Rolex vs High End Knives

[Gavin S.]

That's right. No crown guards and a too small NATO strap, for some reason.

Actually It would be more like Roger Moore classic James Bond.
Sean Connery wore a Big Crown model either reference 6538 or 5510.

 

[Peak_Oil]

The OP was trying to justify high end knives compared to a Rolex. My point was supposed to be that high end knives are just as frivolous as high end watches, pricewise you can't justify either, but for me, the carrot has always been worth the effort.

I can see how you would think that is the case. My point was that Rolex watches are a bad purchase because they don't tell time accurately. It's not the case that every high end knife doesn't cut well, but it IS the case that a high end knife CAN cut better than a... how do I say this... a not-highly-engineered knife can cut. Just for the sake of illustration, consider Phil Wilson's comments on edge geometry and sharpening.

http://www.seamountknifeworks.com/about.htm#edge_geometry

What does a watch do? It tells time. What does a knife do? It cuts something. The difference between a high end knife that cuts well and a Rolex is that a Rolex does not do a particularly good job at telling time. Any Casio that synchs with the Atomic Clock does a better job... it OBJECTIVELY does a better job at telling time... than any Rolex does. There really isn't any doubt about that, it's a statement of fact. If you pay more money for a timepiece that does a lesser job of telling time... I don't know what to say.

Some people think Harleys are good investments. Some think classic muscle cars are a good investment. Most collector items are good investments for a while, then the market changes and anyone holding the bag winds up out. Beanie babies, cabbage patch dolls, baseball cards, etc. Rubies have done well over time. Then again, rubies don't really do anything. They're not useful, other than as a store of value.

 

[Gavin S.]

I hadn't really thought about it in terms of people buying a Rolex because of its superior time keeping abilities, but I guess they do. It's been so long since I had the impression that a mechanical watch was anything but a throwback to a more simple time that people bought for that sense of the watch being alive in some way because of its ticking heart and little springs and cogs that tick away inside it. No, a mechanical watch is not the best way to keep track of time. It sure is cool, though.

I can see how you would think that is the case. My point was that Rolex watches are a bad purchase because they don't tell time accurately. It's not the case that every high end knife doesn't cut well, but it IS the case that a high end knife CAN cut better than a... how do I say this... a not-highly-engineered knife can cut. Just for the sake of illustration, consider Phil Wilson's comments on edge geometry and sharpening.

http://www.seamountknifeworks.com/about.htm#edge_geometry

What does a watch do? It tells time. What does a knife do? It cuts something. The difference between a high end knife that cuts well and a Rolex is that a Rolex does not do a particularly good job at telling time. Any Casio that synchs with the Atomic Clock does a better job... it OBJECTIVELY does a better job at telling time... than any Rolex does. There really isn't any doubt about that, it's a statement of fact. If you pay more money for a timepiece that does a lesser job of telling time... I don't know what to say.

Some people think Harleys are good investments. Some think classic muscle cars are a good investment. Most collector items are good investments for a while, then the market changes and anyone holding the bag winds up out. Beanie babies, cabbage patch dolls, baseball cards, etc. Rubies have done well over time. Then again, rubies don't really do anything. They're not useful, other than as a store of value.

 

[STR]

Men like their jewelry lets be honest. Its no secret many of the Rolex watches seen anymore are good fakes. I assume most of the ones I see like the one on the highway yesterday flaunted by the obvious salesman on the expensive phone, Rolex on the wrist, big signet ring of some sort, Mont Blanc pen and oh yes, the suit. A yeah, can't forget the look. It is a work of art when done artfully, combined with the dress of the professional. He looked sharp. It cinched the look and the only thing missing was a finer automobile. Maybe next commission but you know if you live the image. If it sits well with you to help set the mood so to speak then use whatever tool available. There was a saying in sales when I lived it, that went, if you want to be successful find someone you think fits your ideal of that and emulate that. I did that pretty well, indeed dress for success has some valid success stories in high pressure sales and not so high. The Rolex was certainly a big part of that scene, and for a time on my own wrist. I didn't consider it all that expensive at the time. In fact I saw it as a tool, an investment, profit making tool. If nothing else a conversation starter and as it turned out many customers that recognized it asked me in not for anything other than to show me theirs!

