Just out of interest, all of a sudden I bought an automatic watch (Orient with power reserve).
It feels fascinating that such complicated mechanism is running inside the small case. It has exhibition back, so I can see the inside :-)
My dad has a Citizen and a Seiko mechanical, both older than 40 years, and still running (had a service few years back).
Do anyone of you wear mechanical watches? I know for pure time keeping/features, quartz watches (or even mobile phone for that matter) wins hands down. But still the feeling one wearing a mechanical watch is great (well, it may die down after few months once novelty wears off).
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Isn't it simply a quartz watch with a complicated mechanism to power it?
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My 47 yr old Omega Constellation says it 2.02pm 11Th
Broken down 2 x, 1st occasion @ under 12 months old and 3/4 months ago - just needed a service.
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I have my dads 1966 wind up bulova chronograph
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I use my late Father's wind up Rotary or the self win Omega I got for my 21st birthday from my parents, both cleaned and serviced a number of times (at more than they cost).
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A couple of years back I wanted a new watch.
My Tissot was going through a battery and strap every 18 months.
I wanted an automatic self-winder, in the end I opted for a Citizen Eco-Drive with Stainless steel strap. The battery is reported to be good for 10 years. Not a mechanical self-winder however I like it and it looks after itself sitting on my bookshelf on the days I don't wear it.
Last edited by: gmac on Thu 11 Sep 14 at 14:28
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Lying in my drawer, in a case, is a small, oblong, solid gold cased, Omega wristwatch, presented to my paternal grandfather in 1937, when he retired from his job as a chief draughtsman at Woolwich A*senal.
It still goes and keeps good time when I dig it out and wind it up.
Day to day, I wear a quartz Longines stainless steel watch - oblong too!
(SWMBO has a "lady's size" Longines of exactly the same design, chosen completely independently, but at the same jeweller on the same day.)
Last edited by: Roger. on Thu 11 Sep 14 at 14:43
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>> Omega
>> wristwatch, presented to my paternal grandfather in 1937, when he retired from his job as
>> a chief draughtsman at Woolwich A*senal.
Dont, whatever you do, set the alarm function on it.....
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Mechanical watches are nice things to have, and occasionally wear.
I have a gold wind-up wrist watch which belonged to my grandfather, dating from about 1900, and two automatics from my father, 1930s or 50s I think.
Wrist watches were I think regarded as a bit effeminate for men, but were more secure. My great grandfather's pocket watch was pickpocketed while watching Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
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It's only wikipedia, Cliff, but 1900 seems a little bit early, unless it's a military pocketwatch on a strap? In any event it must surely be a rare and wondrous thing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_watches#Wristwatches
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I have a Citizen automatic with month, date and day of week displays.
I took it to the Citizen agency in West London for cleaning and the carphounds ruined it. It won't go now. A present from my father too.
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I have a gold cased Rotary auto winding watch somewhere.
Servicing got so expensive I stopped using it.
I have a modern Rotary for daily use but it needed a new strap.
I discovered that the strap size was rare and there were only three available on fleabay.
Fortunately a nice man at Timpsons fitted it for free. Very pleased as the watch also has rare curved fixing bars. He would not take payment ( not allowed) so I donated to one of his charity boxes.
Good to find a guy like that. Left me feeling happy that there are some good folks around.i
SWMBO has worn,for decades, on a daily basis, a very small gold Omega De Villle.
Jewelers are amazed and horrified that is used this way especially as it is rather expensive.
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Nope - used to wear a Citizen EcoDrive but the strap broke last year. As a stand-in I started wearing a Forerunner 620 all the time and - somewhat lamely - never got around to replacing or repairing it. Will be sticking with the Garmin until it breaks, I think.
buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/watches-wearable-technology/wearables/forerunner-620/prod122785.html
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>> Citizen agency in West London for cleaning and the carphounds ruined it. It won't go now.
I gave my mother a gold-plated Russian self-winding watch, Poljot it was called, lots of jewels in the bearings. Trouble was, it was made for a man doing heavy manual labour, and wouldn't self-wind effectively on her, so it wasn't a good present.
When she died I inherited it. It worked a bit better on me, but I sometimes had to flick my wrist a few times to wind it up. In Nigeria some condensation appeared on the inside of the crystal, and I made the cardinal error of asking a street watchmaker (they have them in Africa) to open and wipe it. It got full of dust and never worked again. Tchah!
Herself, bless her, gave me a big girly plastic electric Swatch with a blue denim strap for my 75th. It goes well with the five other bracelets on my left wrist and keeps more or less perfect time - gains about a minute in three months - but I take it off in the shower. It may not be waterproof.
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Time to indulge (publicly) my watch fetish...
