Horology...

[Emile]

4 hours ago, Schu said:

A d*ouche  may own a Rolex, but all who own Rolex are douches.

All who own Rolex are douches ... or did you mean are NOT douches ... just want to know "what" I am  

[oldtimer]

1 hour ago, Emile said:

All who own Rolex are douches ... or did you mean are NOT douches ... just want to know "what" I am  

If you have to ask....

[HDBRbuilder]

9 hours ago, Islander said:

 

Not to be too picky, but per ISO 2281, isn’t it a requirement of a genuine diver’s watch that the two hands are of different shapes, not just different sizes?  For example, the minute hand could be baton or sword style, while the hour hand could be arrow style.  This makes for less chance of misreading the watch while underwater in a stressful situation.

 

Those are good looking watches, but the very popular trend of not having any minute numbers seems like a way to make the watch a bit more difficult to read quickly in the aforementioned stressful situation.  That’s why nearly every watch I own has a full set of numbers, except for the 3 o’clock position next to the date window.  It just makes the watch easier to read, especially if it’s not at the usual angle at the moment.

 

 

Actually, few divers rely on a "dive-watch" for diving anymore (because they tend to use much fancier dive computers nowadays as date providers)..but if they DID (as I still do!) their attention would be on two separate distinctly different hands...but MAINLY upon the MINUTE hand's relation to where they have set the timing bezel arrow/marker for allowable bottom time without having a need for decompression stops while re-surfacing!  In water, unless CLOSE to the surface in CLEAR water on a SUNNY DAY, it is the ILLUMINATED markers which REALLY count, SPECIFICALLY on the minute and second hands, which should always have different easily recognizable illuminated markers...and the bezel "end of dive time" arrow/marker, which also must be different than what the hands themselves have)...better to be safe than sorry!  Between the dive watch and the tank pressure gauge, you spend lots of time checking them...but still have to enjoy the view around you and stay alert for possible dangers!  I seldom actually SCUBA dive, anymore...because on my wife's home island in the Phils, there is a very large reef which runs out about 6 kilometers before it drops off at a wall going into MUCH DEEPER water.  Due to this and the reef's relatively shallow waters, I can just snorkel as long as I want, and save a lot on the expenses and hassles of needing SCUBA gear other than mask, fins, snorkel and a minimal BC unit...and the shallow depth allows me to "get up close and personal" with what is on the bottom by free-diving to it, if even necessary....to enjoy most of what scuba would provide, anyway!  I just grab that snorkeling gear backpack, walk about 1.5 km from her family home...do my exercise thing by snorkeling around the reef...get out and have a couple of beers and maybe a bit of seafood on Alona beach...and walk back to the house!  TOO EASY!  All you have to do to see the reef is go to Google maps..."satellite"...do a search for Panglao Island in the Philippines...which is kinda "football" shaped....and look at the reef on the satellite pic at just below the island's western "football tip"...there is a reason that island is one of the top ten diving destinations in the pacific northern hemisphere  (along with its near proximity to many other very popular SCUBA dive sites using just a short boat ride)! If you're interested about Panglao...just PM me sometime...or SHAMELESS PLUG TIME: just google "Phillipine Fun DIvers"...a PADI 5-star facility...it's also on facebook...along with tons of excellent underwater photography from the dives!  (One of my wife's high school best friends has been working there for over a decade now...)

[Islander]

True enough.  I don’t dive or snorkel anymore, due to an injury, but I like to wear a diver’s watch, just because.  The rotating bezel is also handy for timing various things, like how long you’ve got to park, or even how long it takes your pizza to arrive.

 

The watch I’m currently wearing and enjoying is a Momentum M50 Mark II, which is water resistant to 500 metres/1650 feet, has a 10-year battery and a 6-year warranty.  The Momentum watches are well-made (in Vancouver!), with Japanese movements, or Swiss movements on some models, and the M50 in particular is accurate to within around 3 seconds a month.  The lume is also quite good.  As well, the service is excellent, and you can sometimes talk directly to the technicians, which helps avoid any miscommunication.

[Oicu812]

 

[codewritinfool]

I have an Omega Speedmaster Pro moon watch. I love the thing but am afraid to wear it as my day-to-day watch.

[Oicu812]

2 hours ago, codewritinfool said:

I have an Omega Speedmaster Pro moon watch. I love the thing but am afraid to wear it as my day-to-day watch.
 

