The Watch Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

How about a new watch thread?

I guess everyone knows I like them. Friday I wore one of my 1974 (year, not number in the collection!) blue-dial Seiko Bell-Matics. Pretty watch, but a PITA to set the date. You set the date by rocking back and forth around midnight, but to set the date you have to go round and round. Wednesday I wore my late-'70s vintage non-date Sub, and yesterday was the GMT Master II. My '90s G.I.-issue Stocker & Yale is out. I’ll have to wear that one soon. Too bad they were disposable watches; the tritium is depleted. (I always liked the nuclear trefoil on the dial, and ‘DISPOSE OF RAD. WASTE’ on the back.) I’m not fond of watches that require batteries, but my Hamilton Ventura is on the table and I haven’t worn it in a while. My '86 Seiko Sports 100 Chronograph is happily ticking away in my bedroom.

I checked prices on the Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph Moon Watch this morning. Ten years ago I could have bought one at a dealer for $1,800. Now they retail for almost twice that. Ouch. I still want one, though. Someday…

I also like the Rolex Air King, with the blue dial, no bezel, and no numerals (just ‘hash marks’). Samclem says he’ll keep an eye out for one for me in his shop. I like this watch because there’s no bling-factor.

I’d like to get some watches from the mid-'60s to, say, 1972. I need to learn more about the available brands during that time period. I mean, I know Rolex, Bulova, Omega, and Seiko and Hamilton; but I need to learn about more mass-market brands of the time period.

2

I was going on a run this afternoon, so I swapped out my Sub for my aging Seiko Pepsi-bezel quartz diver (SCH033…this is the one). Bought that one new at JCPenney’s in 1988, IIRC, and it has been beaten and thrashed much in the intervening decades.

You might recall when I posted about my joy at having my Moon Watch back from Omega a few years back.

Here’s the watch…and…here’s all the bits they replaced.

Sadly, about a year after they did all that work, the winding stem simply popped out. In disgust I put the watch away for a year or two.

Dropped it off at a prestigious Princeton jeweler, in hopes that it wouldn’t have to go back to the black hole that is Omega for six more months of repair. Unfortunately, their jeweler determined that it was beyond what could be fixed in house, and they sent it off to Omega.

That was a month or two ago. They said it needed full servicing, and the cost would be $450 or something like that. I am displeased with this assessment, since it had been fully serviced a year before their silly part snapped.

But when the lady asked me if I wanted to go through with it, what could I say? I want the watch fixed. I’ll be smiling in a month or two (hopefully) when it comes back.

3

The stem came out of my c.1960 Sub once. (I no longer have it – I decided I didn’t need two Subs.) I had a local watchmaker fix it. I had the other Sub overhauled about five years ago, and the GMT II overhauled a couple of years ago. Both went to Rolex for servicing, and each took about six weeks. My dad’s (April) 1974 Bell-Matic and the two duplicates I have went to Seiko’s service center in El Segundo when I lived in L.A. The longest wait I had was when I had dad’s Vulcain Cricket overhauled. It went to Ontario or someplace and got held up at Customs on the return trip.

Bad luck with your Speedy, but ya gotta have it.

Nice looking Seiko.

4

I know nothing about watches except what I know I love: Pocket watches. My wife game me a wind-up one for our wedding and it’s now my “fancy dress” watch. One thing I want to get is an antique one.

I love just watching the mechanisms work.

5

I have a Russian pocket watch that I like, but I never use it. I like the idea of pocket watches, but for me they’re impractical.

6

I’m a strict Casio digital man. It even has an alarm clock! What more could anyone possibly want?

7

They completely are for me in every day life. But I wear mine whenever I have to wear a suit, usually at church. I wouldn’t want to pull out my phone to check the time.

I have a nice wristwatch that I wear for interviews and such, it goes very well with what I’m wearing.

8

I like watches, but for all the money which I spent (back when I had money;)) I more just bought on impulse rather than carefully studying anything.

So, I didn’t really pay attention to model names and other specs. Sort of silly for someone who has several nice watches, but that’s me.

The first nice watch I bought is a Breitling Chronographe in steel, with a navy face, gold accents and black leather band. My friend calls it my workhorse, and I’ve replaced the band three or four times in the 12 or 13 years I’ve owned it. Hot, muggy Tokyo summers with sweaty owners are hell on leather. I’ve fortunately only had to have it overhauled once ($800).
(side)

The second watch I got, also an automatic, is my Baume & Mercier, which I got in the summer of 2001, before they went to their short, “squaty” phase. The face color is unique, and I haven’t found anything similar. The brownish red crocodile band is original, although will need to be replaced at some point.

The first brand which I was aware of is Rado, and even back in high school I wanted to get a Ceramica. Instead, I got the DiaStar with the scratch proof sapphire face and tungsten band with gold accents. You can see I had to really watch the angle of the picture to avoid the reflection.

I had an opportunity to purchase this, a Piaget. This particular watch is a rare, limited model (not that Piaget sells watches for the mass market. . .) in white gold with a dark navy crocodile band. The workmanship and detail on the Piaget are beautiful

It and the Rado are the only ones I own with batteries. (Side) I’m only taking care of this one for my son.

Rounding out the collection is my dress watch, a hand wind IWC, which of all the photos, this and the B&M do not do justice. I like the simple elegance and how thin it is. High gloss finish on the alligator band. I wore it for our wedding pictures, and yet, it was intentionally included. But a man’s got to be vain sometimes.

