Only you and I might remember this.

Post #390,876 by a6l6e6x 6/17/14 3:48:17 PM Reply	Only you and I might remember this. There was a time before digital watches, electronic watches (e.g. Bulova Accutron tuning fork) and quartz based watches. The big deal was how many jewels were used as bearings in the movement. I once owned a self-winding Bulova mechanical watch with 21 jewels. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #390,878 by Another Scott 6/17/14 4:10:21 PM Reply	Self-winding watches were the bees' knees.
Post #390,884 by pwhysall 6/17/14 5:21:56 PM Reply	I routinely wear automatics And even my quartz watches set and power themselves (Casio toughsolar waveceptors). Both Bulova and Seiko have watches that have a perfectly smooth sweeping second hand - the Precisionist and Spring Drive movements, respectively. If you've never seen such a thing, well. The smooth sweep is hypnotic. Almost as good as the extra pause given at 12 o'clock by the second hand of a Mondaine railway clock and the watches it spawned.
Post #390,890 by Another Scott 6/17/14 6:09:52 PM Reply	My last watch was a Citizen Eco-Drive. A solar cell that keeps an electronic watch charged. It's a great idea that worked well. J has one too. I had to get the capacitor replaced in hers (it wouldn't keep running), but it wasn't too bad. I think I mentioned before that I stopped wearing mine after messing up the date on a leap year and I couldn't easily figure out how to fix it. (It was a chronograph and one had to use the various buttons and dials in the right sequence at the right time of day to make the right changes for the right year. I didn't bother to try to find the manual for it.) I then realized I always had a phone with me, or could easily-enough estimate the ballpark time, so I stopped wearing it. It's nice having a uniform skin color on my left arm for the first time since I was a kid. ;-) If I ever get the bug to wear a (non-smart) watch again, I'll probably consider something like a Citizen Perpetual AT that takes care of the calendar and time-zone stuff automatically, too. Cheers, Scott.
Post #390,899 by hnick 6/17/14 8:23:03 PM Reply	I have one now. I got it for Christmas after my last watch went bad (gunked up and shock from when I didn't take it off before hitting things probably harder than I should have.) It assumes I know the day and year and does not have the temerity to remind me. They go by fast enough without cheerleading. I do have a bunch of cute (analog) dials to let me time things, but I've gotten in the habit of counting the squares on the oscilloscope when I'm interested in timing accuracy. It's a nice watch and I don't have to change the batteries, which means it won't get gunked up or less water resistant. If it lasts 20 years like my last watch did, I probably won't really care what the exact time is... "Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable." ~ AMBROSE BIERCE (1842-1914)
Post #390,901 by Another Scott 6/17/14 8:29:22 PM Reply	:-)
Post #390,921 by pwhysall 6/18/14 2:58:44 AM Reply	If I had to keep just one watch for ever and ever say, in the zombie apocalypse, it'd be this one: Solar-powered. Radio-controlled. Indestructible. Waterproof.
Post #390,977 by folkert 6/19/14 5:48:13 PM Reply	Blood and Zombie head goo proof? -- greg@gregfolkert.net "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." --Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Post #391,002 by pwhysall 6/19/14 11:42:37 PM Reply	Yep It is not unheard of for G-Shock owners who are selling to prep the watch for its new owner by putting it through the dishwasher.
Post #390,920 by pwhysall 6/18/14 2:56:02 AM Reply	Yeah, perpetual is the way forward for calendars. I have one of these: Bit of an arse to set, but once it's done, it's done. The G-Shocks do all that, of course, and also look after DST transitions, too.
Post #390,923 by Ashton 6/18/14 4:30:41 AM Reply	Pity that it's a ƒail.. If it won't tell me the name of Today, forcing me to pay attention to a time-sequence.. well, (Besides, a few weeks of nuclear winter? there goes the capacitor charge: it also lacks the world's teensiest ^\|---_\| crank, for just that situation.)
Post #390,925 by Another Scott 6/18/14 7:23:50 AM Reply	Ahh. DST, also too. Clever. I guess that since it refers to the WWVB timekeepers, there's no risk of it becoming obsolete if Congress changes when DST starts and ends, or they add a leap second, or whatever. Adjusting a watch manually for DST wasn't too annoying for me, but leap days were always a pain on the Citizens I had. They had a 12 month calendar, which was normally great, but that one day every 4 years... I did like mine a lot (I still have it - probably should get it working...) - one thing I wish it had was brighter phosphor spots for the dark. Even with all their models, it was hard to find one that was a reasonably small size that had all the features I "needed". Cheers, Scott.
Post #390,919 by Ashton 6/18/14 2:18:30 AM Reply	✓on both. My first Real-watch at ~12 was a {take breath} Mido Multifort Super-automatic (buglers are supposed to be On Time, was my argument.) It was On Time, even when I wasn't. Later, the first 'skeleton'/visible-guts Accutron, subsequently wheedled by the head honcho of Electr. Techs, who Had to have it. (When Hg batteries died, later--as well they should--one had to come up with tiny Schottky diodes and Ag types.. for that 1.34 V.) While _hP's first foray into the fantastical L E D was a tour de force, was never tempted to put numbers!?!* on my Regal wrist, thankyouverymuch. * At ~12yo, a really savvy watchmaker in S.F. gave me the Watch-history lecture, entertainingly: he mentioned Vacheron et Constantin as sine qua non, during. Alas, none in his small repair shop to show. But I remembered the Name.
Post #390,928 by pwhysall 6/18/14 7:44:14 AM Reply	All that said... ...I'm wearing the shit out of this just lately: Although it's automatic, it's not water resistant at all and it doesn't know months or leap years or anything. But good grief, just look at it!
Post #390,945 by Ashton 6/18/14 3:06:13 PM Reply	We need not swim with them (and everybody knows..) that it hardly ever rains in UK :-þ It seems we're both afflicted with a similar pref: stark simplicity, with subtle contrasts beats-out the Swiss-knife with built-in tiniest-yet enriched-Pu reactor to run the also-stored Library of Congress display and broadcast studio. (Still run the 30+ yo Seiko day-date whose dial is similarly uncluttered; its overall execution pales in comparison to this. It's way-too thick, for another demerit, though "thin" in-the-day) Can even see that the minimalist timer functions, given the uncluttered max dial-area, would be used on occasion, and they don't destroy the umm, serenity? Hey! maybe we gots a tad of cuth? (..or are just stubborn control-freaks.) ie the Bulova was it? you showed a while back, wherein they had refined basically the identical dial-layout, aka plagiarized Seiko's spot-on perspicuity. (I never 'measured' that face via the Golden-mean ratios and such, but suspect..)
Post #390,949 by drook 6/18/14 4:01:34 PM Reply	My preference That's not exactly what I have. Mine is about 25 years old, made by Noblia, which was a Citizen brand, so this is the successor. The band is slightly different but the face is nearly identical. -- Drew
Post #390,951 by a6l6e6x 6/18/14 6:09:41 PM Reply	Is that not a Movado knock-off? As seen on Amazon. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #390,956 by drook 6/18/14 10:01:03 PM Reply	Yeah, about 60% knocked off -- Drew
Post #390,965 by a6l6e6x 6/19/14 9:15:54 AM Reply	So, 40% innovation! :) Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov

Welcome to IWETHEY!