SDC Weekly 157; New Segment: Community Reviews; Worn & Wound bought Lorier Watches; Tariffs, Round 3; David Concannon Returns
Why Britain now pays more than Switzerland, a €235k Patek on the school run, some maths behind Worn & Wound buying Lorier, David Concannon on Rolex's ad shenanigans, and more!
🚨 Welcome back to SDC Weekly!
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Estimated reading time: ~38 mins
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📢 New: Community Reviews
The other day I got an email to inform me that a paid subscriber had unsubscribed from SDC. If you’ve ever done this on Substack, you will know Substack offers you an option to say why you unsubscribed. This reader was kind enough to leave one line of feedback:
“Got immensely bored by the repetitive contents”
I have always believed feedback is a gift, and this is especially true of negative feedback. So I emailed and thanked him for the feedback, and asked what he found repetitive and what he would like to see instead. The guy was super polite, and explained how he seeks insights on the psychological stuff elsewhere, and doesn’t care for the market reporting either. So really, it wasn’t a matter of him thinking SDC sucked, but more that he, personally, didn’t care much for what SDC covers. He did however offer some useful insights on what he would like to see more of, and one thing he mentioned was honest watch reviews.
Regulars will know I have only done two reviews on watches I own, and frankly, it’s not my forte. But his feedback got me thinking; I have many friends who have epic watches, and maybe they would love to talk about these watches? So I asked one of my good friends (his IG here) about a watch of his I saw in person recently. He was more than happy to answer my questions, and that makes him the first guest for this new segment in SDC.
Some of you may know about Hodinkee’s ‘Week on the Wrist’ series and that was decent; I see this new segment as more like ‘at least a few months on the wrist’. The idea is for readers to get direct feedback from regular civilians who spent their own cash on a particular watch. I expect to run these every other week, or maybe every 3 weeks… but honestly, I would be happy to run it every week if you enjoy them (which will also depend on whether I can find candidates who are willing to send me responses that frequently!). With new stuff like this, I’d really appreciate your feedback, so please let me know what you think… good and bad, I welcome all of it.
Without further ado…
Watch and Ref - Patek Philippe 5270P-017 (red dial). Purchase price: €235k
[My own edits or comments are in square brackets]
1. What made you buy this one - and what gap in your collection (or your life) was it filling?
The 5270P-017 (red dial) is my third 5270P since 2021. I have owned the 5270P salmon and green dials and funnily enough, I genuinely thought that each would be my last.
The 5270P is simply a GREAT reference, this is particularly the case if you actually wear the watch regularly and don’t just covet some kind of safe queen investment piece - I’m calling out all the 5970 and 5004 owners who love to bash the 5270 here :)
As an uber-Patek-fanboi, I simply love wearing grand comps or rare hand crafts as dailies. A Patek perpetual calendar chronograph or perpetual calendar split chronograph are simply my favourite watches to put on, bar none. Picking up my 5204G was the first time I genuinely felt that I would be happy not getting another allocation ever again.
I get some kind of perverse pleasure wearing any complicated but stealthy watch to go about my mostly mundane life of school runs, grocery shops and corporate shilling. If the 5270P ever does catch someone’s eye its usually either because they too, are a genuine Patek fan/dreamer and are delighted to see a GC [Grand Complication] being worn in the wild, or they are a non-watch geek who simply appreciates the aesthetic. In both cases those encounters are always delightful; I can’t say the same for encounters when wearing a Nautilius or Aquanaut as these often come with more negative assumptions about the type of person I am… or just allocation envy.
2. Think back to before you got it. What did you expect (or not) and what was wrong about the expectation?
I was surprised by just what a difference a simple colour change makes to the ownership experience of this reference. The red dial feels way more sporty but can be worn high (with suits and black tie) or casually (jeans, t-shirt etc) - it’s the perfect all round dress watch.
I gotta say I was less than happy that Patek shipped it with the old style clasp but this is typical Patek - they probably still have thousands of the old clasps in inventory and will still be shipping them for the next decade. I told my AD to tell Thierry that clients aren’t expecting a 200k GC to come with the now outdated peasant clasp. It was a joke but some truths are told in jest…
I have mixed feelings on the new more “sustainable” straps. They’re kind of cool but I am old school in that I default to a Grand Complication primarily being on a classic black croco. Mildly irritating that I’ve had to pay for a special order black croco with red stitches.
