I have an SandY 490 that I got in the early 90s with tritium tubes. Completely and totally dead now. Was super bright back in the day, though.

I won't buy another tritium watch (unless it's something vintage with original dial and hands) because I do keep my watches.

quote:

Originally posted by brminpin:

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
I get having a "date" feature, or complication if you will. But do people really not know what day of the week it is?
 

My friend's wife's one requirement for a new watch for herself was the day function and be large enough for her to read it at a quick glance. She ended up with a rose gold brown dial Rolex Day-Date 36. Beautiful watch BTW. Anyways, I could see the need for the feature if you don't have a regular routine like going to work during the weekday or even to church on Sunday to calibrate your week again.

My schedule is nuts. Always has been in all the jobs I've had for over a decade. A couple of my watches have the day complication, and I use it every time I'm wearing them.


About the tritium watches...I have 2 of them, a Marathon and a Sottomarino. How much, or is it even possible, does it cost to replace the tritium?

quote:

How much, or is it even possible, does it cost to replace the tritium?

That's a good question. Tritium is pretty expensive (ca $50K a gram IIRC). Further, I don't know of anyone who does that job for a watch.

I will cast about and see if I can find a shop that handles that.

Back soon with answers I hope.

RMD

I believe, with Ball, a tritium replacement service includes a new dial as well. Last I checked it ran about $3-400.

The old Luminox repair request form had this, so I'd assume a new dial including new tritium tubes would be in the neighborhood of $42. The new service request form doesn't list the line items like this, so I can't say for certain that it would be the same price.

WOW! A lot less that I expected.

I have some inquiries out as well. We will see what I can find.

RMD

My first automatic, a cheap ass Seiko 5. As a mechanic I love mechanical things. I had a Timex battery die overseas once and I started looking into mechanicals. There were no CVS stores close for batteries lol.

I wear this every day, beat the crap out of it, and it works. I put it on a cheap velcro band so it is easy on and off. It loses a minute or two a month, which I don't think is bad. Every month I just pull up NIST time and set it ahead a few.

Someday I will buy an Omega, but for now this works.

So far, so good with my new S-5. It gained 5 seconds a day for about 15 days, then lost most of what it gained and settled in. I reset it the first of the month, it gained about 2 seconds, and it's holding right there. Not bad at all for a relatively-cheap mechanical watch!

I'm glad I got the movement that can be hacked and wound.

 
I know there is love for mechanical (or even eco-drive) watches, but just give me quartz. I don't want to fool with keeping it wound or "up to speed". I'll reset as needed, but otherwise I don't want to bother with it, no matter how pretty it is. Make no mistake, I would take an expensive Rolex or Omega, if I could afford it, and make the concessions, but for everyday wear, it is quartz. Day to day, I just want a watch that can keep time, without a lot of fuss.
 

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
I know there is love for mechanical (or even eco-drive) watches, but just give me quartz. I don't want to fool with keeping it wound or "up to speed". I'll reset as needed, but otherwise I don't want to bother with it, no matter how pretty it is. Make no mistake, I would take an expensive Rolex or Omega, if I could afford it, and make the concessions, but for everyday wear, it is quartz. Day to day, I just want a watch that can keep time, without a lot of fuss.
 

Until the battery dies...

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Until the battery dies...

How hard is it to change a battery? How much does it cost? Now; how much does a periodic cleaning and service of a mechanical watch cost?

I've never owned an electric/quartz watch that I liked, or that lasted very long. Most of them broke before the battery died, although I had a Timex Ironman that lasted through two batteries, and my Girlfriend has one that is about to get its third.

Most of my mechanical watches lasted at least until I got bored with them, other than two Seiko chronographs I bought in the 1970's which lasted seven years each. My Rolex, of course, is still working pretty well at 34 years.

I don't mind resetting them occasionally, and a watch is something special to me, much like a nice car or pistol. They have personality.

