dr_max

lol no it’s the college cycling club we started with bibs and jerseys made by local company to minimize transport

keep wearing your made in China stuff

guadzilla

That's actually hilarious! Did you reply back in kind? I would have absolutely done so and depending on the salesperson's reaction, we would either get along really well or the manager would get involved..

It must be a car dealership thing - the only time i had a bad experience based on being sized up was at a car dealer too. I had just quit my job and wanted to buy a SUV to replace my sports convertible. So i roll into a dealership in my late 20s, wearing cargo shorts, flip flops and a t-shirt. Hardly got the time of the day and barely got some literature and a business card. Went to another dealer, bought the car and then wrote to the other dealer with a photo of the car and the name of the salesperson who was not helpful. That got a very apologetic phone call from the manager. Petty and vindictive, yeah - but very satisfying.

OTOH, with watches, I have never had a negative experience. I have walked into a Patek boutique while wearing shorts/t-shirts/sneakers and not even a fancy watch (was on a stopover in Singapore on the way back from a diving holiday - those were the only clothes I had), and they were happy to pull out whatever i wanted to see, including opening up a sealed box of a new model they had just received. Go figure.

mattscq

I take some umbrage to the idea of stuff being made in China is cheap. At this point, a lot of things can only be made in China. Your iPhone and likely whatever computer/mobile device you're posting on is made in China. Even when you buy some artisinal good from a made in Europe good, it likely was made by a Chinese laborer (like when they found that Italian town that made bags for Prada etc. that employed workers from this one Chinese town).

Tons of the bike industry is now based out of Taiwan and China and I wouldn't be surprised if just by the sheer volume and competitiveness of fabricators there, they have some of the best experts in the industry. You can scoff all you want at cheap labor and there's a lot of scammy things still coming out of East Asia, but as far as I know, aside from a handful of boutique builders, pretty much all carbon fiber components are made in the East now.

I'm by no means pro-China in everything but it's a little unfair to say that all goods made by the Chinese are automatically crappier. It's frankly a little xenophobic and racially insensitive.

InvertedMP 

He typed from his phone or computer made in China...

dr_max

if I had he option to buy local I would

but you obviously don’t understand that

you just buy the cheapest on Amazon

InvertedMP 

Settle down slugger, I own an Ace Hardware lol. Not only do I support local when I can, I provide local.

guadzilla

What are the standards for being able to justify expensive clothes? I know that you need to be able to hold 500W for 5 min or something like that in order to have an expensive bike - what's the cut off for clothes?

Other than my team kit, which is black/pink/blue, all my other cycling clothes are some combo of black, white and an occasional red. I was thinking of getting something a little more colorful, but I wasnt sure if i am allowed to get anything beyond Primal.

genejockey 

Nah. But I didn't buy a car from him, either.

Were you already wearing a watch? If so, I suspect they did a quick assessment of it and put you in the 'Insouciant Affluence' category.
EDIT: Oops! You said you werent. But I suspect you walked in with the confidence of someone who could buy a Patek, rather than the hesitance of someone who couldn't but wanted to see them anyway.

Myself, as a collector of American vintage watches, I'm more of a bottomfeeder, so I don't deal with dealers. I prefer to pick up watches sold by people who don't know what they've got, or how to photograph it properly to maximize bidding on Ebay.

guadzilla

I really like vintage designs - but i am not a fan of vintage Stuff. I prefer new stuff - something about "vintage" makes me hesitant to wear it: I feel it should be preserved in a museum of something. So i love the vintage re-issue phase that the watch world is going through... some really nice stuff coming out at all prices ranges. As a diver, one of my collection focuses is modern re-issues of vintage dive watches.

genejockey 

My own preference is the non-round men's watches of the 40s and 50s. This also means I'm wearing a lot smaller watches than are prevalent today. Since I service my own, I don't worry too much about wearing them every day. But one does have to be cognizant of them not being shockproof or waterproof!

WhyFi

I don't play in the high end, but I feel the same way. I have a compressor-style Alpina that's modeled after one of their earlier models and I love it as a GADA. Another that I'd really like is the blue reverse panda Hamilton Intra-matic.

guadzilla

Oh hell yeah... that Intra-matic is really sweet! I am also a big fan of the various Oris 65s and currently am jonesing for the most is the new Mido Skin Diver. Except that business is shut due to Covid, no sign when we will be able to re-start and my staff is on furlough - so not a good look to be splurging on watches and stuff. I hope the damn thing doesnt sell out by the time i am able to buy....

Koyote

I'm not really into watches, but once wondered into a fancy store (Cherry Creek Mall, in Denver) while the wife and daughter were shopping for clothes. The manager chatted me up, and I asked "Which is the most expensive watch in the shop?" He led me over to a special display, got out his key and unlocked, reached in for a watch, and held it out for me to examine while saying "This one is $122,000." I did not dare touch the watch.

