My citizen, Ecodrive diver for 200 bucks has been through a lot, and neither the steel case nor the bracelet has a scratch. None of my premium Swiss steel watches comes even close. They all scratch very easily. Can somebody from the superior swiss watch industry explain their inferior steel?

John, you nailed it! Respect! I'm a microelectronics and micro mechanical engineer. I'm collecting and having fun with watches. In general mechanical watches are obsolete, despite the fact that they are showing the time. It is the ART with mechanical watches which I respect and pay tribute to the horology. Nova days a smart phone or a simple cheap quartz watch will tell the time mostly more accurately than the mechanical watches. I agree with you that today are available much more precise machines to make watch movement components compare to old days. This means that the production is much cheaper than it used to be... including design which now computers took over. Now, different alloys and metal composites are available which are stronger and cheaper to make a movement. As you mentioned the bigger names just take advantage of poor knowledge of the normal people and charge a lot for it. All the best...

The spring drive is innovation, the constant force tourbillon is innovation. Seiko is putting in the effort. My next “seiko” is the Credor GCLX999.

Upcoming video…“6 things Delray Watch doesn’t want you to know”. Also, congrats John 👍

We’ll certainly follow you over. This kind of content makes us informed purchasers. More of this is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for all these helpful insights.

I watch all of your videos, never miss one, and this one is really outstanding, many thanks.

Excellent content 👌 👏 please continue with more inside the industry information, I love it really learned a lot.

As always appreciate the info, cheers!

Great content John. Learned something new today

Really appreciate this information. Nicely done. Very informative.

John, have followed you for the past years on KZfaq. Amongst all Watch KZfaqrs, this has got to be the most refreshing, honest, transparent, forthcoming and enjoyable video ever made on this platform. Wishing you continued success. You deserve that.

I was at a watch event with presidents and CEOs of a few prominent watch brands (under different parent companies). Their brands may officially be competitors, but these leaders were definitely all friends with each other.

Good luck for your future John and in the short term enjoy your holiday.

Great content John! I noticed your tube amp. Is that a Woo Audio? 😉 I’m into high res audio and run a tube amp setup too.

Really awesome stuff.

Great video. Good luck with whatever your next venture is. I do enjoy your content and will jump to John P and subscribe.

Buying a luxury watch is not really about the watch. Got it. Next!

John, this channel is your sweet spot. Please keep your stream-of-consciousness insights flowing. You are in the zone!

If you get a new Seiko that is as accurate as a new Rolex, you should immediately buy a lottery ticket to see if lightning can strike twice.

very good video.

An excellent video. ❤

Great vid. Something I'd like to know is assomeone inside the watch industry, are there any practices from brands that stand out? e.g. Brand A has exceptional service, manufacturing process, parts support for watchmakers etc

Good point! The lack of innovation is stunning. Everyone pretends that a high beat solar quartz is impossible. Meanwhile, automakers are making cars that drive themselves. It is a joke!

John, I Enjoyed your perspective over the past seven years. Too few venture capitalists can say they started a watch reselling business that also manufactured its own micro brand! Go take a well deserved vacation and if appropriate, do videos on your travels.

Best of luck John P !!

Thankyou.

good luck dude

great you walked away from fredeiko or whatever he calls himself!! your passion is appreciated

Great video. I have Seiko mini turtle, I like it a lot. I was thinking of a more elegant diver watch, like a "dress diver". My choice would be the Longines Legend diver 36mm as I have quite a small wrist. But I am not entirely sure about it. In some videos I saw on youtube about that model some people complained that the mechanism stopped working after few months or after 2-3 years. The repair is quite costly (somewhere around 250 euros). As I understand it is an ETA mechanism.

OMG wasting time I can't listen to this. Get on with the points.

Enjoy your vacation!

Your insights have bee really helpful. You mention TikTok dancers. So, John, are you getting into being a dancer on TikTok? Is that what you're really trying to say? :)

Thanks John! Subscribed to the new channel. I am very intrigued by the success of Rolex. The fact that they hold 40% of the luxury watch market speaks for itself. Perhaps you can share your knowledge about the marketing genius behind Hans Wilsdorf and his companies?

Accuracy and complications? Get a Garmin. 😂 Great video man!

Thanks

Innovations are not so great when bean counters dictate that garden variety 'Hi Tec' plastic is used for pallet forks and escape wheels.

