Help me choose please

[zadumbreion]

Hello watchaholics

Due to a small windfall I am in the happy position of being able to buy my first nice watch. (By nice I mean something costing more than £50)

Budget is around £2K - £3K, so I'm somewhat limited - but I'm after something fairly simple / elegant / classic. Currently the closest I have found is the Omega Deville Prestige Automatic - I quite fancy it with a black dial but haven't seen one in the flesh yet. The other option (in the same range) is gold with a leather strap and silver dial - I think that looks quite nice.

I have fairly narrow wrists so that watch (36.5mm I believe?) is about right for size - although something slightly bigger would probably work too. Tried the Seamaster Professional which is what I first thought of - looks really nice in pictures but is a little too chunky in real life.

Has anyone got any suggestions for other makes that offer similar quality, look and budget as the Deville Prestige range?

TIA

[filaborg]

Simple/ Elegnt/ Classic = Patek Philippe...

[zadumbreion]

Somewhat out of budget though, eh?

[aeropilot]

zadumbreion said:

Tried the Seamaster Professional which is what I first thought of - looks really nice in pictures but is a little too chunky in real life.

The titanium version, although, the same physical size, is only 2/3rd's the weight and feels a lot nicer to wear. I've got slim wrists and have just bought the titanium version myself a few weeks back.
Not a lot of Omega stockists will have one though to try, I had to go up to the Omega boutique in London to find one to try.

[zadumbreion]

aeropilot said:

zadumbreion said:

Tried the Seamaster Professional which is what I first thought of - looks really nice in pictures but is a little too chunky in real life.

The titanium version, although, the same physical size, is only 2/3rd's the weight and feels a lot nicer to wear. I've got slim wrists and have just bought the titanium version myself a few weeks back.
Not a lot of Omega stockists will have one though to try, I had to go up to the Omega boutique in London to find one to try.

Thanks for the suggestion.
We were thinking of popping up there on Thursday. Do they have most models on display there?
And how are their prices - do they discount much?

[filaborg]

zadumbreion said:

Somewhat out of budget though, eh?

not if you get one second hand though, or did you mention that.

[tertius]

zadumbreion said:

Hello watchaholics

Due to a small windfall I am in the happy position of being able to buy my first nice watch. (By nice I mean something costing more than £50)

Budget is around £2K - £3K, so I'm somewhat limited - but I'm after something fairly simple / elegant / classic. Currently the closest I have found is the Omega Deville Prestige Automatic - I quite fancy it with a black dial but haven't seen one in the flesh yet. The other option (in the same range) is gold with a leather strap and silver dial - I think that looks quite nice.

I have fairly narrow wrists so that watch (36.5mm I believe?) is about right for size - although something slightly bigger would probably work too. Tried the Seamaster Professional which is what I first thought of - looks really nice in pictures but is a little too chunky in real life.

Has anyone got any suggestions for other makes that offer similar quality, look and budget as the Deville Prestige range?

TIA

Easy and definitely a tier or two above Omega:



Jaeger LeCoultre MAster Control Automatic

[edwardsje]

I have a feeling that tertius has suggested a JLC before and I've gone

He's right you know!

[zadumbreion]

That one looks OK.. it is indeed similar, and the sort of thing I'm after... but the bezel is a little too chunky for me I think..

[Dr Bob]

Where are you in the country Zadumbrion?

Reason I ask is that there was a very nice Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra in a jewellers in Canterbury - very nice classy looking watch (and less bulky than the divers watches), co-axial escapement, only just over a year old and up for 1200...

...just thought on the off-chance (long shot I know!) that you were local to Canterbury it was worth a look.

CH

[aeropilot]

zadumbreion said:

aeropilot said:

zadumbreion said:

Tried the Seamaster Professional which is what I first thought of - looks really nice in pictures but is a little too chunky in real life.

The titanium version, although, the same physical size, is only 2/3rd's the weight and feels a lot nicer to wear. I've got slim wrists and have just bought the titanium version myself a few weeks back.
Not a lot of Omega stockists will have one though to try, I had to go up to the Omega boutique in London to find one to try.

Thanks for the suggestion.
We were thinking of popping up there on Thursday. Do they have most models on display there?
And how are their prices - do they discount much?

Yes, pretty much most of the range.

I didn't get into prices or discounts there as I had already pre-negociated a hard to beat good deal with my friendly local Omega retailer...

[F1sh]

Simple.... IWC

[SpydieNut]

if i was choosing a dress watch - this would be *it*

[lowdrag]

Yup, I have the IWC Spitfire but in the chronograph version but the one above is stylish and not too often seen. I have slim wrists but it certainly isn't too big for me at all and is light to wear. The other watch I have but perhaps not for you is the old favourite the Breitling Navitimer. Both fit the £2/3,000 budget.



Whatever, you'll be sure to get good advice from all here!

[uktrailmonster]

Lots of nice choices above, but I'd also recommend looking at Girard-Perregaux watches in that price range. For example, here's a pic of my Traveller II (photo doesn't really do it justice, the quality of finish is among the best I've seen)

[Marki]

lowdrag said:

Yup, I have the IWC Spitfire but in the chronograph version but the one above is stylish and not too often seen. I have slim wrists but it certainly isn't too big for me at all and is light to wear. The other watch I have but perhaps not for you is the old favourite the Breitling Navitimer. Both fit the £2/3,000 budget.



Whatever, you'll be sure to get good advice from all here!

He did say simple / elegant / classic.

Not Chavtastic , that watch is a fecking dogs dinner

Edited by Marki on Wednesday 16th January 14:40

[uktrailmonster]

And that's one of their less blingy models too

[zadumbreion]

SpydieNut said:

if i was choosing a dress watch - this would be *it*

That's really nice...

ETA

They also do one with a white face which is also very nice

Edited by zadumbreion on Wednesday 16th January 15:05

[tertius]

zadumbreion said:

That one looks OK.. it is indeed similar, and the sort of thing I'm after... but the bezel is a little too chunky for me I think..

You could look for the previous model, which was iro 2mm smaller and all the reduction was in the thickness of the bezel. Nearly identical watch - same dial, slightly upgraded mvt (in the new one of course), and display back (ditto).

Also they are utterly lovely watches - 95% of a Patek for 50% of the price.

I have this one:

[zadumbreion]

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

In the end I went for an Omega DeVille Prestige Automatic, silver dial, steel case, leather strap.



The dial is quite interesting - sometimes it looks silver, sometimes champagne, and sometimes the outer ring looks the same colour as the inside. So that's quite interesting - stops it from being just too plain.

I was surprised to hear that the leather straps will probably need replacing every year - surely in the "old days" leather straps were meant to last a lot longer than that?

Edited by zadumbreion on Thursday 17th January 09:38

ETA - I still like that black IWC though....

Edited by zadumbreion on Thursday 17th January 09:39