Patek Philippe, A. Lange & Sohne? Ah, yes the, "Neener neener" of course! If one has to stop to explain how good it is the opportunity has passed in sales unfortunately if no one knows of it. Rolex to me is and always has been kind of like a fine display art knife. Some of the art knives I've bought looked absolutely fantastic. Beautiful all the way down to the clip that was a generic slap on at best but if not that and the clip was spot on custom too some the locks gave and the blade snapped shut with slight pressure to the spine. That mirror polished contact looks good tho huh? But what good is it if it doesn't actually work? Well, its good for show which was the point to begin with. Just so you know, many sales people see the Rolex as a great sales tool nothing more. Its an opportunity maker because the mentality of those that own them sit within a certain ilk of types to sell to which is win win for both the ego of the customer and the greedy sales guy at the door with the big smile!

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

Love the Porsche fob. I sold my 911. But wear a Sub. Probably because I'm retired military, too.

If you have a cellphone, you don't need a watch. A $20 knife from Walmart cuts just fine and a Prius will get you from A to B with a minimum of fuss.

Always liked mechanical things, cars, motorcycles, guns, knives, and watches. When I got to the point I could afford it, sold the VMax and bought a Harley Softail Custom. 18 years and 5 Harleys later, there is no other brand I will ever ride. When I could afford it, bought a new Porsche. 9 years and two Porsches later, am considering buying another. Porsches have been the best sports cars I have ever owned, a Corvette was the worst. Can now afford fine knives, Bose is my preference. When my Sinn 656 needed repair for the second time, bought a new Rolex ceramic submariner, love it and wear it all the time.

Riding the Harley, driving the Porsche, cutting with a Bose, or having a Rolex on my wrist feels good. Worked hard for over 40 years to get to this point, owning and using fine products is the reward. Cliché, but you can't understand until you experience it yourself.

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

LW, I've always admired your taste. As someone famous once said, or something to this effect, My tastes are simple, only the finest will do. My fondness for Rolex started with the James Bond books in the early 60's when I was a young teen. Bought my first in the Army. And, yeah, there are more accurate watches. But we like to say there is time, and there is Rolex time.

Here is another photo, because you can't have too many photos.

I wear mine 24/7 here in Afghanistan.

 

[ShepardCC]

Just like many things you have to have both the good and the bad to Understand and Appreciate the differences. Which in most cases are quite extensive.

A Jeep Wrangler and a Land Rover Range Rover can both go off road. Which do I prefer?! Land Rover all day long. Does their air ride suspension sometimes break, yes. When it works nothing can touch it's capabilities for offroading abilities or its on-road luxury ride.

Same goes for all things in life. Watches, cars, guns, red dots, scopes, knives, beds, furniture, etc.

Also I must add that Tag Heuer and Panerai make some amazing watches.

 

[LARRYZ10]

Seems like this subject all started with Peak Oil saying Rolexs are a frivolous purchase. I disagree and here is why. I saw my first Rolex on the wrist of an oil fieldworker in the late 1970s . I live in Bakersfiled, Ca where there are oil wells everywhere. He had been on contract to a company called Aramco I believe which operated in Saudi Arabia. He said there were no batteries to be had anywhere and the workers checked their time cards with watches at the end of each shift. I met another petroleum geologist who bought one before going to Sumatra to explore for oil. Lastly I was watching a documentary filmed in the Amazon and hosted by Hugh Downs and he was wearing a Submariner and fell into the river almost every week. I had to have one and bought a stainless Submariner in 1980 for a hair over $1000. I wore the watch 32 years and it increased in value by at least 300%. Is that frivolous. That watch was bulletproof. I hunted and fished and worked with that watch all those years when most watches would be long gone. I never regretted that purchase. I wish that every purchase had turned out so well.

 

[sodak]

I inherited my Dad's Rolex when he died. He was not hard on it at all, but his broke. He tried to send it in for repairs, and they sent it back with a note - Buy a new one.

