Best high end work?

Who produces the best high end work, the Swiss or the Japanese (Seiko)?
Based on personal observation of the ultra-refined Credors and Grand Seikos etc., I have to give the upper hand to Japan.
Your view?

All I know is THIS is gorgeous...



And this has been DEADLY accurate...

Anomaly wrote:

All I know is THIS is gorgeous...


And this has been DEADLY accurate...

Look at this, I am wondering if Citizen knocked off the design for the dive watch I have enroute from Japan. Certainly a great piece.

Not in the same league, but I love the Stowa MO caseback!

Still think the Swiss do, generation after generation of families making time pieces in regions that are strictly know for watchmaking, Germany a close second followed by Japan,now i know we have some huge seiko fans and they come a long way but feel the swiss have been doing this for a long time and alot of the stuff coming out of other countries is the result of swiss ingenuity! I'm sure one or two or one of you will even say China!! Best bang for your buck most likely will be coming out of Japan but they too outsource to HK, Indonesia and naturally China!

Yes, I actually forget the Germans. Shame on me!

AS for brands, how can you beat a few of these..

Patek Philippe
Breguet
IWC

and also some young stars such as,

F.P. Journe
Roger Dubuis
Roman Jerome

To name a few!! Whether Swiss, German, Japan, China or even the good old USA, the debate will rage on for years to come but we will always have choices of outstanding timepieces with enough brands and countries of origin to make us all happy!!

Cali, I would say the Grand Seiko surpasses Patek and IWC. Certainly my IWC Portofino, which is an entry level watch by IWC pricing, does not meet or exceed the Grand Seiko.

This is a VERY hard question to answer ! There are SO many excellent watch brands
from various countries that seemingly make outstanding high end watches. The Swiss
have been doing this for a long long time and probably have the advantage in sheer
number of companies that make high end watches !..However, the Germans and Russians
also seem to know how to make a MEAN high quality watch also. Recently though it seems
that Japan has been challenging the Swiss High End throne !..With only a couple of brands
like Seiko and Citizen they have definitely earned a phenomenal reputation for making
high end watches. The Grand Seikos for example are evidently engineering masterpieces
that are really impressive IMHO !..In any case it's hard to give a definitive answer I guess !
Like Trevor said there are enough brands from Switzerland to the USA that will and can
make us watch people VERY happy !

I am going to have to say Swiss. . .

AtomicTom wrote:

This is a VERY hard question to answer ! There are SO many excellent watch brands
from various countries that seemingly make outstanding high end watches. The Swiss
have been doing this for a long long time and probably have the advantage in sheer
number of companies that make high end watches !..However, the Germans and Russians
also seem to know how to make a MEAN high quality watch also. Recently though it seems
that Japan has been challenging the Swiss High End throne !..With only a couple of brands
like Seiko and Citizen they have definitely earned a phenomenal reputation for making
high end watches. The Grand Seikos for example are evidently engineering masterpieces
that are really impressive IMHO !..In any case it's hard to give a definitive answer I guess !
Like Trevor said there are enough brands from Switzerland to the USA that will and can
make us watch people VERY happy !

Nope not gonna let you get off this easy AT, pick a country or brand!!!

Swiss
German
Japanese

but I could be wrong.

Not certain about the Russian thing, AT.
I've yet to see a truly superlative Russian watch. Generally, Russian industrial craftsmanship is a bit lacking. However, the nation has inspired engineers, painters, dancers, writers etc.

For the record...


German
Swiss
Japanese

cali kid wrote:

AtomicTom wrote:

This is a VERY hard question to answer ! There are SO many excellent watch brands
from various countries that seemingly make outstanding high end watches. The Swiss
have been doing this for a long long time and probably have the advantage in sheer
number of companies that make high end watches !..However, the Germans and Russians
also seem to know how to make a MEAN high quality watch also. Recently though it seems
that Japan has been challenging the Swiss High End throne !..With only a couple of brands
like Seiko and Citizen they have definitely earned a phenomenal reputation for making
high end watches. The Grand Seikos for example are evidently engineering masterpieces
that are really impressive IMHO !..In any case it's hard to give a definitive answer I guess !
Like Trevor said there are enough brands from Switzerland to the USA that will and can
make us watch people VERY happy !

Nope not gonna let you get off this easy AT, pick a country or brand!!!

You got most of the good ones there Trevor ! I'll add in Blancpain, Zenith, JL, Ulysee Nardin, and Vacheron Constantin (SWISS)..Seiko, Citizen (Japan)..Schaumburg, Muhle Glashutte, Sinn (Germany).
Movado, Kobold, Timex (USA)..Volmax (Russian)..Oh I forgot Zodiac goes under the Swiss section too !

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Makes you wonder if AT is a T-Ball coach.

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Edit it, you're the boss!!!

porschefan wrote:

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Makes you wonder if AT is a T-Ball coach.

