Watches.......the other type!

[WOODY2]

Funny update. Spent the time and effort to drive an hour down the mountain to south Denver to the Cherry Creek Mall (yes an indoor Mall!....felt like I was back in the 80's.) since Omega,Rolex and Brietling all have store's there. After stumbling through the food court, dodging the cologne ladies and avoiding the teen girls/guys on their phones I found the stores. It became clear very quickly that it was a wasted trip. The Omega store had maybe 25 watches out of hundreds of vacant spaces. The Rolex store had even fewer and the Brietling store was closed and moved. None of the stores had anything of interest to look at. The only fun part of the whole trip was watching a young blond women in her Maserati go into meltdown because the parking kiosk wouldnt take her credit card so she couldn't leave the Mall.......life is good.

See it's the inexpensive things in life that bring a smile to ones day.

 

[billiebob]

My Grad present in 1973 was a Rolex Submariner.... I had it til it was stolen 10 years ago and insurance bought a new one.
Best watch ever, I NEVER take it off. 2 years on a bridge crew running a jack hammer it would gain a few minutes a month but it was flawless and trouble free.... I never touch it.

Technically I've had one watch in 50 years.

 

[bajajoaquin]

When it comes to watches Accurate and mechanical really aren’t used in same sentence. Any cheap battery watch is more accurate than a mechanical watch including Rolex. A rolex is certainly an heirloom piece and prices have skyrocked over last 18 months., even submariners are over 10k…used……but accurate it is not. Mechanical watches are bought, cherished and passed down for reasons other than accuracy.

my everyday watch is Rolex Daytona and it is a mechanical wonder, but accurate it is not. If I need to know exactly what time it is I look at phone….haha

I agree with this. I used to wear a Casio G-Shock my roommate found in the street. We decided that the 4:35 alarm it had on it was cocktail hour and lived by it. Never missed a beat and never seemed to be out of time.

Fast forward several (many) years, and I have a Rolex Submariner. It kept terrible time. I transited through Dubai where the airport clocks are sponsored by Rolex and I scoffed. Since then, it’s been serviced properly and keeps to a few seconds a month. Which is a few seconds a month less reliable than my old Casio.

I still wear my Rolex every day for sentimental reasons. But if you ask a question about good watches that can keep good time and take abuse, but are omitting quartz, you’re just lying to yourself.

Get a watch you like. Or else get a Casio.

 

[BritKLR]

Kinda on hold for now. None of the watch shops in and around Denver have anything interesting or attractive. It's amazing to me how some of these high end watches can look so blinged out they look fake or designed by someone that got carried away with their bedazzled machine. Cheers.

 

[perterra]

Kinda on hold for now. None of the watch shops in and around Denver have anything interesting or attractive. It's amazing to me how some of these high end watches can look so blinged out they look fake or designed by someone that carried away with their bedazzled device. Cheers.

I think Seiko has held pretty true to the whole tool watch feel with their divers, not all of them but in general they are a solid watch, using in house designed and built movements. Their ISO 6425 certed dive watches are the real deal. Though I would guess they would not impress the masses they always impressed me. They go from pretty inexpensive in the lower end to pretty expensive in the Marine Master and Grand Seiko spring drives.

seiyajapan.com

SeiyaJapan is one of the most prestigious professional shopping sites that provides worldwide Japan watch devotees with high quality Japanese watches from Japan

www.seiyajapan.com

 

[BritKLR]

I think Seiko has held pretty true to the whole tool watch feel with their divers, not all of them but in general they are a solid watch, using in house designed and built movements. Their ISO 6425 certed dive watches are the real deal. Though I would guess they would not impress the masses they always impressed me. They go from pretty inexpensive in the lower end to pretty expensive in the Marine Master and Grand Seiko spring drives.

seiyajapan.com

SeiyaJapan is one of the most prestigious professional shopping sites that provides worldwide Japan watch devotees with high quality Japanese watches from Japan

www.seiyajapan.com

Very true. I went through two Seiko Drive Watches ($500 and $900 but, not sure of the models right now.....) in 20 years. Both blew out where the band attached to the watch. The pins wore out the hole and the bands would no longer stay on. Plus I went through a number of rubber and stainless steel bands with both of them. Was kinda hard on watches back in those days. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Mattlodi]

Having the chance i'd go with Grand Seiko without esitation.

 

[Northland]

My first and only (so far) high-end watch was a Breitling which I purchased in 2004. Well, $1500 for a watch was high-end for me, anyway.

A few years later, the Breitling "wings" logo simply fell off the face and was rattling around inside the case. No longer under warranty, Breitling charged me almost $600 to repair it. This has kind of festered with me ever since. Recently, I noticed that the luminosity of the face and hands wasn't glowing like it should. Actually, it was barely glowing at all. I'm a game warden, so I kinda need that function.