Unfortunately, the arrival of a couple of kids has derailed any thoughts of further additions for another 20+ years, so I’ll just be happy with the ones I’ve got now.

9

Any opinions about Seagull watches? I am looking out for a mechanical watch.

10

Watch? Watch?

Ohhhhh…those things people used before they invented cell phones. I got it.

I loathe wristwatches, but own a dozen or so pocketwatches. Most of them are Russian, but I also have my grandfather’s watch and a few nicer ones.

11

I had a Casio G-Shock for about 10 years. The battery finally died so I got another one. So far so good.

12

I currently wear a Coleman that is supposed to display the ambient temperature. What they don’t mention is that one needs to take it off in order to get the most accurate reading because one’s body heat throws the sensor off.

13

I lusted after one of these for years, I wanted plain stainless all the way around, just a simple plain one. I had looked up prices on them, watched auctions on them, I was obsessed with them as being the be all end all of my watchly desires. Until I finally saw one in person. It’s just as lovely as I wanted it to be, but the face is just too small for me. I’m not the one to rock out some diamond encrusted meteor faced 19 dial chronograph by any means, it’s just a slender band and small face and it kind of looked like a ladies watch on my wrist. Heartbreaking.

So I’ve moved on to new wants, like a Bell and Ross Heritage, even though they’re huge damned watches. Or even an Omega Speedmaster 2. And of course a Rolex Submariner with a stainless band and a black face, the watch which most other watches were copies off of.

Right now I’m wearing a Seiko Diver Chronograph that I wear as a daily watch and even that tends towards the “too busy” side of things, I like watches to be bulky and “manly” without resorting to some 19 dialed tourbilloned monstrosity. The Seiko has an analog bell alarm which tinkles every time I move my arm though, which I don’t like.

14

I own an 1850 pocket watch that is wound with a key!

I wore it to church on Sunday, I cannot wear avest without wearing a pocket watch. So it;s a win-win.

I also own an 1880 pocket watch that is stem-wound.

It’s good to have a friend who collects Civil-War watches when Christmas rolls aroound. :smiley:

15

My favorite watch of all time (ha) was the Casio Twin-Graph. It had a split LCD with both analog and digital time displays. I had two of them; my brother destroyed one by wearing it while body surfing and the other one got left behind in a hotel room. I see one on eBay now for $475–I think they cost something like $40 new in the mid-80s.

16

The only watch I currently own (but don’t wear) is a 70’s or 80’s Soviet-era Vostok watch that I found in My MIL’s garage in Ontario. It has an inscription on the dial that reads “3AKA3 MO CCCP” which, upon doing some research, means “By Order of the Ministry of Defense of USSR”. The watches with this inscription are apparently real military-issue Soviet Army watches. This one has the original cheap leather band and a portrait of an officer embedded in the band. Still works too, pretty cool!

17

Check out an Omega Speedmaster Pro “Moon Watch” some time. (here’s mine)

IMHO, that’s one of the finest looking wristwatches made, and it is big enough to not look silly on a large wrist, without being annoying.
I can’t wait until mine comes back from Omega!

By the way, the last time I had it serviced I found out that mine was manufactured in 1976. At the time, the serial numbers were hidden inside the case, so I never knew until they cracked it open for servicing.
I like wearing a 35yo watch.

ETA: Only down side is that I always find myself looking at the watch to see today’s date, and it just isn’t there.

18

I speak fluent “mechanical watch” - my parents were antique dealers and pocket watches and pocket knives where interests my dad and I shared while I was growing up. Nothing more fun than going to watch collector’s fairs and checking out the old American watches - my dad had a few Railroad watches and Salesmen sample watching (clear backs to show off the works) - and also the wonderful European ones.

I tried getting into wristwatches about 10 years ago, but found I wasn’t as interested in wearing them - as a guitar player, I have come to not like stuff on my hands and fingers, and if you aren’t wearing the watches you own, what’s the point? So I sold my vintage Hamilton Pipine Rock and my original Bulova Accutron tuning fork watch (mine had a no face so you could see the works below the hands - a “spaceview”) and used the proceeds for guitars. But I still can’t walk past a good watch store without checking stuff out. And I still have a 1920’s Grana (Berlin) pocket watch that my dad gave me that I use in long meetings to stay abreast of the time when there is no watch in the room…

19

Oh, you mean the one that Buzz Aldrin is wearing in outer space in this exact picture? That’s the same Speedmaster that I was referring to, the Speedmaster 2 as it was known back in the 1960’s, the Speedmaster Professional as it’s known now. Sharp ass watch, no question.

My brother has one though, and I don’t want my next absurdly expensive timepiece to be the same as anyone else in my family. I’m always tempted to go extra super high and pop out with a Cartier Tank Francaise or a Baume Mercier Classima, but while I like dress watches I really want something a bit tougher and rugged.

I do like that Speedmaster…$3,000 isn’t that much…:stuck_out_tongue:

20

I used to lust after watches, but no more. I think the one I liked most was a Bulova Accutron Spaceview that I bought in 1968. You could see the inner workings through the crystal. I finally threw it away a couple of years ago, as it just wouldn’t work anymore. I’ve been wearing an analog Timex Expedition (with a backlit dial) for several years now, and it just keeps on running. It says it’s water resistant to 50m, but if I’m ever down that far, I’m long dead.