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Show me your watch!

Aug 17, 2020#1

Ravenpoe

And I mean wrist watches, not like voyeurism or anything. If you like to watch, take it to the NSFW forum.

So then, wrist watches! I've recently started collecting them, specifically mechanical ones, and I want to see what kinds of watches people here are wearing. I do own a smart watch but I've kinda grown to hate it, and I also just like the sort of mechanical engineering that goes into fully analog watches. They also have a timeless quality that will make them last forever, as opposed to the disposable tech of smart watches. No one is going to be excited to inherit their granddad's gen 1 apple watch, that thing will be useless.

So then, on to the two watches I recently picked up. First is the Invicta Pro Diver.

People hate on Invicta as a company because they either make huge gaudy wrist watches, or they make homage pieces that are blatant copies of other watches. This is the latter, being an homage to the Rolex Submariner, the watch Sean Connery wore as James Bond. I think it's a beautiful piece, it has a reliable automatic movement from Seiko powering it, and by not being a Rolex you immediately knock a few zeroes off the price. I love this thing.

On to a slightly more vintage look, we have the 1963 Sea-gull pilots chronograph, made for the "people's liberation army" of China.

Interesting history behind this watch, the communist Chinese regime under Mao began a project to allow them to manufacture snazzy chronographs that they could issue to their pilots and high ranking military officers. The problem was China at the time had no ability to make such a complicated watch movement, and so they ended up purchasing a movement and all of the machinery needed to produce it from Switzerland. So this piece is powered by a Swiss designed movement that was wholly manufactured in China.

Aug 17, 2020#2

Bubble181

Honestly, I like mechanical watches, but when smartphones became standard I stopped wearing mine since, well, checking my phone for the time is just as fast.

Aug 17, 2020#3

Ravenpoe

Bubble181 said:
Honestly, I like mechanical watches, but when smartphones became standard I stopped wearing mine since, well, checking my phone for the time is just as fast.

Watches as an idea are a little antiquated anyway. Mechanical watches doubly so. A cheap battery powered quartz watch will keep time 100x more accurately than even the finest made mechanical watch, and everyone has a smartphone in their pocket with satellite synced perfect accuracy time. But it's this that leads me to wearing mechanical watches anyway. In a digital world there's just something I like about these little analog buggers from the past, and I like the way they look as a piece of jewelry.

Aug 17, 2020#4

CrimsonSoul

I *hate* wrist watches, but I *LOVE* winding pocket watches! I mean, I only have one because I can't afford them and I never take it out with me because I don't want to damage it, but I do love them haha

Aug 19, 2020#5

Ravenpoe

Yet another Invicta, this one is the grand diver and is a little closer to what Invicta is known for, and hated for by watch snobs: giant gaudy pieces.

But while this one is definitely giant, it uses the more subdued submariner look. And I picked this one up in black and gold for a little extra bling. I'm not convinced on such a huge size (50mm diameter) but it's kinda growing on me.

Aug 19, 2020#6

Bubble181

Oh, i think @bhamv3 is also a enthusiast of watching.

Aug 19, 2020#7

CrimsonSoul

Bubble181 said:
Oh, i think @bhamv3 is also a enthusiast of watching.

Aug 20, 2020#8

Ravenpoe

You know I expected more people to have watches they wanted to show off.

Aug 20, 2020#9

ThatNickGuy

Technically a watch, I guess, but I have a Fitbit Charge 4.

Aug 20, 2020#10

phil

I got two seiko 5s that don't work

Aug 20, 2020#11

mikerc

I do like wearing a watch, to the point where if I'm not wearing one every time I move my arm my wrist feels ever so slightly off. This is a Skagen which I think watch snobs deride because it's not a fancy mechanical piece that cost hundreds of pounds, but I like the look of it & it's comfortable to wear.

Aug 20, 2020#12

Ravenpoe

mikerc said:
View attachment 35017

I do like wearing a watch, to the point where if I'm not wearing one every time I move my arm my wrist feels ever so slightly off. This is a Skagen which I think watch snobs deride because it's not a fancy mechanical piece that cost hundreds of pounds, but I like the look of it & it's comfortable to wear.

That's a fine looking watch, don't let the snobs get you down. I like the date at the six o'clock

Aug 20, 2020#13

Ravenpoe

The only watch brands I think I would look down on is stuff like MVMT or Daniel Wellington. Not because I think the watches they offer are bad, per se, just that they were severely overpriced for what they are. They take cheap Chinese watches and just print their logo on them, so if you like how their watches look, just buy the original on AliExpress for a fraction of the cost.

Aug 20, 2020#14

PatrThom

I have a couple of novelty watches (that don't keep time worth a hoot), but otherwise I haven't worn a watch since high school until last year when I got an Apple Watch to keep tabs on my heart (nothing so far).

--Patrick

Aug 20, 2020#15

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
I have a couple of novelty watches (that don't keep time worth a hoot), but otherwise I haven't worn a watch since high school until last year when I got an Apple Watch to keep tabs on my heart (nothing so far).

