Was given permission by wifey to get any watch of my liking late last year. As such, took this opportunity to look at some of the top echelon brands. Spent some time researching online and decided upon the following:-
1) Patek calatrava 5127G and 5296G
2) Ap 15202
3) Lange 1815 up/down and
4) JLC ultra thin perpetual calendar
Before Christmas, I spent a few days driving around town to AD’s and boutiques to get an actual feel of the shortlisted watches. And during Christmas in Singapore, I spent a whole day looking around orchard road area, it was fun…
IMHO, the Patek’s above were not what I had expected in terms of aesthetic and movement for the quoted price, on internet it looked so good. It simply did not give me ‘the butterfly in stomach’ feel after having a chance to fondle them. However the same cannot be said of their complication range of watches, those were amazing but totally out of budget (monetarily and mentally not able to accept spending so much on it)
The Ap15202 was gorgeous. It was something that I wanted to see in real life and did consider flipping the 15400 for it. However in the end, I love my 15400 too much and it will be a long term keeper.
Next up was the Lange, got to touch the lange 1, grand lange 1, full range of 1815 and saxonia. This brand is impressive. Nearly pulled the trigger on the 1815 up/down when in singapore, it really gave me butterflies in tummy.
As for JLC ultra thin perpetual calendar, it was ultra nice but very dressy and is something I don’t foresee will get much wrist time after getting to touch it in real life.
As it goes, after a short cooling down period, I still felt the urge for the Lange 1815 up/down. Made a trip down to town and it was then at the AD, a certain Lange caught my eye…..
I had seen it in yellow gold and wasn’t too keen, but now in a lighter color metal, it was amazing.
The SA at this AD was kind enough to take out both the lange 1815 and lange 1. After trying on both, I was sold on the Lange 1. Then came the hard part, the price was 40% more than the standard lange 1. I glanced at wifey and she was cool as cucumber. She said ‘you like you take’. I took a moment outside to clear my head and had a smoke, came back in and wiped out the credit card.
Below are some wrist shot of my spanking brand new Lange 1 in platinum.
Happy Chinese New Year and thank you for reading.
