any enthusiast arena, is the unobtainable.

Reference for the "grail" search is out of Arthurian stuff.

If you do find the "grail", again by a more classical view, your mission/collection/"journey" is done. YMMV of course.

That watch you’d get if $$$$ fell in your lap and you could drop a couple hundred thousand on something silly like a watch with no issues.

I agree with the idea that a true "grail" is really something you'd never be able to get, but that's less useful in the realm of collectors and their conversations than whatever people actually use the word to mean in places like this.

Personally, think it's The Watch for you. If you could snap your fingers and any watch out there would appear on your wrist, that you could never sell, the one you'd choose is your grail watch. Some of us are relatively lucky, and that watch is potentially attainable, and for some, not particularly.

For the record, since it seems appropriate, I think mine is the Planet Ocean with the 8900 in it, not totally sure on the color yet. I'd call it attainable, but I'm not sure if it will ever be obtained.

To "me" a grail watch is closer to your 3rd definition. If I can go out and buy it this morning (maybe because I just won the lottery or went mad) then it's less of a grail and more of a watch I really like. So my grail watch is not only expensive but not easily found 😂. However I would not say impossible to get

You are way deeper in than I am, and I respect it. Intriguing choices.

As others have said, grail comes from the Arthurian legends of searching for The Holy Grail, the cup of Christ.

The idea of a grail then implies uniqueness, rarity and the fact that the search may be all-consuming. The idea of searching for something that may not even exists suggests that on that journey we learn more about ourselves; and it is ultimately the journey that was important, not the artefact at the end of it.

To use the word grail to mean “something I just can’t afford yet” is totally missing the point! I roll my eyes when I read posts from people talking about some $250 mass-produced watch as their ‘grail’ watch; especially when, in the next sentence, they say they just went out and bought it.

I think people sell the idea short when they use it to mean a watch they can’t afford now but maybe next year. I just don’t think a $1000 Seiko fits the bill. Sure, that may be more than you can spend on a watch, but I’m having trouble picturing a person with the freedom to even consider collecting watches who can’t picture themselves in a situation where they can spen that much.

I think there should be something about it that makes it very unlikely that you’ll ever own it. Either it’s crazy expensive (relatively) or rare. Actually, it should probably be both. There’s also something to be said for it being a watch that would make you stop collecting. If owning it doesn’t make you want to sell all your other watches, I don’t think it was a grail.

And for the love of god, please stop saying a watch is “one of my grails”. You only get one, don’t be greedy.

Got my Grail 3 years ago, it was a watch I'd wanted since it's launch in 2014. Didn't think I'd ever get it, but circumstances changed so I took the leap & got it.

No regrets, love it more everyday 🤩👍🏻

Am I that rare person who doesn't have a grail watch!?

Update: Yes, I do🤔🙄🙄🙄😁universal Geneve tri compax. Never going to spe nd that much on watch...

In theory, the watch that ends you watch search. It can mean unobtainable, but can also be just out of reach. Personally, even if I had unlimited money, there would always be another great new watch. I would never get to the end.

I don’t either. There are too many great watches worth obtaining.

I have been an enthusiast for decades but until recent times have never come across the term “grail” applied to any mass produced timepiece, certainly does not describe any watch that I intend to purchase anytime soon. A few of my friends who are very intense collectors in fact find the whole identification process to be childish but having collected stamps, comic books, pens and even well designed furniture, I personally feel the process to be a charming aspect of the hobby. Personally, watches for me remain only a pleasant somewhat expensive affectation that tests my logic: lately I have become intrigued with ceramic watches was shopping for a new one on Saturday when I checked out at new one first from Panerai and after one launched by Breitling. I was wearing a relatively new Longines ceramic HydroConquest that retails around 5k cad, Breitling was 17k while the Panerai was 24k cad. I tend to not ask: what is my grail, rather what is a watch worth to me realistically in dollars?

VC 222

A piece that i really want but cannot afford without saving for a long time - vacheron overseas blue dial

You have my sympathies, mine is less than a tenth of that and just as impossible.

So we are now gatekeeping grail watches?

I feel a grail watch is something that is plausible to purchase one day. I don't think any watch over $15,000 would ever be my grail. IMO a grail should be one you aspire to deserve one day. One that no matter what watches you see or buy, your feeling never changes. I think I have my grail in the Longines Zulu Time, but I am still on the look out.

Also, if you are willing to compromise and sample a watch that provides that design for a massively discounted price, check out this Baltany. They make great watches IMO...

I’m glad I’m hard to picture. But hello just the same. Though I do agree “grail” is singular.

Grail watch, grail pen, grail knife, ... grail item ... I have discussed this concept in many collectors' groups, heard a ton of answers and think, that I don't understand the concept of grail. Theoretically it would be the last point, the end, that one item that is so refined and finished, that it would render all other items of its kind obsolete. It would be probably very expensive, maybe out of my reach, but that is more kind of byproduct of that one perfect item. However, if it is that expensive, it will be imperfect in the discipline of costs.

I have yet to find this one of its kind item. There is nothing like "monotheism" in any realm of physical items. It is always more like a "pantheon" of pieces that have strengths and weaknesses, which outperform each other in different aspects. Of course there are, e.g., incredible watches by Glashütte Original or Vacheron Constantin, but a mere Casio G-Shock easily outperforms them and is moreover in certain situations the better choice to wear.

So, for me, no grails whatsoever. Grails are kind of paradoxons, and because they are paradox in themselves, they don't exist.

Yep

One very desired but, out of reach either by no longer available or unless the lottery fell in your lap, no chance.

There are as many "Grail Watches" as there are people who pursue them. Each has their own. It's not the watch that makes it the Grail piece, but rather what the watch DOES to the wearer. Hopefully, it's something directed inward and positive.

Let's hope that if I ever have the chance to actually attain my grail, I don't meet this guy.

Great question and I guess the definition would be different for each individual - To me a grail watch is something that I want to acquire and deeply desire knowing well that its in my reach in near future. This is just my way that the sense of achieving it (even if it last only for sometime) isnt lost as otherwise if my actual dream watch is something completely out of my reach and even if I have that money I probably may not want to spend that much on a watch (for me its Cartier Crash but even though I absolutely love Crash I wouldnt spend quarter million upwards on a watch) it would feel less than fulfilling to keep buying other aspirational pieces on the way

Maybe I read the question differently like more "What a grail watch is" rather than "Which watch is a grail watch", so I read more a quest for the concept of grail watch rather than the quest for a built watch that could be grail.

Something to dream about, and strive for. Something so far out of reach.

A watch that really fascinates you and that you wont sell if you ever got it. I also think that you can have multiple “grails”.

Surely it’s a watch your aspire to own, but because of various reasons you will never own…….

🤔

Brother you posted my grail… maybe in white gold though!