--Patrick

I'm sure you'll find your heart eventually

Aug 20, 2020#16

CrimsonSoul

Ravenpoe said:
I'm sure you'll find your heart eventually

I have a watch I use for nursing school. It's cheap and gets the job done and I don't care if I get blood, vomit, pee, or poop on it

Aug 20, 2020#17

PatrThom

Ravenpoe said:
I'm sure you'll find your heart eventually

Oh, I know exactly where it is. Next month will mark 14 years since I gave it to my wife.

—Patrick

Aug 20, 2020#18

GasBandit

I used to have a wristwatch, but the band broke and I started keeping it in my laptop bag, and then my laptop bag (and laptop) got stolen 8 years or so ago, and I never got another watch.

Aug 20, 2020#19

bhamv3

It's nothing fancy, but it was relatively inexpensive, and it's reliable and gets the job done.

I personally prefer metal straps over cloth or leather ones, because I'm a sweaty guy and if my watch straps start absorbing the sweat then bad aromas happen. Apart from that, I generally don't care about other features or cool stuff.

EDIT: Also, interesting story about Swatches, my wife and I actually used to have identical Swatch watches. We got them as a pair back when we were dating. I accidentally dropped mine and broke something inside, so I replaced it with an identical one, and then that one stopped working when the aforementioned sweat got inside and gunked up the mechanism. Then, because that particular watch was no longer available, I replaced it with my current one, which looks quite similar. My wife is much less clumsy and much less sweaty than me, and her watch is still going strong 15 years later.

Aug 20, 2020#20

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
It's nothing fancy, but it was relatively inexpensive, and it's reliable and gets the job done.

I personally prefer metal straps over cloth or leather ones, because I'm a sweaty guy and if my watch straps start absorbing the sweat then bad aromas happen. Apart from that, I generally don't care about other features or cool stuff.

View attachment 35027

I prefer nylon bands for that same reason, they don't soak up any sweat and are generally lighter than metal bands.

And that watch looks nice! Swatch group make a lot of fun watches.

Aug 21, 2020#21

figmentPez

Ravenpoe said:
You know I expected more people to have watches they wanted to show off.

My love for watches is all about practicality. I wear a Timex with a big, easy to read, digital display. It's not much to look at. I'm glad that wearing watches hasn't gone completely out of style, but I'm honestly annoyed that analog watches (and to some extent art-piece digital watches that require decoding to read) get pretty much all of the love. I cannot quickly read an analog watch, my brain just doesn't like it. Most digital watch designs are like 15+ years old at this point. Either that or they're new smart watches that are total crap or well out of my price range.

Aug 21, 2020#22

CrimsonSoul

figmentPez said:
My love for watches is all about practicality. I wear a Timex with a big, easy to read, digital display. It's not much to look at. I'm glad that wearing watches hasn't gone completely out of style, but I'm honestly annoyed that analog watches (and to some extent art-piece digital watches that require decoding to read) get pretty much all of the love. I cannot quickly read an analog watch, my brain just doesn't like it. Most digital watch designs are like 15+ years old at this point. Either that or they're new smart watches that are total crap or well out of my price range.

I use to have a binary watch (with LED lights) no idea what happened to it but it was pretty cool, got it from thinkgeek

Aug 21, 2020#23

PatrThom

figmentPez said:
I cannot quickly read an analog watch, my brain just doesn't like it.

See, I have the opposite issue. When it's 4:50p, it's much easier for me to immediately grasp the concept of "almost 5pm" when looking at an analog watch than it is looking at a digital display that says 16:50. Same concept as a table of data v. a pie chart, I'm sure.

--Patrick

Aug 21, 2020#24

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
My love for watches is all about practicality. I wear a Timex with a big, easy to read, digital display. It's not much to look at. I'm glad that wearing watches hasn't gone completely out of style, but I'm honestly annoyed that analog watches (and to some extent art-piece digital watches that require decoding to read) get pretty much all of the love. I cannot quickly read an analog watch, my brain just doesn't like it. Most digital watch designs are like 15+ years old at this point. Either that or they're new smart watches that are total crap or well out of my price range.

While my love for watches does center around the mechanical analog types, digital isn't forgotten among watch collectors. Of the "enthusiasts" I know everyone usually has at least one digital in the collection, and specifically the Casio GShock gets a lot of love for being full of features and damn near indestructible, while also being fairly cheap.

Aug 21, 2020#25

bhamv3

Ravenpoe said:
While my love for watches does center around the mechanical analog types, digital isn't forgotten among watch collectors. Of the "enthusiasts" I know everyone usually has at least one digital in the collection, and specifically the Casio GShock gets a lot of love for being full of features and damn near indestructible, while also being fairly cheap.

View attachment 35030

There was a time when my sister really liked Baby-G watches, which AFAIK are basically the female version of the G-Shock. However, since they were a bit too pricey for her at the time, she always held off on getting one. Until one day she came home with a new watch on her wrist, with a story of how she found a shop at a night market here in Taiwan that sold Baby-Gs for about a third of their usual price.

