Why I love watches:
Rolex stats
Subsidiary Tudor stats
Headquarters | Geneva
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Switzerland |
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Production output | c. 200,000 (2015)[1] |
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Number of employees | 194 (2016) |
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My watchmaker friend John Martin just hated Rolex.
Not because they were bad watches, because they wouldn’t sell him parts. Martin would have a customer with a Rolex that needed a service, and the innards of a Rolex are all doing exactly the same thing as any other automatic watch. Martin knew how to service any watch, even high end minute repeaters.
(When Lake of the Ozarks country legend Lee Mace died in a tragic airplane accident when an experimental aircraft he was riding in struck a boat dock, it was John Martin who rescued Mace’s $30,000 minute repeater. He was a master watchmaker.)
Until the Black Bay, all modern Tudor watches used a modified ETA 2824 movement, the same as my Tissots. Until recent times Martin could buy parts for an ETA movement.
Today not only is a Black Bay made by the same manufacturer as Rolex it has an in house Tudor caliber.
When Martin was old enough for full Social Security and Medicare he retired to his farm. His watch shop is now a barber shop.
If you spend $9,000 or $4,000 on a Rolex product when it needs service you’ll have to have a Rolex technician service it. There’s nothing inside a Rolex or Tudor magical but each has more than a hundred parts and each tiny little part will have a part number.
The exact, same thing occurs between an Orient and Orient Star.
My $120 Bambio Orient and $340 Orient Star Classic were both made by Epson, part of the Seiko group.
If you own an Orient product then to keep it original it must be serviced by Orient.
But if you just want a good watch, the Seiko NH35 series can be inserted by anybody in a simple Orient on their back deck. If it has complications, then it needs sent to Orient.
And if you buy a two dollar grade watchmaker’s loupe, the differences between an Orient and Orient Star are real, apparent, and obvious.
Spend mo’ money, get mo’ better!.