[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Saanil

Anybody here owns a Rolex? I wanted to know the price of the cheapest Rolex. is it possible to get a genuine Rolex in 3-4 lakhs?

The entry level Rolexes are probably the Oyster Perpetual Datejusts, and also the Rolex Explorer, in that INR 3-4 lakh range. Certainly possible to get a Rolex in that price range, but of course not the Rolex GMT which is priced way higher.

Note that these are all retail prices (new watches) that I am referring to and you can have much better deals if you are willing to go pre-owned and have the experience to identify a genuine pre-owned watch from a fake Rolex (which abound in the second hand market). For the exact retail prices, refer to the Rolex India web page.

There are plenty of good GMT options from brands other than Rolex which offer much greater value and the same (or in a few cases, better) level of build quality. If you are interested in GMT watches, you should certainly consider them. Sinn, Glycine, Grand Seiko are some of the brands which easily come to mind. There are a host of others too.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Saanil

I wanted to know the price of the cheapest Rolex. is it possible to get a genuine Rolex in 3-4 lakhs?

As a hobby horologist, the least I can do is to take all your attention and focus away from literally, the bottom end of the hierarchy. You look at Rolex and what do you see apart from a slightly tweaked version of stainless steel? Literally nothing.. just a fusion of gold, steel and bracelets done in many different linkages, the 3135 movement which is rigid only because it is fat at 6 mm because of multiple bridges within the movement.. it is just overkill in my view and they have literally had no innovation, only copying every single thing from more prestigious manufacturers. It is easy to fall for the Rolex hype because so many people recognize it.. appreciate it and call it a status symbol, if only the truth agreed.

If your budget is 3-4 lakhs I'd be considering something like the JLC Polaris or the Reverso Ultrathin (the difference between Rolex and JLC is HUGE, like 5 leagues between them) or a Drive De Cartier with Cartier's in-house movement. If you want a tougher watch the just get the Panerai 8 Day In-House, if your wrist is up to the job of lugging a 44mm dial. Rolex sales are diving by the day, many have woken up to its hype.

[avishar]

I have started to lust over Junghans lately. Particularly the Max Bill collection. And any and every Nomos Glashutte!

[theexperthand]

Ta Da! The latest addition - Orient Bambino Version 4 - is here.

Let the pictures do the talking:













While I was at it, took few pictures of some other watches from my collection:

Titan Moonphase:











Seiko SSA243:





My Mechanical beater watch - Seiko 5:







A Titan Dual Time:



Citizen Eco- with a brilliant blue dial:




Seiko Kinetic:



My original beater watch - Swatch Irony - around 12 years old:



The veteran - Citizen 7, inherited from my granddad:



--Anoop

[Ajay]

A Lange & Sohne Time Zone and Blancpain Villeret Quantieme Complet:

[Saanil]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

The entry level Rolexes are probably the Oyster Perpetual Datejusts, and also the Rolex Explorer, in that INR 3-4 lakh range.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

As a hobby horologist, the least I can do is to take all your attention and focus away from literally, the bottom end of the hierarchy.

I agree with you. I am not a big fan of Rolex's designs. Even I found them to be repetitve. But I wanted to understand why is Rolex regarded as a high end brand. Their huge marketing budget might be one of the reasons for their popularity but there is probably some amount of quality to back them up. I was watching some youtube videos about Rolex and they seem to have done few good innovations in the 20th century. Wikipedia says Rolex was the first one to design a waterproof wrist watch and the first one to have automatic changing date function. Please note that personally I do not have any experience with Rolex products. Most of what I came to know was through internet articles praising the manufacturing precision of Rolex. They are regarded as the biggest producer of luxury watches i.e. in terms of volumes.

Personally I was not impressed by design of Rolex watches. If I had that kind of money to spend on a watch, I would probably not shortlist Rolex. This is purely on the basis of looks rather than anything else.

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Ta Da! The latest addition - Orient Bambino Version 4 - is here.

--Anoop

The green Bambino is looking fantastic! I am sure a lot of people are going to ask you about your watch! Are you planning to wear this to office everyday or will it be used only on weekends?

