before you do anything, talk with Dave

quote:

Originally posted by FLhiker:
David...the best jeweler and nicest person you will find.

http://www.mimisjewelryinc.com/about-mimis/

And I believe he sells Ball!

Chronograph, pilot's watch, legible, automatic, under $3000, with good lume?

Damasko.

http://www.damasko-watches.com...nographs/sporty/dc56

Talk to David Truong before you do anything. He's the best. He sold me a Ball with a tritium dial.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by FLhiker:
David...the best jeweler and nicest person you will find.

http://www.mimisjewelryinc.com/about-mimis/

And I believe he sells Ball!

I can confirm he does! Bought mine from him. Dave is the MAN!

quote:

Originally posted by Sir Guy:
Chronograph, pilot's watch, legible, automatic, under $3000, with good lume?

Damasko.

http://www.damasko-watches.com...nographs/sporty/dc56

If I was buying a new watch it would be a Damasko. If David handled them he'd be my go to guy.

Resco Watches.

Rescoinstruments.com

I got my Ball from Dave as well. He's the best! I also have a Damasko that I like very much.

Way more than you want to spend, but I love it and wear it almost every single day. Good luck with your pick, and I'm sure Dave can help you find something you'll enjoy and treasure.

Ball or a Marathon with Tritium.

There's an excellent Watch thread in the Gallery subforum here, with our resident Watch Nerds making comments regularly.

Several members have posted many nice watches from all over the price spectrum. Member r0gue - for instance - has outstanding taste that supersedes price, having $100 watches and expensive and rare / vintage watches. jhe888, too, loves classic styles. Marzy, too. The list goes on.

Check it out if you haven't already.

Thanks for all the nice words guys! I can be reached at david@mimisjewelryinc.com

no offense to any of these brands and I'm sure they are all nice timepieces and will give good service l, But take a look at the used prices of any of them first. Then take a look at used Rolex, omega, or Patek prices. If you do buy a 2nd or 3rd tier brand be prepared to never get the value back if you do need to sell. I know guys with 1,000$ TAG and other expensive watches they bought new that they couldn't get half their money back for them. That being said if I was buying one that I was not ever going to sell and didn't care about value I'd look at the Hamilton and seiko automatics. Quartz watches do nothing for me. If I want a watch that uses a battery I'll wear my g-shock.

After reading these replies, and following up on the links and chasing down some of the suggestions, I feel like a cat chasing the red dot. So may good and great suggestions.
I suppose it is going to be like that time I bought the perfect handgun......

I would vote for a Breitling Seawolf

https://www.breitling.com/en/m.../avenger-ii-seawolf/

As many others said, give Dave a shout. He hooked me up with an awesome Citizen that became my favorite. Great guy, great pricing, and he supports the forum

Some suggestions

http://www.jomashop.com/fortis...-705-21-11-l-01.html

http://www.jomashop.com/hamilt...watch-h77616533.html

http://www.jomashop.com/ball-w...-cm1030d-l1j-bk.html

Of the 3 I posted the Fortis seems to fit your needs best. They make a hell of a watch. I recently picked this up. This is known as the Cosmonaut (B-42) as it is the official watch of the Russian space program.



They make this in Chrono as well. They come with metal or leather straps. I added the NATO band.

Check out Tudor - it's Rolex's sister brand. Good movements - either high quality ETA raw movements finished out to very high spec, or in house chronometer rated movements - a wide variety of designs and complications, high quality finishing, and great durability, and at 1/3 the cost of Rolex. Check out the Black Bay line or the Ranger.

I'm not a pilot, but I just got this.
I paid less than $400 at local retailer.

http://www.citizenwatch.com/en...il/?model=JY8057-01E