The etymology of the term “grail watch” is perhaps as mysterious as the location of any lost ark, but there's no doubt of its popular usage amongst watch enthusiasts and collectors. The one thing that can be agreed upon is that horological grails can take a myriad of forms in terms of brand, pricing, design and age. What constitutes a grail watch, however, is the subject of animated disagreement. The grail watch seems to mean different things to different people.
The Concise Oxford and Merriam-Webster dictionaries both specify that a grail involves a quest for an object, with Webster adding that the quest is “extended or difficult.”
Many people seem to use the term as a catch-all to describe watches that they just really want: their next “ultimate” acquisition which, when they acquire it, is often followed by a search for another grail. Then there are those for whom it means something that they can only dream about.
What is a grail watch?
Is the grail the elusive “one watch” that you desire and which – if you have it – believe will satiate all horological desires? Is a grail watch unobtainable or just something that is daunting or difficult to acquire?
To some, a grail is a watch that one works hard (and long) to find or afford and that gives elation upon attainment. However, it is not the “one” for these people because they do not believe that they will ever be satisfied with owning just a single watch. In this sense, is it a grail or just a more prosaic sounding goal? Under such a definition, anything less than that the “one timepiece” simply belongs on the wish list.
There is, however, one key sensitive issue once one owns one's grail watch: do you sell it? For purists, the only circumstances under which it is appropriate to sell a grail is financial hardship; funding of a new grail is not seen as an example of financial hardship. The argument may be put forward that selling a grail is acceptable if it is to purchase another grail, but does that not mean that the watch wasn't a grail in the first place, but simply another desired-for watch that was attained?
Let's not forget that there are also those watches that serendipity brings to you, that you didn't realize existed, or that you thought you'd never see but when you do, you are drawn irresistibly and irrevocably toward. Do I have a grail watch? No, but I do have a rather extensive and ever-expanding wish list, the vast majority of which will remain but a horological dream.
Perhaps, in the end, it's all about the chase…To utterly alter Churchill's comment about economists, if you put two watch people in a room, you're likely to get two opinions about grail watches, so what does grail watch mean to you? It's apparently quite personal.