I believe it may have been a Patek, but I do recall with certainty that it was a tourbillion. I don't know what that means, but that's what it was.

bahula03

This has been just about equally entertaining and interesting (sorry to move away from watches) to read through. A number of years ago when it seems like Rapha was moving from a boutique brand to more mainstream, it felt like a lot of cyclists buying their stuff were very vocal, outspoken, gatekeeper types. Rapha's branding/marketing probably played some role in appealing to them, but people like that are always going to find an aesthetic to cling to. That thankfully seems to have petered out as Rapha has grown, but for a lot of cyclists those people left a strong first impression. For me, I've found brands that meet my needs (mostly Assos and Twin Six) and I don't have to spare a thought to whatever perceptions go with wearing Rapha products.

Polite society or something like that, and people self-selecting the company they keep. That and things this pedantic are rarely worth the effort in-person

dr_max

people who wear standard tech clothes or normal polo or sweater will judge you the same if you were a Gucci $270 Poloinstead of a standard one.

its the same with cycling.

unless you buy a ski suit for an official TT and need it for speed, you are just throwing money away.

unless they use recycled materials, they pay their workers $25 an hour and are positively engaged in making the world a better place, that’s a good thing to give extra money to a company. But if you wear more expensive gear that has an equivalent, ask yourself why you do this and if there is a more eco responsible company that you could vote for with your money

dr_max

then if you have a smartphone option all made in america or Canada that are paying their workers descently, let me know because the iPhone 6 Plus I bought to a friend is starting to glitch. They don’t last more than 6 years it seems

genejockey 

"Really? Is it shockproof?" (banging it on the counter a couple times)

Tourbillions were one of those 18th Century innovations developed to deal with positional error. You can get most if not all of the same accuracy from dynamic poise of the balance wheel - down to single digit seconds per day variance among 6 positions. So, these days, a tourbillion is basically a "Look What I Can Do!" feature, because it's technically challenging and you get to watch the tourbillion carriage revolving - because you wouldn't build one where you couldn't see it at work. What would be the point?

Mind you, you can get more accuracy from a $10 quartz watch than you can engineer into any mechanical watch, so you're not buying accuracy, you're buying - or NOT buying, in this case - engineering and watchmaking skill.

Makes one wonder what one has to do to deserve a tourbillion wrist watch....

Marcus_Ti

None of that stuff is made here. Real estate costs "too much" for the facilities....and labor actually has an expectation of being treated like human beings. It is also a very low-margin business. "Too much" of course in the context of pennies-on-the-dollar overseas in buildings/plants that already exist. Apple themselves contract out to FoxConn. Apple's talk of "in-house" silicon based on ARM for everything...well it is "in house" in that they design it and have FoxConn or TSMC make it overseas.

There's talk of TSMC building a chip foundry stateside...but that is all talk.

Koyote

genejockey ,

He told me that they sold one every now and then… Most recent had been to a Chinese woman, buying one for her father or grandfather – I forget.

I’m pretty happy with my citizen watch: solar powered, syncs to the atomic clock each night, even has a perpetual calendar. I bought it seven years ago for $350, set it up, and have not touched it since. It is dead on accurate, all the time… And the calendar readout will be accurate until the year 2100. That should be long enough for me.

dr_max

im sure there would be customers who would throw in $1599 for a responsible made smart phone instead of another $1599 triple camera iPhone to benefit stockholders

the sci guy 

Just popping in here - with only reading the first 2 pages or so - just to say that as a company you'll be hard pressed to get me to spend more than $40 on a jersey. It's not like it required extensive years of engineering to develop and it has literally no moving parts beyond a zipper. All I do is sweat into it. I just don't have the kind of coin to lay down on so many of these elite brands - even if I did I'm not sure I would anyway.

As far as design - give me some nice colors, stripes are ok I guess. I much prefer to wear something with a band or a company I like instead - but that's designed well. The majority of brands should fire their design teams, IMHO.

And death to black shorts. colors, please.

Pizzaiolo Americano 

Does your virtue signaling ever end?

genejockey 

I could never, ever imagine wearing a watch that valuable, but knowing somebody takes the trouble to make them - I like that.

I have an absurd number of watches, so many that any given watch doesn't see much wrist or pocket time in the course of a year. And because they're mechanical, and because they're 60-150 years old, and because they're serviced by a fumble-fingered hobbyist, they generally keep time well enough to get me through the day I wear them on time. Some of the best ones keep time to "railroad standard", of +/- 30 seconds every two weeks. The Casio I wear when riding is a lot more accurate. And sweatproof. But there's no craftsmanship or history in it.

dr_max

being a responsible civilian in a capitalistic world is not virtue signaling.

Pizzaiolo Americano