Your Biggest Gripes about Watches
From 4:30 date windows to fake connoisseurship—your most petty (and profound) complaints.
Good morning, and go Pacers. We’ll get to your complaints. But first:
This year’s winner of the prestigious FP Journe Young Talent Competition is Alexis Fruhauff for his Pendule à Seconde Clock. The 29-year-old worked on the clock for three years while in watchmaking school in Paris. It features a pivoted detent escapement; every component was designed and crafted from scratch, with even the tools made specifically for the project. The cherrywood case was produced in partnership with a Parisian cabinetmaker:
For winning, Alexis receives €50,000 to pursue his craft. While he expressed curiosity about wristwatches, “his immediate focus lies in elevating the art of contemporary clocks.”
After FP Journe himself bought two important clocks in the April Geneva auctions, it’s another win for clocks. In fact, of the past 10 winners, six made clocks.
File Your Complaints
Watch collectors love to complain.
A couple of weeks ago, I put it to Instagram: What are your biggest gripes—about brands, media, the actual watches? You all loved sounding off. More than 200 responses and some delightful back-and-forth ensued.
As I mentioned last week, “prices” was by far the most common complaint.
Just this week, I’ve seen complaints about prices for releases from brands as varied as Omega, Blancpain, and Cornell. It’s become a knee-jerk reaction, whether or not it’s warranted.
What follows are other common gripes you all sent.
Complaining is so common that even the complaining gets complaints. Some gripes have become background noise—lazy, repetitive, often misinformed.
According to anthropologists, the first writings by cavemen were complaining about 4:30 date windows. It’s been that way ever since, and will continue to be after this impending world war turns us all back into Cave-Dwellers (free idea, Rolex!).
BUT. It’s fun to get stuff off your chest. Therapeutic. I’ve also included my comments in italics below some complaints.
Some complaints directly contradict each other, which only reinforces the idea that brands might deserve some grace—after all, most watches aren’t for everyone.
We’ve got a few categories: Watches, Brands, Secondary Market / Dealers, Collectors, and Media. Then, we close with a meta Gripe to End All Gripes that will have you feeling contemplative heading into the weekend.
The Watches
Many common gripes can be filed under: Lazy mechanical decisions that force compromises in design or aesthetics. For example:
Movements that are too small for the case, which leads to unbalanced subdial placement, misplaced date windows, or wide rehauts.
Ghost date positions. [when a movement includes a date, but the watch itself doesn’t have a date window—yet the crown still has a date-setting position.]
Inferior movements in smaller versions of watches, or when brands make the smaller versions of their watches feel less than.
Oversized watches with narrow lug widths.
The Vacheron Overseas 34.5mm, IWC Pilot’s Watch 36, Patek Calatrava ref. 5196 are examples that fall under these gripes. It’s frustrating because we know brands can do better. Efficiency or laziness leading to compromises in design is perhaps my biggest gripe when it comes to the actual watches. If you’re not gonna do it right, why do it?
Date windows
Still the easiest feature to complain about, sparking everything from slight irritation to full-blown outrage:
4:30 date windows.
This was the single most common complaint. I thought we’d moved on to reluctant acceptance, but apparently not.1
Non-color matched date windows.
Date windows that don’t have a bevel or metal surround—it feels unfinished.
Specs
Some feel that a fixation on specs has hurt watches. For example:
Hyperfixating on depth ratings or lume.
Focusing on spec sheets instead of design and wearability.
The pressure for brands to conform to community preferences.
I generally agree that there’s too much focus on specs, perhaps because they’re easy to argue about online. But specs can’t be completely ignored, otherwise watches are doomed to sink into the bedazzled swamp of jewelry (if they haven’t already). Folks were eager to complain about the lack of certain specs or features:
Watches with non-hacking seconds in 2025.
Anything with water resistance under 50 meters—it shouldn’t be that hard.
Okay, Michael Phelps!
“Sports” watches without a screw-down crown.
