Free Flight, Free Speech

Anyone have interest in watches?

In keeping with the 'theme' of the site (ie airplanes), I have 2 pilot-style watches (not the complicated ones, but the simpler Flieger & vintage military styles). Also have a diver, a world-timer and a dress watch. Some are quartz, some automatics, one hand-winding. I even have a blog about watches but that's besides the point.





The above is my Orient Flight, which is a style similar to the Flieger watches (Orient is Japanese, so a Japanese take on a German watch? Quirky.) And a Orient Wingman, which is a pilot/military-style automatic.

They are pretty simple watches, not much complications compared to some of the more advanced pilot watches with sliderules and whatnot. Budget reasons mostly.

What kinds of watches do you wear? This can include smartwatches, etc.

I stopped wearing them years ago, when I began to be surrounded by telling time machines: microwaves, fridges, computers, tablets, laptops, car dashboard, you name it.

The closest one already in my pocket on the Android.

I miss the days of the functional piece of jewelry. I used to like them big, with leather or metallic wristband, needle instead of digital.

I had one that used movement to operate, not a battery (must wear it to keep it functional). And I had other one that was pocket, not wrist, and used to display a tiny silver chain from the belt to a pocket.

I love analog over digital.

My Edifice featured here :
https://500px.com/photo/65836711/5-seco ... id=4123770

And my tissot (got as a gift this year )

Like IAHM-COL, since i walk around with the time in my pocket (phone), i stopped double time keeping. And btw my work screen also permanently tells me the time in my face.

Kind regards, Vincent

I was there at one point. Had a Casio as a kid, then it all stopped in the late 90s with the advent of phones that actually tell the time besides telephone. But I picked up watches again by the late 2000s. I have no love for phones now, don't even bother with the screen protector or cases..

There are some advantages to having a timepiece on your wrist;

1. tell time at a flick of a wrist instead of pulling out the phone from the pocket, and tapping the button. It's not much, but the time saved counts, especially if you're in a sitting position, and if you need to time things A LOT and don't work in front of a computer screen. Nurses still get pocketwatches I think exactly for this purpose for timing heartbeats and whatnot.

2. flicking your wrist to read the time is far less rude than pulling our your phone to some people. Still rude though. But the difference is huge. Since the thing is on your wrist already, you can sneak a peak at the time without even moving your hand too, 100000000x better

2a. This is why they are making smartwatches, which I am thinking of getting one, for excercise tracking purposes. But, they can't yet solve..

3. Battery life. Low batt is not a constant nag, unlike the phone. At worst, some analogue watches have 2 year batteries. At best, batteries not even needed (solar, kinetic, automatic, mechanicals, magic )


The rest isn't an advantage, but rather a feel-good kinda thing, to know that

1. there is a piece of jewelry that also has precision engine on your wrist, especially if it is a mechanical automatic.

2. its a thing to stare at that isn't your phone. you might get bored at staring at it at some point (I don't), but it's probably gonna be a lot better for your eyes than bright blinding LEDs. And looking at it reminds you that you don't have much time in this world for all the things you want to do so better do them now. Can't get that urgency with Pokemon Go..

SHM wrote:I love analog over digital.

I have an Edifice too! Those are great, tough cousins of G-shocks.. and nice Tissot, I considered one at a certain point..

IAHM-COL wrote:I stopped wearing them years ago, when I began to be surrounded by telling time machines: microwaves, fridges, computers, tablets, laptops, car dashboard, you name it.

It surprises me to know that fridges now indicate time??? It's interesting to know that lower end phones (my company phone , a Lenovo) have timing chips that are so out of scale, that it runs 15 minutes fast every few hours. The only thing keeping it in check is the sync to time servers. How do I know this? Well, the phone has a habit of turning on in my pocket (stupid side button) and then my pocket keeps tapping to the time/date settings panel to turn off sync.

Also, the neat thing about my microwave is that it has the perpetually flashing 12:00.

I miss the days of the functional piece of jewelry. I used to like them big, with leather or metallic wristband, needle instead of digital.

I had one that used movement to operate, not a battery (must wear it to keep it functional). And I had other one that was pocket, not wrist, and used to display a tiny silver chain from the belt to a pocket.

What happened to them? The nice thing about mechanical movements is that they will work if you wind them up, so if they're sitting in a drawer somewhere, they'd still work when you pick them up and shake it a little.

Its somewhere in a drawer around here. Stopped off course, cause I had not made it work for years. I wonder how hard would be to reignite it.

Had a Quartz timed Lorus made by Seiko that I wore from 1980 to 1995. It was nearly indestructible, but it's demise timed with the advent of calculator/digital watches and all the analog watches available at that time were either Swatches or had cartoon faces. I miss that old watch.

I have the classic CASIO black plastic hahaha

HJ1an wrote:This is why they are making smartwatches, which I am thinking of getting one, for excercise tracking purposes.

Yes, and Google or Apple would love to track you too, so they can sell the information to your health insurance. Next years health insurance prolongation talk will be: Sorry sir HJ1an, you do not exercise enough, we need to double your premium.

Kind regards, Vincent