So I have a broken POS Rolex that they did NOT honor the lifetime warranty for. You can probably guess what my opinion of that company is.

 

[Karda]

I inherited my Dad's Rolex when he died. He was not hard on it at all, but his broke. He tried to send it in for repairs, and they sent it back with a note - Buy a new one.

So I have a broken POS Rolex that they did NOT honor the lifetime warranty for. You can probably guess what my opinion of that company is.

AFAIK, Rolex itself does not offer any "lifetime" warranty on repair work and never has, although some places whom sell them might also sell/offer a lifetime warranty on the product they specifically sell.

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

And I do not believe for one moment that Rolex would respond like that to a genuine Rolex owner.

AFAIK, Rolex itself does not offer any "lifetime" warranty on repair work and never has, although some places whom sell them might also sell/offer a lifetime warranty on the product they specifically sell.

 

[Gavin S.]

Lifetime warranty? Two years is their warranty, from what I understand. There is also a cut off on the age of a watch that they can-will service. Rolex doesn't keep parts lying around for 50 year old watches. Look for a trusted independent service center that may specialize in these older pieces would be my advice.

I inherited my Dad's Rolex when he died. He was not hard on it at all, but his broke. He tried to send it in for repairs, and they sent it back with a note - Buy a new one.

So I have a broken POS Rolex that they did NOT honor the lifetime warranty for. You can probably guess what my opinion of that company is.

 

[sodak]

And I do not believe for one moment that Rolex would respond like that to a genuine Rolex owner.

They certainly did. This is an old Rolex, and it did come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[Gavin S.]

I'm curious as to what model watch and how old it is.

They certainly did. This is an old Rolex, and it did come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[Gavin S.]

I can find no reference to Rolex ever having a lifetime warranty. A place called Stein Diamonds does offer one if you buy new from them, though that doesn't cover having a normal servicing done, which all mechanical watches need from time to time.

They certainly did. This is an old Rolex, and it did come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[Haze]

Interesting, what was actually wrong with the watch and what is the model ? Also, as pointed out Rolex have never had a lifetime warranty on any watch but as I understand it they are on occasion "flexable" on those standard two years. Also as mentioned there are a number of places that would work on an old watch but you would be paying for that work and any parts either way. It might be nice to fix up your old boys Rolex for the keep sake, my mother did the same with my grandfathers very old wind up Rolex with no problems.

I inherited my Dad's Rolex when he died. He was not hard on it at all, but his broke. He tried to send it in for repairs, and they sent it back with a note - Buy a new one.

So I have a broken POS Rolex that they did NOT honor the lifetime warranty for. You can probably guess what my opinion of that company is.

 

[cchu518]

And I do not believe for one moment that Rolex would respond like that to a genuine Rolex owner.

I inherited my Dad's Rolex when he died. He was not hard on it at all, but his broke. He tried to send it in for repairs, and they sent it back with a note - Buy a new one.

So I have a broken POS Rolex that they did NOT honor the lifetime warranty for. You can probably guess what my opinion of that company is.

One of my hand me downs is an oysterdate precision manual wind. The last time I had it serviced was in 2001 at rolex in NYC. I had to go there as the parts for it are running out as its a lesser owned manual wind only. I don't think rolex would have said that to your dad. After inspecting it they told me they could service it but the parts for the watch are starting to get scarce as its not a common calibre. I ended up sellimg it because of that and its 36mm size. They were nice about it though. I picked up a Hamilton khaki chrono with a 7750 in it and was happy for quite some time maybe a decade iuntil the wife got me a Seiko skx which I had never owned until now. I do know that lots of rollie owners from personal experience are happy to have their same couple of rollies forever. I met up with my boss from back then recently just to hang out and he had his GMT the same one his dad bought him after graduating from Penn. Same ol same going on 20 years looked brand new still!

