Digital watches, anyone?

[MikeL]

OK, I've been reading silly, or very silly polls since I joined, so I just thought up my own:

Do you use a digital watch, as your main day-to-day watch?

colin

Oh yeah, how about this:

Is your watch band:

a. chrome, matching the watch part
b. black chrome, contrasting with the watch part
c. hammertone, with a black chrome watch part
d. black leather, with a chrome watch part
e. black leather, with a black chrome watch part
f. tan leather, with a chrome watch part
g. gold, just like the watch part, Yeah Baby!
h. I don't know how to describe the watch band since I have a Swatch and it's all funky looking.
i. other

 

[biomed]

40 year old Seiko Bell-Matic.

 

[Uncle Bill]

I had a Casio digital watch when I was in high school 20 years ago but these days I am strictly analog, automatic winding movements kind of guy. My small watch collection includes two vintage Omega Seamasters ( a bumper wind from the 1950s and a Seamaster Deville from the 1960s), one hand wind 1950's vintage Longines Tank Watch, a Fortis Cosmonaut Diver and a Zeno Army Diver.

The fortis and the Seamaster Deville get the most wrist time.

 

[mgilvey]

I had a Casio digital watch when I was in high school 20 years ago but these days I am strictly analog, automatic winding movements kind of guy. My small watch collection includes two vintage Omega Seamasters ( a bumper wind from the 1950s and a Seamaster Deville from the 1960s), one hand wind 1950's vintage Longines Tank Watch, a Fortis Cosmonaut Diver and a Zeno Army Diver.

The fortis and the Seamaster Deville get the most wrist time.

My friends affectionately call my Casio Sea Pathfinder my "BAW"....which means Big-@#$-Watch.

 

[peterm1]

I use a analogue style digital watch for everyday use because its cheap and (usually) reliable. Oddly and perhaps unexpectedly, they do fail more than you think. I had a quite expensive Seiko chronometer which I bought in Singapore that died after 10 years (and yes it was an original) . Being a relatively expensive version I had expected it to last longer. I am currently debating whether to have the movement replaced. Doing so will cost me as much as a cheaper replacement watch.

I did actually replace that watch 2.5 years ago with a nice looking but cheap Casio. It has now died too and is currently back with the importer for warranty repairs (for the 4th time.)

So at the moment I am wearing a $20 "Rolex " I bought on the beach in Bali. This thing better be real, given that I had to pay $20 instead of the normal $10 for a beach front "special". :^)

My favourite personally owned watch is a solid gold watch given me by my birth father when I was reunited with him 15 years ago. It was his watch and is a rose gold International Watch Company (IWC) original Swiss watch with a mechanical movement and about 40 years old. Its a beauty but for obvious reasons I do not wear it except on special occasions.

If I had my choice to spend reasonably big bucks on a new watch, I think I would buy something like the Oris Big Crown which manages to simultaneously look stylish and macho or another pilot style watch, perhaps a Breitling.

 

[chibaken]

I have an original Pulsar red LED watch from the 70s - you can't wear it on a daily basis though as it stops working at the merest sign of rain - common in London 😉 I also have Casio calculator watch with a screwed on front plate.

Day to day I have an original early Heuer Silverstone, an original Heuer Autavia from the same era - both are Calibre 11 movements with the wind lever on the left, an Omega Geneva, and a few old Russian analgoue watches.

A little bit of a collection, that has unexpectedly stopped due to an embryonic camera obsession...

 

[Bob Michaels]

My 14 year old Seiko electronic analog watch has been off my wrist four times since new. Each time was for a few minutes to replace the battery.

I refuse to have a watch that cannot tolerate anything my body can. I only want to think of it when I want to know the time.

 

[vha]

Have a Citizen Promaster NY0040-09EB_730, said more common it´s a mechanical self winding watch which tells if i´v been too lazy by slowing down.
On the bight side i can see the time at night without my glasses on,
not so bad either 😉
Might be the model also is known as citizen Promaster automatic

Would like a Citizen Promaster JP2000-08E, which looks almost the same but uses batteries and have some features which i don't need at all.

vha

 

[ray_g]

I have a G-Shock that is my "beater" watch. Plus I use the chrono to time my film processing. But I don't use it everyday.

I prefer automatic watches - I have a '66 Constellation, a Seiko 6309 diver, an Orange Monster, and just got a Seamaster as an early Christmas present!.

 

[Ronald M]

analog dials. but battery powered and time set by master clock in colorado by radio signal.

Also have two table top models and the times are always perfect.

Remember the old saying about the man with two watches not knowing what time it is? Not true here.

 

[rpsawin]

Silver or b&w?

 

[clarence]

Go here for more USED, vintage and a few new watches (almost all ads are person- to- person) from all over the world: http://www.elitedealseeker.com/index.cgi?category=watches&searchword=&ageupperlimit=1&function=Search. To send a message to some of these sellers, you must join the particular forum, but it's easy to do so, like RFF. Generally, the prices and sellers are better than godawfulbay. The watches range from cheap to sky-high and are all kinds under the sun.

I've been very happy w/ this site.

