[BOOK REVIEW] WATCHES: The Ultimate Guide by Fabienne Reybaud

[machiavegli 6]

I reviewed The Watch by Gene Stone about 6 months ago

http://www.rwg.bz/board/index.php?showtopic=23706

and thought I’d carry on and do another book review for the forum. Enjoy!

 

So, Watches: The Ultimate Guide

 

 

is a 216-page overview of some 50 luxury watch brands, from Audemars Piguet to Zenith, with some brief material about watch history, watch collecting, a short price guide to 29 collectible models, and a decent glossary. It was written by Fabienne Reybaud, who is a reporter on luxury goods for Le Figaro newspaper in Paris, and is translated from the French.

 

 

The main reason I bought Watches: The Ultimate Guide is that even though I’m a rep enthusiast, I still like the craftsmanship and history of the genuine items, just not the price I think the more you know about genuine brands and individual gen models out there, the better you can grow a collection to fit your taste.

 

Who should buy this book? Well, if you don’t have any books right now and want a nice looking, reasonably thorough guide that will look good on your coffee table, look no further than… The Watch by Gene Stone. The text is better than Reybaud’s, the photos are better, and Stone’s taste in both old and new models is definitely more mature and varied.

 

My opinion is there is nothing “Ultimate” about this guide. Too many pages are dedicated to full-page newspaper archive photos like this:

 

 

or this:

 

 

The brand reviews are blandly written, with watches photographed full-frontal DMV style:

 

 

Again, for contrast with the boring photos above, look at the creative photography in Gene Stone’s guide, including extreme macro images of movements and dials to show the stunning subtle details of the best watches, and particularly the great photos of vintage Panerai and Rolex models.

 

The selection of wristwatch brands is just okay. The classics are included, as well as a few of the new horological wizards like F-P Journe. But many of the minor brands she covers are just minor offshoots of the Big Three watch conglomerates (see my other book review for diagrams of the Big Three). The Swatch knockoff Tissot gets just as much page space in the book as Rolex and Vacheron Constantin. There is no focus on in-house movement design, and in fact an awfully large number of the photographed watches are quartz.

 

The most annoying theme of Watches: The Ultimate Guide is the author’s obsession over price, right down to the useless price guide at the end, which incidentally has most of its watches mis-labeled. The price fixation limits the useful lifetime of the book (who knows where the dollar or watch values are headed in years to come). The price obsession also means that she is much more likely to prominently feature a diamond-crusted tourby monstrosity instead of a classic model. I think she equates luxury to price to taste, which is just plain silly.

 

If you want final proof of her lack of taste, she features the “Gaytona” (Rolex Cosmograph Leopard), the living legend of horrible watch design, and doesn’t even make fun of it.

 

MY VERDICT: save your $!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

-Mach

[onionbag 1]

Thank you for your overview of this book, and no criticism of the Gaytona?

 

That's because it's an icon.............here at least.

[machiavegli 6]

Thank you for your overview of this book, and no criticism of the Gaytona? That's because it's an icon.............here at least.

 

OB I'm gonna get you a Gaytona just for saying that

[Member X 91]

Thank you for the thorough review!

[machiavegli 6]

Thank you for the thorough review!

My pleasure!

[gtwc 1]

Nice review, thanks.

At least I now know not to waste my money on that book.

[Sparkal 4]

Thanks for the review sir