 

Life's too short, wear the thing.  If you watch the Clooney / Buzz Aldrin video, you will see that he wears two of them on his left wrist.  One on top of the arm, and one on the inside, all on the same bracelet setup. 

[Oicu812]

There is another forum you might want to check out.  I love the old Panerai models from the 1930’s to the Fifties, but they are RARE. Maybe one will change hands every dozen years or so, and they have been bringing mid to high six figures when they do.

 

As a watch and horology lover, you want one.  But you aren’t a millionaire, so what do you do?  Go without one your whole life, wistfully looking at pictures from museum pieces and rich collectors?

 

You do what people on this board do, and build your own.  Or you buy other people’s completed watches, projects, parts, including hand made leather or canvas watch straps, cases, movements, dials, hands, etc. etc. Just like here, there are a bunch of talented and knowledgeable folks.  There are some very good watchsmiths who will build pieces or entire watches to your specs.  You can buy all the parts and knock it together yourself.

 

 The website is http://homage-forum.com 

 

 Don’t  let the the first page fool you into thinking that the website is sparse.  After you sign up and log in for the first time, all of the really good content appears!  Check out the projects these guys are building.

 

 

It’s not just Panerai, there are a lot of other interesting brands, too.  The project on the ‘50’s Rolex Pan Am GMT homage was spectacular.  If I remember correctly, there is only one original example in existence.

 

@Schu

[HDBRbuilder]

On 5/10/2019 at 4:36 PM, Islander said:

True enough.  I don’t dive or snorkel anymore, due to an injury, but I like to wear a diver’s watch, just because.  The rotating bezel is also handy for timing various things, like how long you’ve got to park, or even how long it takes your pizza to arrive.

 

The watch I’m currently wearing and enjoying is a Momentum M50 Mark II, which is water resistant to 500 metres/1650 feet, has a 10-year battery and a 6-year warranty.  The Momentum watches are well-made (in Vancouver!), with Japanese movements, or Swiss movements on some models, and the M50 in particular is accurate to within around 3 seconds a month.  The lume is also quite good.  As well, the service is excellent, and you can sometimes talk directly to the technicians, which helps avoid any miscommunication.

I have loved having the dive bezel on a watch for many years for many other reasons than just diving...such as timing illumination rounds (time to burst) for mortar and artillery fire...also for using for TOF (time-of-flight) for other indirect-fire rounds...demolitions using time-fuses...the list goes on and on!  Yes, I was an infantryman!...for a very long time!...and yes, I also kept a small, oil-filled compass on my watchband, too!...still do, whenever there is the slightest possibility of going into the woods for any reason!

 

My wife's absolute favorite watch is a quartz-titanium-cased w/titanium band Momentum Atlas field watch model w/sapphire crystal, ordered with the red (her favorite color) dial...She has two of them, so that whenever one needs a new battery and service, she still has one to wear!  Good to 10 ATM underwater, with large numbers & great lume!  She just has to ensure they get rinsed extremely well in fresh water, after snorkeling...the titanium case and band kinda hate salt-water residue, but have no problem with tropical-environment sweating! 

[Dave1290]

11 minutes ago, HDBRbuilder said:

I have loved having the dive bezel on a watch for many years for many other reasons than just diving...such as timing illumination rounds (time to burst) for mortar and artillery fire...also for using for TOF (time-of-flight) for other indirect-fire rounds...demolitions using time-fuses...the list goes on and on! 

I never had a problem timing anything.  Never had time.  You cold hear them going overhead but when the Missouri cut loose you knew immediately.  Sounded like refrigerators going over your head!  lol

[HDBRbuilder]

My kinda numerically ungawdly old dive watch collection has very few quartz watches in it...but one of them is my actual first watch specifically purchased for SCUBA-diving: A circa 1979 Chronosport Sea Quartz 30...I used it for a number of years when diving...it was relatively expensive for its time, too...but I got it along with a pile of other stuff in a new walnut Heresy swap with a dive-instructor/shop-owner...so not sure exactly how much it "cost me" at the time, but it was significantly lower than MSRP!  The funniest thing about still having it, is how much it has "increased in value" since, "between the advent of DVD's and the internet" it was found out that it was the same model worn in the "Magnum, P.I."  tv series by its star!  Too funny!  Show

business strikes again in the "watch-world"!  This is it, nicks, scratches and all...it earned them!...and yes, I still have the original stainless band and pin covers for it!  Most divers actually bought the Seaquartz 20 model back in the day, since it was much less expensive!

