FAIR PRICED HOROLOGY GIFTS…

When it comes to holidays everyone like to give gifts, the difficult part is what to give, watches generally has always been a great gift as it can be for any gender, age, ethnicity.

You can give a Mickey Mouse watch for a child, Apple Watch for a teenager, a BREITLING for a 22 year old man, a 卡地亚 for a woman in her 20s, a ROLEX for a 35 year old, and Patek Philippe for a 45 year old.

I think in our generation we have come far beyond this and there are really universal watches that can fit anyone at any age, we just have to make sure the size fits which is interesting that the big watch brands still call bigger watches man, and smaller ones woman when in fact its based on wrist size, it is totally acceptable a woman to wear a 39mm watch, and man wearing a 32mm.

To start off as a holiday gift, people think it must cost thousands of dollars to give a watch gift but in fact there are very basic great watch brands where you can get great value at a fair price.

Oris is a company which I owned some of their watches as well as seen a lot of them, they are beautiful, elegant, sporty, sturdy, divers, and environmental safety, “the Aquis” in particular stands out to me as there is many variations you can customize on the website, like color of the bezel, bracelet or strap, size of the watch, this is the future of watch selling not all sizes fit all as we’ve seen the past 100 years in watchmaking.

These watches start at $2200 for a basic with a modified Sellita Watch Co S.A. movement, going up to maybe $10,000 roughly for the most expensive watch, these are truly under the radar while being one of the few companies which have not capitalized over their great quality and craftsmanship and raised prices, also they help the environment by cleaning up the ocean and other renewable ways, as I said I collect them and it is a true winner for me.

Another company which people don’t speak about a lot but they have very pretty watches and they have been around the block along long time is Rado Watch Co. Ltd. They have made these iconic rectangular diastar pieces, which have been around since 1970s, a lot of people have still nostalgia from these watches seeing it on their parents or family members.

It is still for sale at Rado itself, this watch I would really recommend for someone that has a feel for it, yes it is a quartz (battery operated) but that’s when it was in style and they haven’t changed since, at a cost of $2,500 you really can’t go wrong.

A newer company in the industry is Furlan Marri , they have come into watchmaking not long ago, but their watches has been making a real dent in the market, as you see most companies have significantly increased prices on watches, while Furlan has kept it at a very reasonable price point at most of them under $1,000 by outsourcing most of the parts and specializing in dials they have really captured the audience.

I also think by keeping their watches limited to four types of watches they are able to produce and distribute much quicker and cheaper, as they are not big brands with deep pockets, and even if you get to their most expensive model which is “the flyback” it is under $3,000 being automatic with a seriously beautiful movement (modified Sellita) it is really worth it, the only fear I usually have with startups, what if the brand goes out of business and no one can replace the parts? But with movements from companies like ETA and Sellita there is nothing to worry about.

Last but not least today is the Bvlgari “ALUMINIUM WATCH”, it is a mechanical watch with backing of a company like BVLGARI which they know what they are doing having the Octo FInissimo the watch that won the most awards in the world, and obviously I own one lol which makes it a definite yes company! But more than that we know as I wrote in line of my first articles BVLGARI owns Daniel Roth and Gerald Genta which makes them know a thing or two about watches.

The watch starts at $3,100 which is a more expensive than the other ones but carry much more weight, they have the GMT for a bit more expensive but they are truly worth it, BVLGARI has stood time and time again to give the best product to their customers and have designed it perfectly by being 40mm but with a smaller presence they can go really for man and women plus they smaller and bigger watches as well, for me this is a real go getter if you can afford it.

This is my take this week on affordable watch gifts, what do you think?

Thank you for reading.

See you next week

BH