Rolex GMT Master II or Omega Planet Ocean GMT or ???
Rolex GMT Master II or Omega Planet Ocean GMT or ???
Author
Discussion

okgo

41,808 posts

224 months

Monday 12th January 2015
quotequote all
Tend to agree re the dated comment with the omega. I have a planet ocean and also am debating chopping it in for the blue black gmt Rolex. However, tigerkois photo does make the watch you mention look a whole lot better than in your first picture!

Regarding residual value, in years to come what do you think the Rolex will do vs the omega? I bought my PO 6 years ago and it now retails at nearly double what I paid back then from Dom H. Are watches just going to keep going up? Or did I get a bit lucky?

audidoody

8,598 posts

282 months

Tuesday 13th January 2015
quotequote all
I have a PO and a 2003 GMT II (Coke)

The GMT II is the one I would save in a fire!


FarQue

2,339 posts

224 months

Tuesday 13th January 2015
quotequote all
audidoody said:
I have a PO and a 2003 GMT II (Coke)

The GMT II is the one I would save in a fire!
I've just remembered that my Pepsi GMT II is 25 years old this year!

As you were...

tuscaneer

7,970 posts

251 months

Tuesday 13th January 2015
quotequote all




need I say more?

_rubinho_

Original Poster:

1,237 posts

209 months

Tuesday 13th January 2015
quotequote all
Been off PH for a few days. Thanks all for your suggestions.

A quick count has the Rolex in front 14 to 3.

tigerkoi's photos do well to show how nice the Omega is.

That Mühle-Glashütte is nice although it doesn't seem to come on a bracelet which is a requirement for me. Does seem to be available at a good price.

I think my decision has become harder, not easier! smile I've not quite got the money for the Rolex so I either buy the Omega now or wait until I have enough for the Rolex. I suppose this gives me a few more months to procrastinate! biggrin

rickybouy

266 posts

242 months

Wednesday 14th January 2015
quotequote all
Rolex for me! i cant believe how pricey Omegas are getting, i have a speedmaster and seamaster and paid nothing like this gmt 2 pepsi is my 40th watch, which happens to be this year ;( anyone seen a good one please yell!

Cheers Rick

Futureologist

211 posts

226 months

Wednesday 14th January 2015
quotequote all
I was in the same quandary...I bought both and changed the stainless strap on the PO to an orange rubber one

Jez m

840 posts

221 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
Ive had both. The Rolex 'feels' a bit more special thats for sure. I did love the see through back of the P/O though, very cool.
Am selling my GMT Master II if you're interested. 89 model, Black and red bezel... mid 3k price.

Harvey Mushman00

271 posts

159 months

Friday 16th January 2015
quotequote all
I have, or should I say had both, sold the Omega, compared to the GMT too heavy and cumbersome for me.

tigerkoi

2,927 posts

224 months

Friday 16th January 2015
quotequote all


_rubinho_, forgive me asking (if asked previously)...but have you tried them both on, yet, and preferably in the same boutique side by side?

A lot of watches struggle to look their best when assessed through Google images, and in person it's all the little styling conceits (deceits?), angle of the chamfer, the colouring interplay...that when turned over in the palm of your hand, glistening under that 725 lumen per square metre...start to make sense.

A lot of watches get traded over the old Arpanet, but for me there is a gentle magic of the moment when you mull over the acquisition in the ante-room of that sparsely populated West End jeweller. Sure the full wattage of the salesman's preening grin, the light tinkle of the bubbling champagne that's been offered up to break you down, and the irregular angles that you coax your arm through to assess true suitability...all seem to staunch the passage of time as you "ummm" and "ahhh". But accumulating some luxury, for me, is best done in that state of plush suspension, as opposed to that clown who's revved fast and furiously up to your drive in his UPS van and rushed the plastic wrapped box into your hands and asks you to '...sign for it mate, taaaa'.



Probably more than most of the brands there is more articled rivalry between Omega and Rolex, and specifically the various Seamasters and Submariners over time, than any other.

Off the top of my head Breitling has pushed the Superocean line since 1957. That is some run. However the styling themes haven't stayed true. I see nothing in comparison between my 42mm Steelfish of 2005 (A17360 - which I truly adore), and the current 2010 Superocean II (A17364) model: the latter to me looks like a toy watch with it's appalling italicised fonts. And over time what you see is that individual models may have seen great success or not, but lack of styling consistency naturally impacts the 'Superocean brand equity' from generation to generation. Instead of someone saying 'one day I want a Superocean...', they might rather find themselves in a shop saying, 'hmmm, I like that watch there, that Brietling'. Or not.

