If I had $200,000 to spend, I would buy two Teslas so I would always have one charged and ready to go.
I have one of these:
The mode-selector bezel is jammed, and I was about to throw it out when I learned recently that these were issued by NASA for a period in the 80s. So I have an astronaut watch!
My Seiko automatic worked fine for a number of years, but the spring gradually wound less and less until it would run down on the side table overnight. Cleaning helped somewhat, but before I gave up I had spent more on periodic cleaning than the initial cost of the watch.
The Citizen Eco-Drive I wear now is solar charged, and has been running for six years now with no maintenance of any kind. It gains about 1.5 seconds per week, which COSC chronometers can only dream about. I also have a $20 analog Casio that is just as accurate.
If the Citizen lasts 10 years, I can buy another for $125 or so. If I had bought a Rolex instead, for about 30 times as much, at ten years it would be due for its recommended $800 service.
Yes. There are lots of sports like canoeing, dinghy sailing, cycling, and so forth, as well as any job requiring two hands, where hauling a phone out of one’s pocket isn’t practical.
(Note that this comment is in no way a criticism of anyone who likes watches for aesthetic, historical, or sentimental reasons. I’m always fascinated by them myself, without ever wanting to own one. I’m just describing my own preferences in a timekeeping device.)
You’ll enjoy this, then. (And @teknocholer)
A pre-moon Speedmaster on Antiques Roadshow in Sept last year.
(If link/video works outside UK - you may need a VPN)
Man, you must drive a lot…
If I had 200 large to spend for driving, I’d get a 911 and a BMW i3. The latter for every day use around town. I like the Model S, my boss has one. But I don’t think it competes with other luxury vehicles in the price range. I like the Model 3, a coworker of mine has one - it’s actually more fun to drive than the S, IMO - but I really like a vehicle with a hatchback.
I know that you have probably seen examples of this, but i wanted to toss a picture of the interior engravings of a high quality pocketwatch into the discussion. It’s crazy to me, but this type of craftsmanship is hidden INSIDE the case back. And there are more extravagant examples than this readily available.
Typically at that time, the mechanics of the watches were sold to the jeweler separately, and the customer could pick his own case from a variety of designs and qualities. The salesmen would carry samples that had a clear glass back of the case so the workings could be viewed without having to remove the back of the case. I’m no expert, but I think many of those watches with the clear glass backs were salesman samples. I think there is a variation of a “hunter style case” which had hinged covers for both front and back as well, so both the watch face and the mechanics were protected in your pocket, but readily accessible to view by flipping open the cover. The mechanics of the watches were also standardized by size, so that many different case designs would fit any watch of that particular diameter.
Yep, seen many like it. For the record, never gets old though.
Those patterns- they are typically on old American pocketwatches- which the swiss at one time (before Rolex and others became the lauded “swiss watchmakers”) copied. Yes- the swiss actually faked American watches for decades in the late 1900s- because they couldn’t come close to our quality.
True story. Honest. Seems crazy- but 100% true.
After American watchmaking died off, Swiss took over, and the foundations for their industry we’re actually built in America down to the very lathes they used- all major watch making equipment was originally designed in America for the Industrial Age and the Swiss perfected it after the industry left America.
So yes there actually was a time where Americans dominated in manufacturing but that time is long past.
For the record most of those patterns on the watch that you posted a picture of are created with a process called damaskeening. Uses a spinning wood wheel charged with abrasive to cut patterns onto the watch plates. Every maker, and every watch caliber they made had distinct decorations, and often different levels of decoration for higher options you could arrange if you ordered one with more jewel count or functions.
If you really like these sort of watch, which are usually very accurate and still very repairable by the right watchmakers, you can get nice ones for only a few hundred. The motherlode is found at NAWCC marts- National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. The marts are open to members, and they are like giant fleamarkets for nice working old watches and clocks, better than you’ll find on ebay or elsewhere- and they usually still work.
I’ve had multiple Casio F-91W’s (because they come in multiple colors and are cheap, not because they wear out, because I haven’t worn one out yet) and I never take them off when I go swimming, in pools, in the sea, surfing, snorkling. It’s officially only water resistant, but I find it actually works better then advertised.
Now, if you go diving, that will probably fail quickly, unless it’s been filled (by the user) with oil, then it may outperform almost any watch actually made for diving. It seems it’s since disappeared but I once read a forum post (with pictures for “evidence”) of a user that attached their oil filled F-91W to the bottom of a oil rig, the watch went down almost a kilometer, stayed there for 4 days, and survived intact!
in the 1970s I encountered a jeweler who had a Bulova Accutron watch with a clear glass…he sold them (the ‘regular’ ones) in his shop and said the clear glass watch was a marketing tool
I have a Waltham pocket watch that belonged to my Grandfather. It was given to him when he entered a Catholic seminary…since I said 'Grandfrather" it will be evident the watch outlasted the devotion Indeed, he went on the establish boom town saloons to drive the point home…anyway, not as finely detailed as the example posted, but still nice
