Holy horology Batman, I think I found my next watch

[Aktungbby]

^ SPEAKING OF WHICH...HERE'S ONE THAT HAS TO SING TO YOUR WRIST IN THIS FORUM AT LEAST! FROM MY ECLECTIC HOROLOGICAL COLLECTION: <CLICK TO ENLARGEHERE'S MORE: https://www.chrono24.com/uboat/index.htm

[Skybird]

edit: FROM HERE ON: 2 THREADS MERGED.



We had food threads. We had PC hardware threads. We had a smartphone thread. We had a Swiss army knife thread. We had no shoe thread (no girls around here. eh?). Even a pocket torchlight thread. But have we had a wristwatch thread so far...? (edit: yes, we had: 2019, and 2011 )



Time to have one! If for no other reason than that it is not about politics, not about political correctness, not about religion, not about Trump, not about war, and all the other fun stuff we have so often.

Show off what you have hanging on your handwrists to read the time!

Myself, over the past few years, four or five years, I have become not really a collector, but an admirer of watches that I like by their looks. I do not spend much money on them, say four digit range of prices, nor do I see them as an "investment" for myself. If a watch is so precious that it is an investement, you hardly wear it in ordinary life and daily routine together with blue jeans and an old T-shirt: too dangerous to do so. But over the last years I found that I bought a couple of watches, just because I liked them so very much by their looks. They are not especially valuable, it really is just the looks, and when I rate such a watchas affordable for me, I may buy it, although I have several ones. Its the only kind of decoration I wear, I do not care for my glasses since I do not see them, and have no finger- or ear rings and no necklaces, why would I. But the watch I look at often, and soo see it. Certainly I ike no tatoos - these turn me off even on the most beautiful woman!

This is my "collection".

At elementary school, I got a simple diving watch with a black rubber strap and glowing indices, which was extremely cool, seen with the eyes of a 7 or 8 year old and too much imagination on his mind! But that one is gone and lost since long.

The first watch in my collecton is from my later school days, means: it is really old now, but still lives, enlightens the display, beeps, riungs a melody, I used it until early university. I do not wear it anymore, since there is plenty of wear and tear on it. I bought it for 90 D-Marks at Quelle in Westberlin. At school in the early 80s, having an LCD watch was the thing to go for if you wantad to be able to talk with the others in your peer group. It was an essential item amongst the boys! And how proud I was when carrying home my precious trophy in the U-Bahn on my way home from Wilmersdorfer Einkaufsstrasse to Friedenau where we lived! Stolz wie Oskar! Maybe never again I felt so much joy over having bought a watch, I must admit. It gives me a strange sense of comfort to see that it still lives, although two of the buttons do not work anymore, are too corroded. Around fourty years now!



Early at university I switched to a new watch which I liked for its combination of colours: mild gold, titan (which is dark grey with a mild tone of gold, quite warm a colour tone), and midnight-blue sunburst, and a dark leather strap (which meanwhile got replaced twice). One could say this combination is a is a favourite of mine: midnight blue and gold. It costed 130 DM, which was much for me at that time (poor student...). The strap that is mounted now is not ideal, I got it to replace a worn out old one, but I do not wear this watch anymore (although it still is functional), and I got this strap at a price that made it a steal. Its too shiny, for my taste, and possible it even is a strap for a lady's watch, I am not certain, but do not care anyway: as I said, I do not wear this one anymore. I used this for most of my university time, say: the nineties, except on my oversea travels, where I always only used 10 dollar clocks that would have been no loss if getting lost or stolen.



The following Citizen one I wore for almost 20 years. The strap is made of titan, as is the case. Although sapphire glass, I managed to scratch it already in the first week, and the scratch and me became close friends and later an old married couple. Its an ordinary quartz watch and the battery, if a good ones can last up to almost 6 years if the stopwatch hand is not running all the time. Its in very good shape, no corrosion from sweat on the golden applications, I wear it in turns with the other watches. I attached a protection to the glass meanwhile, like you do with smarthphones as well. I love this watch, still. It costed around 290 DM.








The last picture shows the switch to my newer watches of the past few years.

I then got a Seiko, and its an Automatic. These mechanical watches do not run as precise as quartz watches, it depends on how much movemnt you make with your arm and hand, and how much tension is on the spring, therefore, the deviation can be anything from 2 seconds to 20 seconds - per day. For Automatics, that is a normal thing, and "clock people" know that. The reserve is around 36 hours. The days index is in two languages, French and English in this case. This watch is maybe my most favourite one now, by looks. Its also the smallest, which is fitting me well since my handwrists are rather small. It came with a cheap metal strap which I immediately replaced against the leather strip, which gave it an even more noble look. This watch is seen by many as a great imposter, because by looks it almost copies much more expensive watches, namely by Rolex. The details in the finishing are outstanding for a watch of this (cheap) price class: the price in recent years varied widely between 80 and 180 Euros. Its water resistent up to I think 20m, or 50m. On the backside, there is glass, you can see the mechanical parts moving.

I consider this watch to be an absolutely outstanding bang for the buck offer, as far as looks and costs go. The night light colour is Seiko's famous secret recipe, and it shines all night through and extremely bright while needing no activation/exposure to extensive light to chrage it up.

If I could keep just one watch, this probabaly would be it.

[mapuc]

On my wrist I have a Casio

This one

https://www.ditur.dk/casio-classic-a...BoC1KkQAvD_BwE

On my wall in my living room I have a wall clock from Subsim

https://www.cafepress.com/subsim.331846742

Markus

[Skybird]

The next is a return to my apparent favourite brand, Citizen.




