Yesterday, April 26, 2017, the Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) released a white paper on “Fine Watchmaking”. In short, the white paper was created to promote what they’re calling “Fine Watchmaking”, and they defined 4 market segments and 7 areas of expertise by which 46 “independent international experts” used to judge brands against. These people make up what they’re calling the “Cultural Council”. For a watch to be qualified it must score at least 60% where 65% of the score is objective and 35% is subjective.

In total, 86 brands were judged, 68 made the cut, and only 28 were so good they became partners.

Every year we have our "new year's resolutions", but given the holiday season has just ended, which is always filled with the standard commercialism and retail therapy, I thought it might be worthwhile to give my perspective on the subject. Specifically when we refer to a certain type of spending as "materialism" - this ties in nicely with the watch world, since 2016 was officially the worst year on record since the early 80's!

First, what is materialism?

It has now become common knowledge that this past year has been one of the worst on record for the watch industry. Data released by Bloomberg and the FHS (Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH) show that sales have dropped over 45% between 2015 and 2016, and the level of Switzerland’s watch exports dropped 11 percent during the first 10 months of the year.

"Hi,

I only intended to buy one quality mechanical watch, so after a lot of research I bought an Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. Unfortunately I'm now hooked on watches, but I don't want to build a large collection of watches which I cannot really afford. As I really like chronographs, I would like to eventually buy a single example of a flyback, split-second, and foudroyante chronograph to complement my "basic" Speedmaster. What watches should I consider buying in each of these categories, that would be worth owning, but won't break the bank?

Robert"

Hi Robert,

And welcome to the club (there is no cure!)

Quite possibly an ongoing series, today’s bang-for-your-buck is the Zenith El Primero 36000. Specifically the 38mm version that is branded “original”, as in the original case specs/design from 1969.

The history behind the El primero is legendary. It was one the first three automatic chronograph ever made. The Heuer c.11 and the Seiko c.6139 being the other two and all were released within months of each other in 1969. The Zenith is named “El Primero”, which means “the first” in Spanish, because Zenith released their prototype before either Heuer or Seiko could release theirs (although both the heuer and Seiko were available for purchase before the El Primero).

A little while ago I put together 'The Ultimate Watch Collection'. A collection where money is no object.

But, what if money is an object?

In other words, if we wanted to build a watch collection of 'attainable' watches, where attainable isn't necessarily cheap, but that a person making an average salary could, with time, save up to buy at least a couple, what would that look like?

Well, I'm about to tell you (in no particular order), and yes there are watches in this list that overlap with the "ultimate watch collection", and thats because money isn't everything.

I am literally beside myself when I browse around online, or happen to stumble upon conversations regarding watches by so called “experts”. The amount of junk thats out there dressed up as fact, when in reality is nothing more than some self-perpetuation prophecy designed to mold and shape public opinion in a particular direction is sickening.

It’s as if over time everything has been turned on its head. What used to be considered important is now less so and vice versa. A whole new formula has been created and passed around, which is then used by those receiving this “advice” against their own interests.

At Spazz.com we call those responsible Horological Douchebags (“HDs”). They don’t want you to think for yourself using logic, but rather they want you to trust them blindly. They’ve “been there”, so they "know of the mistakes" they don’t want you to make (wink wink).

But you still have a brain, don’t you?

A watch's primary function is to tell us what time it is. This is why telling the time is not considered a "complication".

But anything beyond that is.

And some complications are much more difficult to make than others. And combining more than one of these complications into one watch is absolutely spectacular, hence, it's own category: Grand Complications (minimum 3 complications to qualify).

But even doing one of these things well is a challenge, and making them all, even in individual watches make for quite the repertoire.

Today, a convenient summary!

I think the following summary, in chart form should be a lot of fun. And as you will see, it makes it real easy to visualize alternative combinations. I.e., if you prefer the Calatrava to the Reverso, cool. In your personal chart/list, you could just swap them, and it'd still make sense...

The chronograph is one of the most desirable complications around. 

And it's an expensive and time consuming process to research and develop a chronograph movement in-house, especially an automatic one. 

As a result, the history of the chronograph is quite fascinating.  

To put it into perspective, the first automatic movement was developed by Parrelet or Breguet (depending on whom you ask), back in the 1700's.  

Harwood developed the first commercially viable and reliable automatic movement in the 1920's.

If you've ever caught the bug to collect watches, or if you're a watch lover in general, the question of what would be the ultimate watch collection always comes up. And this is true even if you never actually end up owning that collection ($$$$).

And many blogs and publications have written about this subject. The truth is, it's fun!

For the most part, owning such a collection is just a dream. There aren't too many people (or their wives) who can justify more than a couple "great" watches let alone anything close to an 'ultimate watch collection'.

But again, it's fun to even discuss it.

And when considering the ultimate collection, how to determine the logic behind the collection, or the theme, can be just as difficult. I'd say there is never a shortage of collection themes.

The main issue, in general, when it comes to the watch industry today is that many brands that once were relevant, no longer are. And it's become increasingly difficult to decipher between the true horologically relevant watch brands and the pretenders.

Whats worse, many pretenders were once at the pinnacle of haute horology, so it can get tricky. 

So, here's a list of criteria that all truly high-end brand/watch will meet. If a brand or watch does not meet all of the criteria, regardless of how much it costs, I'm here to tell you to walk away. You have better options

It's been a while since I have posted anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't kept busy or that you haven't made inquiries. I have and you have, and thank you!

And seeing that Baselworld 2015 has ended, I figured this would be a great time to resume with actually posting something.

Actually, one of the reasons why I felt a need to post about Baselworld this year is because I need to vent my frustrations.

This year, without a doubt, the them of the show was some kind of perverse identity crisis among many brands.

Even Patek Philippe, one of my favorite brands was not immune to a certain level of "issues", who accompanied the usual suspects: Rolex, Tudor, Omega, etc.