I asked Breitling about it and their response was "send it to us and we'll repair it." Um...no. I'm not falling for that again.

So I just purchased a $250 Luminox and put the Breitling in a box. Couldn't be happier.

 

[68camaro]

Having the chance i'd go with Grand Seiko without esitation.

The Grand Seiko is a real connoisseurs watch...the general public lumps it in with Seiko's, but people that understand and appreciate mechanical movements love this watch.

 

[billiebob]

Ever notice how Timex ads are always at 10 past 10... plus 30ish seconds...



Then theres this from 1992..



and this

 

[Trail Talk]

I know that vintage watches aren't the subject of the original post but, since we are having a wide-ranging discussion of timekeepers, I'd like to share some of my pocket watch collection. These "tool" watches are veterans of WWI and WWII. Three on the left are navigation chronometers carried on ships which required accuracy of 0.5 seconds over 24 hours. The modern chronometer standard for mechanical watches like Rolex, Omega, etc., is 10 seconds over the same period.

 

[68camaro]

I know that vintage watches aren't the subject of the original post but, since we are having a wide-ranging discussion of timekeepers, I'd like to share some of my pocket watch collection. These "tool" watches are veterans of WWI and WWII. Three on the left are navigation chronometers carried on ships which required accuracy of 0.5 seconds over 24 hours. The modern chronometer standard for mechanical watches like Rolex, Omega, etc., is 10 seconds over the same period.

Very nice collection, difference navigation accuracy and mechanical watches is insane......do you know if the 10 seconds assumes continuous use with watch winder when not being worn?

 

[Trail Talk]

do you know if the 10 seconds assumes continuous use with watch winder when not being worn?

The short answer is NO. The Swiss-based COSC organization, which is the largest that grants chronometer certificates, describes their tests as snapshots of performance at the time of testing and not a guarantee of future accuracy. Completely understandable as the manufacturers, which case-up the movements after testing, and end-user owners control a multitude of variables which affect accuracy. FWIW, watch winders are generally not recommended by service technicians who say they often accelerate wear and tear on the movement. These same technicians agree that the #1 cause for loss of accuracy of a mechanical movement is magnetism acquired from proximity to electronic devices, #2 being lack of regular service to clean and lubricate these complicated mechanical machines.

COSC has an entirely automated process that tests thousands of movements at a time over fifteen days. In 2020 they completed 1.8 million tests! The movements are automatically wound at the same time every day and, among other specifications dealing with positions and temperatures, if their daily average rate falls between 4 seconds slow and 6 seconds fast they are granted a certificate and returned to the manufacturer to put into a case.

There has been an explosion in the past few decades of other agencies that also test and issue chronometer certification. Some watch manufacturers have created their own in-house testing, others like Omega have added an additional level of testing to their COSC movements. Regardless of the process, they are all quite similar with tolerances of around 5 or 6 seconds per day.

Knowing the really amazing results obtained from mechanical navigation chronometers, I view these modern chronometer tests to be mostly marketing strategies. There was an elite sub-set of chronometer watches in the pre-quartz era that were tested over 3 months by astronomical Observatories which competed for prizes as the most accurate watches in the world. These numbered in the hundreds, not millions

 

[67cj5]

LOL......yep, that was one of my retirement goals to never wear a watch again......It's gone well since 2012 but, it seems like I'm busier now with more and more meetings and I've found I keep needing to check the time. I've had several automatic Seiko dive watches, Casios, etc....and enjoyed them and they worked well in my past life where a watch could/would get destroyed. Now, just interested in something different, rugged, interesting and most likely the last watch I'll have. Cheers.

I own 3 Citizen Eco Drives, One is a Military styled watch with a stop watch and 24hr hands I have owned it for about 22+ years and I also have one of their Perpetual Calender signature series and one other, The worst one might gain 10-15 seconds a month at the most, I did the Rolex thing, I waited a lot of years to buy it and when I got it it turned out to be a POS, 4 times I took it back to the Factory and it would never keep even close to good time, I will never buy another one, I also bought a few Breitling watches which are grossly over priced for what they are, Omega are the only good everyday watch when it comes to Swiss Brands,

My Citizen Perpetual Calender will knock spots off any of the above brands and It never needs a Battery or suffer from any of the issues that come with Automatic watches, And it hasn't gained 10 seconds in the past 4 or 5 Months,

This is the same as mine although they make 2 other versions.

 

[perterra]

I know that vintage watches aren't the subject of the original post but, since we are having a wide-ranging discussion of timekeepers, I'd like to share some of my pocket watch collection. These "tool" watches are veterans of WWI and WWII. Three on the left are navigation chronometers carried on ships which required accuracy of 0.5 seconds over 24 hours. The modern chronometer standard for mechanical watches like Rolex, Omega, etc., is 10 seconds over the same period.

View attachment 693531

I love those, so much character