I was positively gleeful when I pointed out to her that her watch said "Boby-G".

Aug 21, 2020#26

HCGLNS

Aug 21, 2020#27

PatrThom

A looooooong time ago, I got one of these as my first real digital watch. I had a couple of “dumb” date&time-only ones prior to it (one of which was a ballpoint pen with a little LCD watch display in the barrel...remember those?), but this was the first one that actually had an alarm on it, chimed on the hour, etc. I was so geeked about it that I would set the alarm to go off on the half hour between chimes. What set it off from the other watches of the time (or even now, for that matter) is that it had no side buttons. All of the setting and mode changes were accomplished by multiple press/hold sequences at either end of the so-called “Command Bar” that you see running across the bottom of the face.

Sadly, much like Gas’ watch, once the band broke it became a ”pocket“ watch until the other pieces of the band also finally disintegrated, and I ended up disposing of it because while teen me could afford to buy 2x “S” cells/yr, he could not afford to buy a new band.

—Patrick

Aug 21, 2020#28

Squidleybits

Aug 21, 2020#29

Ravenpoe

Squidleybits said:
View attachment 35033

"Release me from this digital prison, human, and I may spare your soul."

Aug 21, 2020#30

Squidleybits

Fortunately, that's a picture of a bear I have and he and my mean cat are on my lap with me now

Otherwise that baseball team would be in trouble!

Aug 21, 2020#31

Ravenpoe

I don't own this watch (yet) but the next watch on my wish list is this beautiful Hamilton Pilot's Day-Date.

Which I will admit, my admiration of comes completely from the movie Interstellar.

Aug 22, 2020#32

Bones

Aug 22, 2020#33

Ravenpoe

What model smartwatch is that? I like it.

Also, the 1963 seagull I ordered finally came in.

Aug 22, 2020#34

Bones

Ravenpoe said:
What model smartwatch is that? I like it.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 46 MM with the optional black armor and sapphire gorilla glass shield. i have it on a leather explorers band.

Sep 4, 2020#35

Ravenpoe

At the grocery store for some beans and Ham with my new Hamilton Khaki Aviation "Interstellar" which finally came in the mail.

Sep 4, 2020#36

CrimsonSoul

Ravenpoe said:
View attachment 35184

At the grocery store for some beans and Ham with my new Hamilton Khaki Aviation "Interstellar" which finally came in the mail.

Why did @GasBandit photobomb you?

Sep 4, 2020#37

GasBandit

CrimsonSoul said:
Why did @GasBandit photobomb you?

Wrong kind of beans.

Sep 5, 2020#38

CrimsonSoul

GasBandit said:
Wrong kind of beans.

OH NO! Those were Bush's baked beans. I'm a failure

Sep 10, 2020#39

Ravenpoe

I'm going to continue spamming this thread with my favorite watches, including this one.

The Graf Zeppelin LZ129 Moonphase. Made in Germany, by the same company that used to make giant airships. This thing is beautiful and also a pain in the ass to set, which makes me happy it's quartz so that I won't have to set the moon phase again for a long while.

Sep 11, 2020#40

Ravenpoe

And because I love Hamilton and I love movie watches, I'm strongly considering one day picking up one of these.

The Hamilton Ventura, originally designed in the late 50's and the world's first electric (but not quartz) powered watch. Famously worn by Elvis Presley and featured as the watch of choice in the Men in Black movies.

Hamilton-Watch-Worn-by-Tessa-Thompson-in-Men-in-Black-International-1.jpg

Sep 13, 2020#41

bhamv3

Ravenpoe said:
And because I love Hamilton and I love movie watches, I'm strongly considering one day picking up one of these.

View attachment 35298

The Hamilton Ventura, originally designed in the late 50's and the world's first electric (but not quartz) powered watch. Famously worn by Elvis Presley and featured as the watch of choice in the Men in Black movies.

View attachment 35299

View attachment 35300

This looks like you could press a button on it or draw it back like a slingshot, and then it'd fly out, conk someone on the head, then fly back into your hand. And then you coolly, nonchalantly clip it back onto your wrist.

Sep 13, 2020#42

PatrThom

bhamv3 said:
it'd fly out, conk someone on the head, then fly back into your hand.

No, no. It'd fly out of its own accord like something out of Batteries Not Included, make tiny little pew! pew! lasers at its target, and then fly back and dock with your wrist on its own, no fussing with the clasp necessary.

--Patrick

Sep 13, 2020#43

bhamv3

PatrThom said:
No, no. It'd fly out of its own accord like something out of Batteries Not Included, make tiny little pew! pew! lasers at its target, and then fly back and dock with your wrist on its own, no fussing with the clasp necessary.

--Patrick

Oh I can't afford the deluxe version.

Sep 13, 2020#44

Ravenpoe

The ventura also comes in a few different iterations, such as various mechanical options, most having some sort of open heart or skeletal dial.

But as much as I love mechanical over quartz, this is one of the few times it feels like quartz is the right option, keeping the classic electrical circuit design on the face for being originally electric.

