Every beginning watch collector aspires to own a luxury piece. All the power to you. However, can you afford to own it? While you can find Submariners as cheap as $4500 on the pre-owned market, can you afford to keep it running and keep up with the maintenance schedules?
Sending your watch to an authorized dealer for maintenance might sound like the best option, but can you afford to pay for it? A Rolex Submariner full service at a dealer may cost upwards of $1500 and that is suggested to be done every 4-6 years. If you aren't willing to pay that just to keep your watch healthy, maybe you should consider a more budget piece without an in house movement.
My Breitling B-1 was quoted around $1000 for a full service along with a battery change. That is for a quartz watch with an ETA movement. While most people view quartz watches as being more budget friendly to maintain than their mechanical counter parts, this is not always the case. A Jaeger Le Coultre quartz may cost more than a Tudor running an ETA2824 movement to maintain!
The point of this article is to inform my readers of the costs of owning a luxury watch. Saving up to buy a luxury piece is just half the battle. There are expensive maintenance cycles and touch ups that have to be done every few years. And if (god forbid) something goes on your piece, you will be surprised to see how owning a luxury watch can actually be!
My suggestion would be to research the maintenance prices at the authorized dealer before going on to buy the watch. Or, if you are fortunate enough to know watchmakers skilled and experienced enough to work on these pieces, maintenance prices can be slashed significantly.
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