Maybe I am unlucky with big brands or I am too much of an engineer.
I just saw an ad that TAG Heuer has a new watch – “Yao Ming” (probably the most famous sportsman here, now playing basketball for the Houston Rockets – 2m26 tall). Looks cute but…
A couple of years ago I bought a cool TAG Heuer watch (model: WE2111 serial ED2513, automatic, sports watch, 200 meters, Swiss made). I thought, no more battery changes, good quality for life, I can use it anywhere (swimming, diving, running, sauna). What I did not expect: those watches are more for showing off but not to get the TIME, at least correctly. Unless you give it like every year for a very expensive maintenance. From the start accuracy was lousy, I gave it several times to an “authorized shop” to adjust the time but it continues to show differences of one minute per week. After some time it got all worse, like 5 minutes difference per week. After lots of calls, e-mails and efforts finally somebody really authorized took it from Beijing to Hong Kong for “maintenance”. Cost: well over RMB 500. Oops. Explanation: it is a precision watch and needs regular maintenance, don’t you understand”? Sorry, I just wanted to know the time….
Less than two years later, there we go again. Every week I had to adjust the time.
I like watches and clocks and have quite some of them. But I wanted to see the TIME.
After due consideration, the TAG is back in the box, in all of its original packing and I bought a SEIKO (model Premier, Kinetic, auto really, 100m). Quite nice, more discreet than the flashy TAG. At least it runs well and normally I can live with it for a long time without maintenance and battery replacement.
I just wonder what are all those people doing with their expensive watches (Rolex etc.). Maybe they just pretend they use them?
So, if anybody is interested, the TAG is for sale for the highest bidder, as good as new, starting price RMB 4,000.
I received as a gift a very nice Waterman pen, “Ideal” MAN 200 fountain pen, Made in France. Problem: even with the official ink cartridges, good cleaning and care it refuses to draw a line longer than 1 or 2 cm – the ink runs dry. After some time, the U-fill convertor gave up. I cannot even complain: it was a gift and I don’t have the data to fill out the guarantee…
Of course, one can wonder why I complain: maybe those fountain pens are to show off only, nobody writes by hand anymore anyway. Those old and whining Flemish people, such an annoyance.