There are excellent watches, good watches, okay watches, bad watches, awful watches—and then there’s the worst watch. Could this Milgauss 116400 GV from Rolex be it?

It’s the watch that saved Audemars Piguet, that came to define it. The eight, hard angles framing the dial and bracelet blending seamlessly into the case can be recognised from across the street—and that’s the point. The Royal Oak was meant to redefine an ailing industry, create exclusivity with a technology that was fast becoming antiquated. And it worked—but could it be better?

Stop the average person on the street and ask them if Rolex is better than Omega, and there’s a high chance they’ll agree. Rolex is a bigger brand, sells more watches, has a stronger following—yet here’s something that proves that Omega is, in fact, the champion.

High end watches come with high end prices—that's no secret. But what if there were some loophole, some trick to getting watches made by top names like IWC, Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin for the kind of prices you'd pay for Rolexes, Omegas and TAG Heuers? Perhaps there is.