AT, you'll do fine with the t-ball kids but the parents start getting real crazy about 3 games into the first season!! I coached from minors and majors in little league and then our league Toro Park (between salinas and monterey on hwy 68) went to pony ball! i coached the broncos and the bronco world series is in monterey every year, monterey gets an automatic spot and one other team from the region then the rest come from the US and around the world! needless to say the local teams get smoked but the first year we we in the broncos league we made it to the championship game to have a spot in the world series and pacific grove beat us for the spot! Being where our district lies there is alot of money and everyone wants their kid to play shortsop and bat third, i had a doctor want to fight me in the parking lot after a game but kept coaching up into the pony league 13/14 and most parents were pains in the ass but did coach some great kids who fathers were major leagues and they were the best parents and never got in the way! coached michael aldrete(started at SS for UC Davis as a freshman last year) and his dad Mike is on tony la russa's staff and won a world series ring with the yankees and best seasons were with a giants, just a utlity player that made it 13 years in the pros in the stanford hall of fame and was john elways best man, john played center field for stanford in college and a little bit of football too)! also had philip incaviglia and his uncle was pete who was just named the best college baseball player in the 20th century(oklahoma state) and had a good carrer with the phillies and was in left field when joe carter hit a home over his head to win the world series, pete's brother tony (philips dad played AAA ball and guys like these let you coach the kids, it dads that never played and mom that are the worst! So tired of kids sports used to watch my son play in high school in behind the fence in center field just so i didnt have to listen to all the parents crap and do the same for my daughters highschool softball games!! Got off track but though i would give you my 2 cents on kids sports and how parents can ruin it!! Back to watches you sissies!

Across the board I would give the edge to the Swiss, but the gap is narrowing. Is the Swiss watch industry hearing footsteps or are they too arrogant to listen? That is the more compelling question in my mind. There are some German companies that are equal in every way to anything the Swiss put out.

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

porschefan wrote:

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Makes you wonder if AT is a T-Ball coach.

You guys are actually THE best ! I'm just along for the ride !

cali kid wrote:

porschefan wrote:

Anomaly wrote:

cali kid wrote:

AT, youre the best! Still not going to piss anyone off are you!! You should pick Switzerland as nuetral as you are!!

I wish I had said that!

Makes you wonder if AT is a T-Ball coach.

AT, you'll do fine with the t-ball kids but the parents start getting real crazy about 3 games into the first season!! I coached from minors and majors in little league and then our league Toro Park (between salinas and monterey on hwy 68) went to pony ball! i coached the broncos and the bronco world series is in monterey every year, monterey gets an automatic spot and one other team from the region then the rest come from the US and around the world! needless to say the local teams get smoked but the first year we we in the broncos league we made it to the championship game to have a spot in the world series and pacific grove beat us for the spot! Being where our district lies there is alot of money and everyone wants their kid to play shortsop and bat third, i had a doctor want to fight me in the parking lot after a game but kept coaching up into the pony league 13/14 and most parents were pains in the ass but did coach some great kids who fathers were major leagues and they were the best parents and never got in the way! coached michael aldrete(started at SS for UC Davis as a freshman last year) and his dad Mike is on tony la russa's staff and won a world series ring with the yankees and best seasons were with a giants, just a utlity player that made it 13 years in the pros in the stanford hall of fame and was john elways best man, john played center field for stanford in college and a little bit of football too)! also had philip incaviglia and his uncle was pete who was just named the best college baseball player in the 20th century(oklahoma state) and had a good carrer with the phillies and was in left field when joe carter hit a home over his head to win the world series, pete's brother tony (philips dad played AAA ball and guys like these let you coach the kids, it dads that never played and mom that are the worst! So tired of kids sports used to watch my son play in high school in behind the fence in center field just so i didnt have to listen to all the parents crap and do the same for my daughters highschool softball games!! Got off track but though i would give you my 2 cents on kids sports and how parents can ruin it!! Back to watches you sissies!

Wow..Trevor that was some story you told there ! I have never coached any
team of any kind. However, I have seen the way parents can get at those games
like you said ! It almost becomes more about them, rather than the kids. From
the sound of it, it seems really competetive ! That was something that you
almost got into a fight too !..At least you got to have some fun along the way
though. Meeting alot of people and having what sounds like some exciting times.
VERY very cool !!!!! Awesome..Thanks !

Too bad it had absolutely nothing to do with the thread but i'm real good at hi-jacking threads!! besides a gave the owner a cherry today!!

If money is no object than nobody is even close to the Swiss, the real highend stuff is incredible. Yes Japan has some nice hand made highend stuff as well. But I can't afford any of it from either country.

cali kid wrote:

Too bad it had absolutely nothing to do with the thread but i'm real good at hi-jacking threads!! besides a gave the owner a cherry today!!

Good job Trevor !..Here is one for you too.. !

This is a great thread. Unfortunately, my total lack of first hand knowledge
makes me ineligible for an intelligent opinion. However, if someone here would like
to send me one high quality Swiss, German, and Japanese made watch so that I may
make some comparisons for myself I would be glad to do so.



Just saying....