Sep 15, 2020#45

bhamv3

So my watch battery died. I looked up watch stores near my workplace and walked to the nearest one, and asked them to swap out the battery. And then I realized I'd accidentally walked into what appeared to be a very fancy, classy, and expensive watch store. There were many watches that had price tags well into five figures USD. Some of the watches were your typical luxury brands, like Mont Blanc, Gucci, and Cartier. There were the luxury watch brands too, like Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Omega, etc. But there were also a whole bunch of brands I'd never heard of. Presumably these were the brands for people who really know watches, the ones who can tell a real watch brand from the ones that are just a name.

And there I was, asking them to change my Swatch battery. I felt like I'd gone into a three-star restaurant to ask for a glass of water, or driven into a Ferrari dealership to ask them to check my tire pressure.

Sep 15, 2020#46

DarkAudit

bhamv3 said:
So my watch battery died. I looked up watch stores near my workplace and walked to the nearest one, and asked them to swap out the battery. And then I realized I'd accidentally walked into what appeared to be a very fancy, classy, and expensive watch store. There were many watches that had price tags well into five figures USD. Some of the watches were your typical luxury brands, like Mont Blanc, Gucci, and Cartier. There were the luxury watch brands too, like Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Omega, etc. But there were also a whole bunch of brands I'd never heard of. Presumably these were the brands for people who really know watches, the ones who can tell a real watch brand from the ones that are just a name.

And there I was, asking them to change my Swatch battery. I felt like I'd gone into a three-star restaurant to ask for a glass of water, or driven into a Ferrari dealership to ask them to check my tire pressure.

Swatch owns Omega, among others.

Sep 15, 2020#47

bhamv3

DarkAudit said:
Swatch owns Omega, among others.

I feel better now.

Sep 15, 2020#48

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
So my watch battery died. I looked up watch stores near my workplace and walked to the nearest one, and asked them to swap out the battery. And then I realized I'd accidentally walked into what appeared to be a very fancy, classy, and expensive watch store. There were many watches that had price tags well into five figures USD. Some of the watches were your typical luxury brands, like Mont Blanc, Gucci, and Cartier. There were the luxury watch brands too, like Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Omega, etc. But there were also a whole bunch of brands I'd never heard of. Presumably these were the brands for people who really know watches, the ones who can tell a real watch brand from the ones that are just a name.

And there I was, asking them to change my Swatch battery. I felt like I'd gone into a three-star restaurant to ask for a glass of water, or driven into a Ferrari dealership to ask them to check my tire pressure.

Among watch enthusiasts Swatch is well respected. While the brand name Swatch is targeted to more affordable watches (it stands for second watch, aka what you wear everyday when not wearing a pricier one) they are still a Swiss company with a long history, and there are many big names under the Swatch group umbrella. Omega was already mentioned, as well as my personal favorite Hamilton.

Also, Gucci watches are trash, you really are just paying for the name.

Oct 19, 2020#49

Ravenpoe

No one cares about this thread? Don't care, new watch!

Oct 20, 2020#50

Wahad

I only have one watch. My dad bought it for me after I graduated high school. Seiko Premier Kinetic, so I never have to replace the batteries, either.

Oct 20, 2020#51

blotsfan

Wahad said:
I only have one watch. My dad bought it for me after I graduated high school. Seiko Premier Kinetic, so I never have to replace the batteries, either.

Well this post just made a joke from the Office even funnier to me.

Oct 20, 2020#52

Ravenpoe

blotsfan said:
Well this post just made a joke from the Office even funnier to me.

Which one?

Oct 20, 2020#53

HCGLNS

I want a Patek Philippe 980G one day....one day.....

Oct 20, 2020#54

blotsfan

Ravenpoe said:
Which one?

In Michael Scott's office he has a sign that says "Michael Scott is the proud owner of a quality Seyko timepiece." I thought the joke was just that he's bragging about his watch in the spot where a degree would be, but I never knew it was a counterfeit watch.

Nov 2, 2020#55

Ravenpoe

My latest acquisition, a Hamilton Meastro Chronograph, snagged at a practical steal because the person selling it misidentified it and sold it at half the price.

Nov 2, 2020#56

bhamv3

Does anyone know if Swarovski watches are any good? My wife saw one she rather liked the look of, but she'd rather have a reliable watch instead of a pretty but unreliable one.

Nov 2, 2020#57

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
Does anyone know if Swarovski watches are any good? My wife saw one she rather liked the look of, but she'd rather have a reliable watch instead of a pretty but unreliable one.

Swarovski is a fashion company, not a watch company. So long as you don't pay an arm and a leg for them their watches aren't bad, just know that they aren't great either. You are buying a fashion accessory that happens to have some watch functions, and the inside is likely a cheap mass produced quartz.

If your wife wants a quality watch that also has fashion-like designs, I'd recommend pretty much anything from the Swatch-group.