Currently wearing my Omega Seamaster (quartz version) my wife bought me on my 50th. Wore it today as I was driving to work. Normally wear a nice Seiko diver's watch (Kinetic) bit noisy in winding/charging but an effective watch with excellent luminosity - bought for a $100.00 in a factory outlet in the States in 08 - everyday wear as it has survived one bike spill but is considered in expendable in a bike crash, also reasonably classless for where I work.
I have lovely little Rolex Oyster from 1959 which I rarely wear except for a special night out. Discrete and plain...oozes class.
I have two Citizen Eco Drives - one with a white face and canvas strap - dirt cheap on an Amazon lightening sale...bit cheesy poor luminosity. And a black faced one with a stainless strap - bought entirely for Tesco vouchers from Goldsmiths...I had a load !
I also have a German hand made mechanical watch - a replica of a fighter pilot's watch from the second war....rarely wear it but love to own it.
I feel naked without a watch on my right wrist...
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>> I feel naked without a watch on my right wrist...
Sinister?
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>> Currently wearing my Omega Seamaster (quartz version) my wife bought me on my 50th. Wore
>> it today as I was driving to work. Normally wear a nice Seiko diver's watch
>> (Kinetic) bit noisy in winding/charging but an effective watch with excellent luminosity - bought for
>> a $100.00 in a factory outlet in the States in 08 - everyday wear as
>> it has survived one bike spill but is considered in expendable in a bike crash,
>> also reasonably classless for where I work.
>>
That's one thing I can't do, wear a wrist watch when I'm riding my bike.
It always feels like it's digging in to my wrist and back of my hand and I lose the flexibility in my wrist.
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I've still got a Poljot, although not a self-winder. It has the 3133 movement, based apparently on a Swiss Valjoux for which Poljot bought the tooling at the height of the quartz boom in the 1970s. When it works, it's rather good, but it suffered a bad repair in 2008 and now runs when it feels like it.
Fortunately I now have something better: a proper Swiss hand-winder (although not mega-expensive by some standards) that Mrs Beest gave me on a landmark birthday a few years ago and which is absolutely perfect for me. It will need a new strap soon, and probably a service (although it keeps time to about 5s a day) but it's such a lovely thing that I won't begrudge the expense. I've never seen anyone else wearing one like it, which is part if the appeal to me; wearers of TAG-Heuers and Seamasters don't get that satisfaction.
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"a Citizen Eco-Drive with Stainless steel strap. The battery is reported to be good for 10 years."
I had a Casio some 20 years ago with a 'long-life' battery (an early lithium one) that kept going for about 14 years, so recharging mechanisms or solar cells are superfluous, really, as you still need a rechargeable battery that won't outlast a disposable one. Nothing against Citizen watches, which mostly look OK. I'm still waiting for a strap that will last though...
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>>I had a Casio some 20 years ago with a 'long-life' battery (an early lithium one) that kept going for about 14 years,
I have a couple of Rotary battery watches.
One is just seven years old and gets used about one day a month ( a gold dress watch) .
It is eating batteries !!! Latest one has lasted 10 months
A phone call to Rotary " Needs a service sir, minimum £50 ( plus vat ?)
( I note from their web site they now have a lifetime guarantee provide it is serviced every three years )
My SS daily watch of similar vintage is fine.
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If you go battery shopping, for Heaven's sake don't be tempted to go into H Samuel (or if you do, walk out politely after discussing the matter). I had occasion to buy two recently and they wanted £7.99 each. I got decent, branded ones from a nearby jeweller for £1.75...
Once you've found a way of removing the back, it's usually plain sailing.
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Strangely though I have 13 mechanical clocks in my house,all telling different times and chiming accordingly I don't often wear a watch and if I do it's a cheap quartz job. I usually rely on the phone. More accurate.
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I wear an automatic Seiko most days. I also have a small collection of 1960s wind up Avias. Different straps for different occasions.
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Mechanical: Oldest is a rather odd, triangular cased rolled gold Orfina, made in a "special edition" for MoD Intelligence Berlin, inherited. Not valuable, but for keeps. Needs a service. One Fortis pilots style - needs a repair due to dropsy. Seiko - substantial 5 series. As above. Obscure little wind-up, Strad, Swiss, bought in 1963 I think -17 jewels. US. Quartz: daily wear Citizen Eco-Drive bought for £40. Rarely needs adjusting. Battered but unbowed.
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Thu 11 Sep 14 at 19:43
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I've never owned one, a few quartz mechanisms that I save for when I'm not at work. Just got a Skagen which I quite like and at a reasonable price. Day to day I use a terrorist special, used them for years things are near unbreakable. All the bangs, knocks and drops (I even had one run over) never seem to stop it. I think I got 10 years out of the last one.
