I went to a famous department store last year, thinking they of all people would have a real watch instead of those ones that can’t be opened to put in an expensive little round battery. However, all they had was battery watches! Many were very expensive, which is a question for another thread.
My question is I want a real watch that you either wind up or when you move around it winds itself, like the watch I got when I graduated. It was a cheap watch too.1)Do they still make windup or move-your-wrist watches cheap? Where can I get one? 2)And how did society degenerate into thinking that a battery that has to be replaced and fussed over and thrown away to poison the environment was a better idea than just winding your watch or moving your wrist around? I would even accept the idea of a watch that is energized by exposure to light, like a nice little calculator that I have.
Don, I can understand your frustration. I bought a battery watch last year, old fashioned way, in a department store, in person. Anyway, they had a few mechanical models at that time. You can tell the difference without asking, by the second hand movement: it jerks every 1/4 second, as opposed to one full second in electo-mechanical watch. Rolex definitely makes mechanical watches.
Peace
There is a brand of mechanical watches made by Seiko I think it is, that have a little offset weight inside of them. Moving your wrist causes the weight to rotate around the inside diameter of the watch, and “winds” it for you without needing a battery. The models are called “Kinetic” if I recall, and you should be able to find them wherever Seikos are sold.
Alternatively, try a Jewelry store, or a different department store if those are too pricey for you.
As a last resort, Ebay should have any number of wind-up watches at a reasonable price.
Yah, what everyone else says, and for the n’th bleeping time, quit making posts with all cap titles don willard. You must be starved for attention, because all the threads you’ve ever started are with all caps and it annoys me to no end when I’m having a bad day…
:::scratches wall with fingernails:::
swatch makes a few kinetic watches under the name Automatic: http://www.swatch.com/irony/2000/automatic_pop.php?curr_pic=3 . I think they cost around $100, which is expensive compared to the $30 Timexes I get (I uncannily ruin or lose every watch that graces my arm), but dirt cheap compared to $5000 Rolexes.
Warning: navigating swatch’s site is annoying, with lots of RAM-eating pop-ups.
If you don’t need a new one, check out a couple of local Pawn Shops. I picked up a couple of wind ups last year before a trip into the wilderness.
They work great. Picked up two of them for less then $100.
My watch that I wear to work gets abused a lot and the last two only lasted a year.
I noticed in Harbor Freight catalog Russian Military Watches. Shock resistant 31 jewel movement,waterproof to 20 meters stainless steel case.Self winding.
Don’t know if I got took or not but I’ve wasted $19.99 each in a lot of dumber ways.
Yah, there’s something very comforting about being able to wear a wind up watch in this world. I’m taking for granted that you’re talking about an analog watch. (Asking some stranger on the street for the time and get 4:14 for an answer instead of "quarter after 4 irks me.) found one in a pawn shop many years ago that I simply love. It’s a clunky ole watch that even has an alarm clock on it. You set the time with a little hand and its own stem and when the appointed time arrives, the alarm buzzes with a tiny mechanical buzzer. Good luck!
Watch geek here.
The finest and most expensive watches are either stem winding or automatic.
With respect to the comment about the movement of the second hand being determined by battery vs non-battery internal movements this has nothing to do with the mechanical requirements of the movements. Battery driven movements could easily be crafted to move in multi-second stops like the Rolex automatics. It simply takes more energy to do this and to conserve battery life a full second stop is typically used.
There are several basic ways of powering movements and some combinations.
Electrical - battery driven -
Solar assisted electric -
Mechanical self generating electric - ie Seiko Kinetic
Automatic - mechanical self winding with no stem winding option
Manual Stem Wound -
Automatic with manual stem winding option
Visit http://www.timezone.com to get a fuller explanation of the issues involved. The wristwatch faq is a great place to start.
Regarding a recommendation for a good winding / auto mechanical watch Seiko makes a few excellent non-stem winding mechanicals for around 250. to 400. Another very nine watch and an amazing deal for the price are the automatic Invicta series. They are stem wind / automatic combination movements and you can get one of these for only 89.00 or so. It’s an insanely good deal.
A Rolex “Air King” retails for about $2,250. I think it’s their least expensive watch, but the silver one with the blue face is really attractive. I thought about getting the Air King, but I went for the GMT Master II because I wanted the extra 24-hour hand and the date. Rolex has many watches in their Oyster line, some of which are a couple grand like the Air King, some of which are more like the GMT Master II, and some of which are a lot more. (But I find the really expensive diamond-encrusted ones exceedingly ugly.) While they cost 10 or 20 times what a good quartz watch costs, Rolex is definately “middle class” when it comes to fine watches. By comparison with some brands, Rolexes are dirt cheap! There are a lot of used ones out there too. Just be sure to buy from a reputable dealer, as there are a lot of fakes.
