Those cheap watches. Any good?

[Chuai-Duai]

Almost anywhere you look in Pattaya you see displays of cheap watches. Usually starting at 100 Baht and sometimes going up to 800 Baht. Most look fairly hideous to me but I have seen a few I like the look of. Given the prices of drinks these days in Boystown I suppose it's not much to risk but I would be interested if anybody has tried one. Do they actually last long and can you get new batteries fitted?

[scottish-guy]

All the watches I have bought over the years broke down in very short order - from the 250B Pattaya street stall ones to the fake Rolex ones in the BKK night market. You can change the battery but often the fault is more serious than that and the watch remains dead.

On the other hand, a mate of mine bought a fake Rolex at the same time as me, from the same stall as me - and his was still going strong after 5yrs

:confused:

[Oliver]

I'm still using a 200 bht one I bought on the 2nd floor of Royal Garden eleven years ago. I've replace the battery and the strap twice . Of my other Pattaya models, two lasted a year or so, but I have others which are still working after years of use. It's just luck.

[joe552]

Oliver, I was going to like your post until I remembered you were talking about watches, not boys.

[neddy3]

Certainly a matter of luck.
But I have done well with those which cost over 500 baht (not much over).

Changing batteries is never an issue.

[scottish-guy]

I think if you're buying stuff from street stalls then you have to accept that the goods might be of inferior quality

[NitNoi]

Inferior quality, yes - but they keep excellent time !

[cdnmatt]

I don't really understand, what's the use of a watch nowadays? I'm sure we all have phones that are either always connected to the internet, or are multiple times throughout the day, right? They keep much better time than a watch ever will.

So I guess a watch is just for show nowadays, but then why wear a 200 baht fake one?

[joe552]

I agree Matt, can't see the point of owning a watch, except as a piece of jewellery.

[MiniMee]

I don't really understand, what's the use of a watch nowadays?

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/17/video-smartwatch-visually-impaired-displays-information-braille-south-korea/

[cdnmatt]

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/17/video-smartwatch-visually-impaired-displays-information-braille-south-korea/


What's the point of brail? If I want to know the time / day, get directions to somewhere, find out some info, or anything else, I just need to ask Siri (my phone).

I've been blind for close to 15 months now, and have yet to encounter a single time where I though, "geez, I sure wish I knew brail". It's obsolete, same as watches and phone land lines.

For example, if I goto a restaurant, I don't need to request a brail version of the menu. I just take a pitcture of it with my phone, and it reads it out to me.

[a447]

I agree Matt, can't see the point of owning a watch, except as a piece of jewellery.

Some people appreciate the inner workings of a mechanical watch - all those little cogs and wheels moving in harmony. There are sometimes close to 300 individual moving parts!

You won't get that with a fake watch, of course. The movements are, unsurprisingly, very simple. But the watches keep good time because the various complications on say, a fake chronograph, don't work, so the movement only has to tell the basic time.

[gerefan2]

The 100 or 200 baht ones off a Stall sometimes last a few years.

The copy fake Rolex ones sometimes only last a month. Don't bother with them.

[scottish-guy]

Well if like me you had relied on an iphone and ipad updating to the local time while you sat in an airport lounge without a care in the world and then finding out they hadn't updated and you'd missed your connection.............

:D

[Chuai-Duai]

Thanks for the feedback. As I don't carry or use a smart phone a watch is important to me. I've seen two watches I like and will make up my mind tomorrow. They are 500 Baht ones.

[pennyboy]

I like having a watch as I don;t take my phone everywhere I go eg beach.gym or shopping. I had a few 100bt watches but none of them lasted long enough to see if I could change the battery. Each time was the arm where the strap connected. I decided then to splash out when I was back in UK and bought one for the equivalent of just under 500bt. Now had it for 4 years with one battery change.

[FarangRuMak]

Some Western countries have draconian laws against bring in fake products especially if the product replicates a native item.
Italy is a case in point.
There are huge fines if you're found with a fake Italian design handbag going through customs for instance.
I guess the Swiss wouldn't be big fans of fake watches either.

[scottish-guy]

Yeah the Italians seem to have a problem with dodgy goods but it doesn't seem to extend to the decidedly shady Mr Berlusconi who is making yet another comeback

:D

[FarangRuMak]

Yeah the Italians seem to have a problem with dodgy goods but it doesn't seem to extend to the decidedly shady Mr Berlusconi who is making yet another comeback
:Dc
Italy is not yet like the Pussy-Whipped Nordic countries and America.
Italian women WON'T marry a man or indeed vote for him unless he's fairly Trumpish.

[christianpfc]

In 2010 (?) my watch from Germany had a failure so I bought a watch in Thailand (double mistake: buying a watch in Thailand, and doing it in Patpong Night Market where I paid 250 THB while they usually sell for 100 at local markets). I hadn't even left Thailand (3 week holiday), when the strap began to disassemble (I could fix this with a paperclip). Some months later, a failure that I could not locate. And then I discovered that the back is pressed onto the case, not screwed; which means you cannot replace the battery; anyway the battery would have lasted longer than the watch.

[werner]

I have had great luck with cheap watches from Bangkok.
In fact, I bought a fake Gucci for about 100 baht ten years ago, and it still keeps perfect time.

[gerefan2]

A fluke

[a447]

A high-ranking government official is in hot water for being seen wearing a $400,000 watch. Not bad for someone on a salary of just $35,000.

His excuse was that a friend, who has since died, lent it to him.

It would be more plausible if he simply said he'd picked it up at the Patpong market.