Which Watch Brands Belong in the High-End Forum? Which Ones Do Not?

[TK-421]

in the first sentence, "ferrari realised its technological limitation" see that means they fell from high-end if they could no longer make their own engines.

What if Ferrari realised its technological limitation, and started fitting AMG V8 MB engine with or without superchargers and in different levels of tuning??
Inhouse is not such a definite thing. I think some manufacturers use movements made by other High End Manufactures?
In the past, PP and JLC supplied moements to others.

Does that make them NOT High End?

[RichieP]

I'll second (or third? or fourth? or four thousandth?) the motion that there should be no need to label an entire brand as high-end or not. Let each watch qualify independently.

I also agree that price is irrelevant to the determination. If the watch is high-end, it will usually command a high price, but it does not have to. Similarly, having a high price does not automatically make the watch high end.

Furthermore, a movement does not have to be "in-house" per se, in order to be high-end, nor does being in-house (like a Seiko 7S26) automatically make a movement high-end. A hand assembled movement, of the highest quality, complication, and decoration will naturally be limited in production due to the limited number of watchmakers skilled enough to make them. If it is a different company that contributes the case and dial, that does not change the quality of the movement (but that case and dial better be of the highest quality too). If I were judging, I would award bonus points for having the highest percentage of parts designed, fabricated, and assembled in-house, but that is not 100% necessary.

[budhudson]

Was only offering suggestions for categories thats all

I was not stating that they were fixed and final

Had to give a starting point so mentioned in house as a good base (no pun intended)

In the absence of any further positive suggestions its difficult to define criteria

Its the easiest thing in the world to pick points against something suggested. Takes more to come back with positive suggestive response rather than petty nit picking?

[TK-421]

in-house does not make a watch high-end, but outsourced does make it more of a fashion/luxury watch than high-end.

Was only offering suggestions for categories thats all

I was not stating that they were fixed and final

Had to give a starting point so mentioned in house as a good base (no pun intended)

In the absence of any further positive suggestions its difficult to define criteria

Its the easiest thing in the world to pick points against something suggested. Takes more to come back with positive suggestive response rather than petty nit picking?

[paulie485]

Little did I imagine that this would get so over-heated. Lighten up, guys!

[budhudson]

No problem for me

Only adding to my original observations and comments

Will hold back if i am offending anyone?

For all the sit on the have a go at my comment gang - what does constitute a high end element then?

Answers on a forum please to ..................................

[TK-421]

[budhudson]

Haha point taken

Must be my Englishness coming through?

I am open to any and all answers and dont mean any offence to anyone at all

Just misunderstood i guess?

Must get into the 'forum spirit and way of thinking'?

[TK-421]

no no. i think everything is fine. people do tend to get too sensitive. i think that since there is no true definition of a high end watch it is nice to read all of the different views.

JLC is high-end, Blancpain is luxury, Hublot is fashion.

Haha point taken

Must be my Englishness coming through?

I am open to any and all answers and dont mean any offence to anyone at all

Just misunderstood i guess?

Must get into the 'forum spirit and way of thinking'?

[budhudson]

Ok then

In the absence of a true agenda and system how about a simple poll?

Person offers name of brand and receives positive and negative points according to members assumptions of the brand

The results are taken over a given time scale (to allow fair representation) and collated to give either a yes or no verdict. This is the same for ALL brands nominated

The winners stay in the 'high end' bracket and the losers are never mentioned again with the brand proposer banished forever (maybe a little harsh the last bit so can be modified to suit)

Any better than my original attempt? Or has this been done previously and i am raking over old ground?

Mark