Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

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suicidal_orange
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Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by suicidal_orange »

It's my birthday so I'm considering getting myself a new watch. I know roughly what I want and I'm sure it exists, but when it comes to finding it I'm struggling. There seem to be five categories of watch all with their own strengths and weaknesses, in my words they are:

Dress watches - smart with reserved styling (sensible colours, fairly small numerals/markers) but generally plain dials which look boring.

Dive watches - big bezels and big cases housing relatively small faces. The colours and big numbers are the only appealing parts for me.

Chronograph - expensive (unless quartz) and often too busy, verging on looking a mess. I have a C3 and rarely need to time anything so don't need another chrono.

Pilots - probably the closest to what I'm looking for as the big numerals and hands overcome the dress watch plain dial boringness, but they aim for max legibility and a vintage look so colours are dull.

Fashion watches - overpriced quartz due to the designer labels attached. They can be colourful and are easy to try on at least.

There exceptions to these (C9 and Ball Trainmaster moonphases are dress but not boring, C11 has no huge bezel...) but I don't want to click through page after page of watches I don't like in the hope of finding one I do!

Are there any brands or keywords I could be searching for? I'll say a budget of £750 although lower is better as I'm saving for a moonphase. Used is fine and quartz is too - any suggestions are welcome :)
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by asqwerth »

Colourful, legible pilots in non-vintage and non-boring colours:

Image

http://www.archimede-watches.com/watche ... olour.html
C5As~FLE12R~W61~C60GMT~FLE15~SC
Orion33/Tetra2~BallEH~Montblanc~Tudor BB36~Archimede36~Damasko~Revue T~BremontSolo37~MJW
Vintage~Bulova23~Polerouter~Wittnauer~Longines~Omega~Soumar~Eterna~Gruen

Quartz~Matisse~FLE17~Ebel~Citizen
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by gwells »

How do you define "big" when you're talking about divers? There are divers with smaller cases and thinner bezels.
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

gwells wrote:How do you define "big" when you're talking about divers? There are divers with smaller cases and thinner bezels.
.. . and it will help if we have an indication of your preferred case size.

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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by suicidal_orange »

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote:
gwells wrote:How do you define "big" when you're talking about divers? There are divers with smaller cases and thinner bezels.
.. . and it will help if we have an indication of your preferred case size.

Guy

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This is the 'newbie' part - I'm not experienced enough to have preferences as such. I do know my wrist is only 6.25 inches and the C3 at 40mm looks right while the C15 is as big as I'd go. But the C15 is actually narrower than the C3... I think 45mm round would be my limit but it would have to be an 'it wears small' 45mm.

Divers are not only big round they are chunky to get the water resistance, and the standard external bezel just isn't a look I like.
asqwerth wrote:Colourful, legible pilots in non-vintage and non-boring colours:

http://www.archimede-watches.com/watche ... olour.html
Thanks, I'll have a look :)
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by gaf1958 »

asqwerth wrote:Colourful, legible pilots in non-vintage and non-boring colours:

http://www.archimede-watches.com/watche ... olour.html
suicidal_orange wrote:Thanks, I'll have a look :)
The Archimede is an excellent suggestion, and they're available in several sizes too, so you can probably find one in a suitable size and colour. There is even a bronze cased version. By all accounts, they're pretty good watches too.
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by gwells »

actually, not all divers are all that big. and vintage divers, in particular, can be fairly small. i have a 35mm zodiac seawolf that is also fairly thin. it wears very small. it's really no bigger than my vintage omega dress watch.

Image

the oris 65 is 40mm and only 8mm thick. wears quite small.
Image

this zenith rainbow elite (granted, not easy to find and not available new, i don't think) is very thin. only 9mm high and 39mm across (and this image is the one owned by our own Wis).

Image
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by footycrazy »

Might take a little while to find a used one but can you rule the Sinn 104 out.

https://www.pageandcooper.com/sinn-104- ... ber-strap/
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Re: Can anyone help a newbie searching for a watch?

Post by BerlinCW »

Greetings,

The excitement and fun of choosing a new watch!

I don't agree that dress watches are boring, rather smart and classical.

As far as CW divers are concerned a pre-owned C6 kingfisher might be your answer. they do pop up in the

sales corner every now and then, magnificent colours.

Stowa, have a look here.................


https://www.stowa.de/shop/

Great watches from Stowa, well made, excellent quality and a good range of all types in various sizes and

some colour!

As for fashion watches, enough said!

Good luck with your decision making and enjoy the process of trying everything on that takes your fancy!
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