I was casting about for a nice fairly dressy handwound (ETA 6497/98 movement) flieger. Looked at Stowa, Aristo, Archimede, Laco, Dekla, and Steinhart. Was aware of the opinions various people hold for the prestige or desirability of those brands, but tried to make a level-headed decision about it.

Wound up with a Laco Bremerhaven, at a good price. Happy with it. The price/performance ratio was important. Stowas are quite nice but I decided to go Laco like a taco. I happen to like fliegers and dive watches moreso than other types.

Workmanship on the Laco is good for the price point, watch currently running between 6 and 10 seconds slow per day (reasonable for the type / movement). Display back view tends to impress the casual non-watch person who sees it, and I enjoy it, too. Hidden blinginess.

A nice vintage JLC that comes close to fitting my caveman wrist. Certain vintage Speedys that I will not elaborate on here, but there’s a gap between your $5k limit and what they sell for typically. That’s pretty much it.

I have a Seiko 1970s Reinterpretation Diver that consistently runs about 1 second slow per day. I have a Phoibos Apollo with a garden variety Seiko NH35A movement that consistently runs 2 seconds fast per day. So much for Rolex “Superlative Chronometers”.

My 1965 Seiko Sportsmatic runs about 9 secs fast per day, currently. That’s a 58-year-old watch.

My other best runners are a Sinn and a Helson, both around 2-3 seconds fast per day. I have another Phoibos (Wave Master) that runs similar to my Squale, Oris, Laco, and Glycine: all about 10-18 seconds per day fast.

Two points: your mileage may vary, and those saying that Seikos are inaccurate are full of it. Stated accuracy ranges aren’t necessarily what you will experience.

Strangely, I find my life is not made more agonizing by these types posts. Don’t see them as a major problem. Just flick on past them, easy.

Damn skippy! Welcome to the Halls of Collecting!

I’m sorry: “What SHOULD you buy …?” There are no requirements for what one should buy, at any income level or job category. What you should do, is not be snobbish. Go ahead, hive mind, vote me down, but this is pretentious.

Most of the time when I see these posts, the watch is okay (doesn’t look “too big”). This time, maybe / probably.

From the view angle, which hides part of your wrist in shade (towards the bottom of the photo), it does look like it’s possibly too big.

But, two things: the view angle, as others have mentioned, and the question “Do you like it?” If the answer is “Yeah, I’m really grooving on it!”, then the watch is fine. If you are lukewarm, or feel like “crap, what is this gigantor thing on my arm?”, you have your answer.

Good luck, either way, and nice watch BTW!

I think the general public-to-watch enthusiast continuum breaks out like this:

1. That person is wearing a watch (and it goes no farther)
2. That person has a watch but it’s not an Apple Watch etc.
3. That person has a digital watch or a watch with hands
4. That person has a nice watch on their arm (or an ugly one)
5. That person has a cheap Timex or an expensive Rolex
6. That person has a Timex/Casio/Citizen/Armitron, or Rolex/Omega
7. Everything else (for brevity’s sake)

By the time you get to level 5 above, you have covered probably 99% of the population.

Maybe some of them have seen or heard of Fossil or other “fashion brands”/Department store offerings, or seen a Tag/Breitling/Longines/Cartier commercial, but I’m betting most of them wouldn’t remember the brand name afterwards. They don’t care.

A scant few will know of Bulova, Seiko, maybe Hamilton. Some of this, whether Bulova or Rolex, is due to advertising, or having seen Rolex or Omega banners /product placement at sporting events.

The number of people who have ever heard of Sinn, Oris, Grand Seiko, Glycine, Tutima, Alpina, Helson, on and on = very very small.

And accordingly, the number of people of who know about AP PP VC LAS JLC etc. is quite small, in part because how many people can actually afford one, and be interested in obtaining one? We know about them, because we like watches. Well, at least some of us.

I like watches for a multitude of reasons. But none of them are related to hoping someone recognizes me as having an expensive watch. A cool watch? Yes. An interesting one? Certainly. And I’ll likely bore somebody to death if they make the mistake of asking about my watch (“Oh wow, man, did you know this is a handwound using the ETA 6497 with a neat small seconds dial at the 9 o’clock position, whereas the 6498 …”).