Chopard Imperiale Silver Dial 18k Rose Gold and Steel Ladies Watch 388532-6002

Rodeo Drive Festival Of Watches In Beverly Hills October 10-13, 2013
October 10-13, 2013 is the inaugural "Festival of Watches" event in Beverly Hills, California. Los Angeles has sorely needed a decent watch event and this is a good start. The Rodeo Drive Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with a range of watch boutiques will have some special events, open store hours, and watches during the festival period. The real night to enjoy the event however is October 10th starting in the late afternoon from about 6-9pm. Many of the boutiques will have special "open houses" that include everything from an exhibition of special timepieces, watchmakers, gifts, and probably a decent helping of complimentary drinks.The map above shows each of the boutiques that will be participating in the Festival of Watches. Stores include Westime, Porsche Design, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Patek Philippe, The Tourbillon Store, Montblanc, Hublot, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and more. Even though the event will go from October 10-13, the 10th is probably the only evening with extended store h

Rolex Status
Luxury Watch Brand Status3 years ago, I purchased a Longines Hydroconquest Automatic with the black aluminum bezel. In that time, I have been fortunate enough to receive or acquire many other watches: A Tag Heuer Link Quartz Chronograph (too many Bourne movies), an Oris TT1, my father's Omega Deville or Rolex Date, my grandfather's Elgin, my mother's refinished Hamilton Electric, some Seiko Divers, a Movado Museum Automatic, An EBEL Brasilia Automatic (which I still have), a Baume et Mercier Capeland S Automatic Chronograph, a Raymond Weil Parsifal Automatic (which I quickly sold), and a Breitling Colt Automatic. Given that I have owned the above brands and I have handled many others Swiss watch luxury brands for limited periods-specifically Paneria, Zenith, Patek Phillipe, Cartier, Breguet, IWC, JLC, Grand Seiko, Hamilton, Tissot, and Mido. I thought it would be fun to compare the various luxury Brands.I looked to the usual places: This site, the Rolex Forums, A Blog to Read, Chron

A primer on how not to be taken when you buy a watch...<more
I've been watching the fake/scam sellers on Ebay for quite a while now, so I thought I'd share some of my observations/tips.Described below are 3 of the most common scams running at the moment:1) Clones - those who simply lift a complete listing from another seller and relist the item as their own. Bruce's Slytech was lifted in such a way a while back (I think I ended up buying it twice for $5000 - can I have it now please BigB?). These "sellers" tend to lift items from the site and relist them on the .co.uk site, safe in false assumption that no-one will spot the duplicity.These sellers can be identified by their brand new (usually formed on the day the item was listed) accounts and there insistence on bank wire or WU payment. The main text of the listing will be in perfect english but the payment section will say something like "if you are not to be happy with the goods I will make to you a full refound of your money". The reason for the poor spelling/grammar becomes apparent when y

The same but different - two great chronos
Lately I have been torn between two great chronos, both have their advantages. Which is THE one to have?

Patek 5711 and 5712 in steel retail price +20%!!!!
I have no word...