Congrats on the exit! You’ve clearly got the PE/VC bug - I wish I would have gotten on that train a lot earlier in life. It kills me to think how much income I missed.

Excellent and honest video, these guys know each other from two or three centuries ago and, they act and work like a” mob” nothing wrong with it, they just produce watches, that today are not necessarily a tool, as we can read the time in a movil phone or and intelligent watch , wrist watches are jewelry another way to brag as we do with cars, etc. When these guys were threatened with the Japanese in the early sixties, before the start of the quartz era, regarding the competition about accuracy , in Switzerland, they stopped this competition. Anyway all of us because different reasons loves watches and almost all of us in certain way know and understand what you say. Again excellent video.

Dude, well said. Watching (excuse the pun) from London...

I‘ve been on the buyout side of a business and it’s sweet.. enjoy your moment of peace between the last thing and the next thing. Remember your gonna have to put a $i!7 load of money back for next years taxes. Keep it in a separate account. Good luck with your next adventure!

I sold all my luxury watches for homages. The longer you’ve been in this hobby, you’ll realize that most watches are pretty similar. My Seiko NH35 which I regulated is well within the accuracy of a Rolex GMT Master II’s movement. The technology is so good now. The machining is also well done. I have a $200 San Martin Hulk Subby homage and I can’t believe the machining. It also has screwed in solid links! My $1,500 Tag Haeuer F1 doesn’t even have screwed it links. Wth?!

Made a pot of coffee and hit re/wind. Amazing data on this KZfaq video....

Not sure it's a "hidden secret that watch industry doesn't want you to know" that it's not enough to make a great product, you also have to market it well to the right group of buyers. How is that an insider secret? Pretty much how business works my friend in every product category from cars to tech to watches.

Have a great vacation! psst, whistleblowers tend to X_x

Gonna have to get another luxury watch....cause I like them....Cause its not a stamp or coin.....thanks for playing

Stick with Rolex GMTs and Subs. Your money is generally safe and they are very durable.

Take it easy for a while, your comments are very appreciated in this show 👍❤️👌

The truth will set us free you will be honest John, SEMPER FI CHIEF

This could have all been covered in a much more concise 4-6 minutes. All the best in your future endeavors.

Technological innovation happened. It's called quartz and smart watches.

So watches have become cheaper to produce but certain people insist on marketing them for double the prices that they sold 10-20 years ago.

Rest up !!!!!!!

When I was young, you had to spend a relatively high amount to get accurate and reliable watches (only mechanical at that time). You phone now keeps better time than any mechanical watch. In many ways the watch industry is coasting on mystique. Auto racing, aviation, diving have a panache, but in truth wristwatches are almost immaterial now in those fields. Cars are clocked to hundreths or even thouandths of second by electronics. Dive computers havre replaced dive watches for any serious underwater work. Some aviation watches throw on a circular slide rule for 'navigation'--but it's meaningless==there are still navigation slide rules (search EB6) but they are not the simple scales on a watch. But the psychological association is still used in the marketing but that will wear off after a while. We can't anchor to the past associations forever. Let's enjoy watches for what they are, (I love skeleton watches because a a gearhead, not because I have any practical reason owning them) rather than what marketers promote them as.

🔥💕🔥

You can swap the word ‘wristwatch’ for ‘handgun’ and the argument still holds water. Every major company sells basically the exact same product. There are microbrands that copy big brands and even their parts interchange. $7000 works of art handmade by elves in mountaintop castles perform identically to $300 tools made from recycled soda bottles in 3rd world countries.

The devaluation of COSC is real. My Tissot Gentleman Automatic runs +3 secs a day. My Longines Hydro runs +2 secs a day... COSC might be more relevant when it comes to Sellitta.

Thanks John. I have always viewed luxury watches as a form of jewelry. Which is perfectly fine, and I will eventually buy an Omega or Grand Seiko. If I want a tool watch, I will buy a $100 Seiko Solar, and not worry if it gets damaged or lost. I would never pay $30,000 for a golden hammer, and then use it to build a house. Even if I was a billionaire. Sorry, Rolex.

COSC and METAS certifications are pretty meaningless for anything but bragging rights after you buy the watch. A couple years down the road, it won't mean as much, and once it's been serviced, it's totally meaningless unless it gets recertified, and I don't think that happens. I've got a Seiko-based custom build I did that keeps almost as good time as my much more expensive Longines, and it's about 1/10 the cost.