A common complaint for the modern Seiko 5 collection.
Low power reserves.
Rotors that feel wobbly or cheap.
Bracelets & straps
Many gripes were about bracelets and straps. Thankfully, we’ve seen a proliferation of new bracelets even this year, so perhaps change is afoot:
Bracelets that don’t taper.
Hollow end links or stamped clasps on expensive watches.
I hate a flimsy clasp as much as the next guy (some Zeniths are guilty), but the only thing worse is a clasp that’s too chunky or over-engineered (Pelagos 39).
Pin sleeves where they don’t belong.
*Ah-hem* Nautilus
Double-sided screws.
The absolute worst to size, and why I got rid of my Mark XII.
Ramming NATO straps down everyone’s throat. They ruin the look of a watch.
The only thing worse than NATO straps seems to be the litigation around the term.
There were no complaints about micro-adjust (or lack thereof)—perhaps because it’s become more common in the past few years. See, sometimes complaining works!
Materials
When innovation in materials is used to cut costs instead of providing more value. Specific examples given:
Forged carbon isn’t durable. It’s future ocean fill and shouldn’t be on nice watches meant to last.
9-karat gold is hardly gold (e.g., Omega’s bronze gold).
Dials, and so on
“Automatic” text on the dial. It’s superfluous.
Fonts that don’t match across a dial.
Minute hands not reaching the minute track.
The fact that most modern Cartiers are not automatic.
I was surprised this was mentioned a few times. I don’t have a huge problem with it—to me, a Cartier is best as a manually-wound dress watch.
That a Daytona is a “Cosmograph.”
“I wish it were smaller” complaints.
Lack of interior angles.
A focus on interior angles without actually understanding what good anglage and interior angles look like.
Brands
Most of these gripes were about scarcity or lack of availability:
When there’s nothing to buy in a showroom.
Artificial scarcity or lack of proper communication.
It’s not the waitlist, it’s the lying about the waitlist.
Collectors seem to understand that, sometimes, you have to wait. It’s even part of the fun. An acknowledgement that, as soon as something is easier to get, it’s less desirable. Complaints focused more on the lack of communication.
Releasing a cool watch, but it’s limited to like 20 pieces worldwide.
Giving Japan and China all the good limited editions.
Micro brands and pre-orders—either have a watch ready to sell, or don’t.
The sheer number of constant new releases. Nothing has time to breathe anymore.
General trend chasing by brands.
Heritage used as a blank check. Not all archives deserve reissues.
“Homage watches” is intellectual theft.
Honestly, I’m mostly fine with homage watches. We know they’re not the real thing, and if there’s a market, go forth and make your homage.
Referring to colors and sizes as men’s or women’s; using color in larger or smaller case sizes, but not all.
Secondary Market / Dealers
Complaints about the vintage or secondary market come down to a lack of transparency:
Dealers trying to be influencers and influencers trying to be dealers. Stick to your lane.
I can’t stand when dealers don’t list the price.
Collectors who act like dealers.
Dealers offering something from their “private collection.” No it’s not, and even if it is, who cares?
Dealers not being clear when inventory is on consignment.
Dealers blindly defending other dealers; it feels very clique-y.
Bad photography, especially when it’s designed to obscure or hide imperfections.
Not clearly disclosing restoration. Often, it’s disguised in vague terms like “professionally polished” or “detailed.”
If a watch costs more than like $2,000, ship it overnight. Don’t be cheap and send it as a two-day delivery.
Vintage watches with damage being labeled as “patina.”
When a watch is listed as “service history unknown but running well.”
While I don’t totally disagree, a vintage watch is also most at risk when it’s opened up, and most don’t want to make it vulnerable to damage.
Auction houses feeling the need to include multiple adjectives for every watch—not everything is “very rare,” historically important,” or worst of all, “possibly unique.”
Media
Most gripes about media centered around the perceived lack of independence, or any real criticism for brands:
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