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Watches

Started by Twed, September 01, 2018, 03:55:52 PM

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Twed

It started with quartz Swatches. Last year I sported a Twice Again on my wrist, but I had to replace the strap (the rubbery materials give me dermatitis) and the strap broke and the pins broke and now that watch is just a face. I liked it a lot though; simple, obnoxiously loud, readable, reliable, cheap.

(I think Stewart Lee was wearing this in his latest standup)



It made me realise that I like having analogue tickers on my wrist. So I stuck with Swatch and went mechanical & automatic, with the Sistem51 "Slate". And it's an okay watch, but everything about it is Swatch-ey. That plastic crystal, the unservicable mechanism... it's still a disposable watch, and I want something that's with me for 20 years. I also found it a little hard to read when I got it, with those small numbers and the fussy design. That being said, it's a great piece of engineering.



I'm not into the "I want the same watch as James Bond" thing. I like modest watches that are examples of brilliant engineering. It's comforting to have something like that living on my wrist. I value the cheap, good ones, but it's time to get something that isn't completely throwaway and has some proven pedigree. With that in mind, the obvious choice of a Seiko 5 is now wending its way to me. Cheap (<$200), proven mechanism, repairable, reliable, readable. A beater watch of worth. If I could change anything it would be the stupid "Sport" printed on the dial. Why?



Please tell me about your watches! If you wear a Casio digital then please understand that I am jealous, because my delicate allergic wrists would not allow it. I love those things; costs a tenner, but you could still be wearing the same one you bought in the 80s. Beautiful.

Sebastian Cobb

I'm all about jump hours.




I too like understated ones. Expensive watches can be so gaudy; breitling are horrid.

mothman

I have three watches. A Citizen solar-powered one I got more than 20 years ago; a Casio analogue dive watch with built-in dive computer which manages to run through a five-year battery in about three (and the strap keeps breaking, and when I last had it fixed I had it shortened to allow for some weight loss, only to find I now couldn't wear it on the wrist seal of my semi-dry wetsuit even with the special strap extender). In fact I'd largely abandined wearing a watch at all until I started at a job where we couldn't have mobile phones on the premises, so lost my easy way of telling the time, and started wearing one again.

So now I just wear a Fitbit Charge 2.

Jockice

#3
Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 01, 2018, 04:03:09 PM
I'm all about jump hours.




I too like understated ones. Expensive watches can be so gaudy; breitling are horrid.

I still have one of these, as seen below. A Christmas present when I was 12 (1977!) from an aunt and uncle. The same uncle who gave me the painted helmet mentioned in the Oscillations songs from your youth thread.

It still works too. Probably because I never wore it at the time. I wanted a proper digital watch, not one with the word 'digital' on it. And I'd totally forgotten about it until the year 2000 when I bumped into a lass I knew in town one day and went for a coffee with her. She took her jacket off and I screeched: 'You're wearing my watch!" She had an identical one on, which she told me she'd bought from a charity shop near where my parents lived. So I asked mum if she'd given it to them and she didn't have a clue what I was on about. But a couple of weeks later I went round and was presented with it. It had been in a plastic bag full of old things at the back of a wardrobe.

Apart from me, Andrea and my aunt and uncle's son, who got the same watch with a blue face that Christmas (and never ever wore it as far as I know) I've never seen anyone with the same watch in my life. It's always a talking point when I wear it.

Incidentally, the kid who sat directly in front of me at class that year came in on the first day after the Christmas holidays wearing a spanking new proper digital watch. Which while showing off he stuck a pen into the side of to show how to change the time. And the whole display disappeared to his utter horror and the amusement of the rest of us. Never to be seen again. Bet his folks were pleased.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ruhla+digital+watch&rlz=1C1AFAB_enGB499GB537&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=7bQ3tGxHqpMd1M%253A%252C8Uk3koxbNtd9VM%252C_&usg=AFrqEzc9-Jj2EbxIQSMO6NUjTP9qpLC02Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW-9Pgk5rdAhULAcAKHV5NCIkQ9QEwAHoECAUQBA#imgrc=7bQ3tGxHqpMd1M:

Replies From View

I have a bit of a thing for watches, along with fountain pens.  Even if I rarely wear a particular watch I like having them around, sitting on a desk somewhere.  I don't spend stupid money on them, though.

For work, where I'm with children who can exhibit unpredictable and challenging behaviours, I wear a digital Casio watch that doesn't mind being bashed around a bit.  It also snaps on the wrist easily and when I remove it, the strap is quite pleasing to discreetly fiddle with.




