Independents

Gary G
3734

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Not stupid at all, Enrique!

Brilliant, in fact!  He who seeks a KV watch exhibits great discernment, in my humble opinion.

Others have hinted at this, but to be explicit, if you'd like to buy a pre-owned Observatoire take a careful look at the Collectors' Market on this very site!  There are some lovely pieces for sale there coming from good homes...

I agree with others that one of the great pleasures of buying a new watch from Kari is the level of customization permitted.  Off the top of my head I forget the number of dimensions on which the Observatoires vary, but it must be on the order of 40 (from case metal and dial and marker colors to balance cock shape and metal to arcana such as flipped or non-flipped numerals and whether the indices at 12 and 6 are arrows or the (far superior ) dots.  This both makes the wait more fun and (in my experience) really bonds you to your new watch -- and gives a great opportunity to interact with Kari, who is a lovely guy.

There are lots of posts you can research here to understand the differences between the Observatoire and Vingt-8.  I'm an Observatoire guy myself, but there are lots of positives to the Vingt-8 (in-house movement with novel escapement, in-house guilloche dial, etc.).  The Observatoire has (for me) a prettier and more subtle dial (although you could arrange with Kari to use more restrained patterns on the dial than on some of the first Vingt-8s he showed), I like the Peseux 260 story and how Kari transformed the movement, it was the "watch that made Kari famous," and I'm also the first owner of mine so got to specify it myself.

If there is something special you'd like, don't be afraid to ask!  There are some KV pieces that I heard about for the first time when they were delivered (for instance, his monopusher chrono) that I would have loved to own, but just didn't think to ask about.  There are a lot of NOS movements out there of various types, and Kari is the master of making them into something great.  So, ask!

I'm waiting now for a limited series Kari watch that was supposed to be delivered late Summer 2011 but has encountered various delays.  In olden times (2008) Kari was well-known as one of the few independents who consistently met deadlines -- now, it appears that even he is having some problems with this.  Setting a clear expectation for delivery date and getting regular progress updates are key, in my view.  In the case of my watch, there have been some critical bottlenecks in production (e.g., outside production of the dial and its components) that have led to perhaps understandable, but still frustrating delays.

Good luck in your search. 

Best,

Gary G