 

[modabnyc1]

It's funny that Rolex was used as a reference for the frivolous shiny item, in the higher end watch world, it's actually the opposite, Rolex is the completely utilitarian workhorse. Hence Rolex never having a display back or rarely decking out models in jewels, or using complications other than day date & chrono. If you want a solid workhorse of a watch, Rolex surely fits the bill with minimally finished movements (since you can't see them). I do like Rolex, but there are so many other brands and models I would prefer to own before a Rolex (I currently do not own one). I personally prefer owning a watch that the general public doesn't recognize. Another response to some of the posts in this thread, watches are rarely (like knives) considered a financial investment. The second you purchase it it drops like a rock, it just depends on how big the rock is. It is true that Rolex in general keeps some of the best resale value, but it will still be considerably lower save for a handful of rare models (eg. Ref 6062 star dial, $542K in auction, I vaguely remember a $1m sale for a rare model but it escapes my memory). Standard models will not appreciate, but more sought after models like the Daytona will still command a pretty penny. Even big boys like AP or Piaget or Patek will still largely lose much of the value in the secondary market. Same with custom knives, I am far from an expert of custom knives but from what little I know, unless it's a Loveless or something, your value can be considerably lower in the secondary market (though there are still plenty of makes or models that are sought after).

For me, I love the fact that I have a handmade piece on my wrist, with moving parts that keep working without an energy source. I love rare or hard to work with materials that have been finished with precision that most won't or can't take on because of time and cost. It's also nice to know there aren't hundreds of thousands or millions produced. The last thing important to me is probably the accuracy of time, but as accurate as possible is still a challenge for mechanical movements. If my life depended on strict accuracy of time, then a quartz movement would be proper, but a +/- a few seconds a day won't affect me. The same pretty much goes for my criteria in knives (sans the time component) and I'd be willing to pay for it for sure.

Good to see other watch enthusiasts like Locutus & Gavin, I've currently got a Glashutte Original Sport Evo Chrono, a Zenith Chronomaster Open XXT, an Oris Formula 1 Chrono, a Baume & mercier Riviera XXL and a few others not worth mentioning as much in my rotation. If I'm not too lazy I'll try to get pics up, maybe some shots of the movements on the Glashutte or Zenith can make a believer out of Peak_Oil!

Great thread!

 

[cchu518]

Thanks for the comments all. I do very much think of the army of knife enthusiasts and watch enthusiasts to be cut of the same cloth. I even went on similar journeys learning about movements and watch history as I did with knives. There's always going to be a smaller more exclusive set of enthusiasts. There are going to be folks that would crap on a 10K watch because it came from Swatch group and wasn't exclusive enough. So amusing. It's a very tough battle being a New Yorker walking around the city and living among the haves and have nots and all the in between. I was in a meeting with the head of capital markets of an ibank in 2008 everyone in finance was getting fired or laid off. I had noticed that in place of his normal watch a Daytona was an A. Lange and not just any A. Lange but a model that goes for 45K. Kinda blew my mind that with all these folks getting fired and losing their homes that a certain percentage of the 1 percent remain unaffected. Even my own boss who just retired. She sold her houses and bought 2 not 1 but 2 condos on this ship called the World. And all it does is circle all the ports of the world.

PS I also want to point out a certain level of irony and hypocrisy on my own part. While I own more than a few mid priced watches like Rolex. I try to front and harbor a disdain for them now and what they represent especially post 2008 recession. I keep them as hand me downs and potential fungible assets that appreciate.

I say this yet I wouldn't be caught dead buying a fossil or michael kors watch lmao and my general wear watch outside of using a gshock for swimming and travel so as to not attract attention is a $300 automatic seiko skx generally universally accepted by watch folks as "OK". So in the end its just hypocritical bc in my head I'm still trying to be accepted within a certain subculture by what I associate myself in a material item... what would Buddha or Jesus say about this mess? Lmao...

 

[sodak]

Interesting, what was actually wrong with the watch and what is the model ? Also, as pointed out Rolex have never had a lifetime warranty on any watch but as I understand it they are on occasion "flexable" on those standard two years. Also as mentioned there are a number of places that would work on an old watch but you would be paying for that work and any parts either way. It might be nice to fix up your old boys Rolex for the keep sake, my mother did the same with my grandfathers very old wind up Rolex with no problems.

I'll try and dig it out this weekend and let you know.