Well this sub-forum is slowing down on posts, and I don't recall having a thread like this, so given my infinite boredom I thought I'd start one up. Pretty straight forward, post your 5 favorite watches and say what is is you like about them. Feel free to get carried away, but for me I kept it "somewhat" reasonable by leaving out über-rare or über-expensive watches like the VC Vladimir complication or patek sky moon tourbillon.


1) Philip Dufour Simplicity: If I could have one watch, this would be it. I love it. He makes these watches using old world techniques, on machines that look more like they should be in a museum, not a high-end watch manufacturer. This is the essence of watch making IMO, the art of craftsmanship combined with mechanical genius. White enamel dial with roman numerals, manual wind, blued breguet hands and small subsidiary seconds is perfect. Oh, and probably the most highly decorated movement in existence.







2) Patek Philippe 3971R: Perhaps my favorite perpetual chronograph watch of all time. The dial it's quintessential PP, with is simplicity despite the amount of complication. I love the symmetry of the subdials, and the apertures for day and month readout. The markers are simple and I love the small, round pushers. Plus, there is something alluring about a manual wind perpetual chrono.






3) Patek Philippe 5040: I love the shape of the case, one of the classiest looking perpetual calendars out. With micro-rotor,railroad track along the periphery and great Arabic numerals, I would wear this daily.




4) Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Equation Of Time (WG): Gorgeous watch case with perpetual calendar, moonphase, and equation of time. To me, EoT complication is the most majestic of watch complications, bringing up images of ancient civilization and cultures who used non-atomic/computerized mechanisms for determining astronomical data. Subdials for sunrise and sunset and indicator for sidereal time, this watch has it all. I love the minimal guilloché on the dial because it's such a gorgeous decoration technique, it is enough to be special, but not overwhelming.

 

5) A Lange Sohne 1815 chronograph: I love everything about ALS, maybe because my username, but I love Teutonic design ethos. The dial layout, fonts, and materials used are sublime. This watch is my favorite manual wind chrono out right now. I know everyone gets all excited about the datograph, but I think the date function takes away from the dial. As a bonus, ALS came out with this in house manual wind chrono movement before PP brought out their version. I think that ALS's movement is the best decorated in the segment as well. I'd rock this daily. As an aside, I'm also a sucker for pulsimeters.






Well that's my list. I could keep going and I know I probably missed some, but oh well. These watches are all what you guys would say are too dressy, but for me, watchmaking is about high complication, high finishing, and precious metals. IMO this is the essence of watchmaking, and what demands high prices in watches. Taking a standard chrono in a stainless case and changing the colors only to charge $40k is more marketing/sales technique and not from the fundamentals of watchmaking. If mark were still posting he'd say these are too dressy and I'm too young to like any of these, Ali will have a whole list of ROOs, and Hani probably has all these somewhere in his closet


Some info on EoT: An Equation Of Time (aka EOT) complication indicates the difference between "true" solar time (that of nature) and "mean" solar time (that of man).
As the earth orbits around the sun in an elliptical (oval) shape & the axis is tilted - there are only 4 days a year when the day is exactly 24 hours long April 15th, June 14th, September 1st and December 24th.
All other days of the year the days are shorter or longer - depending in the position of the earth.
This watch will show the difference between the "mean" time & the "true" time.
Since the of the days are fixed year after year (at the same location) a watch can be manufactured to replicate the correction via a shaped cam which elongates & shortens the days accordingly.

 

For completion sake, these two were very much in contention. I can't think of anything that requires more artistic craftsmanship than cloisonné enamel, which both these watches have. For me, they didn't make the top 5 because at the end of the day I prefer mechanical genius over artistic genius (although the former over has the latter).

Vacheron Constantin Mercator: Not sure which edition I like best, but the Portugal one and the Africa/Europe are both awesome (among others as well). The enamel work is excellent and the double retrograde hours and minutes is definitely unique, and cool that they look like a compass. These editions are to commemorate cartographer Gerardus Mercator.





Patek Philippe 5131: same- I can't decide between them. Both dials have epic artistry, and the combination of enamel maps with world time complication is very crafty. I think the edge goes to the white gold.






Here's a quick vid of the genius behind these dials.
Videos - The Hour Lounge - the Vacheron Constantin Forum

 

^ If you like that you should like this:

De Bethune DB25T







Another one my favorites:

Speake Marin Serpent Calendar








Would post more but I need to leave for an exam.

 

^ de Bethune has some awesome dials and the movements are so cool and unique. Great watches. They also have good lug/case designs.



