Watches Your Glad You Never Bought, But Were Seriously Considering

[Samanator]

As the title says, these are watches you we're seriously close to pulling the trigger on, but glad now that you didn't. The catalyst for this thread was I was looking at a few pre-owned sites and I came across a Graham Chronofighter. I had not thought about this brand for a while now, but at one time I was seconds away from buying one of the Squadron based Chronographs from them. I had even sought out a local store to try a few on before buying. The key attraction was that it was a watch that looked like a hand grenade. Looking at them now they seem to be quite silly. At one point they had merged with Arnold and Son, before Citizen bought A&S and LJP movement company. Wisely Citizen did not buy Graham. Apparently Tom Cruise was one of the spokes persons for the brand and I did see something for Bekam.








They also had this line of fish eyed watches. I'm not certain how you viewed most of the dial on these.

[mlcor]

I went so far as to try this one on before I commissioned my RGM. When I did, I discovered it was (1) illegible, and (2) not nearly as well finished as I would have expected.



Also, pre-RGM, I tried this one on and thought about it before passing (thankfully).

[Henry Krinkle]

As the title says, these are watches you we're seriously close to pulling the trigger on, but glad now that you didn't. The catalyst for this thread was I was looking at a few pre-owned sites and I came across a Graham Chronofighter. I had not thought about this brand for a while now, but at one time I was seconds away from buying one of the Squadron based Chronographs from them. I had even sought out a local store to try a few on before buying. The key attraction was that it was a watch that looked like a hand grenade. Looking at them now they seem to be quite silly. At one point they had merged with Arnold and Son, before Citizen bought A&S and LJP movement company. Wisely Citizen did not buy Graham. Apparently Tom Cruise was one of the spokes persons for the brand and I did see something for Bekam.








They also had this line of fish eyed watches. I'm not certain how you viewed most of the dial on these.

Off the topic regarding the thread, someone at the place we stayed in Aruba this year claimed to have lost a Chronofighter...at the casino next door.

[Raza]

Um.

U-Boat.



And when I couldn’t afford that…TW Steel.




And, on the less ridiculous spectrum of watches, my quest for a Rolex had many strange stops along the way, but ended up inevitably—and rightly—with a proper Submariner. An ode to the Rolexes it defeated on its path to my wrist:

Rolex DeepSea:



Rolex Sea-Dweller SD4K:



Rolex Explorer II 216570:



Rolex Explorer 214270.2:



Nothing against the watches, of course. The DSSD was ultimately too big, too heavy, and too unbalanced (and I think discontinued by the time I got my Submariner), the SD4K might have been in exactly the same boat, the Explorer II’s orange hand and larger size didn’t speak to me, and while the Explorer may have been a tad bit too small for my sensibilities at the time, I’m not sure it’s out of the realm of possibility. But it was a lot of Goldilocksing to get back the 114060 Submariner, and I’m glad that I did. I’ve had it since 2017 and it is by far my most worn watch; on this year’s stats alone (thanks to that watch app you guys mentioned), my Submariner has been worn just about as much as the rest of my collection combined. There’s no way that would have been the case with any of those other Rolexes.

It’s my shining example of why sometimes it’s worth it to take 4 years to shop for a watch.

[Cybotron]

As the title says, these are watches you we're seriously close to pulling the trigger on, but glad now that you didn't. The catalyst for this thread was I was looking at a few pre-owned sites and I came across a Graham Chronofighter. I had not thought about this brand for a while now, but at one time I was seconds away from buying one of the Squadron based Chronographs from them. I had even sought out a local store to try a few on before buying. The key attraction was that it was a watch that looked like a hand grenade. Looking at them now they seem to be quite silly. At one point they had merged with Arnold and Son, before Citizen bought A&S and LJP movement company. Wisely Citizen did not buy Graham. Apparently Tom Cruise was one of the spokes persons for the brand and I did see something for Bekam.








They also had this line of fish eyed watches. I'm not certain how you viewed most of the dial on these.

I've looked at Graham before especially when they were at 50-60% off.

[Cybotron]

Almost bought this since I wanted the Richard Mille look.

[hayday]

Trimix Diver from Swiss Legend, which is neither Swiss nor legendary. In fairness, it's a pretty cool looking watch. I expected Geoff to be alll over it.

[Raza]

Trimix Diver from Swiss Legend, which is neither Swiss nor legendary. In fairness, it's a pretty cool looking watch. I expected Geoff to be alll over it.

The arrow pointing at the 4 o’clock date is by far the highlight of the design.

[Samanator]

My second watch in this category is the APRO. For all the reasons I've stated over the years, and God knows, I've really tried (I believe the count was 23 times at ADs)to like this watch. I think it looks good in the pictures, and it all goes away in my hands or wrist. I've often said that I do not understand the obsession with this watch. It is the reason I've tried it so many times. Once I truly got over caring about what other people think, I have not been to an AD since then. If I had bought this, it would not have lasted 90 days, and at that time, they did not have that great of a retention value so it would have been a blood bath. I believe one could be picked up for about $16K or less.

[Fantasio]

I was really into Glashutte Original Sport Evolution Chronograph when I was considering my first big purchase for 40th birthday.




When finally had the budget gathered, went for Zenith El Primero Original 1969 instead. Birth year and all that, no regrets whatsoever.