mjb goes to NYC and does some shopping...

[m j b]

We went to NYC for our wedding last week, and while there I took my (at the time) future bride shopping in the diamond district. We started by looking at sapphire, but I ended up buying her a nice tanzanite ring instead. While there I wanted to show her the smurf. We stopped at one store, and he didn't have a smurf but he did have an 116613LB, which I fell in love with. For those (like me) who don't have every model memorized, this is the blue face/blue bezel with ss/gold bracelet. And some more gold on the crown, bezel, hour markers, etc. Retail is around $13K I think, and this guy was, after much negotiation, going to let me have it for $10,800. I was tempted, very tempted, as that is a very decent price especially since he would take a credit card and ship it to save me the sales tax. I checked that night, and TRF sellers seem to be in that price range, but they all want wired funds.

But since I wasn't actually shopping for that and wasn't mentally prepared for it, I demurred.

The diamond district is interesting. You can spot the "real" wholesalers versus the folks who (I presume) do sell wholesale but seem oriented toward retail. Either way, you've got to be educated on what you're doing, because prices are all over the place. My problem is that I know a lot about diamonds, but not about other stones, so I was at a disadvantage on the sapphire shopping.

Thursday we were out and about, and my girl was tired and went back to the hotel, so I spent some time on Fifth Ave., stopping in at the Armani store (the salesman had a GMT) and Bergdorf Goodman (holy smokes!) and Tourneau. There I did get to look at the smurf (lovely) and spent more quality time with the LB. I liked the sunburst dial on the LB more than the comparatively flat looking dial on the 116619. I love the weight of the gold timepiece though.

I also stopped in at the Omega store, and the (very nice) guy gave me the full court press on the new Jimmy Bond edition Aqua Terra. It's a nice watch, but you pay (I think, best I can remember) something like $1700 more for the Bond stuff over the standard watch. It would make a great collectible, but not if you wear it and get it all scratched up. And for me, I like to wear my watches, not just put them in safe. Nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing, but it's not my thing. The Omega was nice, but doesn't excite me like the LB does. At twice the price...

I wore my sub the whole week, and not once was I robbed, assaulted, shot or stabbed. So that's good. And I didn't leave it in the bowl at the TSA checkpoint like I did once before. Do that once, and you tend to be more careful.

So, what's keeping me from buying the LB? Well, aside from the ten grand, quite frankly, I think it's just a smidgen flashy. The gorgeous blue is quite eye-catching, and the gold on the bracelet is not exactly subtle. This is why I stopped wearing Breitlings - they are just a bit too flashy for me now. On top of that, I'm one of the highest paid people at my job, and there are some here who resent that. I don't need to add to that by flaunting my superior wealth. FWIW, I'm not wealthy nor rich, nor do I make a lot of money. It's just that most everyone else here are clerical types who make no more than $60K. And I don't go out to the theatre or fancy dinners often enough to have an expensive watch just for those special occasions. The wife thinks the watch is lovely and I have her permission, so that's not an issue. She's a sweetie.

I'll probably buy one before the year is out, but it's going to take some rationalization. Or if I hit it big in the market.

I stole this picture off of the Internet...