My trusty Seiko, bought 17+ years ago, has gone missing. Its battery had died, so I took it off and put it down somewhere around the house. Doubtless it’ll turn up, but it’s been a few months and I’m going batty w/o a wristwatch. I really lose track of time.
In recent years, it had seemed to need battery changes more often than you’d expect anyway, so I thought I’d consider self-winding watches or solar watches.
Anyone use either of these and like them?
Anyone have any opinions about Seiko watches in general anyway? They’ve always been a reliable choice but some old faithful brands have started making lower-quality products lately, and I’m wondering if Seiko might be one of them.
I’ve never used a solar watch, but I have several self-winding or automatic watches, including a Seiko divemaster. They keep very accurate time. The only problem with automatic watches is that if you don’t wear it regularly or don’t put it on an auto winder device, it will stop running, and you will have to reset it when you wear it next. For most of my automatics, two days of non wearing will permit it to wind down.
I have a Casio solar watch that my brother gave me, which has been working great for five years at least. It also finds the time radio signal every morning around 3 am and adjusts itself. Which is fine except when I was in the Baltic, out of range of the signals, and it got really confused each afternoon.
I’ve had self-winding watches and I prefer solar, since it will charge in a lit room even if you don’t wear it.
I bought a similar Casio last year. It seems to work very well, and stays charged with no particular effort on my part, though I understand that using the backlight hits it pretty hard. On the downside, it’s pretty bulky, and some of the status displays (which show DST, battery state, and such) are a little hard to read.
I have a Citizen Eco-Drive solar-powered watch that my wife bought at Costco. I like it well enough, although I’ve only had it for a year or two. I’ve certainly never had a problem keeping the battery charged.
Thanks for the opinions! A self-winding watch wouldn’t be an issue since I typically leave mine on 24/7 (except when bathing or swimming), though if it was the sort that had to be moved around every 4 hours, that would be a hassle.
I’ve had a Citizen Eco-Drive watch for about 10 years - it’s great - keeps perfect time and keeps a charge without needing any special exposure to light - I just wear it, and it works.
I bought a solar (Citizen Eco Drive) several years ago. I originally was looking at self-winding, but I didn’t like the bulkiness of those. The saleswoman said I should look at solar instead since the bulkiness is (or at least was) required for self-winding.
They don’t “look” like they are solar powered either, which is nice.
I bought a self winding watch. Looked pretty, couldn’t keep time. The watch flat out stopped if I went more than a day without wearing it. And even on the days when I was wearing it, it would drop a few minutes each day. But it was quite pretty.
I’ve had a couple of self-winding Tag Heuers, and even wearing one 24/7 and having a job/life that kept me on my feet and walking for 12+ hours a day, it would stop running after a few days. My then-fiancee took it back and got a different model which exhibited the same behavior. She then got me an auto winder, which seemed to render senseless the idea of a “self-winding” watch. Damn shame, as I was really taken with the looks of the things (both were from the Monaco line). It was more practical to wear a traditional wind-up watch, or a battery-powered one.
Never have had a solar powered watch, so no experience there.
I have two of the Citizen Eco Drive watches. I love(d) them both. One my ex wife gave me. I wore it every day for about 6 years. I don’t think it lost much, if any time. When she left and I knew she wasn’t coming back I put it away and got myself a new one. Had it for almost two years now. I don’t think it’s lost any time in those two years.
I like the way they look, about the only thing I don’t like are the bands. I got leather bands for both, the first one broke, the second one has a strange lock on it that I don’t really like, and the leather is starting to wear now.
I’d never recommend a cheap self-winding watch. I’ve got a pretty good collection of nice watches and setting time isn’t a big issue. If you don’t watch to deal with setting time, don’t buy a self-winding watch. They weren’t designed to be perfectly accurate forever.
I bought mother a Casio solar watch 15 years ago, and she’s still wearing it.
I got my wife a Seiko solar watch and it regularly stops. I don’t know if it’s because she’s not careful about making sure to keep it out, face side up when she doesn’t wear it, though.
I used to sell watches, at a couple of upscale jewelry places, back in the day. My opinion was to just stick with the battery powered ones, because for most “everyday wear” watches (I’m talking Seiko, Citizen, etc. - quality watches that run $100-400 or so - not junk or fashion watches) they usually have some sort of self-winding or solar powered models available, but they cost 1.5x to 3x the price of a similar, battery-operated model. And they don’t have 1.5x to 3x the lifespan of battery watches. They last just about the same amount of time.
Why do I say that? Well, if you wear it EVERY DAY… the bracelet or strap is going to wear out in 10 years and probably less, anyway. Do you want to be bothered with trying to find and order a replacement band for a watch that’s probably already looking pretty banged up after being worn that long anyway? Or will you most likely just toss it in a drawer and buy another one when the strap goes, regardless of whether the watch movement is still working?
I mean, if you bought a Rolex or something for $5k, of course it’ll be worthwhile to replace the bracelet and keep wearing it. The $200 Seiko, not so much.
Watch batteries are cheap. Ten cents or so apiece, if you buy a handful of them at once, online.
I am wearing a Seiko Kinetic 100M water resistent that I bought 10 years ago. Replaced scratched crystal and just recently the kinetic device. Stainless band is going strong.
I have been wearing Seiko watches since early Navy days (dive master X 3). Only the rubber straps ever gave out, I would usually just bash them to death.
The current model has a feature to check the charge, indicates up to 30 days, but it started dying if I didn’t wear it for the weekend, hence the replacement kinetic gizmo.
I has a self winding watch but didn’t wear it enough to keep it going. I have since long gone watch-less due to cell/smartphones.
If you wear it all the time then SW watches would seem a option, if solar would also autocharge enough to keep running continuously, that would seem like a equally good option.
But solar needs some way to store energy, which usually means a battery, which then I need to ask about life of the rechargeable battery and replacement of that when it no longer can supply enough reserve power. This would also go for the SW watch if it stored electrically, mine was mechanical.
I’m a fan of self-winders. I have four of them on a watch winder on the table, so they’re always ready, whichever I choose to wear on a given day. Two of them have the day and the date, so they’re a pain to set if they run down. One only has the date, and the hour hand can be moved independently, so it’s easy to set if it runs down. One just tells the time.
A 25-year-old former co-worker visited. She saw the winder start to turn and asked if it was a display for my watches. I told her no, it’s a winder. She looked confused, so I had to explain that they watches used an automatically-would spring instead of a battery. She had to point the winder out to her boyfriend when they came over for dinner one night. Intelligent girl, but too young to have been to exposed to non-electric watches.