Outside of work I alternate between this wooden one:




This one, which is described as 'slim', but I wish I had a thinner one.  I replaced the strap for this one quite recently, and am not sure it was a good choice as it tapers a bit weirdly:




This mechanical one, the face of which I annoyingly got smeared in superglue when I was trying to fix its strap, so I now deem ruined:




This mechanical one, which I like because you can see its internals through its face, and has an automatic, 'self-winding' movement as well as a manual one:




And this Doctor Who watch which I managed to get relatively cheaply second-hand on eBay:



QDRPHNC

I am currently in the process of talking myself out of buying the Shinola Guardian, because it's just too much money.


Replies From View

Yes I can't understand people spending even £100 on one watch, to be honest.  I can't see a massive difference between one at £65 and one at £500 (which the ones in your photo apparently are).  Apart from the Doctor Who one I think £20 is the maximum I've spent.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: Twed on September 01, 2018, 03:55:52 PM
It started with quartz Swatches. Last year I sported a Twice Again on my wrist, but I had to replace the strap (the rubbery materials give me dermatitis) and the strap broke and the pins broke and now that watch is just a face.

I have a classic Casio F-91W which wikipedia helpfully says is "the sign of al-Qaeda".  Likewise mine has no strap and is just a face - my skin must be acidic or something because the rubbery watch straps always turn hard and eventually crack.  I can't even change the straps as the plastic bits where the pins go in have broken.  I'll get another one but at the moment it lives in my pocket and I quite like having a pocket watch.


Twed

Quote from: Replies From View on September 01, 2018, 05:17:05 PM
This mechanical one, the face of which I annoyingly got smeared in superglue when I was trying to fix its strap, so I now deem ruined:
Get some Goo Gone on it!


the

     

Been sporting this bad boy for about 6 years now. Amongst other things, it can hold twenty-five phone numbers. Get in.

Felt very old when someone I met in the pub genuinely asked 'why does your watch have buttons on it?'.

Twed

Quote from: thenoise on September 01, 2018, 07:03:55 PM
impractical, unreadable, not that reliable, and ludicrously expensive. Winning at life!!1
Wow, hideous. I feel sure some products are only made to categorize the people who buy them. Get them on a list to keep an eye on them.

studpuppet

I bling it with the big boys. Here's my Rolex:



(Actually a 1930s boy's watch that seemingly a lot of Canadian servicemen bought during WW2)

Here's the Omega Constellation that my dad forced me to buy with my own money at age 19 because I'd "never get a better deal":



My dad's Zenith Time Command - a weird mid-seventies quartz analogue-LED hybrid from when everyone thought it was all over for mechanical watches:



An Omega f300 tuning fork watch - hums like a bastard:



An early fifties Omega with a bumper movement and a slightly knackered dial:



A seventies Tissot T12 Chronograph the my dad once bought of a bloke that needed the money to buy a train ticket:



A Seiko Bell-Matic that wakes me up in the morning:


Jockice

I also have an Omega one, which my parents bought me for passing my A-levels. Rarely worn. In fact I think the last time was at my dad's funeral in 2005. I also (in the same drawer potential burglars) have the one he used to wear all the time. And I have several given to me by a weird old bloke I used to work with. He was obsessed with watches and possibly me. Some of them were quite nice too. I never asked where he got them from. I really didn't want to know.

In fact, apart from occasional appearances that old Ruhla one, I hardly ever wear a watch nowadays. I'm not that desperate to know and mobile phones have stopped people asking me the time. But I sense something more. And I would like to give you what I think you're asking for. Etc.

Shit Good Nose

Something I've never got, as in understood.  One of my best mates has been an avid collector since I first met him in the mid 90s, and he must have over 1000 watches now.  I don't think many of them are worth too much as he's always gone for unusual over value, but he has got a couple of vintage (genuine) Rolexes, a Hamilton Chronograph and, his pride and joy, a Marvin from the 40s.  He's also got some (still working) pocket watches from the 1800s that he picked up from a car boot sale years ago, but no one has been able to give him any history of them or put any value on them as there are no makers marks anywhere to be found.  He's taken them to numerous dealers over the years, and the Antiques Roadshow twice (although wasn't on TV) and it was the same again - almost certainly 19th century, but other than that arsed mate, cigs.

I've only ever owned and worn one watch - one of those basic cheapo Casio digital ones (with the black plastic straps) that my parents got for me in either 1989 or 1990.  One of the straps came off in 95 or 96 and I never got it replaced, and that was the last time I ever wore a watch.  But, as per what is so often said about those old Casios, that bastard ran forever - when we moved to our current house 14 years ago (2004) I found it and the cunt was still running, on the same battery it came with when first bought.  25 fucking years!  For all I know it could still be running now, but chuff knows where it is.

Ian Drunken Smurf

I have a fair few watches, but currently just wear a Fitbit Charge 2, because a watch and a Fitbit looks silly.

