A revival of the Watch thread

August 24, 2019, 12:57 PM

bald1

Just got this one back from servicing yesterday. Glycine Airman 46 (46mm 3820-18T; ETA 2893-2 mvt) which dates from 2002. Blue dial with a black Sirtoli Angelo strap. It's a modern extra large sized take on the venerable Vietnam era Airman favored by military pilots.

It reads three time zones. Mine is set to Mountain, GMT, and Tokyo-Seoul.

FWIW London is GMT +1 hour and Beijing is Tokyo -1 hour.

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August 25, 2019, 11:24 AM

HuskySig

quote:
Originally posted by Spackler:
Bought this in 2007, wore it every day for 11 years, then sold it and doubled my money. But I sure do miss it.

Maybe not the highest bar, but a Pepsi GMT Master is my grail watch.

August 25, 2019, 02:28 PM

bald1

Here's one that "got away" that i wish I still had!

My first "decent" watch was a Zodiac Sea-Chron #4557 which featured a panda style dial, 39mm case, 200 meter depth rating, and a Valijoux 72 movement. Paid $150 back in 1968 when I was 20. Mine had a link bracelet instead of the rubber strap shown in the brochure bottom row below. Sadly somewhere along the line it disappeared. All I have left is the original outer box. These command over $2500 in half way decent shape these days. Really wish I still had it.

August 25, 2019, 08:56 PM

r0gue

Amazing Zodiac! You are right to regret. And in good company. So much I regret selling...

August 26, 2019, 01:05 PM

stickman428

As someone tiring of the mid level Seiko divers and not loving the cost of purchasing or properly maintaining my Omega Seamaster would you say a Steinhart Ocean 1 would be a good beater/everyday watch? I like that vintage red homage they make. Hmmmmm I probably don’t need another Omega but the Steinhart is tempting

August 26, 2019, 02:29 PM

at-home-daddy

quote:
Originally posted by henryaz:

New watch, and a crappy cell phone pic, I know.

After seeing at-home-daddy's pic 2 months ago of the new Certina DS-8 HAQ watch, I felt it was time to spend a little of my tax return (j/k jhe888, tax refund). The blue dial version comes with a metal bracelet, which I don't care for, so I replaced it with a Buffalo hide strap from Euro Watch Straps. I am a big fan of the HAQ quartzes. My Seiko Dolce has kept time within 1 second for over two years now. The additional complications on the Certina make it a very attractive watch, IMO.

The pins are internally drilled only. What a pain to remove the metal bracelet. It's a lot easier to deal with them with a strap.

Henry, sorry, am just now seeing this post of yours from May 25...apparently I missed it somehow the first time around. A little late in congratulating you, but...congrats.

Glad my post inspired someone else to pick up this fantastic HAQ watch. I've had mine now for just shy of six months, and it's become my favorite watch...rated at something like +/-7 SPY, true to form mine hasn't lost a second over the last couple months, and I absolutely love that kind of hyper accuracy. I love the blue dial, I enjoy the subtlety of the seconds indicator on the bottom cutout, and I get a real kick of the completely frivolous but utterly charming moonphrase function...in short, there's nothing about this quartz watch I don't like, and I've already found myself a bit annoyed at the +/- 3 SPD accuracy of the mechicals I'll throw into rotation now and then to change things up; it's really easy to get used to having a tool do its job flawlessly and precisely, each and every time its used.

Hope you're enjoying yours as much as I am mine.

August 26, 2019, 07:43 PM

henryaz

quote:
Originally posted by at-home-daddy:
enry, sorry, am just now seeing this post of yours from May 25...apparently I missed it somehow the first time around. A little late in congratulating you, but...congrats.

Glad my post inspired someone else to pick up this fantastic HAQ watch. I've had mine now for just shy of six months, and it's become my favorite watch...rated at something like +/-7 SPY, true to form mine hasn't lost a second over the last couple months, and I absolutely love that kind of hyper accuracy. I love the blue dial, I enjoy the subtlety of the seconds indicator on the bottom cutout, and I get a real kick of the completely frivolous but utterly charming moonphrase function...in short, there's nothing about this quartz watch I don't like, and I've already found myself a bit annoyed at the +/- 3 SPD accuracy of the mechicals I'll throw into rotation now and then to change things up; it's really easy to get used to having a tool do its job flawlessly and precisely, each and every time its used.

Hope you're enjoying yours as much as I am mine.

I am, indeed, and also enjoying the same accuracy. It is still dead on the second of UTC. One issue, JomaShop incorrectly lists the lugs as 20mm, and I got a 20mm strap at first, but it did not fill the space between the lugs. I measured them and they are really 21mm. It appears you might have a 20mm strap. 21mm is not that easy to find, but if you go to the Euro Watch Band Center, do a search for 21mm and only leather, it returns 165 results. Lots to pick from. They ship via Deutschepost for a very modest charge, and it takes about a week to get your new strap. The one I picked was listed on their site at €27.95. After currency conversion and shipping, it came to $37.95.

