The most expensive binoculars I've seen

[Paz]

I saw these recently, described simply as 20x120 Japanese 3° Binos. The price tag is £18,000!

[Demonperformer]

[DirkSteele]

I hope they are made of gold and platinum for that price!  They are quite pretty though.

[Ruud]

I'll start the bidding at 1%.

Does anyone recognize the make? They look a bit like Nikon Bigeye.

[Craney]

Looks like a couple of polished met-office standard rain gauges.....

which is probably the only instrument you would need if you splashed the cash on these..... ..

[JeremyS]

They look like something out of an HG Wells story.

I wouldn't give them house space.

[pluton]

Bello!!

 

[saac]

The owner clearly has no intention of parting with them  

Jim 

[andrew s]

Very H G Wells

Regards Andrew

[Stormbringer]

wonder what the view through them is like ?

[IanC11]

By the looks of everything else around them I would say their a pair of Naval binoculars.

[Demonperformer]

7 hours ago, saac said:

The owner clearly has no intention of parting with them

Unless ... OP does not say where he saw the advert ... now, if they were on ebay for £18,000 things would begin to make sense ...

[Paz]

8 hours ago, IanC11 said:

By the looks of everything else around them I would say their a pair of Naval binoculars.

I should have said these were in an antique shop, my guess is they are expensive  through being rare and/or collectible. They look old style-wise but I guess have been somehow refurbished or polished up.

[Moonshane]

Perfect for the wealthy Steampunk who has everything.

[Peter Drew]

Google "big binoculars.com" and you will find some like these as well as much larger models.  

[Eastman]

18,000 that's a steal!

At least you get something shiny for that price.

Still I want to take a peek through them big 20X120mm

[LukeSkywatcher]

C3po and Wall-E had a baby? 

[Demonperformer]

Beware what may be under the hood ...

"But, Grandma, Grandma, what big eyes you have"

[Merlin]

Made for an admiral.

[JeremyS]

12 hours ago, Paz said:

I guess have been somehow refurbished or polished up

Yes, I hope the shop owner has given the lenses a nice polish with a rag and Brasso 

[Paul73]

Mmmmmm. Shiney ?????

For £18,000 you could strap a couple of Moonrakered Taks together.......

Not sure if Mr @timwetherell has ever done any punked binos?

Paul

[Dinglem]

I was going to buy them but can only see out of one eye, so I would be wasting £9000!!!

[Paul73]

Worth a cheeky offer? 

Or find someone to go halves

 

[Peter Drew]

There is a 10" APO binocular telescope somewhere on the Net which had a price tag of around £100,000   

[ollypenrice]

All very amusing but you could buy a TEC 180 new for 19000 US dollars.

Ignoring all else, let's talk light grasp. Two 120s have a light collecting area of 22916.4 square mm. A TEC 180 trounces this with a light collecting area of 25449.6 square mm. Yes, Pi r squared can be counter intuitive!

And then you ask yourself how many magnitudes you lose outside by closing one eye. Each to his or her own but 'not many' in my case.

The admirable Mr Wetherell, already mentioned in this thread, has the inestimable good fortune to own a TEC200 mm lens so my friendly fairy tells me he may not be in the market for these binoculars.

Olly