Customer Reviews

Watches International 2001: The Original Annual of the World's Finest Watches

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This volume is grossly inferior to its 2000 version and competing annual wristwatch publications in that (1)it omits prices,whether in Swiss francs or US dollars(2)a substantial amount of the illustrations are from the brand public relations materials without data and(3)recognized brands such as Lange,Blancpain,Breguet,Franck Muller,Glashutte,Ulysse Nardin and Vacheron Constantin are given much less page-space than such lesser brands as Bedat,Clerc,Concord,deGrisogono,Ikepod,etc.Save your $$$$ and buy Peter Braun's annual.

I was very disappointed. The major brands are not well represented at all (with few exceptions) and too much space was given to jewelry/fashion watches for which serious collectors are not likely to be that interested. Perhaps comprehensive inclusion of the major companies required their financial participation. If so, they obviously opted out. A slick publication way off the mark. Could be much, much better.

The book is beautifully published and photographed. It offers a good review of the history of watchmaking, especially helpful to the novice collector or the casual reader. The second tier and exotic bejewelled brands are catalogued in great detail over several pages each, but the Grande Marques watches such as Breguet, Cartier, Franck Muller, IWC, Omega, Ulysse Nardin and Vacheron Constantin are given a cursory overview in about a couple pages for each. As is customary for this publication, no retail prices are quoted.This significantly detracts from its usefulness and value to the serious watch collector. It is an interesting coffee table book, but more useful catalogues for the watch afficionado are Wristwatch Annual 2001 and Watches vol.4