3. What has the watch actually done over time… worn, loosened, scratched, faded, drifted, needed servicing, kept bad time, shocked you, met expectations? [I threw in this open ended question to give people space to criticise… this is a new format so I will refine questions after some reader feedback]
Could even be [that I] didn’t wear it much.
I wore it every day for 3 months until summer hit and I switched up to a Nautilus. Delighted with it so far and zero complaints or issues.
It’s kept time, no scratches despite being worn every day to do everything and presents as new. It’s not a watch that needs to be nannied. Only thing that has ever scratched any of my 5270Ps is the diamond from my wife’s engagement ring; she DGAF [doesn’t give a fvck] about doing so either. Dagger to the heart.
4. What do you notice now that you didn’t in the first week? [This question is about the stuff you grow to love and discover with regular use, or which you’d never notice trying on briefly in a boutique or at a meetup]
The colour graduations in the dial in different shades of natural light.
[I mentioned I got to see this watch in person, and while I was slightly put off when I saw it on IG, I have to say this dial is unbelievably good in person. The red dial is really my pick of all the variants, and so this answer may seem like some BS comment, I really have to agree here.]
5. When do you not wear it, and why?
[I wear it] Everyday and everywhere because I don’t save stuff for “special occasions” - life isn’t a rehearsal. Also I want my sons to see me wearing the shit out of all my cool stuff in order to learn that we own stuff and not the other way around, downside is that the greedy buggers already want to know when/if they’ll inherit it.
6. Knowing everything you know now, would you buy it again at today’s price? [I was trying to ascertain the user’s perception of value, particularly when references drop on the secondary]
I’m on my third 5270 - all bought at retail with a price increase of almost 50% over time but yes, I would buy again at retail. 5270s and indeed 5204s are absolute steals on the grey market right now and I think in time people will regret not buying them at today’s secondary prices.
7. What has it cost you to own beyond the purchase price? [This question is here to allow for service costs, insurance, etc… may apply sometimes, but might drop this question going forward]
N/A
8. Has your relationship with it changed, like do you reach for it more or less than you expected?
Only in the summer months when I would prefer to wear something more sporty as I swim, hike and bike a lot.
9. What would you tell someone in your shoes just before you bought it?
Much like most 911 owners know, the right way to own a 911 is to drive it daily; same goes for 5270s - my advice would simply be to make sure that you wear the hell out of it.
10. Anything else? The floor is yours.
I thought a 5970 (G or P) would be my ultimate Patek Grand Complication grail but having obtained a great example 5970G (after my first 5270P), I was surprised to find that my experience of living with a 5270 was far superior. After having owned and enjoyed a 5270P, I actually found the experience of wearing a 5970 underwhelming. Of course it is nice when wearing the 5970 to get the Patek aficionado nod from the Geneva Seal crew, but whilst there is a part of me that does like the approval from other collectors, I am confident in my own taste to only keep what I truly enjoy wearing. The 5970G has been long sold although I retain the right to reverse that decision 😅🤣 [sic - for the emojis, I didn’t add these!]
If you are equivocating between a 5970 and 5270 do not be swayed by the weight of opinion out there that defaults to the 5970 and 5004 being superior to the 5270 and 5204, particularly if you actually want to wear and enjoy the watch on the regular. And given current basement prices on the 5270 and 5204, getting one of these might well deliver a better ROI as well as a more enjoyable ownership experience.
And that’s it… simple, short, and sweet… in the owner’s words. Again, please share your feedback on the format, any other questions you want to see in future editions, and the watches you want to see covered (ideally, if you know someone who owns a watch you’d like to see featured, please ask them to contact me. Free subscribers: you can reply to this email too!).
I will end with a huge thank you to CK for agreeing to do this; I appreciate you brother!
P.S. if you’re thinking about volunteering for the next review, you can do it anonymously if you prefer.