IWC Ownership

Several months ago I noticed my Aquatimer had a problem: when I used the chronograph to time something and then stopped the hands without resetting them, the hour hand would continue going. It took me quite a while to figure this out. Previously, I would occasionally wonder why the hour sub-dial was [...]

I did it!

After lots of internal debate, and a trip to a competing jeweler that had the Bell & Ross watches in stock, I finally settled on my original favorite, the IWC Aquatimer in titanium.
I came really close to going with a Bell & Ross BR01-94.  I really liked the square case and super-readable face of the B&R, plus I was worried the Aquatimer might not be big enough.  However, even the saleswoman [...]

Buying a watch is hard

My long-awaited 5 year anniversary came and went, and yet I still don’t have a new watch to show for it. It seems my initial positive experience at Tourneau was a bit of an anomaly. On the day I got the email stating it was time to pick out my watch, I made [...]

Omega

My company’s anniversary watch program works through a specific AD, with prearranged per-brand discounts. As it happens, the biggest discount is with Omega, which is apparently the favorite brand of some senior management at my company. Hence, we’re encouraged to choose Omega.
In many ways, this is fine with me, since Omega has a [...]

Darn Watch Preannouncements

I emailed Montblanc to find out when the new ceramic and steel Timewalker might start showing up in the US.  The answer was pretty disappointing:  “The Steel / Ceramic TimeWalker collection will not be available until the end of this year/beginning of next year.”  Drat!  It’s a nice looking watch, but I’m not going to [...]

Montblanc – a new contender

I initially didn’t consider the Montblanc line of watches very seriously, since like many people I think of them as a pen company. But then I took another look at their lineup, and decided that I really like the clean lines of their Timewalker models. I’m not really a fan of the bold [...]

Chronographs

Maybe it’s the engineer in me, but I decided from the start that I wanted my new watch to be a chronograph. I don’t actually have that many occasions when I need to time something, but it does happen. Plus I like the extra buttons and dials on the watch.
One of the first [...]

Watch catalogs

One of the first things I did when I started investigating the world of high-end watches was to visit various watch company websites and attempt to order catalogs. So far, this hasn’t exactly been a smashing success.
Several watch companies don’t provide printed catalogs at all, with a few providing silly online catalogs that attempts [...]

The story so far…

On May 30, I’ll hit my five year anniversary at work, and get to pick out a shiny new watch. Not a $50 souvenir watch, but an honest-to-goodness fancy watch. For the past 2-3 months, I’ve been obsessively reading watch forums, sending away for watch catalogs, and memorizing Wristwatch Annual 2008. I [...]