A day out on New Bond Street

[wigdog63]

I posted this on another forum and people seemed to find it interesting so here goes!
I spent the day on New Bond Street in London last week with my trusty friend Paul who is on the look out for a special 60th birthday watch.
The trainline north from Brighton is closed so we had a somewhat circuitous journey but found ourselves sitting in the Lange boutique by 1pm trying on his number one choice, the Richard Lange in white gold. The assistant was knowledgeable and informative, and the watch is stunning-my picture is hopeless but I think this just confirmed to Paul that he was on the right track.


We then proceeded to amble along the street taking in some glorious watches on the way-with a few unexpected surprises, and disappointments.
I was wearing my trusty Breguet marine so we headed to Breguet boutique to look at their new marine collection-it just doesn't quite do it for me and will not be letting mine go! (photo not from yesterday)


Paul was wearing his 10 year old Daytona and we popped in to the Rolex boutique to enquire about servicing. They had pretty much every watch on display, but literally nothing for sale-they told us everything is allocated before it arrives at the store. Must be a pretty miserable way to work.
The first surprise of the day was in the JLC boutique-I wanted to look at the Polaris Mariner date but didn't expect great things. Wow-this watch is beautiful-the dial is a rich deep blue that changes in the light and it wears very comfortably. Small micro adjustment on a lovely bracelet, 300 metres WR, 8 year warranty-it offers a lot but also comes with a price tag. Again my pictures aren't great but you can get a feel:


Should I consider trading this for it?? Decisions, decisions.....



Next up was Piaget-another surprise. We skirted past the Piaget Polo skeleton in the window but when the assistant insisted we had a closer look, it is actually a spectacular piece (with a spectacular 25K price tag). Not for everyone, but nice to see it.


Next up was Chopard-I was keen to try the Alpine Eagle and also the chrono version. The chrono at 44mm is much too big for me but the 40mm date version fits like a glove. Amazing dial and a really nice watch-the date is not for everyone but the dial is spectacular. No micro adjust is a bit annoying for an £11.5K watch but not unusual. A great watch-expensive at retail, but maybe obtainable and an alternative to my Bulgari again....



The next surprise was a disappointment. Vacheron boutique not taking any walk in customers, but Wempe fortunately had what we were looking for-the Historique triple calendar and this is the stock web photo:


I think it looks lovely in the photo, but somehow in the flesh and on the wrist-meh. Looked a bit washed out and not at all exciting so we crossed that off the list!

Last up was WoS Regent's Street and a quick look at some Grand Seiko. The white birch is a lovely watch, textured dial, wonderful hi beat movement with nice decoration and wore beautifully on the wrist. I'm just not sure how it would fit in to my collection, and at over £8K it's a significant outlay-lovely to try it on though:


That was it for the watches-last stop The Ivy for a hard earned meal:


Hope you enjoyed my trip as much as I did. I think Paul will be getting the Richard Lange once funds are sorted. I'm not in a position to buy anything new, but considering a change of scenery from the Bulgari towards the JLC or maybe the Alpine Eagle.
All the best,
Richard.