Tick Talk

18th July 2015 / 8 Comments

Vostok Komandirskie Review

This is the first watch review I have written, so if it is slightly hamfisted you shall have to forgive me. Having amassed a reasonable collection of watches, I thought it best to start reviewing some of them, both to help me look objectively at my collection and to help others should they consider purchasing any similar watches.

The subject of my first review will be a Russian made Vostok Komandirskie Model 811055. This watch was purchased new at the end of March 2015 from eBay and shipped direct from Russia to the UK. The seller on eBay was MoscowTimeSeller and the watch took two weeks to arrive (typical delivery time).

27th June 2015 / 0 Comments

Restoring And Repairing Affordable Watches

Affordable watches that require work especially ones that may not have a particularly high resale value can present a problem, you may find yourself in the situation of not being sure if your cash is better spent on a new watch. I have been in this situation recently with three watches, one was an Rotary quartz watch given to me in 1998, another was the best bargain eBay find I have had so far – a Citizen quartz watch for £1.20 – and the third was a pocket watch my father asked me to enquire about.

All of these watches required work of varying degrees (some found to be far worse than previously thought) and all presented different associated costs and decisions about the value of any repairs. I thought I would write a short blog post about these decisions and the reasons behind my choices and why cost is not always the primary deciding factor.

7th June 2015 / 0 Comments

Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition

To celebrate 175 years since Patek Philippe was founded, it is hosting a one-off event at the Saatchi Gallery in London, The Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition. The event only runs for twelve days (May 27th to June 7th) and is something that is unlikely to be repeated. The exhibition takes visitors through a well crafted and presented journey from company formation to its current crowning achievements in the form of its anniversary timepieces.

I had the opportunity to visit the exhibition last Sunday, dodging the rain and the crowds on the Kings Road my partner and I ducked into the Saatchi Gallery and we were warmly greeted by the Patek Philippe representatives. We handed in our coats and bags, were given free headphones made for the event to use with guide app and stepped through into the immaculately presented exhibition.

19th May 2015 / 0 Comments

Fashion & Designer Watches

If you look online or walk down your local high street you will see in almost all the big name jewellery stores a vast collection of fashion or designer watches. You will see watches from the likes of Armani, Michael Kors, Burberry, DKNY and more. These are presented at a premium price level, often to convey the brand’s value and prestige. This is not so different to the classic prestige watch brands, there is an element of brand value and you do pay for that. There is a however a striking difference, if we take a Rolex and Seiko in comparison we can see that they are both watch-making brands that can trace their history back to 1905 and 1881 respectively. Both of these companies develop, design and manufacture watches and movements and have a wealth of experience in doing so.

14th May 2015 / 0 Comments

Fake & Homage Watches

When you start to collect watches sooner or later you come across examples that are not all that they appear to be. Some of these will be fakes and some will be part of the burgeoning market of homage watches. It is a good idea to spend a little time explaining the two, how they differ and what to avoid.

12th May 2015 / 1 Comment

So You Want To Buy A Watch?

Choosing a watch can be mind-boggling. They all have their unique selling points and if you aren’t sure what they do in the first place, no amount of labelling will help you. What can be done about this? Where do we start?

How about my ultimate rule for starting your watch collection…

6th May 2015 / 0 Comments

Nixon Teasing Star Wars Watch Collections

It is a few days after Star Wars day, when Nixon announced that it will be producing a range of luxury watches and accessories, styled on and officially licensed by the Star Wars franchise.

Now I am a nerd at the best of times when it comes to Sci-Fi but take a classic and amazing franchise such as Star Wars (we can ignore The Phantom Menace and the midi-chlorians) and add watches to the mix well that makes me just a little bit excited. (Rabidly)

Now Nixon are not giving much away on their website regarding the watch collections other than a short teaser video, but they have confirmed there will be four and they will all be Dark Side based: Stormtrooper, Imperial Pilot, Darth Vader, and Boba Fett.

5th May 2015 / 0 Comments

An unexpected spark that starts a fire

For many years I had not really given much thought to the watch on my wrist, it had been the same one for some time and my only real consideration had been how accurate it was. The watch in question was radio-controlled and I would enjoy knowing that it was always precise in its time keeping and if it did drift it would be corrected, automatically. The perfect functional timepiece. So there it sat on my wrist day to day, always working, fulfilling its function whilst I did not give it a second thought.

But one day something occurred which made me actually sit down and start thinking about watches again.

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