Love for Movado

OK, among hard core watch enthusiasts, the Movado brand gets very little love. They are seen more as fashion accessories, lightweights, whatever. And I will certainly agree that their marketing is geared more toward those buying a watch for style rather than function.

But..as another hard core watch guy reminded me when I got my first Movado (a quartz dress model!)...not all watches have to be 45mm, have lume that glows like a torch, water resistance ten times the depth of the deepest human dive on record and a 30 year old swiss mechanical movement.

His point was that watches should do what they do and do it well...and in the case of the classic simple, quartz, two hand "museum dial" Movado, it does what it does marvelously well. And what it does is tell time, and provide a beautiful esthetic presence on the wrist. The ones I have are well designed, well made, and extremely comfortable to wear. They are beautiful, in the artistic, esthetic sense of the word.

No, they don't have lume. No they aren't mechanical. Yes they are smaller than 45mm...and if what you want is a beautiful watch that is well made, accurate, reliable, fits under the shirt sleeves and is a nice conversation piece...then you probably want a Movado!

And for those of you are are not interested in the above...remember, Movado knows how to make a great watch, of any kind. You can certainly look up the history of Movado on the web and learn about the many technological innovations Movado has developed over the last hundred years or so (including my favorite, the invention of the "segmented" movement, which allowed the "curvex" style cases to be used back in the 20's). And you can look at the Movado Group's other brands, which include not only the "fashion" watch lines of Coach, ESQ and Tommy Hilfilger, but also the well known and universally respected old school lines of Concord and Ebel.

And if you really want to give Movado a fair shake...look at their whole line of watches, not just the quartz museums you see at Costco, on ebay, and in every mall jewelry store around the world. Look at their "high end" lines, which are, by any definition, hard core. They make a beautiful and technically superior line of museum automatics, with marvelously embellished 2892 movements, they make 200 meter Valjoux 7750 auto chronos (complete with lume and 47mm!!!) and they recently came out with a 2894 chrono model as well.

So there are lots of different elements to Movado, and perhaps that is one of the reasons they get ignored by the hard core guys; they make so many, and their lower end offerings are so ubiquitous that people don't realize their high end stuff is as good as any.

But the one thing I do heartily and 100% agree with in terms of criticism of Movado...is their retail pricing. They are every bit as bad as Invicta as far as putting a hang tag on a watch that is many times what it is worth. In their defense, what you get for that extra money is fancy spokespeople, great packaging, retail outlets, etc but none of that is worth the markup.

So the bottom line for me about Movado is...if you are interested, don't be afraid! Just be sure to get it on sale. At retail price, they are a crime; at 50% off they are as good a deal as any other watch line in the price/value comparison, and at 75% off (which is not too hard to find online and for discontinued models) they are a steal!