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by Saanil

Over the past few days, I have been seeing many pictures of Rolex watches. One thing which interested me was the bezel on many Rolex watches which are supposed to help you calculate time in other geographies. These watches are called the GMT watches. I saw some videos on Youtube about how the bezel and the GMT hand can be used to decipher time on some other country. In all the videos, they took examples of two countries which were separated by whole hours i.e. 3/4/5 hours. But if we consider London and Mumbai where a 4.5 hour time gap exists, will the watch be able to reflect that? Can the GMT watches show time gaps of 30 minutes? Sorry if I am asking a very stupid question.



Anybody here owns a Rolex? I wanted to know the price of the cheapest Rolex. is it possible to get a genuine Rolex in 3-4 lakhs?

India is one of the few countries where the National Time is in fractions of hours with respect to GMT, every other country has local time difference with GMT in whole hours.

I had a Rolex GMT for nearly 10 years. Normally when you set the bezel at an offset you get the time difference. Unfortunately my GMT had 5 detente between each hour so it could not be set at exactly half hour mark, but you can live with that. What I used it most was for elapsed time - a sort of rough stop watch, which was fine.

When I got the GMT in 2005 it was 2.5L list and with discount I paid 1.8L. Today the list price is about 5L, so you can expect to get it for 4L or less after a big round of negotiation (expect between 15% and 25% discount). The quantum of discount depends on various factors :
. Rate of rupee when it was delivered to the authorised agent. The lower compared to today, the better.
. Turn over. Some models like Submariner and gold cased ones are more in demand compared to others. If the watch you want is a slow mover, you get better discounts. Not surprisingly the more expensive Rolex are more in demand.
. Inventory or excess inventory, may induce the seller to give you more discounts.

NOTE
Please keep in mind that Rolex is an expensive watch to maintain. Each service (required at least once in 5 years) costs upwards of 50K. If a few parts are wornout then add a few 10K's to the bill.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Ta Da! The latest addition - Orient Bambino Version 4 - is here.

Nice collection there, among your existing timepieces, the Citizen Ecodrive looks really cool! Not a piece I have seen too often.

Coming to the Bambino, it is excellent choice as a value for money automatic dress watch. I have been wearing a Bambino Ver 2 (with the Roman numerals) as my daily office watch for the past year, and it is an excellent value for money watch with a solid and accurate in-house movement. The green dial on yours really pops! Love the blue dial variant also.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Ajay

A Lange & Sohne Time Zone and Blancpain Villeret Quantieme Complet:

Now that is THE 2 piece collection, you don't need more and 99.99% people won't even recognize both the brands even if the watch is 2 inches from their eyes which is all the better. I love Blancpain's case and dial so I love the Quantieme Complet much more than the Lange. The moonphase is what caused the resurrection of Blancpain and was conceptualized by Jean-Claude Biver himself. Its the oldest watch-brand in existence so its always a good buy. The Lange is bought only for one reason - the caseback finishing. I'm not the greatest fan of German watch-dials because of their quirky layout but fact remains that nothing beats a Lange for value given its finishing. 42mm may be on the higher side for Lange though given their extremely fat cases, but its natural because of the world time complication.

Originally Posted by Saanil

I was watching some Youtube videos about Rolex and they seem to have done few good innovations in the 20th century. Wikipedia says Rolex was the first one to design a waterproof wrist watch and the first one to have automatic changing date function. Please note that personally I do not have any experience with Rolex products. Most of what I came to know was through internet articles praising the manufacturing precision of Rolex. They are regarded as the biggest producer of luxury watches i.e. in terms of volumes.

Precisely, Rolex is a marketing giant. They will never say that they copied from anyone. Fact remains that Cartier made the first wrist-watch, i.e a strap holding the watch to the wrist, that JLC made the first in-built crown winding system, that Breguet invented the self-winding system and over-coil hairspring which Rolex copied completely. Also other manufacturers did have date window.. Rolex only automated the date transition by using a wheel connected to the hours mechanism. Its also well known that Blancpain had initiated and made the first diver watch a couple of years prior to Rolex, but the only difference was that BP was in financial crisis and never survived after that, only to be resurrected by the Swatch group later on. Panerai made the first waterproof watch (though with Rolex movements which were considered to be the cheapest of that era), and thus Rolex piggybacked that idea to make their own diver. Rolex is the Apple of the watch world.. expensive, overrated and thoroughly endorsed by Hollywood though the actual actors wear much better watches off-stage.

