The Franck Muller Long Island-Imperial Tourbillon 18-kt. Watch
And I thought the price of gas was high?
Seriously, is it made of an exotic alloy? Does it take a small swiss village several months to complete one? Is it the timepiece most currently in vogue?
:smack: Make that “…in vogue at present?”
Wow, shipping is only $2.95. What a deal
Odd. When I plug the name of that watch into Google, every link appears eventually to go back to Overstock.com.
Who creates a $50,000 watch exclusively for a discount website?
And the Franck Muller Curvex Tourbillon 18-kt. White Gold Watch" has exactly the same weird $87,662.99 list price.
Think you get insurance for your $2.95 shipping?
$53K? Pfffftt! Chump change!
What makes the IWC Grand Complication worth $250,000!?!?
Mainly the fact that someone, somewhere, is willing to pay that much.
If you don’t happen to have a couple hundred grand lying around, you can go here and get a fake Grand Complication for about 1/1000th the price. Like anyone *you *know would be able to tell the difference! (But you’d better come up with a good story for why you’re driving a Hyundai before you tell that cute girl in the bar that your watch cost a quarter mil.)
Some of these watches are so finely crafted that they are mechanical engineering works of art. People are paying for what’s inside the case more than what’s outside.
Last week, a Picasso sold for $104 million.
I think you could buy the thousand most expensive watches in the world in lieu of one Picasso.
Hmmmm?
I blew all my money on the watch?
No way. You can only buy 9 of these. (If there were 8 others like it in the world, that is.)
I know, priced way over the top. In this case, it is a combination of:
Luxury goods pricing - if it is expensive, it is exclusive.
Precision manufacturing - watches with these types of complications (as they are referred to) have hundreds of moving parts that must mesh together in an intricate ballet of engineering. The horologists (i.e., watch-makers) have to go through years of training before they can even attempt this type of watch.
The specific complications - a Tourbillion is generally considered the most difficult complication to build into a mechanical watch. I am sure a specific definition can be Googled, but it basically has to do with mounting certain parts of the watch’s mechanism so it is not affected by gravity (I think - may be the Earth’s rotation or something), yielding a level of precision which is extreme for a mechanical watch.
Again, a cheap-ass quartz watch yield this type of mechanism 100% obsolete, but that ain’t what this is about.
Lastly, our boy Franck Muller came on the scene a few years ago and got trendy fast…
I had to go googling:
From here
Its ugly and not even waterproof. Sheesh, what a ripoff
Here are a couple of links that, for me, begin to explain how someone could possibly consider a watch to be a work of art worth thousands (or, in some extremely rare cases, millions) of dollars.
The first is to an article by Walt Odets describing the fine craftsmanship and design of what is actually a very simple watch movement: The Vacheron 1120. This watch has nothing fancy, not even a date mechanism, in fact, not even a second hand! But, in my opinion, it is a beautiful work of art.
Next is a close up picture of a “complicated” movement – the “Datagraph” by A. Lange & Shone, a high-end German watch maker: Datagraph.
These movements are largely hand-made, and, as mentioned above, there are not many people in the world with the skills to design and make these things. The photos are actually deceiving, because they make everything look too big – in person, all of the hand-polished gears, wheels, springs and levers are so tiny and intricate that they defy belief. Truly amazing feats of engineering, creativity and skill.
So I see how people can consider them to be art, and worth the big dollars.
I think the OP watch is ugly.
I do agree that the datagraph is mechanically beautiful.
I’m sure people would pay big money for historically significant timepieces such as the H4
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/setTemplate:singlecontent/contentTypeA/conWebDoc/contentId/355/viewPage/5
Brian
I think more people might consider it if it could store at least 2 lap times.
Wow, the concept of buying a tourbillon at overstock.com boggles the mind.
Amongst watch nerds, Mullers are pretty much considered “fashion watches”
(i.e. crap).
Just really expensive crap.
Franck Muller isn’t even with the company anymore.
For true horilogical wonderfulness, you’ve gotta go Rolex.
This one is near perfect.
http://www.ukwatches.com/BaselGVA2004/Cosmograph-Daytona.jpg
i bought the best timepiece i’ve ever owned a couple of years ago. Wear it every day. I’ve had to reset it once. I’m not sure of the pronounciation though. I think it may be French, so try to stress the right sylables. Its spelled T-I-M-E-X. I’ve heard that they’ll take a lickin…