- sportswatch bought on a flight to Moscow (pulse, altimeter and all that guff)
- Cyma Autorotor (my dad's)
- Swatch Sochi Olympics watch
- Raymond Weil W1 (my 21st birthday present)
- What? Watch Calendar semi-smartwatch (mate is the designer)
- A Dolce & Gabbana men's watch. Not horrendously blingy.
- A Swatch limited edition, with all the Cantons of Switzerland on the strap (with humorous changes)
- An Accurist "sailing watch" (ie. bezel doesn't do what a diver's watch should do).




Sebastian Cobb

I used to have one of these. I think it might have been a fake though as the chrome chipped off the bezel pretty sharpish and then the date function jammed.


checkoutgirl

Quote from: Twed on September 01, 2018, 03:55:52 PM
Please tell me about your watches!

I started a thread about this subject about a year and a half ago because I was sick of Rotary watches breaking on me. They have a nice Swiss name but are basically garbage made in China. I broke 3 in about a year. So I got advice from the CaB massive and went with the Orient Mako II.



Attractive, cheap at €150 and highly rated for the money, possibly in the top 5 watches or possibly top 3 in the world for its price range. Mechanical movement which means it's about 10 seconds fast a day so has to be reset every few weeks. I spoke to a guy and he said even £10,000 Omega watches will gain or lose 2 seconds a day because that's just the way with mechanical watches. Ironic because they are way more expensive than quartz watches.

I'm happy enough with it. Mineral crystal as opposed to the indestructible and more expensive sapphire crystal but it looks the same as the day I bought it. One qualm is the end links aren't solid and have come away from the case so it makes a slight ting noise when moved but other than that it's solid and perfect with no scratches and I wear it every day although I'm not a builder and work in an office. I'd recommend it at the 150 price point.

If I was upgrading to the 500 quid point I'd go for a Steinhart replica of a Rolex Sea Dweller but I've no plans to do that because I just want a watch that won't break. Collecting timepieces is not high on my list of priorities.




checkoutgirl

Quote from: the on September 01, 2018, 07:13:08 PM
Felt very old when someone I met in the pub genuinely asked 'why does your watch have buttons on it?'.

In the 80s that was so cool. Any function on your wrist outside an analogue watch was the height of cutting edge.

Replies From View

Quote from: Twed on September 01, 2018, 06:59:22 PM
Get some Goo Gone on it!

Will it work on superglue?  And might it damage the face of the watch?

Sherman Krank


Twed

Quote from: Replies From View on September 01, 2018, 09:02:35 PM
Will it work on superglue?  And might it damage the face of the watch?
I think it should be fine but I don't want to guarantee that and ruin your watch. Maybe try a little? I use this stuff on clothes and laptops and it's fine.

mothman

One thing I know is, I always end up scratching the faces of my watches. Every one. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just clumsy. I have a squint so have virtually no depth perception, easy to misjudge distances. But then my brother has normal eyesight yet broke every watch he ever wore, I think he'd stopped wearing them even before he was out of his teens.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Twed on September 01, 2018, 10:31:37 PM
I think it should be fine but I don't want to guarantee that and ruin your watch. Maybe try a little? I use this stuff on clothes and laptops and it's fine.

Why are you covering your clothes and laptops in 'goo' mate?

Twed

I just love removing things with solvents.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Twed on September 01, 2018, 10:53:36 PM
I just love removing things with solvents.

One of my pals bought an old ambulance. One of the old minibus ones rather than an actual nee-naw job. But he tried to get the old flaring off with acetone. Off his box he was.

Incidentally, one of them ambulances has a backwards facing passenger seat, presumably so a nurse could keep an eye on the passengers. It's far less fun when you're looking at a cement mixer that will pan your face in if there's a crash.

Dex Sawash



In middle of moving can only find a few.

Certina DS-2 Chronolympic, busted and should just post it to a verbhorologist

Citizen yachting timer poser watch

Replica of 1978 Saab 99 Turbo boost gauge

mothman

Remembered I had another watch, a Seiko 7N39-0aj0 apparently, it's this one:

https://www.chrono24.com/seiko/seiko-ssteel-7n39-0aj0-ref-skp133p1-boxpapers--id7172279.htm

I inherited it from my grandfather. No idea how old it is, that page says 1990s which is possible, I know among his effects there was a box of old watches most of which which went to my cousin (fair enough I suppose, he was biological while I'm really his stepdaughter's son), as well as a box of old cameras that went to my brother (and, er, several handguns which went to the police).


Psmith

Watches seem to be attractive to collectaphobics.I have a friend who only collects Swiss.
I had a watch once but I kept checking the time,it got very stressful and I was glad when it stopped.

mothman

Considering my grandfather fought them in Burma, he was mad for Japanese tech - watches, cameras, fast cars...