Are Rolex Watches Worth the Hype?

I love that watch, I love the power reserve, I love the plain one, and I love the chronograph, I especially love that blue dial. I think that out of all watches out there, I can think of two watches where the blue is uber striking, for the lack of better word, and Vacheron would probably be number one with the Omega Snoopy watch being number two. The only reason I put the Omega Snoopy watch at number two, because it’s not a full blue dial, it’s blue sub-dials and a blue bezel. The blue color, both in the Vacheron Overseas Chronograph or the plain one or the power reserve is very, very striking. 

To compare it to the last generations, if you look at previous versions of pretty much every watch brand and every watch line out there — with time, they become more refined. For the most cases, they become larger, the bracelets become better and tighter. Some of the older Vacherons, the bracelets tended to get a bit loose and sort of flaky, you get that cheap feel. Where with the newer braces, they’re put together better, I should say.  

To compare it to the Nautilus and to compare it to Royal Oaks, it’s really not fair. We’re living in a world of stainless-steel sports watch mania. To include the Vacheron, comparatively speaking, you’d be hard pressed to get out to find a Vacheron Chronograph, especially the blue dial for less than retail. The plain model’s straight and slightly over list. Yes, there’s not such a big craze in regards to the Vacheron Overseas, let’s say in comparison to the Nautilus, especially now that it’s been discontinued.  

When a 5711 right now starts trading at $100,000+, people are going to say, “This is bonkers,” and they’re going to start looking for alternatives. Honestly, I can’t think of a better alternative to a sports chronograph in stainless steel than that of a Vacheron Constantin Overseas, especially with that beautiful blue dial.  

In short, no. Once a model is dubbed to be a bit of a dog, i.e. not a popular model, it tends to stay with it throughout time. The original rhodium dial did not do too well to begin with, and it wasn’t until Yacht-Master II that the Yacht-Master line really took off. They’re trying to do their best to sort of keep a line going that has never really been popular to begin with.

Lume issues do tend to be common across Rolexes and under brands that use lume on their dials, for various reasons, for example the watch sits out in the sun for a while. There are many other reasons where a lume can get messed up or have a gray patch, as you called it.

Does it address the resale value of the watch? When it comes to hands, no, not so much. Because hands are something that’s so replaceable and so inexpensive to replace and it doesn’t affect the value of the watch

There’s no question that the Vacheron and the Breguet are both watches that are completely in different realm than of a Datejust 41. Again, it’s just a Datejust, it’s why it’s called Datejust, just a date watch. 

What’s more important to you, the horological value or the flex? Yes, that VC or Breguet will blow any Rolex out of the water from a horological perspective, but from a hype and popularity perspective, you’re still probably going to get a lot more recognition from that Rolex than you would from that Vacheron or Breguet. So the question is really to you, what do you go with? Do you go with the value or do you go with the hype? 

There’s no substitution for seeing watches in person. This is one of the biggest issues I had to deal with when I started out in this business. Being one of the first guys online, majority of clients out there were used to walking into a store trying on 7, 8, 10, 15 different watches, seeing how it feels on the wrist, seeing what it looked like, touching it, feeling it, playing with the functions and only then making that particular purchase.  

Here’s my advice. Number one, and my clients tell me this all the time. If you live in an area where you do have a decent number of watch shops or brand boutiques, I encourage everybody to go in and try things. For those that may live in the remote part of the country where there’s not a whole lot of watch boutiques, the only other option is to look for guys like us that have a return policy. 

If this is your first time calling our company saying, “Listen, I know you have this 41mm Royal Oak. I think it might be too big for me,” or too small for me, whatever it might be, I’ll simply tell you that’s not an issue. You’ll pay for the watch; you’ll have the watch tomorrow. You don’t like it, you put it right back in the box for full refund, no questions asked.