Jan 10, 2021#58

Ravenpoe

Picked up yet another Hamilton, this one a 38mm manual wind khaki field watch, a model that's been used in the US military since the early 70s

Jan 26, 2021#59

Ravenpoe

I got a new one, and this time it's digital, but this isn't your granddaddy's digital watch...

Actually, it might be your granddaddy's watch, this is a reissue of the Hamilton Pulsar, the first digital wristwatch ever made, originally released in 1972, and famously worn by Roger Moore in his first Bond movie Live and Let Die.

This reissue, released by Hamilton last year, is a modern recreation. I decided to go with the reissue rather than vintage, because you can actually find batteries for the modern version.

The Pulsar kicked off a new craze of LED watches, with other companies quickly racing to release their own. But this was a short lived era of watch making, as LCD technology came out the after, killing the LED market only 5 years later.

But if you ask me, it still looks great

Jan 26, 2021#60

PatrThom

My band teacher had one, too.
It was the first watch I had ever seen that didn't always display the time.

--Patrick

Jan 26, 2021#61

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
My band teacher had one, too.
It was the first watch I had ever seen that didn't always display the time.

--Patrick

Yep, to save battery the original only showed the time after pressing the button on the side. One nice benefit of the reissue is it does include an always on LCD display underneath the LED display, which you can see under the right light without pressing the button.

Jan 27, 2021#62

BErt

@Ravenpoe so do you happen to have a preferred dealer for your fancy watches if someone were inclined to purchase one?

i’m a former invicta diver collector who is kinda jealous of that Pulsar

Jan 27, 2021#63

Ravenpoe

BErt said:
@Ravenpoe so do you happen to have a preferred dealer for your fancy watches if someone were inclined to purchase one?

i’m a former invicta diver collector who is kinda jealous of that Pulsar

Invicta was my first automatic watch. Invicta gets a bad rap, some of it deserved, but they do tend to be stepping stones up to 'real' watches.

I buy most of my watches from ebay, but I do a lot of research first. If you know what to look for you can identify good deals on ebay, as well as tell the obvious fakes. And ebay has a great return policy if you receive something different than what was advertised.

For new watches, I buy from jomashop. They are a grey market dealer, which means you will be getting a warranty through jomashop and not the manufacturer, but you can get far better deals by going through grey market than you can paying retail price at an AD like some sort of loser.

Jul 9, 2021#64

figmentPez

Tag Heuer is parterning with Nintendo to make a Mario watch.

No pictures of the watch are available yet. Nor is a price or anything else. Details might be released on Jul 13th, or possibly 15th.

Jul 9, 2021#65

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
Tag Heuer is parterning with Nintendo to make a Mario watch.

No pictures of the watch are available yet. Nor is a price or anything else. Details might be released on Jul 13th, or possibly 15th.

While blanket statements are never good and you have to look at things on a watch by watch basis, Tag Heuer is kinda shit. The only reason they're still a big name and able to trick people into their overinflated prices is they're still riding on the coattails of the Monaco (though this can be said for a lot of watch companies).

Heuer was great, if you can find old Heuer watches you should get them. Especially the original Monaco. But once they were acquired by Tag it was all downhill.

Ok, watch snobbery over.

Jul 9, 2021#66

BErt

I bought a “dad watch”

Jul 9, 2021#67

sixpackshaker

Dad watch? I think I had that one the other day... 35 years ago.

Jul 9, 2021#68

Ravenpoe

BErt said:
I bought a “dad watch”
View attachment 38305

Respect. I know I'm a watch snob, but a classic Timex or Casio is way better than pretty much anything by fashion brands like mvmt or daniel wellington. (If anyone has one of these and loves them, hey, you do you, I just don't like them)

I don't have a Timex digital (I do have a timex weekender though, I think currently the only non-digital quartz in my collection) but I've got a Casio Worldtimer.

Jul 10, 2021#69

Ravenpoe

I posted this over on the discord when I first got it, but I'll go ahead and put it here too. A dive watch from Phoibos, a decent little microbrand known for making dive watches. And I know I'm a watch fan when I get just as excited for >$300 watch as I do one that costs thousands.

Jul 13, 2021#70

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
Tag Heuer is parterning with Nintendo to make a Mario watch.

No pictures of the watch are available yet. Nor is a price or anything else. Details might be released on Jul 13th, or possibly 15th.

Information has come out now. It's two grand, and it's a smart watch.

Now, listen. There's nothing wrong with a smart watch. I own one, they're very convenient, and a fun little gadget. But they are a gadget, and ultimately disposable. In no way should you pay luxury watch prices for a smart watch, which will be obsolete in a few years and practically worthless.

Jul 13, 2021#71

Ravenpoe

Jul 13, 2021#72

BErt

Is it a smart watch or an NFT of a smart watch?

Jul 13, 2021#73

Ravenpoe

BErt said:
Is it a smart watch or an NFT of a smart watch?

Don't give them ideas

Jul 13, 2021#74

PatrThom

Ravenpoe said:
In no way should you pay luxury watch prices for a smart watch, which will be obsolete in a few years and practically worthless.