August 27, 2019, 09:01 AM

Spackler

quote:
Originally posted by stickman428:
As someone tiring of the mid level Seiko divers and not loving the cost of purchasing or properly maintaining my Omega Seamaster would you say a Steinhart Ocean 1 would be a good beater/everyday watch? I like that vintage red homage they make. Hmmmmm I probably don’t need another Omega but the Steinhart is tempting

I have a Steinhart OVM 39, and it’s an absolutely beautiful watch. ETA movement, so it’s not just a cheap homage watch.

August 27, 2019, 05:17 PM

stickman428

You are right...they are beautiful watches and from the many videos I have watched they seem to be pretty well built with decent fit and finish.

I’ve been VERY tempted to pick up the titanium ocean 1 or the red vintage looking version though I am more a fan of authentic patina.

I’ll probably scoop one up. I recently acquired a surprisingly good homage to the Seiko marinemaster 300 with some kind of ETA or bootleg ETA 2824-2 movement and it is fantastic.

August 28, 2019, 05:16 PM

stickman428

One of the few quartz watches I own that gets me excited and actually gets some wrist time. It just so happens the moon watch matches my rocket

August 28, 2019, 05:43 PM

at-home-daddy

I have the Bulova Lunar Pilot, too...it's HAQ nature is one of the reasons I went for the Certina (referenced a few posts above this one). I had to send the Bulova in for replacement when the chronograph reset button of my first example didn't work right out of the box. The replacement has some of the same issue, though works most of the time, and when it doesn't pushing a second time will reset it. So I let it slide, and just live with it. I do like it and it keeps great time, but that seemingly chronic issue keeps me from loving it. That said, it's certainly the easiest watch I own to tell time on...something about those long white hands and the design of the dial make telling the time even at a brief glance a snap. Plus the whole NASA history behind it is pretty cool. :-)

August 28, 2019, 06:07 PM

agony

Hello gorgeous!

I'll be picking it up in November when I visit the west coast.

I also ordered the blue Alpinist yesterday and it should arrive in the next couple days.

August 28, 2019, 06:28 PM

ScreamingCockatoo

quote:
Originally posted by bald1:
Here's one that "got away" that i wish I still had!

My first "decent" watch was a Zodiac Sea-Chron #4557 which featured a panda style dial, 39mm case, 200 meter depth rating, and a Valijoux 72 movement. Paid $150 back in 1968 when I was 20. Mine had a link bracelet instead of the rubber strap shown in the brochure bottom row below. Sadly somewhere along the line it disappeared. All I have left is the original outer box. These command over $2500 in half way decent shape these days. Really wish I still had it.

WOOOOW!!

August 28, 2019, 07:30 PM

Spackler

Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military 39

August 28, 2019, 09:38 PM

stickman428

At-home-daddy, That sucks man. Mine has been 100% perfect and I’ve goofed off with the tachymeter/ timer function quite a bit. It sounds like you got a lemon and sadly it never got taken care of. I don’t think your experience is the norm.

I don’t wear mine often, it’s a bit big for me and truth be told I rarely wear anything but an automatic or kinetic. My new Seiko Solar Digi Tuna is slowly winning me over though...it’s a neat watch.

August 29, 2019, 10:12 AM

jhe888

Nice GS, Agony. Which reference is it?

August 29, 2019, 04:47 PM

bald1

Here's one of my all time favorites. The Sinn 156 Military. I'm a huge fan of the Lemania 5100 movement much preferring it to others like the Valjoux 7750.

I have a pair with the other sitting on a brown calfskin BUND strap made from an old US aviator's jacket. One 156 Mil is a 1986 vintage, the other 1989. I probably should sell one now that I'm retired and in my 70s.

August 29, 2019, 05:05 PM

bald1

quote:
Originally posted by stickman428:
One of the few quartz watches I own that gets me excited and actually gets some wrist time. It just so happens the moon watch matches my rocket

The Bulova black case edition without calendar window tweaked me somewhat with its HAQ movement. But the one hour totalizer and 1/100s subdial turned me off as not very practical. Keep in mind that the original Bulova was a 12 hour chrono like the Omega Speedy.

I have a Sinn 142 StS (Lemania 5100 mvt w/24hr totalizer) which was touted as the first automatic chronograph in space being worn by a German astronaut-scientist Reinhard Furrer on the 1985 STS-61A Spacelab D1 mission although there have been issues raised about a Seiko 6139 actually having that honor.

Regardless I find it much more to my liking than any of the other "space" watches. The added "dive watch" under the crystal protected bezel is a plus in my book as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,