Speaking of fakes, Adiva Watches (online) sells 21-jewel automatic movement Rolex copies for about $100. These are the same watches QVC or the Home Shopping Channel sells for $250. There are also automatic Rolex-like watches that are sold through various militaria catalogs for about $150-$250, but I don’t know which catalogs.
Tag-Heuer makes a couple designs of automatic watches. Not cheap, but less than a Rolex.
One of my favourites (I drool over it whenever I see it at a watch shop) is the Omega “Speedmaster Professional”. This is the watch that has been used by NASA on space flights since the 1960s. There are a couple of Speedmasters. The Automatic is self-winding, and the Professional (AKA “Moon Watch”) is a stem-wind. Nice looking watch with a tachymetre ring, rotating bezel, and three small dials inside. It looks good with either the stainless or black leather band, but I like the leather one best. These retail for a little over $2,000, but the dealers may be willing to cut you a deal (unlike most Rolex dealers. I was lucky to have him waive the sales tax!). Several months ago I found a dealer online who was selling s Speedy Pro for $900, new in-box.
The U.S. military issues a nylon-cased, stem-wound watch that can be had from some surplus dealers (The Quartermaster in Long Beach, CA, for example) for about $60.
As already mentioned, Seiko has a watch that generates a current when it’s worn (moved). Quartz accuracy, but no batteries to change.
Breitling makes very nice watches; but again, they’ll set you back some ducats.
Money. It’s a lot cheaper to make a quartz watch than it is to make a mechanical***** one. Most people don’t care about craftsmanship. They just want to know the time. They can get a digital quartz watch from a fast-food place for $1.99, or pay fifty or a hundred bucks for a nice analog quartz watch. Why would they want to pay over $1,000 for something that isn’t as accurate if all they want is the time of day? Mechanical watches are complex machines. Wonderful machines. Often, hand-made machines. So their more expensive.
[hijack]
Did anyone see Longitude, the A&E production about making the first chronometer? The chronometer’s second hand went “tick. tick. tick” instead of a steady sweep. They used a quartz movement for the prop.
[/hijack]
Anyway, check out jewelry stores and watch stores at the mall. There are a lot of mechanical watches out there. They’re just hard to find sometimes.
*****]“Mechanical”. Yeah, I know quartz analog watches have a mechanical component. But you all know what I mean.
Find a Vostok watch on Ebay. They are Russian military watches and they look damn near cool. They are around thirty bucks. Not too bad. They have either a self-winding movement or they are wound. And the best part? The internals are exact copies of Rolexes! Mine is a Russian Navy submarine watch. I have gotten many good comments on it.
Red Dragon
Please see my post above.
Those are Vostok watches.
I got two.The paratrooper and the commando.
Is the sub watch different from the specs I mentioned?
If so I may order one of those too.
The Vermont Country Store sells a wind-up watch for around $40.00. Item 31954 men’s, 31955 women’s. http://www.vermontcountrystore.com telephone 1-802-362-8440
I bought a Seiko Kinetic watch to replace my old battery quartz watch just 'cos I was bored with it. Unfortunately the kinetic machanism broke after 3 years whilst the old watch (also Seiko) was still running on the same battery it had when I stopped using it. I will avoid Kinetic from now on.
Back to the OP: Most very, Very, VERY expensive watches - e.g. Rolex, Omega, Raymond Weil (sp?) and all those other Swiss makes - are mechanical. The reason for the general demise is that regular mechanical watches cannot hope to compete with even cheap quartz movements in either accuracy or reliability. When you buy a Rolex you are paying both for the name and the very high cost of precise movements.
ticker: I have my father’s Seiko “Bellmatic” that was made in April, 1973 (I called Seiko and they looked up the serial number). It’s a 17-jewel automatic movement that still works great. I did take it to Seiko for a good cleaning and servicing though a few months ago, just on GP. Almost 28 years old, and it never had to have a battery replaced! One reason I didn’t buy the Rolex Oyster “Air King” is because it looks very similar to this Seiko.
BTW: I still have my first watch. I got it about 30 years ago when I was a kid. The ol’ Timex automatic is still ticking. It runs fast, but it still works.
Rolex isn’t “very, Very, VERY expensive”. You won’t find McDonalds putting them in Happy Meals, but you’re not going to have to mortgage your house either. As I mentioned before, Rolex is “middle class”. IMO, people just think they’re really expensive because A) They’re (probably) the best-known Swiss watch; and B) They do have some models that are expensive. And Omega is even less expensive. I don’t know about the other brand you mentioned. I’ve seen ads, but I haven’t priced them.
