I am soliciting the opinions of anyone who has/had a kinetic watch. I am considering getting one, but my husband thinks they “aren’t as good as a regular watch.”
-How well did it work for you?
-Got a recommendation for a specific brand?
Anything on the topic appreciated.
If you wear it every day, and don’t mind a slight adjustment of the time every now and again it works pretty well. I have an older one which I stopped wearing because I stopped wearing my watch every day and it would run down.
I thin the new ones can almost go 48 hrs w/o movement, and I assume the accuracy has improved.
I have a Seiko Kinetic watch (SM42-OE39), which has worked just fine for the past 5 years. I wear it daily, and it always reports a full battery.
The only accuracy problems I’ve had have happened after I am bored and play with the knobs and accidently change the time 
I’ve never owned an electric self-winding watch, just the mechanical variety. If you don’t wear yours often enough to keep it going there are winders for self winding, and presumably kinetic watches. It’s like a jewelry case with motorized mounts that periodically rotate to keep the mechanism in the watch going.
My dad had a self-winding watch many years ago. I can’t be sure of the brand but I’m pretty sure it was a Seiko or Bulova. Once upon a time, we were on vacation and he was so relaxed and unmoving that his watch stopped! That is what I’d call a relaxing vacation.
More on point to your question, he liked the watch very much and only replaced it with a Rolex.
I have had a Seiko kinetic watch that only stopped once in nearly five years, and that was after I had taken it off for five days. After that, it took about a day to get back up to full charge.
I haven’t noticed any accuracy problems with it, but I’m not one of those weird super-anal doods who sets his watch by the milisecond.
However, when I was in elementary school, I had a digital watch precisely set to the timer that controlled the school bell.
Since you’re looking for opinions rather than facts, I’ll move this thread to the IMHO forum.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
[tangent]I have two fine Omegas that have been sitting in a wooden box on my dresser for a couple of years because I just can’t see myself parting with the serious $$$ needed for the much-needed servicing and repair :(. Unless I’m mistaken, my Seamaster Pro Chrono is going to set me back $500 or so for this service.[/tangent]
I have a Seiko kinetic watch and have never had any problems. It is, of course, actually electrical as it has a battery that is charged up by the movement. I had a truck-driving friend who had one of the old mechanical kinetic watches and he couldn’t wear it because it was constantly being over-wound by the vibration of his truck. I doubt the newer electical ones have that problem, however.
(lazy uncle story deleted.)
I wear, and highly recommend, a Seiko kinetic watch . It’s really a quartz watch with a battery that’s powered by the movement of your arm. I believe it holds its charge for six months if you don’t wear it–I wear mine every day, though, so it’s always at full charge. If it needs to be charged from a fully depleted state, you simply shake it back and forth for about thirty seconds. It’s also extremely accurate. If, rather, you’re considering a mechanical kinetic watch, I can see how the charging mechanism might lessen the accuracy a little; check out the watch fanatic forum TimeZone for more information.
Seiko also makes a few “auto relay” which purport to stop the hands but hold the correct time in ‘memory’ when they run low on charge; six months should be good enough for anybody though, imho.
Just to clarify, “Kinetic” watches are made by Seiko. That is their marketing terminology for their quartz watches that are charged by movement. I think they may license the technology to a few other companies under other names. Mechanical watches are usually referred to as ‘self-winding’ in my experience.
The ‘aren’t as good’ comment is kinda mysterious to me though. Self-winding/ self-charging watches are regular watches! Seiko’s Kinetic watches aren’t any less accurate than other quartz watches. They have newer models that will even maintain the correct time for something like 5 years when not worn. Mechanical watches that self-wind are also pretty common. Granted, mechanical watches aren’t as common these days among the general public, but a good percentage of the mechanical watches out there are self-winding. It is true that they will wind-down if you don’t wear them for a while, but it’s not a big deal.
I have 4 self-winding mechanical watches. My old Seiko will run for about 4 days just sitting on the dresser. My Omega will run for about 2 days, and I have a couple of Nivada’s that will go for about 3 days. I like to wear all of them, so I have to set the correct time some mornings, but that’s no big deal. Just a few seconds of moving them (not shaking!) and they are up and running. They are as accurate as any other decent-quality mechanical watch I’ve ever used. I also have a couple of manual-wind watches, and I almost never wear them. When they run down, it takes much longer to get them going (simply because you have to wind for a bit). Of course, you can wind them a little every day, but I tend to forget. I don’t see how self-winding is in any way inferior. . .
I think the Kinetic watches are pretty neat and I’m planning to get one myself. I would feel perfectly assured in getting one based on the comments here. Anyway, Seiko makes a pretty good product, in my experience. They may not be regarded as ‘high-end’ or luxurious, but they are certainly solid and reliable.
