Watch collectors - let's talk watches here!

[Watchesandburgers]

Lange 1 is an absolute grail. Congratulations!

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[Kryptos]

Lange 1 is an absolute grail. Congratulations!

 

[Kayone73]

NWA: the new Longines 39mm Hydroconquest, I picked up the just announced LE colorway made for the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Love the gradient dial and the fact it comes on a factory fitted rubber strap with deployant clasp

Longines has been really killing it with their updated Hydroconquest releases. Don't really care about the complaints of design elements being lifted from Omega Seamaster or Rolex Subs.

All this for under $2500 retail? Works for me.

 

[Watchesandburgers]

A friend of mine created a new app for watch lovers called Wristy. Available in the Apple Apple App Store, it is a simple social app where you can post wrist shots of your watches. Think of it like Instagram used to be - fresh and fun, we're all you see are watch pictures. Check it out! Apple only for now. He's working on an Android version.
Wristy App!

 

[Gru]

I was looking for something with a minimalistic design (Junghans Max Bill Chronoscope), but ended up with that one...

 

[Kayone73]

NWA: Rolex Explorer II 40mm ref. 16570

The backstory: After owning a 40mm Yachtmaster for a number of years, I was cooling off on it (and most modern 6 digit Rolex models in general) and hardly wearing it in the past year. I recently picked up a Date just 28mm for my wife (her first mechanical watch) and traded in my YM which paid for the majority of her two tone DJ.

So after bidding the YM goodbye I was looking around for a similar size Rolex replacement for my collection, but as I said earlier, I lost interest in most of the modern 6 digit reference Rolex models, either because they're too big, chunk, shiny, etc. I really wanted a Rolex GMT and thanks to a very generous Rolex collector friend, I got to wear one of his (many) 6 digit ref GMT Master II for a couple weeks, because I was considering one of those for years. My tastes have drifted smaller for my 6.5 in wrist so after trying the modern GMT II, decided it was a bit too large for me now and officially over that. The modern Explorer II at 42mm was also out of the Q, so I turned to looking at older 5 digit models. The asking prices for good condition complete set ref. 16710 GMT Master II are bit too much for my budget, so I looked at the late model 40mm Exp II which was basically the EXACT SAME WATCH minus the difference in the bezels.

So fast forward, I eventually found a great condition complete set black dial 40mm Exp II, one of the final production years before its 2011 discontinuation. It was also a Rolex CPO, while I normally find that a bit of an overpriced upcharge, this was available thru my go to AD in Orange County. Plus I had a pretty good relationship with my SA so he knocked a generous amount off the asking price and took another swiss watch I wasn't wearing much for a trade in. After getting a pretty good trade in offer for the other watch, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this Exp II and walked out of the store paying only $6K out of pocket for this new (to me) piece.

Being one of the final model years of the ref 16750, it has a lot of modern Rolex features including laser engraved rehaut, fairly solid Oyster bracelet (altho still not as refined as the current ones) and the updated 3186 movement that fixed the 'GMT hand wobble' of the earlier 3185 movements when using the jump hr function.

I love how this watch blends more old school no-nonsense tool watch appearance and function while still retaining a touch of refined elegance that makes this an even more versatile wear than even a Submariner IMHO . This is a piece I hope to keep for a LONG time.

 

[Kayone73]

I'm starting to lean into focusing my future Rolex collecting on older 5 digit references:

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