Its a big and robust thing with a "monocockpit", and when I saw the green shining in the seller's window, I immediately was in love with it. It took me another couple of weeks to decide for the buy since I already had gotten the Seiko before. But then i ordered it, from London: its an original, no doubt, but at that time I paid only 200 Euros instead of the asking price of 380 Euros in Germany (meanhwhile a shop in Hamburg offers it for 200 as well). Its not titan, but brushed steel, the finish makes it very resisent to scratches. Its very robust, and water proof up to 200m. Also, it is an "Eco-Drive", means it is solar powered, with a dark reserve of over half a year. Citizen says the batteries they use will last longer than the rest of the clock. 2 minutes of daily light exposition gives it all energy it needs to run 24 hours. It came with a terribly stiff strap made of black rubber covered with olive-green nylon, which looked not bad, but was way too stiff. I replaced that with an olive NATO strap, which matched the design of the watch perfectly, but was making the already big clock looking even bigger on my thin wrists, and so I changed again for an ordinary olive nylon strap, which looks a little bit less clunky. The watch is the upper limit in size I can wear on my wrist (no way I could deal with a G-Shock...). But I love the looks of it. Its sapphire glass. And green is an uncommon colour for wrist watches. At night, the indices glow outstandingly bright and long, like the colour used by Seiko and Rolex. The big hand is indeed light blue, not green. The seconds hand also is marked.




Which brings me to my latest member of the family, and I bought it to have one watch with not a darker but a bright clock face. Its also the cheapest watch I have bought, with a price of around I think 100 or 110 Euros.




Its a solar watch again, but no further hardenign of the case, it resists spilled-over water, but I would not go swimming with it. It also has no night markings. The glass is ordinary glass, too, and unfortunately it has a mild arching, so that I cannot protect it with some armour shield like the other watches (the cover would not stick to it). For a watch of this brand, the price reflects the reduced feature list. As always, it was completely about the looks exclusively when I decided to buy it, the cheap price made it an even easier decision.

The metal strap however was awful, light, hollow, and looked really cheap. I replaced it with a leather strap and that made it all shine out for real: elegance par excellence at least for my taste. A dress watch.



Thats it from my collection. Currently, my appetite for new watches jhas stopped. Those I have, I all wear them in daily turns. Seen that way I do not have too many watches. Only too few days.

[Reece]

Nice Skybird, especially the Citizen.
I have a nice selection but don't know how to get the pics posted. Mine include:
Junkers TANTE JU 52
Junkers 6270/0834 (Automatic)
Tissot PRC 200 T461
Vandenbroeck & Cie
Taucmeister 1937 T0145

All German except the Tissot.

[mapuc]

Been thinking. Maybe I should get my hand on a fully analogical wristwatch clock. As a backup in case if....

Markus

[Skybird]

Wait - have I been fooled by memory? I am not sure anymore whether I just had planned in the past to do such a thread - or already have...?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Reece

Nice Skybird, especially the Citizen.
I have a nice selection but don't know how to get the pics posted. Mine include:
Junkers TANTE JU 52
Junkers 6270/0834 (Automatic)
Tissot PRC 200 T461
Vandenbroeck & Cie
Taucmeister 1937 T0145

All German except the Tissot.

Which Citizen? There are three of them!

Its an underrated brand, imo, and many look down on it because they offer their quality at prices with which European watch makers cannot compete (same is true for Seiko). The quality is very, very good, and they run extremely precise. All my Citizens "win" over 2 months 1.5 - 2 seconds only. That is very, very good, imo. The narration is Citizen was founded and given it its name, Citizen, to make watches of European watchmakers' quality but at a price that every Japanese citizen could afford them. They are now the biggest watchmaker in the world. And Seiko aimed at especially shooting down Swiss watchmakers - and they did.

You're an instrument guy, eh? Those watches you posted all have a more technical cockpit-style look in common, with more complex clock faces.
For me, it was quite the opposite way, away from "complex" faces with several readouts to more simple ones.


To post pictures:
https://postimages.org/
or:
https://bilderupload.org/

Then post the link "for forums" into the post, thats it.

[mapuc]

You're right Skybird we have discussed wristwatch earlier here at subsim however it was Platapus who created this thread

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=240191

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

You're right Skybird we have discussed wristwatch earlier here at subsim however it was Platapus who created this thread

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=240191

Markus

Ah, that one I have completely missed...? Whats wrong with me...

I seem to recall another one, from last year... I have a faint memory that I pointed at some videos about how an automatic clockwork works. But maybe I just planned to do it, and then forgot to carry the idea out.


The Bindenization of Skybird.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Been thinking. Maybe I should get my hand on a fully analogical wristwatch clock. As a backup in case if....

Markus

That was a reasoning of mine regarding the Seiko Automatic. One watch without any electronics in it.

[Skybird]

Thats some very complex - and expensive - watches in that thread you linked me to, Markus! And very huge watches. But some nice ones.

[mapuc]

I went through the entire posts in that thread and I was very surprised that you hadn't posted anything...I was so sure you had. that's why I made a search for it. ´cause I knew we had discussed wristwatch before.

Markus

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Which Citizen? There are three of them!

Cheeky sod!! (Last edited by Skybird; 04-09-2022 at 09:28 PM.)

Thanks for the hosting links, I will have to investigate!!

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I went through the entire posts in that thread and I was very surprised that you hadn't posted anything...

As I said, I missed that thread completely, it just did not pop up on my radar. Maybe the title, "Batman etc.", was what kept me desinterested and misunderstanding it in the first pass.
But me too now thinks there was another thread, and not even that long ago.


Lost in the Subsim Triangle...