Have fun!!!!!

Thank you very much for pointing me to that feed aggregator, Bill. Unfortunately, I've been looking for the past 2 weeks and still haven't found what I want. I guess I'll just keep looking.

Clarence

 

[Bill58]

Thank you very much for pointing me to that feed aggregator, Bill. Unfortunately, I've been looking for the past 2 weeks and still haven't found what I want. I guess I'll just keep looking.

Clarence

You're welcome!!!

Keep looking-I've found a few there at much lower prices than what the online vintage watch shops charge. 'Don't know what you are in the mkt. for, but one forum (http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/index.php) seems to have the most ethical members/ sellers and they are great at authenticating genuine watches. There's a lot of fakes out there now, so be careful.

 

[ray_g]

Thank you very much for pointing me to that feed aggregator, Bill. Unfortunately, I've been looking for the past 2 weeks and still haven't found what I want. I guess I'll just keep looking.

Clarence

I'd also check TimeZone's Sales Corner

 

[iridium7777]

i'd rather ___________ than wear any quartz watch.

 

[clarence]

Thank you, everyone, for the advice. I ended up purchasing one of those new Emporio Armani dress chronographs on ebay and I must admit I am slightly disappointed. The quartz movement's second hands tick rather than sweep, and the buttons have too much resistance. Still, it only cost around 70 pounds new.

I am also looking for a watch with retrograde seconds but that will have to wait for more funds.

Clarence

 

[NickTrop]

Strictly analogue mechanicals - serviced if possible, from the 50's - 70's. I have a growing old (mostly) Timex collection. My favorite watch is a serviced Timex I paid $1.00 plus $5.00 shipping. They must have a large face, have a clean uncluttered (boring?) design, it must be thin (unlike the giant clunkers of today), and I highly prefer a date complication. I try to spend less than $15 - with shipping, for each one. Collecting them is fun and affordable.

These watches are something of a political "fashion statement" for me. Apart from having 1000x more character than the "character-less" crap quartz junk watches out now...

... Timex in their heyday were made in the USA and they gave a hearty "middle finger" to the disgusting conspicuous consumption items of ridiculous self-adornment made by the elitist european watch companies by making "disposable" watches that lasted for decades. They had no jewels* and were designed to be functional items the average working stiff could afford and enjoy.

We live in a wasteful society. There's no reason to buy a new watch. My worst Timex gains a minute a day - BFD. They're eco-friendly, have a bit of history behind them and are "anti" self-adornment, "anti" conspicuous consumption, "anti" elitist items made by domestic craftsmen. And, yes, I like the intriguing ingenious mechanical engineering marvels... tick, tick, tick... and the tactile "feel" of winding a watch.

That's my "fashion statement". And that's why I wear them.


*(The watch "jewel" thing taught the digital camera makers of today how to sucker the ignorant public. How many "jewels" does you watch have? - looks down nose - sneers, only 17? Mine has 21... lol. Juxtapose. How many "megapixels" does your camera have?)

 

[Krosya]

I loveeee watches. Almost as much as I love cameras. I really like all kinds of watches, but prefer mechanical- selfwinding/automatic ones. Over the years I tried several kinds, including Rolex and Omega and found most to be rather unreliable. I keep trying, maybe one day I'll come across a good swiss automatic watch that agrees with me. I did try some japanese , such as Seiko automatics - with similar results. So, for now, I keep coming back to my two favorites, - analogues but battery operated Casio Diver's and Citizen Diver's watches. Not that I dive a lot, but they seem to be able to last well for me. Somehow I am hard on watches, bang them on things, get them wet all the time, so waterproofing helps. I almost treated myself to my dream watch this Christmas - IWC Porsche Design Ocean series. I really like those for some reason, but.....didn't work out due to other expenses. One day....one day...
Meanwhile I keep trying other vintage automatic watches , see if I find one that will actually be able to survive me. 😉

 

[smiling gecko]

...tick, tick, tick.

...tick, tick, tick.

yes and no...

i enjoy my early '70's cartier tank mechanical. for me it is wearable art and a nod to "things mechanical"...like the leica m cameras. it i as beautiful a design as it is a simple one. i don't know much about watch mechanics, but have a basic understanding and appreciation of it's 21 jewel movement...sort of like my appreciaton & understanding of my m6.

i also enjoy my citizen (solar) titanium automatic (with minute hands, date feature, second hand, etc,etc). it is more accurate than my cartier and requires no winding or setting. i can wear it in rain, sleet, etc and dive to 100' with it - i mainly snorkel. thanks to the titanium it's much lighter than it looks. it has a different look that appeals to me as well.

...tick, tick, tick 😛

kenneth
NEVER FORGET BESLAN
wwww.neverforgetbeslan.org

 

[Senmu]

Analog watches (minute hand, hour hand, 'sweep second hand') only... no batteries allowed (so-called 'automatic), self-winding. Cameras are film only (own six film cameras, don't own a digital) <sigh> I feel like a parody of myself. But I do tech for a living, so I'm surrounded by computers at all times. Maybe a way of coping? No time this lifetime to examine that question...