Frustrations of Buying A Watch On Ebay

As I’ve mentioned before, I really like eBay. The range of items you can find on eBay at any given time is simply amazing. Of course that’s also a source of frustration.

I currently own a Swatch watch. I’ve had it for about 6 years, as I was given it for my birthday by a very lovely Italian girl.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the watch is showing signs of usage, as I have worn it every single day for the last 6 years. The face of the watch is showing signs of wear and tear, while humidity leads to a “lovely” fogginess on the fascia ie. the seals are pretty much gone.
That the watch has lasted this long is pretty amazing – all of its predecessors met with unhappy ends much faster than it has done, so it shows that buying a reasonably good watch does pay off.

Of course now the time has come to get a replacement. I’d prefer to get a replacement now, while my faithful Swatch is behaving, rather than wait until it dies completely and I’m forced to get a cheap replacement to tide me over.

So what kind of watch should I get?

While I was in Paris a few weeks ago a friend was showing off his Rolex. He’d had it for over 10 years and it was practically new, even though he wears it every single day. The problem with a Rolex is, of course, the price tag. You could easily spend several thousand euro on one and that is not something that I am willing to do.

Other brands that have caught my eye are Tag Heuer and Omega.

While the Tag Heuer pieces seem to cost a lot less than Rolex the prices vary a lot.

My main problem and source of frustration is that I have no idea of how much I should be spending on a timepiece. It’s not a question of budget. If I decided to spend 300 or 500 euro on a watch that would last me 10 or 20 years I’d see that as money well spent. If you put it in perspective, of course.

Perusing the listings on eBay I can find fantastic looking Tag Heuer watches going for prices varying from a 2 or 3 hundred euro upwards, but I honestly don’t know if that is the correct price to be paying for them.

I’m really outside my “comfort zone”!