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Other way round for me.
I've always enjoyed clocks (the late Roland Hoggard who saved the St. Pancras clock was a neighbour of my father's) but nice mechanical ones,particularly railway clocks, are prohibitively expensive so all my house clocks are battery-powered; my only watch is my late father's Omega slimline, love it for its uncluttered simplicity.
Link to Mr. Hoggard's story here; a remarkable man, and a true British eccentric.
www.sallykindberg.co.uk/curator_clockman.html
Last edited by: Harleyman on Mon 17 Nov 14 at 15:20
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I always managed to kill mechanical watches in a year or two, so cheap quartz were a godsend. Gave up wearing a watch couple of years back due to always present mobile phone. the only mechanical watch I own now is my late father's gold watch from Vauxhall.
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Like Rob, I have a bit of a watch fetish and, with one exception, they are all mechanical. Day to day wear is a Breitling Chronomat.
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Resurrection time. I recently asked a watchmaker for a price for servicing my Seiko automatic, about 8 years old, and misbehaving. Bit of a shock: £200 plus VAT. Including all required parts, but even so - painful. More than I paid for it. So, I've acquired some watchmakers tools at a price of £11.00 to see if I can remedy matters. First watch I looked at was the Strad which I bought new in '63. Took the back off, and it seems quite nicely finished internally. Wind-up type, no rotor etc. Replaced back, and it now runs quite accurately. Must have freed off the mainspring perhaps. Haven't oiled it or done anything yet, although I have a small phial of Swiss Moebius oil (neatsfoot based?) which I might apply after cleaning later.
PS. The OP mentioned Orient watches. Link here to a HK, I think, source of these and many others. No idea how reputable etc. www.creationwatches.com/products/orient-automatic-288/
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Thu 13 Nov 14 at 16:53
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Just added a true mechanical to my collection....a rather nice Rolex Submariner Ceramic - 2 years old never worn still with the plastic protection it was sold with. Rather splendid actually
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Yeah well, all very well, but I've got my Casio - G-shock - tough - solar - waveceptor digital on. Plastic is the new cool innit?
Can't read the numbers mind, arms too short.
;-)
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I do miss the 1951 Breitling lovely watch kept its time, But had to depart when cash was low. :-(
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+1 for G Shock Mine is now 5 years old: faultless.
I can read mine easily - with specs...
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The strap broke on SWMBO's quartz watch - bought in the UK a year ago - and we couldn't find a right-size replacement. Then I spotted a suitable watch with the right-size strap at a car boot sale and bought it for a euro, telling her I would switch it over. When I got it home I thought 'I'll just pop a battery in it to see if it works'. But when I took the back off I found it was mechanical. One twirl of the winder and it was away - it now runs perfectly so she wears it instead of the 'new' one.
I think it's sad that classic car magazines are now full of adverts for pathetically designed and described watches, said to 'evoke the spirit' of some motor from the past. How many people's wrists do you look at? And if you do, maybe it's time for professional advice...
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I too have a weakness and have several watches, all well used ,include both Mappin and Webb and Longines mechanical watches.....
I also have two Seikos , a Kinetic Chrono from Fleabay unused and less than a third of the shop price and a perpetual calendar which I bought in Gibraltar ... .....I alternate them fairly regularly but the Chrono needs to be kept operative by using it .
Today I am wearing my battered and scraped but still classy Tag Heuer Professional and I also own an Omega Constellation and a Waltham pocket watch...
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Got a 26 year old Tag too. Worn at some point most days for all those years. Looks small by modern standards but I like it.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 14 Nov 14 at 20:47
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When I went on my current watch hunt - I seriously considered a Tag....It would have to been an older one...
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>Plastic is the new cool innit?
To match the new plastic shoes Humph?
Last edited by: Kevin on Fri 14 Nov 14 at 17:49
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I've been bombarded with adverts for that monstrosity ! Ugly innit.
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Obviously Google has identified you as the sort of person who would buy one :-)
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 14 Nov 14 at 18:29
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>> Obviously Google has identified you as the sort of person who would buy one :-)
Clearly the Google Eye has seen I am a man of good taste, and has bombarded me with adverts for this
www.botta-design.de/en/einzeigeruhr-uno-24.html
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348€! They've noticed your age and deduced that you're awash with spare cash.
The orange-on-black one would be fine for a bit of fun, but for no more than 100€.
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What about this one?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30015601
Sold now though so I can't get it :-(
:-)
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THAT...............is a Hob.
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That is the ugliest watch that I have ever seen.
It would be perfect for the next meeting at work where they are all watch snobs.
(I haven't worn my Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean for a while and it has been noticed!)
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Do you wear a mechanical watch? - Lygonos
