Which luxury watch to buy?

[1985mt]

Its my first time buying a good watch, so for the last days I've been researching which watch to buy. The two I like the most are the Omega Speedmaster Professional and the Seiko Ananta Spring Drive Moon Phase.
Things I like in the Omega:
Omega is definately the better brand. Wearing an Omega is more prestigious /at least to the average person that doesn't know the Ananta price ;)/
Its space history - its the "moon watch"

Things I like in the Seiko:
The Spring Drive mechanism - the only one that shows the movement as it is - perpetual.
That it has 288 parts /which is considered a lot/
The Moon Phase complication.

Looks are maybe the most important but I like them equally. The Omega design is classic and neat and elegant but not less I like the Seiko which is also elegant and its design is inspired from japanese katana /which are another piece of art I am fan of/

I've paid little attention to price, from what I saw the omega is $3700 and seiko is $4700, but I want to buy the watch I will enjoy more regardless of the price, so please ignore this factor.

Given my arguments what advice will you give me?

PS: Sorry if my English is not very good, I am not native speaker.
Hope this was the right forum to post this thread.

[Watchbreath]

Is the perception of 'prestige' that important?

[Leonine]

I would be careful saying Omega is a better brand than Seiko on this forum. GS series from seiko have some of the best watches ever made. Regardless, both are great brands and I don't want to start a war.

I like the looks of the speedmaster better and I would get that if it were me, but I'm just not a fan of the ananta. Because of your situation I would try my best to try them both on before you make a decision. Seeing a watch on your wrist can make all the difference.

[1985mt]

I didn't mean to say that Omega is the better brand. I simply meant that for the average person in my country the Omega brand is better and more prestigious. I find both watches equal and that's my problem.

[AMP]

Availability of the Seiko may end up being the critical issue. I went looking for this watch last month and could not find one at any of the US dealers (although I didn't call either of the Tourneau stores listed as carrying the watch). All stated that the watch had been discontinued and one of them did call Seiko to conform that.

Assuming that you can find the Seiko then that's another story. I personally prefer the looks of the Seiko and the technology in the spring drive movement, but in the US the brand is not as well-respected so resale takes a big hit. This is not necessarily the case in other parts of the World.

The Omega is likely the safer bet while the Ananta is the more interesting one (in my opinion).

[CitizenM]

They actually made several different spring drive moon phase models, so you might consider expanding your search to non-Ananta variants too:





The first two are actually from a line literally just called the "spring drive" collection. The last one is a Credor and extremely expensive, so it's probably not an option. But the first two are viable alternatives.

I actually have an Ananta (double retrograde) and an Omega (Aqua Terra, so not really very helpful here).

I think the thing you need to consider with the Ananta is its size and weight. It's not a stupidly large watch, but it is quite big and heavy. However, one of the nice things you get with a spring drive watch (any of them) is a total guarantee of super accuracy. Even among really nice mechanical watches, there is inevitably that poor guy that gets unlucky and his watch isn't very accurate. With the spring drive, that's not going to happen...being unlucky would be 10 seconds a month (a lot of people report as little as 2 seconds a month). So it's nice to have that peace of mind that your watch is going to be super accurate, and it's always going to be that accurate (no matter if the power reserve is low, or any position you leave it in).

If your mind is open to the spring drive, I'd go with that one. It's a much more interesting watch and it performs a lot better (also it has a three day power reserve). You will always be able to pick up a Speedmaster in the future without a problem, but that'll get increasingly difficult with the Ananta (or any of those models).

Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with the Speedmaster. But I just personally think the Ananta looks better and objectively it performs better, so for me, Ananta.

[1985mt]

I am definately leaning towards the Ananta, just because I feel its more special.
This Credor is really nice too. Just out of curiosity what's its price?

[CitizenM]

I honestly have no idea, but if I had to take a guess, I'd think it's probably around $10,000+. Credor's pricing doesn't make a lot of sense to me...it could just as easily be 25k for all I know. It'll be more expensive than a Grand Seiko though, for sure. You almost never see a Credor for sale unfortunately.

There actually is a difference between the Credor version and the Ananta/SD collection ones, in that the Credor has a 5R77 and the Ananta/SD has a 5R67, the only difference (that I know of) that the Credor is a manual wind. So you can pay twice as much to lose a feature lol.

But man, that Credor is stunning isn't it?

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

They really are both good watches, I suspect the problem you have is the recognized qualities of the Omega vs. the potentially unrecognized qualties of the Spring Drive.

Why don't you figure on buying the one you like better now and save up for the other, since it's clear you are going to need BOTH. Right?

Enjoy the agony.

[erlan88]

Let's make it easier. Watch this. :)

Ananta: The Inside Story - YouTube

Even I want one now.