Remember those first-gen Apple watches? The ones made of actual gold that sold for $15k-20k just 6 years ago? The ones that stopped receiving software updates, like, three years ago, assuming they even still charge? Yeah, that.

—Patrick

Aug 27, 2021#75

mikerc

New watch!

Dec 23, 2021#76

Ravenpoe

So I saw the new matrix movie today, and noticed that Morpheus wears one of my favorite watches, the Hamilton Insta-matic Chrono.

Mar 8, 2022#77

Ravenpoe

I had a birthday recently (yesterday) and got myself a present, a Hamilton Jazzmaster Open Heart

Mar 8, 2022#78

PatrThom

It looks almost like someone broke the face and never got it fixed.

--Patrick

Mar 8, 2022#79

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
It looks almost like someone broke the face and never got it fixed.

--Patrick

In watches this is referred to as partially skeletonized. Fully skeletonized has the dial missing completely

Aug 2, 2022#80

PatrThom

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com

You know, in case you have the room and ideas simultaneously.

--Patrick

Aug 3, 2022#81

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com

You know, in case you have the room and ideas simultaneously.

--Patrick

This is kinda hilarious.

I don't actually like Rolex or Patek because of two reasons, both are drastically overpriced, and they tend to mostly be worn by douchebags*

*Exceptions made for the Rolex Datejust... That one's classy

Apr 15, 2023#82

bhamv3

Hey Poe, have you heard of a watch brand called Theodora's? As far as I can tell it's a fairly new Taiwanese watch brand, so I can't really find many reliable reviews of their performance.

I ask because I was in a department store today with my wife and we saw a pair of nice-looking watches at the Theodora's stall, and we'd be interested in getting them, but not if they're shitty watches.

Apr 15, 2023#83

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
Hey Poe, have you heard of a watch brand called Theodora's? As far as I can tell it's a fairly new Taiwanese watch brand, so I can't really find many reliable reviews of their performance.

I ask because I was in a department store today with my wife and we saw a pair of nice-looking watches at the Theodora's stall, and we'd be interested in getting them, but not if they're shitty watches.

I've not heard of them, but looking them up they look almost identical to Vincenzo, a similar fashion brand. They're probably using the same movements, most likely quartz manufactured in China, Japan or Taiwan (or sometimes Malaysia) with their branding added to it.

Which doesn't mean it's bad, but there's nothing unique about it and you can probably find the exact same watches on Amazon or Alibaba for cheaper, just without the branding.

Apr 15, 2023#84

bhamv3

We got new watches.

Apr 16, 2023#85

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
We got new watches.

View attachment 44451

Are they chronographs or are those fake buttons on the side?

Apr 16, 2023#86

Sparhawk

I don’t wear a traditional watch, but I also don’t wear an overly complicated Apple Watch either. My Fitbit:

Apr 16, 2023#87

PatrThom

Sparhawk said:
I also don’t wear an overly complicated Apple Watch

I wear an Apple Watch, but I don't overly complicate it. I just use the 4 it came with.

--Patrick

Apr 16, 2023#88

bhamv3

Ravenpoe said:
Are they chronographs or are those fake buttons on the side?

The buttons work. One of the little watch faces indicates the day of the week, one of them is a 24 hour clock, and one can be used to show the time in another place.

Apr 16, 2023#89

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
The buttons work. One of the little watch faces indicates the day of the week, one of them is a 24 hour clock, and one can be used to show the time in another place.

"Chronograph style" then. Not a chronograph but made to emulate the look of a three dial chronograph.

Apr 16, 2023#90

Ravenpoe

And because not everyone is a watch nerd like me, allow me to explain what these terms mean. A chronograph is a wrist watch with built in stopwatch functionality, popularized by racecar drivers in the 60s that wanted to time their laps. Especially in mechanical watches, a chronograph is a very complex feature (called a complication) and any mechanical watch with a chronograph complication will automatically be a higher price because they're simply harder to make. So this style of watch became a status symbol, hence why a lot of brands emulate it.

The classic chronograph style has two or three subdials as well as two pushers on either side of the crown. In a true chronograph, the second hand will actually be stationary and won't activate until you press the top pusher, acting as the stop watch. The running seconds is instead displayed by one of the subdials, in this picture it's the dial to the 9oclock position

Pressing the top pusher activates or deactivates the main second hand, which will then travel around the face counting number of seconds passed. The top and bottom subdials display the number of minutes and hours passed (or just minutes in a two subdial configuration) and all of them are reset with the bottom pusher, all while never interrupting the hour or minute hands of the main dial.

In the picture I have here, the top dial counts up to 30 minutes passed, while the bottom dial has hours and half hours, up to 12

Apr 16, 2023#91

Ravenpoe

And because I love chronographs, here's another in a 60's style two subdial setup in what is usually known as a "Panda" face

Because it's not currently active, the main hand as well as the subdial to the right are straight up and down, while the running seconds is to the left.

Fun fact: Hamilton was the first watch manufacturer to create an automatic winding chronograph, of which this is a reissue of.