 

Probably my favorite quartz dive watch in my meager bunch of quartz dive watches is this one below.  It is a ScubaPro-badged UDT version one!  In Scuba-pro badging it is much rarer than the Breitling-badged Navitimer version 1, or the Chronosport-badged Sea Quartz UDT Version 1 (which was actually the most-inexpensive route to take in buying one back then!).  IIRC, there were three more specifically-badged versions, just can't remember WHICH badges, right now!  Buying the Breitling one, though was the MOST EXPENSIVE route to take!  These were the "HOT TICKET" dive watches in the early 1980's!  Unfortunately for collectors, the movement has been UNOBTAINIUM for well-over two decades now...and it WAS actually reliable, but its LCD display tended to "wash-out" over time...so many have to just live with that and wear it with the LCD module non-functional!  But fortunately, for myself, I have three perfect "sealed in original packaging" replacement movements...but I will probably never install any of them in my ScubaPro because they are NOT ScubaPro-badged...one being a Breitling badge, one a Chroinosport badge and one not-badged at all!  Lemania actually made those quartz-LCD movements!  And yes, I also have this one's original link bracelet in Scuba-Pro badging!  And, yes these are pics of MINE...a bit worse for wear, but all there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[windashine]

30 minutes ago, Dave1290 said:

I never had a problem timing anything.  Never had time.  You cold hear them going overhead but when the Missouri cut loose you knew immediately.  Sounded like refrigerators going over your head!  lol

 

I frequently search for something to tell me what day it is...  that is, like Monday or Tuesday, or W T F....  I'm to the point of taking detailed time into two spheres... day and night....  (to be continued) , someday, somewhere ….

[HDBRbuilder]

38 minutes ago, Dave1290 said:

I never had a problem timing anything.  Never had time.  You cold hear them going overhead but when the Missouri cut loose you knew immediately.  Sounded like refrigerators going over your head!  lol

Refrigerators-HELL...more like a Volkswagen Super-Beetle!!

[HDBRbuilder]

11 minutes ago, windashine said:

 

I frequently search for something to tell me what day it is...  that is, like Monday or Tuesday, or W T F....  I'm to the point of taking detailed time into two spheres... day and night....  (to be continued) , someday, somewhere ….

No cell phone, huh?....or just can't find it most of the time?  😂

[Islander]

HDBRbuilder, those watches of yours look pretty good.  They might want a wash-n-wipe, but there don’t seem to be many scratches showing, which is more important.  And on the Chronosport, it’s great to have the day as well as the date.  That seems to be a relatively rare feature these days.

 

I lucked out at a shop-closing sale a couple of years ago (the owner was retiring, and wanted all his watches GONE) and was able to get two (!) Momentum  M50 Mark IIs at great discounts, one black face and one white face, plus a Cobalt with titanium case and bracelet for a birthday gift for a good friend.  The Cobalt weighs next to nothing (73 grams), and was very much appreciated when it was received.

 

The Momentums may not be investment watches, but they’re very accurate, legible, and rugged, the three most important qualities I look for in a watch.  As well, a Full Factory Service, as they call it (battery replacement and general inspection, including pressure testing to confirm that the unit’s water resistance continues to meet spec) is far less expensive than with the big-name watches.

 

Just like with speakers and electronics, the keys to getting bargains are patience and cash.  Wait until a great deal pops up, then have the money ready to buy it immediately.

[HDBRbuilder]

2 hours ago, Islander said:

HDBRbuilder, those watches of yours look pretty good.  They might want a wash-n-wipe, but there don’t seem to be many scratches showing, which is more important.  And on the Chronosport, it’s great to have the day as well as the date.  That seems to be a relatively rare feature these days.

Just like with speakers and electronics, the keys to getting bargains are patience and cash.  Wait until a great deal pops up, then have the money ready to buy it immediately.

I picked up for my wife an absolutely gorgeous NIB!! heavily-gold-plated ladies version of a Aquastar-single crown, under-glass timing bezel  Seatime!  WITH its original gold-plated band...all marked, even had the additional rubber band with it!  What a find!....for under 150 BUCKS!...a few years back!  Those Aquastars are really nice!  Plus they were made in youth, ladies, and men's sizes...simply geat dive watches! The crème de la creme of Aquastar is the Benthos 500 model, though!  It can Go for really big bucks! This is like what my wife has, but not the ladies version, and not NIB!!....hers also has the gold face and bezel!  This one doesn't!...but you should be able to imagine from it!  A man's version in the condition of hers would go easily for 4-5 grand plus!  They are automatics...just 17 jewels, but that is enough! Very popular throughout the 1960's!!  I have a number of the Seatimes!...just watching them appreciate!  There was a re-issue of the Aquastar Benthos 500 a few years back...very limited SE-numbered run...sold out way before the first one was even ready to ship!

