Swatch Group finna dilute another of its brands

I haven’t kept up with this. Are they just more cheaply made version of the origanal?

"finna". . . .Cool, bro.

What’s a “finna”?

Good for them. I'm in the watch game and have been for a long time. I like the idea. I have a real Speedy pro and a couple of MoonSwatches (Mission to Moon and Pluto). I owned the plastic versions before I finally bought a real one - never was a big chrono guy, though I'm starting to think open up on that. There are definitely some QC issues on the Omega x Swatch that I have personally seen. Out of the two that I have and the two that I bought for my sons, one of the chrono subdials doesn't perfectly reset to zero (its off by a second or two), and the spring bars were poor in another. Also, the straps are markedly uncomfortable - not a bad design, just a poor execution from a materials standpoint. Otherwise these toys have held up to some pretty intense inspection.

I liked the swatch concept when they came out (I was a high schooler) and I feel like Swatch did a lot to buoy the watch industry at that time. Now that mechanical watches are long past having weathered the Quartz watch movement, I think it is good to have more things to keep folks interested and or bring in new customers.

I've never owned a BP watch, as my interest has historically been primarily with other brands, but if I'm at the right place at the right time to cop one of those, I likely will, just to have and consider if maybe it would be worth it for me to have a real one.

I would argue that MoonSwatch has done nothing regarding how the real Moonwatch holds its value. Omega does plenty to dilute that by constantly flooding the market with "special edition" after "special edition".

quote:

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Size, principally. Make them less blingy, and brush the case. Take Blancpain off the side of the case.

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They make the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe just for you. Down to 38mm x 10.75mm (smaller than the original) if you want smaller than 43mm. It is all brushed with no branding on the side. It does have a 4:30 date but that is probably staying.

That being said I don't think there is anything wrong with the FF 5015 it is one of my favorite daily driver watches.

Leaked info

My parents' internist has a Ball conductor It looks better in person than in the pictures

Ball makes solid watches that are a good value relatively.

I like the Ocean Explorer but if it is going to be daily wear it might be a little busy.

If you wear watches in bed tritium tubes can actually be a bit distracting for some. The one thing I hate about Ball is when they use the tubes to make numbers on the dial, they look clunky to me like a kid's macaroni art. The other thing to note is the half-life of tritium is just over 12 years so when they dim to the point you are no longer happy the dial has to be replaced. Most people seem to be happy with them for about 20 years so it isn't a big issue for most. I do really like how they have illuminated the moon phase.


Ball calls their movements in-house but most (all?) of them are based on ETA movements. Looking at the movement and the 6 o'clock moon phase I would guess this one is based on the ubiquitous 2824 likely with a Dubois Depraz 9310 module. The DD modules are usually just replaced during service vs actually rebuilt because they are beyond the dexterity of most watchmakers. It should be a solid movement and in the case COSC certified.


IWWI


ETA since we are going afield I am surprised it hasn't popped up here that Rolex bought Bucherer. Gotta hand it to Rolex now they will be making money selling their competitor's watches. That's some masters of the universe shite. I wonder how they will handle their own wait list now. They say they aren't going to dump their AD network but we will see. Will Bucherer be the one to get the bulk of their hot watches? in related news look what the announcement did to Watches of Switzerland stock:

Definitely agree with the macaroni art statement and the illuminated moon phase is one of my favorite features. Ball absolutely has some busy watches like their world time series etc. but I think the two I’m looking at aren’t too busy. At least not for me.