AFAIK the Rolex Air King watch is so inexpensive, compared to their Oysters, because it is not a certified chronometer, all the others are.
‘The reason for the general demise (of mechanical watches) is that regular mechanical watches cannot hope to compete with even cheap quartz movements in either accuracy or reliability.’
How so, I have found exactly the opposite to be true? Surely mechanical watches have become harder to find not because they are poorer quality, but because it has become cheaper and cheaper to make quartz movements.
Well, it’s not exactly “inexpensive”, but I think it is within the means of just about anyone with a decent job and the desire for a piece of machinery that, after all, only gives you the time of day.
You are correct that it’s less expensive because it’s not a “certified chronometer”, but it does have the same movement as the more expensive watches in the line. It just doesn’t go through the certification testing. Reports I’ve read from people who wear the non-certified Rolex movement are that it’s just as accurate as the certified ones.
Don’t let anyone tell you the Air King is an “entry level” Rolex. I think it’s a beautiful watch, especially with the blue face.
As far as accuracy, I don’t believe any mechanical watch can be as accurate as a quartz one. IIRC, one of the main selling points of the quartz watches were their accuracy (and readability, in the case of the ones with a digital readout). That, combined with the cheapness of making a good quartz watch, is what spelled the demise of automatic watches. Another thing is that automatic watches can run down if you don’t wear them enough, requiring you to reset them. Also, some mechanical watches are not as robust as electric ones. (The current crop of Rolexes, Breitlings, Omegas, et al can withstand a reasonable amount of abuse that may have damaged “cheap” watches of decades ago.) To the “teeming masses”, it just didn’t make sense to spend a lot on a good watch when they could get one that’s more accurate and a helluva lot cheaper, which only required changing a battery every couple of years.
One more thing about automatic watches: You don’t have to worry that the batteries will eventually become impossible to find. This can happen (as with my OM-1 camera) if the battery is discontinued (in this case because of environmental concerns. Another battery will fit, but the light meter will have to be recalibrated.), or if the battery is superceded by other designs. Assuming I ever have kids, they will inherit my Rolex, my Timex, my father’s Seiko, Vulcain, and Zodiac automatic watches, as well as my quartz Seiko. I like to think these hypothetical offspring will appreciate them more than a “throw-away” watch.
Cheap mechanical movements were of poor quality. Medium price mechanical movements were far more reliable and would be considered long term purchases. However, even cheap quartz movements are far more accurate than all these and more reliable than the cheaper mechanicals. A medium quality quartz - such as the 100% reliable 20 year old Seiko I am wearing today - is, for the money, simply a better watch than similar priced mechanicals. Why would anybody want a mechanical watch these days? Except if you enjoy to marveling at the ingenuity and precision of the movemnet (actually a good enough reason IMHO) quartz movements are bound to be the better bet.
Pulp Fiction----
“YOur father had to keep this watch shoved up his ass for to years, because he wanted you to have it”
“Why would anybody want a mechanical watch these days?”
Because the battery ones just aren’t right, since you have to put a battery in and most of them can’t be opened without a special tool that only the teenager that works in the booths in the middle of malls that I hate to go to in the first place has. Or a so-called “jeweler,” and they give attitude.
When one buys a watch one hopes that there can be as little involvement with fussing as possible. Winding it yourself or even better, letting your wrist movements kill two birds with one stone, appeals to one’s sense of simplicity, economy, and goes with the not-fussing reason as an AESTHETIC or pattern reason (besides the way something looks there is the aesthetics of simplicty, for instance, to contemplate). One has a sense of triumph that one can do without at least one less throw-away product, and thus be at least a little farther away from the outrage of Our Society.
And I hadn’t thought of how the batteries might become obsolete. Then there is the whole existence of batteries in the first place, which are clumsy and wasteful and wear out fast, leak, make a mess of the environment, and are inefficient for the amount of trouble that goes into them.
Now where can I buy a wind-up radio? (I don’t care for electricity either, especially considering that every time a drop of water falls from the sky there is a power failure. When I was a child living in Chicago we NEVER HAD A POWER FAILUR. According to some reports, the heavy underground current-carrying cables of my yesteryear ARE STILL THERE TODAY and worn out. Sorry, that’s another thread I must start sometime… Why oh why did our great-grandparents
live better than we do (if the power failed they just put some wood in the handy woodstove, but we have to go out and buy expensive unhandy woodstoves!) Alas and alack,
Miniver Cheevy.