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My Dad had in no particular order: Audemars Piguet (gold with Moon phase) Breguet Jumphand Limited Edition Diamond encrusted Patek Phillipe Reversible face

by scandox 10y ago

My Dad had in no particular order: Audemars Piguet (gold with Moon phase) Breguet Jumphand Limited Edition Diamond encrusted Patek Phillipe Reversible face Jaeger le Couture sports watch Various 1960s Omegas and Longines with beautiful designs/inlays And for years I thought of luxury watches as something interesting and worthwhile, even if I personally could not countenance or afford spending £30,000 on one. But I learned something: They're expensive to maintain. They don't actually keep perfect time. They're heavy. In fact, they're silly things really, except for the clockwork itself, if you like that kind of thing. This is the best watch in the world: http://www.staples.com/Casio-A168W-1-Mens-Classic-Digital-Electro-Luminescence-Bracelet-Wrist-Watch-Silver/product_896197 http://www.staples.com/Casio-A168W-1-Mens-Classic-Digital-El...

criddell 10y ago
I have a cheap mechanical watch (a Seiko) that has a transparent back where I can see the mechanism. I can't say why, but there's something about carrying around a tiny little machine that harvests energy from my movement that I enjoy. Everything you wrote is true - the watch needs maintenance and they don't keep great time. For me, that's part of the charm. It has quirks like if I leave it face down, it loses a bit of time. When it gets very quiet, I can hear the watch's heartbeat. When I got it, the watch was fast by about 5 minutes every day so I bought some tools to open the case and adjust the machine to slow it down. When a month has less than 31 days, I have to adjust the date on the watch and that involves turning the crown which is a shaft with gearing on the end that spins the date dial. It's all very physical.
zeveb 10y ago
> They're expensive to maintain. They don't actually keep perfect time. They're heavy. The first and second items are true enough (although I don't know how much I care about perfect time: as long as I don't have to fiddle with it more than once a month, I don't really care), but the last need not be true. My mechanical watch is not noticeably heavier than a quartz watch. And it looks a lot nicer than that Casio digital. One can see just as well through Birth Control Goggles (e.g. http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/photo/10469092-large.jpg http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/photo/10469092-large...) as through wireframes, but the latter looks a lot nicer. Function is not the only important thing: form matters too.

by scandox 10y ago

criddell 10y ago

I have a cheap mechanical watch (a Seiko) that has a transparent back where I can see the mechanism. I can't say why, but there's something about carrying around a tiny little machine that harvests energy from my movement that I enjoy. Everything you wrote is true - the watch needs maintenance and they don't keep great time. For me, that's part of the charm. It has quirks like if I leave it face down, it loses a bit of time. When it gets very quiet, I can hear the watch's heartbeat. When I got it, the watch was fast by about 5 minutes every day so I bought some tools to open the case and adjust the machine to slow it down. When a month has less than 31 days, I have to adjust the date on the watch and that involves turning the crown which is a shaft with gearing on the end that spins the date dial. It's all very physical.

zeveb 10y ago

> They're expensive to maintain. They don't actually keep perfect time. They're heavy. The first and second items are true enough (although I don't know how much I care about perfect time: as long as I don't have to fiddle with it more than once a month, I don't really care), but the last need not be true. My mechanical watch is not noticeably heavier than a quartz watch. And it looks a lot nicer than that Casio digital. One can see just as well through Birth Control Goggles (e.g. http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/photo/10469092-large.jpg http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/photo/10469092-large...) as through wireframes, but the latter looks a lot nicer. Function is not the only important thing: form matters too.