Fine mechanical watches, with their intricacies, the fit and finishing, the various and sundry complications they are adorned with, and all the micro-engineering that goes into them, facinates me. Most of them take approximately a year, and sometimes more, to build. The fact that such things exist - and have existed in similar forms - for over a century, and are still made in significant part by skilled human hands is remarkable to me. That's why I love mechanicals.

I know there are quartz watches for a fraction of the price that keep time better. As far as my interests in horology are concerned, the extreme precision of quartz regulated movements is a marvel to behold.

My mechanical watches usually stray a few seconds on average by the end of a week, but I enjoy setting and resetting them. Truth be told I could go months before they would be out of time by as much as a minute, but I never let them get more than 5 or 6 second off of the atomic clock, because that's part of the fun of them.

Each watch means something to me - milestones, achievements, and family, for example. Maybe it's silly to be so wrapped up in them, but, I guess we all have our quirks. Some folks like old cars, some folks like fast motorcycles. I like watches. And guns.

quote:

Originally posted by BrianO:
How hard is it to change a battery?

Not hard at all. If you can get another

I like my automatic. It works. You can't kill it. It tells time (something I value). It clicks, it makes noises. And it works. It requires maybe more attention than a Casio. But I never have to look for batteries. My Timex served me well, until it died. There was not a good selection of watch batteries about 100 clicks north of Camp Leatherneck.

When the world ends, I will probably have a cheap Seiko automatic on my wrist.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
a cheap ass Seiko 5.

As a Seiko fan, I've been looking at that very watch for a good while. I recently bought one slightly higher up the chain in terms of price, but I keep looking at the one you showed as a "daily beater."

Oh, and now that I've bought mine (SNZG15J1), Amazon is tempting me with a similar Seiko Kinetic ( SKA727).

I have a Kinetic from long ago... I love it. I may have to liquidate something here and get myself another.

quote:

Originally posted by ShneaSIG:
As far as my interests in horology are concerned, the extreme precision of quartz regulated movements is a marvel to behold.

Take a cheap motherboard quartz oscillator, feed it a time signal with PPS (pulse per second) from a GPS receiver/active antenna (GPS satellites pack atomic clocks), and groom it with the network time protocol, and you can achieve microsecond accuracy (+/- 5us off of UTC, with a stability of less than .25 millisecond/year). But, it is hard to wear on your wrist
 
I have to agree wholeheartedly with you about the beauty of complicated hand made watches. If I were still your age, and working, they would hold great appeal to me (in fact I owned a Rolex many, many years ago). At this stage of my life, however, I just want something that works well, and that I don't need to park on a "winder" when I am not wearing it. My new Seiko Dolce is a relatively inexpensive but highly accurate quartz (and I already have on hand the replacement batteries ).
 

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
My first automatic, a cheap ass Seiko 5. As a mechanic I love mechanical things. I had a Timex battery die overseas once and I started looking into mechanicals. There were no CVS stores close for batteries lol.

I wear this every day, beat the crap out of it, and it works. I put it on a cheap velcro band so it is easy on and off. It loses a minute or two a month, which I don't think is bad. Every month I just pull up NIST time and set it ahead a few.

Someday I will buy an Omega, but for now this works.

My Seiko 5 Sports is what I decided to wear to Jamaica on my honeymoon. Mine is very similar but with a different dial. I wore it sailing, snorkeling (with some 30 foot dives), swimming, 4 wheeling, and did 7 or 8 cliff/rock dives from 10'-20+' and it never skipped a beat.

Honestly, I did not expect it to survive the trip. Totally impressed with it.

http://www.jomashop.com/seiko-...vZivNOFvEaAlvN8P8HAQ

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Until the battery dies...

Solar powered Citizens are good for 10 years. My daily work watch has had zero maintenance issues in over five years.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Until the battery dies...

Solar powered Citizens are good for 10 years. My daily work watch has had zero maintenance issues in over five years.

I love my EcoDrive, as well.

And now for something completely different...



https://www.hodinkee.com/artic...ver-edition-hands-on

Quite a novel design.