Also these both have the wrong time and date because I haven't wound them in awhile, they're a little too expensive for me to wear at work.

Apr 18, 2023#92

Chad Sexington

Ravenpoe said:
And because I love chronographs, here's another in a 60's style two subdial setup in what is usually known as a "Panda" face

View attachment 44463

Because it's not currently active, the main hand as well as the subdial to the right are straight up and down, while the running seconds is to the left.

Fun fact: Hamilton was the first watch manufacturer to create an automatic winding chronograph, of which this is a reissue of.

Also these both have the wrong time and date because I haven't wound them in awhile, they're a little too expensive for me to wear at work.

I have a watch with this style of chronograph somewhere around here. I think it needs a new battery and there's something wrong with the 'second' hand - it always resets to 2 seconds instead of the 12 position.

I'm off to class now but I'll have to remember this thread to post the watch my wife gave me when we got engaged!

Apr 18, 2023#93

Ravenpoe

Chad Sexington said:
I have a watch with this style of chronograph somewhere around here. I think it needs a new battery and there's something wrong with the 'second' hand - it always resets to 2 seconds instead of the 12 position.

I'm off to class now but I'll have to remember this thread to post the watch my wife gave me when we got engaged!

In the case of a quartz chronograph, it probably just needs to be calibrated. Since it's not using mechanical gears and springs to operate, which is how a mechanical chronograph works, instead it just has a little electric motor that moves it back to zero, and you just need to calibrate what that zero is. If you Google the make and chronograph reset you can find instructions

Apr 18, 2023#94

Chad Sexington

Ravenpoe said:
In the case of a quartz chronograph, it probably just needs to be calibrated. Since it's not using mechanical gears and springs to operate, which is how a mechanical chronograph works, instead it just has a little electric motor that moves it back to zero, and you just need to calibrate what that zero is. If you Google the make and chronograph reset you can find instructions

I'll have to find it and get the battery changed and then reset it. It is a nice watch.

I will post my fancy engagement watch tomo, I sleepy now. Forgot I had work after class and it's white wine and scritch the dog time.

Apr 18, 2023#95

Shakey

Ravenpoe said:
And because I love chronographs, here's another in a 60's style two subdial setup in what is usually known as a "Panda" face

View attachment 44463

Because it's not currently active, the main hand as well as the subdial to the right are straight up and down, while the running seconds is to the left.

Fun fact: Hamilton was the first watch manufacturer to create an automatic winding chronograph, of which this is a reissue of.

Also these both have the wrong time and date because I haven't wound them in awhile, they're a little too expensive for me to wear at work.

I love that band. Is it a particular style?

Apr 19, 2023#96

Ravenpoe

Shakey said:
I love that band. Is it a particular style?

That style is called shark mesh and was also popular in the 60's. I don't remember exactly where I got this one, but I had it custom made because I have larger wrists

Apr 19, 2023#97

phil

Daddy (me, I'm daddy) got his watch working again!

Apr 19, 2023#98

Ravenpoe

phil said:
Daddy (me, I'm daddy) got his watch working again!

View attachment 44489

If it's gonna be quartz, might as well be from the inventors of quartz technology, Seiko. That and they make handsome pieces.

Their kinetic line attempts to combine the spinning rotor of an automatic wind with a battery operated quartz, where the rotor instead turns a tiny generator that's supposed to help recharge the battery.

May 2, 2023#99

Chad Sexington

Okay very late but here is my faaaancy watch!

May 3, 2023#100

Ravenpoe

Chad Sexington said:
Okay very late but here is my faaaancy watch!

View attachment 45014 View attachment 45015

Do you know the brand name? I'm not familiar with it, I assume it's a microbrand

May 3, 2023#101

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe said:
Do you know the brand name? I'm not familiar with it, I assume it's a microbrand

Aha! I was right, it is a microbrand, out of Canada. Novowatch

The Cyprus

A beautiful custom handmade with a dial showing the heartbeat of the watch.

www.novowatch.com

May 3, 2023#102

Chad Sexington

Ravenpoe said:
Aha! I was right, it is a microbrand, out of Canada. Novowatch

The Cyprus

A beautiful custom handmade with a dial showing the heartbeat of the watch.

www.novowatch.com

That's it! And it was custom designed for me by my wife, so it's very special to me

Sep 28, 2023#103

mikerc

Adam Savage's new watch.

Also TIL about people making their own custom watch mods.

Sep 28, 2023#104

Ravenpoe

mikerc said:
Adam Savage's new watch.

Also TIL about people making their own custom watch mods.

Seikos especially are popular for mods

May 12, 2024#105

figmentPez

I'm too tired to take a better pic but:

PineTime Smartwatch an open source device.

May 12, 2024#106

GasBandit

figmentPez said:
I'm too tired to take a better pic but:
View attachment 48112

PineTime Smartwatch an open source device.

What's the battery life like?

May 12, 2024#107

figmentPez

GasBandit said:
What's the battery life like?

I've had it less than 10 hours, so I don't know yet, but I'll post again when I've had a chance to use it for a while.

