Citizen vs. Tag vs. Omega?
Discussion
Afternoon all! 
I love browsing for the next watch, the buying experience accompanied with this and the satisfaction of wearing and appreciating said watch. I did have a small collection, which I am now downsizing, however all my watches are nowhere near the league of some owned by posters on here.
My latest watch is a Citizen Eco-Drive E81 in black ion covered stainless steel, which I purchased from F.Hinds a few days ago for £250 - I saw it and had to have it! It has perpetual calendar, alarm and chronograph functions. I should be content?
The thing is, whenever I buy a watch in my price range I can't help but see the Tag Heuer and Omega display cases ... It seems a lot of people own such watches on here too! At the moment they are a bit out of my price range for 'just a watch', but with some of my eBay items selling soon I could be in the market
I was just wondering whether someone could justify and/or explain why these watches cost so much i.e over £1K? I love the Omega Planet Ocean, Tag Aquaracer Automatic Chronograph and the Tag Link Automatic Chronograph ... Which would you go for? Does anyone have any real life pictures of the latter two? I've seen CommanderJ's Omega PO in orange, which looks rather tasty
I've also seen the Link Automatic Chronograph on US websites for just over £1K, rather than the UK RRP of nearer £2K. Good idea to import? Must be a bit less after customs? After-sales warranty issues?
I know I've written a fair amount with lots of questions, but any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!
Kris
I love browsing for the next watch, the buying experience accompanied with this and the satisfaction of wearing and appreciating said watch. I did have a small collection, which I am now downsizing, however all my watches are nowhere near the league of some owned by posters on here.
My latest watch is a Citizen Eco-Drive E81 in black ion covered stainless steel, which I purchased from F.Hinds a few days ago for £250 - I saw it and had to have it!
It has perpetual calendar, alarm and chronograph functions. I should be content?The thing is, whenever I buy a watch in my price range I can't help but see the Tag Heuer and Omega display cases ... It seems a lot of people own such watches on here too! At the moment they are a bit out of my price range for 'just a watch', but with some of my eBay items selling soon I could be in the market
I was just wondering whether someone could justify and/or explain why these watches cost so much i.e over £1K? I love the Omega Planet Ocean, Tag Aquaracer Automatic Chronograph and the Tag Link Automatic Chronograph ... Which would you go for? Does anyone have any real life pictures of the latter two? I've seen CommanderJ's Omega PO in orange, which looks rather tasty
I've also seen the Link Automatic Chronograph on US websites for just over £1K, rather than the UK RRP of nearer £2K. Good idea to import? Must be a bit less after customs? After-sales warranty issues?
I know I've written a fair amount with lots of questions, but any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!
Kris
Edited by Ikemi on Thursday 5th February 12:50
like a lot of things you are buying into a brand so things like 'value for money' start to become relative.
When you buy one of these brands you are generally :-
paying for the brand and the marketing that goes with it
paying for the fact that it is a mechanical watch
paying for lack of economies of scale
paying for better materials e.g. 316L steel, sapphire crystal's greater standard of waterproofing
paying for the case finish
paying for the fact that they are probably more labour intensive
paying for higher quality control standards.
all these add up especially the labour part e.g. a base ETA movement is about £40 a SOPROD version of exactly the same is about £500 - the difference is the SOPROD is taken apart and rebuilt with finer tolerances, some decoration is added and probably some parts changed, but the vast part of the difference is down to the labour costs.
With the exception of the branding many of these things can be had for less than than a TAG or Omega from many smaller companies eg Stowa. There are also brands out there that offer very little above the likes of Omega, but cost way more e.g. Panerai
Enjoy your Citizen
When you buy one of these brands you are generally :-
paying for the brand and the marketing that goes with it
paying for the fact that it is a mechanical watch
paying for lack of economies of scale
paying for better materials e.g. 316L steel, sapphire crystal's greater standard of waterproofing
paying for the case finish
paying for the fact that they are probably more labour intensive
paying for higher quality control standards.
all these add up especially the labour part e.g. a base ETA movement is about £40 a SOPROD version of exactly the same is about £500 - the difference is the SOPROD is taken apart and rebuilt with finer tolerances, some decoration is added and probably some parts changed, but the vast part of the difference is down to the labour costs.
With the exception of the branding many of these things can be had for less than than a TAG or Omega from many smaller companies eg Stowa. There are also brands out there that offer very little above the likes of Omega, but cost way more e.g. Panerai
Enjoy your Citizen
Edited by sparkyhx on Thursday 5th February 13:16
I have a varied collection from a £22 Casio WaveCeptor (which is used to set my automatic watches by) to a limited edition 50th Anniversary Omega Speedmaster and various watches of different makes and values inbetween.
Enjoy the watches you have now, and if you see something which you like, then buy it as you will probably regret not doing it in the long run.
I have a Planet Ocean on my wishlist as well, but not quite as loud as Cmdr Jameson's one - the one I want is the black bezel with silver numbers - not sure which size to go for though.
Enjoy the watches you have now, and if you see something which you like, then buy it as you will probably regret not doing it in the long run.
I have a Planet Ocean on my wishlist as well, but not quite as loud as Cmdr Jameson's one - the one I want is the black bezel with silver numbers - not sure which size to go for though.
CmdrBond said:
I have a varied collection from a £22 Casio WaveCeptor (which is used to set my automatic watches by) to a limited edition 50th Anniversary Omega Speedmaster and various watches of different makes and values inbetween.
Enjoy the watches you have now, and if you see something which you like, then buy it as you will probably regret not doing it in the long run.
I have a Planet Ocean on my wishlist as well, but not quite as loud as Cmdr Jameson's one - the one I want is the black bezel with silver numbers - not sure which size to go for though.
It's not that loud.Enjoy the watches you have now, and if you see something which you like, then buy it as you will probably regret not doing it in the long run.
I have a Planet Ocean on my wishlist as well, but not quite as loud as Cmdr Jameson's one - the one I want is the black bezel with silver numbers - not sure which size to go for though.
Honest.
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