2nd: in addition, at least 80% (in terms of value) of the whole product must have been done in switzerland.
be aware of labellings like "swiss design" or "swiss army". this only sounds good but says nothing about quality or where it was produced.
generally, "swiss design" means: design was made in switzerland, product was made in a country that was cheapest for this job.
"swiss army" means: it looks like, as if it could be used in swiss army.
Check out BAUME & MERCIER website.
There are very fine watches for women !!!
The price is not too expensive and you get a haute-horlogerie watch.
Where would this one fit?
[](http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4795857)
http://reviews.ebay.com/How-Swiss-is...00000001042431 (Yes, I know it is not the most reliable source either... so that's why I asked if anyone really knows the law)
The definition in my quote is as vague as it gets. The German premium toy company "Steiff" tried to produce in China. They got complete teddy bears from there, added a bow around the neck and put the trademark button in the ear in Germany - as this was the vast majority of the value creation, they could label them "made in Germany". (BTW did they stop this by now as they were not happy with the quality of the supplied bears...)
So when it comes to value creation, the label "Swiss made" vs. "Made in China" alone is worth easily half of the price of the watch... half the pieces by value? I guess that is pretty easy - just ship a lot of Swiss made pieces to China, they do the expensive work to assemble the movement, bring the movements back to Switzerland and drop them here in a Chinese made housing...
Generally.. besides the obvious qualities of timekeeping, design, reliability etc. the only 2 thinks that distinguish a watch (and it's price) are how many of that model were made ? how much of the works were designed / manufactured / assembled by the watch company ?
Hence PP make relatively few watches and generally they're all 'in house built' so they're at the top... Rolex (except for their Tudor range) make most of their watches themselves.. but make a lot (how many is a closely guarded secret)... Most brands buy in works from ETA (owned by swatch).. and then do more or less customisation... and at that point it all comes down to if you think it's worth shelling out for a watch that an actor put on his wrist..
Go for a Panerai then ! Or an IWC !!!
- Zenith used to be "upper mid-price", they only posittion themselves so high for maybe a decade. Given their used prices and the amount of discounts I see, I do not really think they are considered by most watch buyers to be where they want to be.
- Rolex is very popular, but they are neither in quality nor in price range near a Patek or Lange. Their movements are nowhere near a "Manufakturwerk" of the top brands - if they produce a six digit number a year, they simply cannot be...
- thanks to large investments in manufacturing and marketing did other brands like Glashütte Original or Panerai improve a lot over the last decade. Putting Panerais two levels under Rolex is rubbish - the people who buy the average submariner are exactly the same that buy Panerais... for the same money getting a very similar product.
Went through several stores around bahnhofstrasse to see what would fit.
my original goal when I started thinking about a watch was...
at 8k a piece I said no way...
So I went down to Tag Heuer level....
at around 5k, I am still very unconvinced.
What the heck... let's go Hamilton. ( They were US Brand, now swiss)
about 1.2k (maybe not this model, I went through so many I can't remember)
At the end I could not bare myself to buy a watch for THAT amount of money. Like it didn't really justify it.
I'll keep getting my time from:
My true advise would be to try the watch, cause the size and how it hangs on your wrist will definitely make you change your mind about what you saw on the internet.
I personally prefer Rado watches for their simple design, elegant looks and understatement. Although the Rado watches are not cheap (by far) but they are very unique and don't look like all the others in their price range.
I was never into watches AT ALL, because to be honest I couldn't care less. I never really needed or wanted one either. But I fell in love with my Rado watch when I first discovered there's some watchmakers who are actually thinking a bit about design... instead of copying each other all the time. What I'm trying to say, it's about YOUR taste. Don't buy a watch because you need to make a statement to others............
just check ebay or chrono24.com
I liked it, but it found it too big for myself.
No seriously, thanks for the advise.
Haven't you looked for a "ROMAIN JEROME" ???
Watches made out of some parts of Titanic, moon dust (sold by the NASA), or even Volcano dust.
I do love the design and the concept but do not really appreciate the price though
Do not forget that exactly the quality and innovativeness of the Japanese watches allowed a certain Lebanese to convince people here to launch some new ideas