Of course Rolex, generations ago, lucked in on an engineering and styling alchemy that whilst it led to one styling icon (the sports oyster) in turn has made them a fairly staid and non-progressive (visually) organisation. Their entire output is like some giant recursive effect; having ROLEXROLEXROLEX around the rehaut is a touch Droste. But like Coke, McDonalds, Apple and Nike, they sell.

I won't get into the whole general "groupthink" that pervades watchmaking (watchloving?) in general, and Rolex more than most, as that just draws out the worst on internet forums, but it's endlessly fascinating how it constantly raises it ugly head when people look at model comparisons. It is worth mentioning - and I'm happy to be corrected - that Rolex didn't always have the entry to mid-luxe category hegemony. For many years Omega was the daddy. But like many they lost their way through the Quartz Crisis and through the '80s.

'Vintage' Rolex is a genuine phenomenon for sure, but there is nothing to state empirically that in 15 years, a 114060 is a guaranteed 'money-in-the-banker'. History, like Jim Collins says, shows that even the mighty can fall: the Chou Dynasty, Compaq, RJR Nabisco, even the British Empire. Some even say that Pax Americana is in its death throes! It's all about the five stages of decline, and I don't see anything beyond the Decalogue, an eleventh tablet, that says that Rolex will be this all-conquering, the only answer, the one, forever.

And as for resale, well, if I have to sell a watch off my wrist to stump up for the kid's summer term at boarding school, then I've probably got other bigger problems, right?

Omega since 'Goldeneye' have certainly clawed back an enormous amount of lost ground. The move to further in-house the co-axial statement, the ceramic push (the entire DSOTM, for instance), even their maintenance of a tourbillon at the top of model stack, has all led to the distinct - and positive - blurring of lines between price and value. People will say a Rolex is worth x. But that may (I don't profess any expert knowledge on this point, so forgive me) be more down to the fact that an AD has no power to negotiate that figure down. And they aren't alone. And everyone has to do it for fear of being cut off, then that artificially is responsible for the keeping of the pricing high water mark. You can get 17/18% off most Omega (and others) in most shops. That's not hard. So, at that juncture you're really working hard to accurately assess price and value.

Anyway, this watch hobby of ours is an interesting, passionate one. But when it comes to what you should have on your wrist, nothing can beat caressing both choices in your hand: as the high levels of lumen beat down on you from the ceiling, the champagne bubbles tinkle against the glass, and the salesman's shiny Colgate grin all serve to compress time and space, all you'll hear is '...decisions...decisions...' going round and round your head. smile

Enjoy.



(Pictures aren't mine, but gratuitously appended as I too hate having to do loads of reading without piccies)

rog007

5,821 posts

250 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
quotequote all
Now that's a post! PHs at its best. Cheers!

nick lewis

37 posts

246 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
quotequote all
I had a 45mm planet ocean for two years and just sold it and bought a submariner as my brother bought one and it just looked so much better on his wrist, I have no regrets and love it, my brother jokingly used to say to me when he saw some one wearing an omega "they could not quite stretch to a Rolex.

Quinny

15,899 posts

292 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
quotequote all
Had a few planet oceans and seamasters over the years, and always ended up selling them....... The He valve is something I now realise, I just don't like..... Also the lack of fine adjustment on the bracelet on a watch of this price, is pretty unforgivable in this day and age...

For me it would have to be the Rolex.... smile

pikeyboy

2,349 posts

240 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
quotequote all
I have a PO and a sea dweller, the PO bracelet and clasp feel more substantial and better made than the rolex. The Lume is also brighter and I think it keeps better time but I always wear the rolex and the PO just sits in the draw with my speed master.


pikeyboy

2,349 posts

240 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
quotequote all
I have a PO and a sea dweller, the PO bracelet and clasp feel more substantial and better made than the rolex. The Lume is also brighter and I think it keeps better time but I always wear the rolex and the PO just sits in the draw with my speed master.


MYOB

5,108 posts

164 months

Monday 19th January 2015
quotequote all
boy said:
I always wear the rolex and the PO just sits in the draw with my speed master.
But you're a boy - Omega all the way! Subtle and refined.

Edited by MYOB on Tuesday 20th January 00:32


Edited by MYOB on Tuesday 20th January 00:33

ellroy

7,767 posts

251 months

Monday 19th January 2015
quotequote all
Many Omegas are subtle, that ain't one of 'em!

pikeyboy

2,349 posts

240 months

Monday 19th January 2015
quotequote all
ellroy said:
Many Omegas are subtle, that ain't one of 'em!
Mines a 42mm and black face & bezel with steel bracelet, note no bright orange and thus quite subtle.