Survey: Watches

[Tor]

Digital 24-hour wristwatch. Since 1976, happy ever since (although it's not the same watch - the current one is nearly 10 years old, with original battery). I don't do analog well. The few occasions where I had to use one I found that it takes much longer (for me) to read, and if I just glance at it I'm likely to show up at the meeting an hour early, for example. Digital gives me a much clearer feeling about the time as well.
I don't like having to grab about my person to find and activate a mobile phone just to check the time. And I want and need accurate, available time - there's a bus stop just outside my house, for example. I walk to there between one minute and thirty seconds before the bus is supposed to arrive. If it's on time I don't want to rely on something inaccurate or not readily available.

[jim stone]

Analogue Citizen Diver's Watch, ecodrive (it runs on the sun), keeps excellent time, looks like a Rolex, costs about 120 dollars, lasts forever.

[mutepointe]

I just watched this video and thought you folks would appreciate the artistry. I would have liked to have seen all the parts lined up and catalogued.


http://twistedsifter.com/videos/disasse ... ubmariner/

[MTGuru]

I just watched this video and thought you folks would appreciate the artistry.

That's excellent. But I have to have my Breitling cleaned and serviced soon, and now you're scaring me.

[Feadoggie]

But I have to have my Breitling cleaned and serviced soon, and now you're scaring me.

Watchmakers aren't scary or anything like that. Or are they?



Informative video. Thanks for linking.

Feadoggie

[ytliek]

If dirt is getting in there the watch just isn't worth the money, however, that is how I clean my whistles.

And, I never had piano music during office hours... makes all the difference.

[an seanduine]

Santa was kind to me and gave me a Seiko quartz sport chronometer to use as a 'dress' watch, in place of my 'work' Wenger Swiss Military watch. But the watch I prize no longer keeps time. It is an Elgin National Watch Company, size 18, Railroad Standard 15 jewel pocket watch.
The serial number tells me it was made in 1892, the year my Grandfather went to work for the Great Northern Railroad.
Ytliek wrote:

If dirt is getting in there the watch just isn't worth the money,

When I opened this watch I found several hairs, probably my Grandfather's, in the case, drawn in by barometric variation. While it is not a Railroad Time Service Watch, as such, since Charles, my Grandfather was neither an Engineer nor a Conductor, and was not required to present a log book to the District Super attesting the watch had been adjusted as required periodically, by a certified watchmaker to Railroad Standard, the inner case has the marks and dates he did have it adjusted by watchmakers. His keeping the watch adjusted was no idle pastime, since he was a Section Foreman, and accurately knowing when scheduled trains might pass was vital to keeping himself and the two dozen or so men on his gang safely out of harms way while doing repairs.

Bob

[ytliek]

But the watch I prize no longer keeps time. It is an Elgin National Watch Company, size 18, Railroad Standard 15 jewel pocket watch.
The serial number tells me it was made in 1892, the year my Grandfather went to work for the Great Northern Railroad.
Ytliek wrote:

If dirt is getting in there the watch just isn't worth the money,

When I opened this watch I found several hairs, probably my Grandfather's, in the case, drawn in by barometric variation. While it is not a Railroad Time Service Watch, as such, since Charles, my Grandfather was neither an Engineer nor a Conductor, and was not required to present a log book to the District Super attesting the watch had been adjusted as required periodically, by a certified watchmaker to Railroad Standard, the inner case has the marks and dates he did have it adjusted by watchmakers. His keeping the watch adjusted was no idle pastime, since he was a Section Foreman, and accurately knowing when scheduled trains might pass was vital to keeping himself and the two dozen or so men on his gang safely out of harms way while doing repairs.

Bob

Now that's an heirloom! I have no personal connection to the railroad and history other than as a boy's fascination with trains and travelling. Trains were very near by. My grandfather worked for Robert Ingersoll Watch factory as a repairman. He always had pocket watches around (everywhere) and we'd sit by the railroad yard watching the trains' movements. When certain trains passed thru my grandfather would check his vested pocketwatch to verify the time. I didn't know which was the more accurate time... the train or the pocketwatch.

Member, and favorite publication http://www.rlhs.org/index.shtml

[emmline]

I did give watches up around the time my increasingly large-screened phones offered to keep track of that for me. I like watches, but whenever I'd find one that I liked aesthetically, it would up and die after a year and a half or so. Then I'd buy an ugly one and not like it.