[Ajay]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Now that is THE 2 piece collection, you don't need more and 99.99% people won't even recognize both the brands even if the watch is 2 inches from their eyes which is all the better. I love Blancpain's case and dial so I love the Quantieme Complet much more than the Lange. The moonphase is what caused the resurrection of Blancpain and was conceptualized by Jean-Claude Biver himself. Its the oldest watch-brand in existence so its always a good buy. The Lange is bought only for one reason - the caseback finishing. I'm not the greatest fan of German watch-dials because of their quirky layout but fact remains that nothing beats a Lange for value given its finishing. 42mm may be on the higher side for Lange though given their extremely fat cases, but its natural because of the world time complication.

Thanks Dark Knight!!!

Quantieme Complet is a beautiful watch, it sits very nicely on the wrist and the dial is legible under a variety of light conditions, a classic watch. Blancpain was purchased by SSIH in the 50's and was sold to Piguet & Jean-Claude Biver in 1983. The video you posted on Jean-Claude Biver is a must watch. It seems he hand delivered many watches himself to customers

Here is a much clearer picture

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Aroy

entory, may induce the seller to give you more discounts.

NOTE
Please keep in mind that Rolex is an expensive watch to maintain. Each service (required at least once in 5 years) costs upwards of 50K. If a few parts are wornout then add a few 10K's to the bill.

Rolex requires service at least one every 5 years?? Really? Wow, thats certainly news to me.

I remember hearing from several dealers in different geographies that the new Rolexes does not require service before 10 years time- this is apparently data coming from Rolex itself.

A service every five years seems real overkill to me, especially given the fact that watches 10% of its price will run seamlessly for a good 7-8 years before needing a service, if maintained well. More so since most Rolexes are built to be tough tool/sport watches with extremely robust movements. This kind of maintenance cost is certainly not great news for an average watch geek who may have saved up for several years to enter the much vaunted Rolex membership club.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by Saanil

The green Bambino is looking fantastic! I am sure a lot of people are going to ask you about your watch! Are you planning to wear this to office everyday or will it be used only on weekends?

Thank you! I will wear it to the office on and off. I keep rotating my watches and usually never wear the same watch for two consecutive days.

The only watch I keep for the weekend and do not wear to office is a G Shock

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Nice collection there, among your existing timepieces, the Citizen Ecodrive looks really cool! Not a piece I have seen too often.

Coming to the Bambino, it is excellent choice as a value for money automatic dress watch. I have been wearing a Bambino Ver 2 (with the Roman numerals) as my daily office watch for the past year, and it is an excellent value for money watch with a solid and accurate in-house movement. The green dial on yours really pops! Love the blue dial variant also.

Thank you! The blue dial on the Ecodrive really pops under sunlight.

The 2nd Gen V2 with the roman dials do look good. A colleague wears one, and it was his watch which convinced me to go for Orient.

I always wanted a green dial watch - my first choice was the Alpinist but unfortunately they went out of production and the remaining pieces are priced exorbitantly. So, when Orient India came up with a sale, I snapped up this one. If not this, on a later date, I would have got the grey dial one, with the tan strap.

--Anoop

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Rolex requires service at least one every 5 years?? Really? Wow, thats certainly news to me.

I remember hearing from several dealers in different geographies that the new Rolexes does not require service before 10 years time- this is apparently data coming from Rolex itself.

A service every five years seems real overkill to me, especially given the fact that watches 10% of its price will run seamlessly for a good 7-8 years before needing a service, if maintained well. More so since most Rolexes are built to be tough tool/sport watches with extremely robust movements. This kind of maintenance cost is certainly not great news for an average watch geek who may have saved up for several years to enter the much vaunted Rolex membership club.

Ha Ha Ha.

I sold my Rolex as it stopped after 8 years of continuous service. Last year I took it for servicing and was told that apart from 45K service a whole host of parts adding up to 40K were worn out and needed replacement. That is a bill of 80K. The service centre said that after a few such cases, Rolex has upped the warranty to 5 years and the service interval remains at 5 years. That is modern manufacturing. Rolexes upto 20 years ago ran for decades and required just oiling. Now they require mandatory part changes - a fresh revenue stream. So I would caution buyers before they consider Rolex.

[RedRaider]

My new Orient ! Really liked the calendar layout.

[Driving_Nomad]

Originally Posted by RedRaider

My new Orient ! Really liked the calendar layout.

How do you read this? And why are there 2 Jans and 2 Febs?