Alright, enough of me ranting to myself in my own threads. The thing is, as much as I love cars, and that brought me to TS, they don't excite me as much anymore. I only come and check updates in this forum and go on to other watch sites. I knew it when I drive a 997 turbo with PDK. Yes, that was hella fast and engineering perfection, but cars are moving away from what I consider fun, and the things I am passionate about. It's not the automakers' fault, they have to stick to government constraints, market their cars to the biggest audience, and they try to make the most money. But, I don't want the smoothest ride, I'm never going to beat Walter around the ring, and don't care about 0.1 second on a shift. Look at car videos now, it's both hands on the wheel and accelerator down. Yes it's bloody fast, but not my style. I love my simple wrx, and when I am driving hard it's fun to try and figure out shift points and trying to rev match. I don't care if the evo next to me has dsg and that makes him quicker, pushing a paddle and having a computer find the perfect rev and engage and disengage the clutches perfectly isn't important to me, and ultimately isn't fun. I don't strive for it, but when I feel I messed up a shift or know I was/wasn't fast enough off the clutch or down shifted and the revs were too high or low, it gives me something to work on and I feel that I'm a part of the process. You don't have that with computers. For me, old ferraris and Porsches and the gt3s are where it's at. My point, watchmaking still lives where there are no rules, and the old, pure ethics are still in play. Just look at the dufour watch, or the 5141- both are a new model you can get today. Yes these companies all try and go mass market, but they still have divisions of people keeping with tradition. I mean, it's crazy that all the high end watch manufacturers are scouring the earth for the remaining guilloche machines because the best way to do it is how it was done by mr. Breguet, not CNC machine. I like that.
/rant, I'll go find something productive to do

 

I like getting carried away. So I did. Besides, my list of "reasonable" favorite watches seems to change often. I'm far from a watch aficionado, I just like what I see. If it sticks with me, it's probably going to remain that way. So here goes.

Numbero Uno - Zeitwerk Striking Time


It's a watch that oozes class while it (to me) redefines boundaries. I love the juxtaposition of a modern feature with a really classic silhouette. It's unique and immediately recognizable, and it has one of my favorite complications - those hammers. Way cool.

Number 2 - 5208P


Patek Philippe manages to create what I think is a super complicated watch while keeping the final product from screaming that, I think. Everything on it seems perfectly placed and perfectly proportioned in typical PP fashion. And 3 complications that I love love love. Boggles my mind...as does the price.

Trois - Royal Oak Jumbo


The watch company that got me into watches in the first place. Iconic, timeless, it really is a beautiful, beautiful watch. No complications or anything...just a clean face with a gorgeous dial and that wonderful, unmistakable bezel.

Four - UR202


I love modern watches...I don't think the engineering is necessarily more difficult than that of PP, but it's similarly complex with a completely different end product in mind. The resulting product is wonderfully whimsical. I love the space age design and the consideration put into the little details - the little needle for the seconds, and how extends and retracts in order to follow the seconds indicator perfectly. I could stare at it all day and still be enamored.

Cinq - Paul Newman Daytona


The only old watch that I have on my list. I don't know why it's there. The last watch was the only one that I really had trouble thinking about - I figured if I had to start Googling watches to see if they'd make my list, that would be a "real" favorite. But this watch just keeps coming back to mind. Maybe it's the way the red plays off the white face. Or the little 70s-esque lines on the chronograph dials. Or maybe it's the history associated with it. I don't know why, but I do know I love it, and that's all that really matters.

That's that. My list of more reasonable watches is a bit more boring. Things like the IWC Double Chronograph IW371803 (Team Germany), PAM362, ROO Safari, etc. I'll have to think about that one a bit more. Suffice it to say I still can't buy all of those but it's a goal that is a bit more tangible than that 5208P.

 

Kevin, following on your post above (the rant ), i'm with you 100%!!
i love cars, i love driving even in our hot dusty weather and on our sh1tty short roads and MEGA traffic like you wouldn't believe almost all the time no matter where you're going .. but the fact is they are too much trouble and require too much care and in the end end up not being as much fun and bang for the buck as a watch which no one else but your closest friends or those EXTREMELY few people who are in the know will appreciate and will engage in conversations that are purely about PASSION and PERSONAL preferences

the watches you have posted are just dreams to me, like the zonda or the veyron, while i love and appreciate the genius behind them i just cannot see myself being in loooove with them because i'm the type of guy who wears his watches and drives his cars and lusts only for those two that fit those criteria.
besides, i consider any watch over $40k to be 'uber expensive' and plain nuts so the EOT while being one of my all time favourites i just cannot start to lust after one with its ~100k price tag (and the fact that it's WG)

that said, my top 5 are changing all the time but i think that's the beauty of this hobby
i'll make a post shortly with my current top 5

 

Here is my top five watches (not in order):

 

^ You should work for IWC!!! I can see you like Platinum, Pt Portuguese grand complication, Pt BP, Pt Portuguese Regulator, Pt portuguese FA Jone. Stainless IWC BP perp Nice selections.


That is a fantastic list.

 

Yes, I love Platinum but do not have one!