May 17, 2024#108

figmentPez

GasBandit said:
What's the battery life like?

I went from 100% to 20% battery in about 5 days. Most of that was at the lowest of 3 brightness settings, but I also drained like 10% of the battery using full brightness to play one of the games for about 20 minutes to test how fast the battery drained. I also futzed around with settings a lot, played more of the game at low brightness, used the "flashlight" function for a several minutes to see how useful it might be (not as completely useless as I would expect, but I can't see much of use case if you've got your phone with you), and generally used it a lot more than I will once the novelty wears off. I wouldn't be surprised if I could get a week out of it, though maybe less for someone who is out in daylight more and can't get by on the lowest brightness.

Aside from a not at all newbie friendly setup, sparse documentation (that's very disorganized), and a generally unpolished feel, it's doing what I expected of it. It's a bare bones smartwatch that tells me the time and buzzes when I get notifications on my phone.

May 27, 2024#109

figmentPez

figmentPez said:
I went from 100% to 20% battery in about 5 days.

This time it took 10 days to drain to 20%. Not sure how much of that was from turning off the heart rate monitor, and how much was from not futzing about with it constantly.

May 27, 2024#110

GasBandit

figmentPez said:
This time it took 10 days to drain to 20%. Not sure how much of that was from turning off the heart rate monitor, and how much was from not futzing about with it constantly.

I ordered one for myself (shipping is taking forever)... I'm thinking it will be fun to tinker with.

May 27, 2024#111

figmentPez

GasBandit said:
I ordered one for myself (shipping is taking forever)... I'm thinking it will be fun to tinker with.

Shipping for me took about 3 weeks. 18 days in transit after it shipped out, and two weeks in the middle of that with no updates.

May 28, 2024#112

Ravenpoe

I've shown off this watch before, but it's still one of my favorites. The Hamilton Intra-matic Chrono. This one is a modern reproduction of the world's first automatic winding chronograph, produced by Hamilton Watch Co in 1969.

There is some argument that Hauer and Brietling unveiled their designs for an automatic chronograph first, but the Intra-matic was the first you could actually buy.

May 28, 2024#113

Ravenpoe

Also, fun fact: you can tell this is a modern reproduction as it says swiss-made on it. In 1969 Hamilton was an American company, and was the largest American watch manufacturer. They moved to Switzerland after the quartz-crisis of the 70's since Switzerland was basically the last place still making mechanical watches, and is why a "Swiss watch" is still considered a sign of quality today.

Hamilton formerly being an American company is also why the brand has a long history in Hollywood. Seriously, look at watches worn in movies, there's a big chance most of them will be Hamilton's just from tradition. Christopher Nolan especially loves Hamilton watches in his movies.

May 28, 2024#114

Ravenpoe

And just to lean on the movie thing a bit more, here's Morpheus from Matrix Resurrections:

Jun 29, 2024#115

GasBandit

GasBandit said:
I ordered one for myself (shipping is taking forever)... I'm thinking it will be fun to tinker with.

I ordered it May 15. It didn't leave China until June 18. It got to New York June 19. Here it is June 29th and it's still in New York.
#ThanksObama

Jun 29, 2024#116

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
#ThanksLaJoy

FTFY

--Patrick

Aug 4, 2024#117

GasBandit

GasBandit said:
I ordered it May 15. It didn't leave China until June 18. It got to New York June 19. Here it is June 29th and it's still in New York.

It's still held up in New York. The USPS tells me I have no other recourse but to just wait. It's been just shy of 2 months in Customs. But government workers don't give a shit. And there is nobody I can contact to find out what the holdup is or get an ETA.

Oct 15, 2024#118

Ravenpoe

So the hardest part about watch collecting is trying to convince myself not to buy new watches, especially when I find a good deal on this gold Tissot.

I don't need it... I don't need it...

Oct 15, 2024#119

PatrThom

Ravenpoe said:
I don't need it...

Of course you don't need it. I'm sure you have at least one other watch you could use in its stead.

--Patrick

Oct 15, 2024#120

bhamv3

Out of curiosity, what counts as a "good deal" in this case? Ballpark figure.

Oct 16, 2024#121

Bubble181

The question isn't "do you need it?" because that's proof practically never true for hobby expenditures.
The question is, do I need this money for something else which I genuinely do need.
Spending your rent payment on hobbies? Bad plan. Spending your discretionary spending left over all the bills are paid on hobbies? That's what it's for.

Oct 16, 2024#122

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
Out of curiosity, what counts as a "good deal" in this case? Ballpark figure.

Tissot is a very affordable brand when it comes to quality swiss made automatic watches, meaning they tend to be around a thousand dollars and under. This particular watch retails for around $800, but I found someone selling this particular one, unworn, for under $600.

Ultimately I decided to pass on the deal, primarily because it's in gold and I just don't wear a lot of gold jewelry.

Today at 3:49 AM#123

S

SimonJeffreson

I’ve been into mechanical watches for a while now—they just have this cool vibe that feels so different from the techy stuff like smartwatches.

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