Watches that are accurate to within +/- 4s/day are not 'keeping to chronometer spec'. There are other tests involved, like measuring accuracy at certain angles and under other operating conditions, like temperature. They are tested for the consistency of their accuracy, under various conditions. Getting an accuracy of +/- 4s/day on a timeographer or using the WatchCheck app is having a very accurate watch. You have a total right to be 'blown away', or pleased, by that. But you do not have the right to say "It is performing within chronometer spec", any more than a cheap watch company has the right to print the word 'chronometer' on the dial because 'chronometer spec' has nothing to do with the rudimentary way that you, personally, tested your watch. Everybody needs to get that through their 'whatever kind of skull they have (probably thick)' skulls.

3 minutes of information stretched out to 13 minutes. Ridiculous.

What I have learned is with Grand Seiko is they praise them selves so highly but when it comes to their US service center they are horrible and have no pride in their workmanship. Wont be buying anymore Grand Seiko or Seiko.

My old oris and Sinn and movado all keep better time then my Rolex lol

Watch enthusiasts who think mechanical watch movements are the height of technical production, such people are clueless. Watch movements are not close to being high tech at all, but rather it's a cottage industry plodding along while the rest of world has moved on.

Spending thousands of dollars more on luxery watches which are 99% identical as their replicas doesn't make sense. Other than that there are cheaper brand watches that look just as good if not better.

Its not "several hundred years old".

Save your time, this guy just likes to hear himself talk. Much better KZfaq watch guys out there.

I pop

?

Several hundred years old industry? Bit exaggerated I would say. Not even 200 years. And to suggest that what they do today has anything to do with the late 19th century, also a bit wild. I would suggest less sensational. Will gain in credibility.

TBH, lost the groove for watches - there is only so muh that can be said about them and its all been said over the past 4 years. Sold out a low/mid value collection and now only have the apple watch.

The most accurate watch in the world is a citizen $3500 with a leather strap - The most accurate chronograph is a Zenith - ETA 2824 GREAT ETA 7750 GREAT - Rolex and other ones like them sell you a dream of nothing because there are other watches better and cost 10 percent of what a Rolex and others cost - A fool is born every 15 seconds - The world is 90 percent fools to a certain degree - The 1 percent run the world - Also the 1 percent serve the military in the USA to protect the 1 percent that run the USA/world - Can i get a AMEN !!! AMEN

Here's what they don't want you to know..how idiotic it is to take a loan out for a watch.

Watch enthusiasts love the tiny details that distinguish the different watches. I'll pass on this nihilistic view.

I listened to the first 3 1/2 min and then I quit. Too much Bla bla bla. You should spare us all this.

My seiko kept awful time. King turtle.

Dont care. Screw this click bait headline.

Most people wouldn't know a Rolex from a Seiko but don't work in an office without a watch. It's a dead give-away that you are from the lower social classes. Polished shoes, decent clothes, a nice stainless-steel watch and a good haircut will take you far.

Waste of time

Awful lot of "watch snobs" out there.

I got to '2' and it just told me what I already knew..... You are FOS. Tell us the truth about your exit from DRW lol Seiko better than Rolex lol 🖕

3 minutes in and just yapping about nothing. Get on with it

How come women don’t care about watches?

Watches are useless commodity, and sold as luxury with added polish, by Marketing, fake stories, more so than ever before, although always been going on. It‘s just status posing BS. There‘s only one value - a hand-made craftsman watchmaker end2end manual personal manufacture. The rest is industrial or partly industrialized products. Is the manually created singularity of a watch better in performance quality than a 500usd watch? Not likely, it‘s a representation of the human that built it, it‘ll have bugs, issues and needs service - old school.

Yeah Rolex is smart. They have mastered the art of fake hype. They literally pay millions to influencers of society to wear their watches that they give to them for free. Just one player in Tennis alone gets paid 8 million dollars a year to wear a Rolex. They recognize that the vast majority of people are sheep. If their favor celebrity wears a Rolex they want one even though they don’t know jack shit about the brand and it’s real history. These famous people are not wearing Rolex watches by their own choice. They are leveraging their fame and success to get millions of dollars from Rolex along with a free watch. Let that sink in for a minute. You’re spending thousands of dollars on a watch these people get for free because you’re the mark. Rolex is selling the false perception of wealth and success and people just eat it up like window lickers. Hans even said it himself. It’s all about marketing and it’s all you need to be a successful business.