[mr clean]

I love watches and love to read about the nice ones but I would never spend more than about 1000 dollars on one. I Love seiko divers and have a few autos but for everyday  I like the seiko solars. Im looking at one of the padi  divers for my next one. I like watches that when they get scratched you don't get that upset. If I spent 10 grand on a watch i would be sick every time it was scratched. And they will get scratched. I kind of like a everyday watch to have some scratches. It gives it some character.  If any of you are wanting a auto diver and just getting your feet wet check out a 007. They keep decent time and look very cool for the money. Read about gray market watches if you want somthing from japan and want to save some money. There are pros and cons but I never had any problems buying this way. Heres a pic of a 007.

 

 

https://monochrome-watches.com/seiko-skx007-family-seiko-beater-divers/

[Schu]

Ordered a Captain Willard (sla033) last night... hopefully it should arrive in the United States sometime in late July after they are released. It's a 28,000 bpm 200m diver.

 

The watch comes out of the same factory where Grand Seikos are made.

 

 

I tried and tried to make a deal on a 126600 Seadweller (and still might keep trying) with the new caliber 3235, but even though there are plenty around for sale I have a real problem with the way speculators and flippers are driving up the market price over msrp... even used worn pieces are several 'k' over msrp. I will wait for a market correction.

[mr clean]

Cool watch you ordered Schu. Very nice! I worked with a guy who had the last name Schu.

[HDBRbuilder]

On 5/15/2019 at 2:01 AM, Islander said:

..And on the Chronosport, it’s great to have the day as well as the date.  That seems to be a relatively rare feature these days

.

Yeah, Mine has  two languages for the "DAY" part of the feature...one is English, and the other is, Italian, I'm pretty sure!...kinda weird since it was "bought" in the USAt

 

Just like with speakers and electronics, the keys to getting bargains are patience and cash.  Wait until a great deal pops up, then have the money ready to buy it immediately

.

I've picked up a number of NIB old diver watches and some fairly rare CORRECT boxes for others...along with NIB badged-bands/bracelets for some  of what I already-owned.....it's kinda strange, because some of the sellers told me after I had bought them that at some of the estate sales of old retired previous jewelry shop owners, they often just open an old safe up at the auction and inside is a pretty large inventory of really old NIB watches never sold while the shop was STILL in business...and only "watch people" at the auction have any real idea of the collector-value of the items, so they end up getting them for a song!  Something I will be doing after I move this year, since I am now fully-retired!😉...Who knows??...Maybe I'll get really lucky and run across a few of my personal vintage diver "Holy Grails" on-the-cheap!😁

 

I am a huge fan of the old WYLER incaflex dive watches, too, as are many "working diver"/SCUBA diver watch collectors...and I have two strange ones, which in the past quarter century I have only run across THOSE two for sale anywhere...and got both of them EXTREMELY cheap...I guess it was probably because nobody else had ever seen/knew of them...either way...absolutely ZERO PICS ANYWHERE (except on the particular eBay items listings!...and even the sellers didn't really know anything more about them other that they were Wylers!) , not even on watch-u-seek!...or old sales brochures or any other kinds of pics or descriptions!  I dunno….but the Wyler movements, etc.,  had been put into top-entry EXTREMELY HEAVY DUTY DIVER seemingly purely work-related CASES which were accessed by what would have been an extremely strong spanner wrench for any kind of watch case use!...the second one purchased kinda gives me more of a clue about them...it has a few tiny burn marks on its case--top outer edges...so I am figuring...for deep-water "hard-hat"welders (due to NO timing bezels involved!) using oxy-acetylene torches???...or something like that???  And maybe they were special-order items thru a welders' supply somewhere that catered to underwater welders??  WHO KNOWS???  Some day I will find out for sure, though!  Look up "Wyler Incaflex system" sometime...pretty amazing kind of shock-proofing system!...came out way before Incabloc did too!  These two particular Wylers are probably from the early-to-mid 1950's...if not earlier!