Horological Meandering

Chromatic Fugue
1903

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Chronoswiss, and an observation about your question

If your question isn't about residual value but about which brands have the highest ratio of quality/finishing to price, you should probably include Chronoswiss.  There's obviously some debate about whether Chronoswiss measures up to true high-end brands.  But there's no debate that Chronoswiss price points -- particularly for the complicated models -- are far, far below the price points of corresponding models of the high-end brands.

(While we're on this topic, I've seen spectacular photos of highly polished, exceptionally complicated Citizen models on this site.  Of course they have quartz movements.  But they cost about 1% of what you'd pay for a similarly complicated watch with a mechanical movement.  Is it worth it to pay 100 times more for gears and springs on the inside?  Tough to answer. )

At the end of the day, the question you pose in this thread reduces to one of the following:

1.  What is the "true" intrinsic value of a mechanical watch with attractive finishing; or

2.  What will the market bear for such a watch?

As you must know, there is no answer to question 1, and discussions about it tend to fly off into radical incoherence.  There is also rarely a clear answer to question 2, although the people arguing that question at least have some common frame of reference:  objectively quantifiable prices.

Fascinating question to ask, though.  - Jon