Watches, Microbrands and Boutique

Sporky

I prefer a simple face. I have an ECP-Drive chrono somewhere that I don't wear because I can barely read it... 

Sporky

Forgot to say ta Grogg for the hybrid Eco Drive link - I don't think I'd seen such before. 

CHRISB50

BluesLover said:

Does anyone ever use all the fancy chronograph functions, and rotating bezels and stuff. Or are they just an affectation, for show?
I prefer a plain, easy to read watch. One that just tells the time, without even a date. Also, one that's not too big. 36mm feels about right for me.
My favourite watch is my 1960's Omega. Hand wound, just tells the time. Understated and elegant. The opposite of bling.

I’ve got a 24 hour bezel on mine, and a 24 hour hand. 

Use it when abroad for dual time. 

CavemanGrogg

AK99 said:

I would generally have been of the same view..but have now softened especially wrt chronographs. The cost of servicing mechanical versions of the d@mn things is outrageous nowadays. I sold my auto Speedmaster recently after 20 years of ownership, and bought a Lunar Bulova with the high frequency quartz movement (which is probably more accurate than the Speedie) for about 1/3 the cost of a replacement chronometer module for the little Speedmaster, or a full blown rebuild on the bigger Pro model.

I think on the 'normal' (non chronograph) watches, I could also be tempted by one of Sporky's Citizen Chronomaster quartzes with the fancy zaratsu finishing. Was looking at one of those from the States for just over $1000 used recently. Hell of a watch for a fraction of the GS and Rolex prices.

Are you talking about a proper service, or just battery replacement, there's a huge difference?  A full service with a quartz powered watch not only includes a battery replacement, but also makes sure that the watch retains and measures up to it's stated specs, and is tested - so if your watch is rated to 200m it's put in a pressure pot full of water and tested to 200m, and if your watch has a waterproof rating or is water proof it comes back with brand new seals and is guaranteed to it's water proof rating, not to mention that it extends the warranty on the watch.  A battery change on the other hand, is just that, popping out the old battery, placing in a new one, and closing the case, in the vast majority of cases a battery change will render a water proof watch no longer water proof.  And quartz watches still need to be serviced, if for no other reason than to maintain their water proof - this degrades over time as the materials used for water proofing breakdown, and not only do they need servicing still, like mechanical automatic movements - in fact almost all watches require servicing, they need to be serviced far far more often than a mechanical automatic watch - generally quartz watches need to be serviced every 2-3 years.  And from experience - with Tag, which is one of the reasons why I'll never buy another quartz watch again, a quartz watch costs the same price to service as a mechanical automatic powered watch in the same price bracket, if not a little bit more, and it needs to be done a lot more often.  I've honestly found with sub £200 watches, unless they are something special, they're generally not financially worth having serviced, or even their batteries changed - when an elder sibling of mine got into diving he would buy a brand new Seiko dive watch every year instead of having his serviced as there was no difference in the cost of having the watch serviced compared to buying the same quartz powered diving watch again brand new, there definitely is a ''sweet spot'' when it comes to watches with cost of watch vs cost of owning the watch - things like servicing it and perhaps insuring it, that make a watch not a financial burden to own.

stickyfiddle said:

Am I the only one who buys watches just because I like how they look? 

I'll never buy or wear a watch I don't like the look of, even if it's just being bought to flip, which is something that I very very rarely do unless I have a personal connection that get me access to prices that are impossible not to make a profit on - like I did with a Breitling I bought for an absolute steal close to 6 months ago but have never worn

BluesLover said:

Does anyone ever use all the fancy chronograph functions, and rotating bezels and stuff. Or are they just an affectation, for show?
I prefer a plain, easy to read watch. One that just tells the time, without even a date. Also, one that's not too big. 36mm feels about right for me.
My favourite watch is my 1960's Omega. Hand wound, just tells the time. Understated and elegant. The opposite of bling.

I don't use all of them, in fact I barely use any of them nowadays now that I'm retired, and back at uni.  However when I was Asia based working in supply and logistics, and doing a hell of a lot of traveling, I used to make a lot of use of world time, GMT, though I've never found them to be particularly useful, on paper time differences are measured in hours the reality due to geo politics and business is very different and being limited to only having the ability to adjust hours instead of hours and minutes - there are countries that are 30 minutes different even less from their neighbours, even on a proper travelers GMT - much different watch to a ''desktop GMT'', like Rolex make while on paper makes perfect sense in reality you're far better off using the bezel, and when I wear a watch with a bezel, I use the bezel for navigation whenever I go out hiking, and as a timer/stop watch.  Plus things like Alarms.

Sporky said:

Grogg - if your Casio is only doing three days, and is fussy about light source, it probably has a duff battery. Has it been left uncharged for long at any point? 

I actually originally thought that as well, which is why I did the experiment several times, and not just with the Casio I currently wear, but also with my ''spare one'', the older model that I used to wear that I replaced with the one that I'm currently wearing - the G-Shock GSTB200TJ-1 I'm currently wearing the GSTB400BB-1A.  And got basically the same results, and until I started to play around with measuring how long the reserve power actually lasts - I even went so far as to test the power reserve at different temperatures, neither watch's battery had been below 70%, and both watch's batteries pass the health tests that you can preform on/with the watches with flying colours.  As I said it shocked me, I was under the impression that it could be charged via any light source much like the Citizen Eco Drive movement can, though if you read Casio's own description of their Tough Solar, it does state that it is solar powered, unlike the Citizen's Eco Drive, where they state that it is powered by all forms of light, not just sunlight/solar.  I will say though in Casio's defense that from 0% battery to having enough battery power for the watch to become fully functional, paired with a Bluetooth device like a phone or tablet, and fully setup - date, time, alarms and everything else, takes less than 5 minutes in sunlight, and a few hours will just about fully charge the watch.

Sporky said:

Forgot to say ta Grogg for the hybrid Eco Drive link - I don't think I'd seen such before. 

Citizen actually used to make a lot of Eco Drive powered hybrids, before I had mentioned them in this thread I didn't look at their website to see their current line up of them, and I was actually shocked, and extremely disappointed that there is currently only one model - I must say I think their Star Wars, Marvel and superhero themed watches are beyond fucking fugly, I have a few, and an elder sibling of mine has so many you'd be forgiven for thinking he collects them - he actually has over a dozen of the exact same Citizen Promaster Diver that is a hybrid simply because of how long they take to be serviced.