Convert The Watch Heretic!

[DunEdinRanger]

As you ladies and gentlemen of the forum may have been aware, I have recently acquired an interest in watches. I have mentioned I have champagne taste and a micro brew beer budget.

Unless one acquires a perpetual day/date analog watch, then 10 months of the year the day has to be adjusted, since July and August both have 31 days. Since I have to make an adjustment to the watch for 10 months, and when we switch to/from daylight savings time, if the time is off by more than a minute or two a month, it can be adjusted then.

So, if we have accuracy, reliability, and durability coupled with a fine looking watch, I dare ask the heretical question- why spend hundreds more when you're not going to notice a discernible difference?

http://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/2276.pdf - discusses the accuracy of several quartz watches.

 

[little Big feather]

And?

 

[cstone28]

Are you asking why spend hundreds more on an expensive mechanical over a cheap mechanical, or hundreds more on a mechanical over a quartz?

 

[DunEdinRanger]

Hundreds more on any watch when the accuracy will not be discernible to the wearer.

I can understand spending more on a fountain pen; it writes better.

I can understand spending more on a razor; it will shave better.

But how does a watch tell time better?

 

[rushchairman]

hooray watches!

 

[cstone28]

Well.

If accuracy is your only criteria for a watch buy a Timex and wear it in good health. If accuracy and style are your criteria then buy one of the thousands of quartz fashion watches that speak to you and wear it in good health.

If the hours of time spent working on gears and springs, the heart beat of something that only works when you take the time to wind it, the passion of centuries of craftsmanship, the lines and angles honed over decades, and the fascination of how all that can be packed into a tiny package are your criteria, then and only then will you understand your own question. At that point it isn't about money, it is about a quest for something unattainable. Maybe to be reminded of a simpler time, maybe a pursuit of something you never thought you would achieve, maybe a quest to find the one accessory that defines you.

 

[StillShaving]

You are right, these more expensive mechanical watches do not tell time better. One can develop an old school nostalgia for a hand wind watch or go a little more modern and consider an automatic for the convenience they provide. But a modern quartz is better in almost every way. Its like arguing it is always better to drive a big block push-rod V-8 with carburetors and distributor instead of a modern electronic ignition engine or electric hybrid. It is hard to defend just based on the logic of time keeping accuracy.

But some miscellaneous thoughts in support of wearing an automatic:

• History and nostalgia - how they reflect on an earlier time period, when modern cities were being born and DE wet shaving was king.
• Human scale accuracy - this was the biggest factor in my rejection of mechanical watches (not really a rejection, but the same question you are asking about why all the fuss). That even though a smartphone, computer, atomic clock can provide the time within a second that it hardly matters on a human scale. Even if one is catching a bus, meeting with a potential business partner, etc, one does not operate their life at a second timescale. A minute or so is usually more than close enough. Which a decent mechanical watch can easily provide. By this same logic one does not need to spend thousands of dollars for small increase in accuracy.
• Efficiency - it is hard to imagine being more green than wearing an automatic self-winding watch.
• Dependability - they don't last forever and need regular service, but unless physically damaged they aren't likely to stop working all of sudden when you are far away from home.
• Demands a relationship - This may be more than you bargain for, but a good automatic watch requires that you pay attention to it. Like SWMBO or a best friend, if you don't wear it will stop working. Ideally you wear it every day and in return it will faithfully keep the time for you.
• Mechanical marvel - whether it has a see through case back or not, one can still marvel at all the precision of having such a small machine on your wrist.

 

[Kazeryu]

Hundreds more on any watch when the accuracy will not be discernible to the wearer.

I can understand spending more on a fountain pen; it writes better.

I can understand spending more on a razor; it will shave better.

But how does a watch tell time better?

Speaking as an engineer, mechanical is just more "cool" because of the complexity. I have an appreciation for the incredible engineering and production effort, particularly in older pieces made when machines like CNCs did not exist.

I agree completely that accuracy is a non-factor after a certain point - except in that a particularly accurate mechanical is cooler than a less accurate mechanical, for the same reason that a mechanical is cooler than a quartz.

 

[ReAndyMator]

Unless one acquires a perpetual day/date analog watch, then 10 months of the year the day has to be adjusted, since July and August both have 31 days. Since I have to make an adjustment to the watch for 10 months, and when we switch to/from daylight savings time, if the time is off by more than a minute or two a month, it can be adjusted then.

A couple (to within acceptable tolerances) of points :

(a) You would have to change the date on a few months, but not the day. Unless you're planning on skipping (say) a Wednesday or two. Personally, I'd have no issue with skipping a Monday or three, but sadly I can't see a way to get away with it.
(b) No you don't. Since it'd clock around to the 31st and then to the 1st, you'd have to change it at the end of Feb, April, June, September and November. That's five times a year.
(c) January, March, May, October and December also have 31 days.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Lou,

I didn't buy an Old Type Gillette because it shaves better than say...my Gillette President or 1940s SS...

Or, put another way, I didn't buy a 30 year old Glenfiddich because it tastes better than say....a Balvenie Double Wood...

 

[little Big feather]

And......Now do you see?
It is a respect...A fascination....A love.
A watch does not tell you your time in the future, or even your now...It tells you your time lost in the past.
I have never had a person ask me for the time and then ask for the exact minute and second.
They ask...I look and may say,"Quarter to nine." Close enough I think.
When I look at my watches...I have to smile....I enjoy the beauty,the thought of all those spinning and rocking little parts inside.
My watches are so cool!!

 

[getsome]

You're speaking my language. Both delicious in their own way. Neither is to be knocked for it's price tag. But a 30yr old liquid artform; there's something extra special about that.
~B

Lou,


Or, put another way, I didn't buy a 30 year old Glenfiddich because it tastes better than say....a Balvenie Double Wood...

 

[LarryDarrell]

I like my automatics because the idea that energy spent in moving my arm is recovered and used to power my watch just appeals to me.

 

[Doc4]

Until recently, Seiko sold a quartz watch that would stay accurate to within +/- 20 seconds per year, had an automatic calendar built in so that at 12.01 am on March First, the date wheel would go from "28" to "1" ... and the watch knew when that day was ... and it knew if it were a leap year too ... and the battery only needed to be replaced every ten years. They'd sell for about $350 and up.

Discontinued.

Look, for most of us, having a watch that is totally accurate ... Bulova sells a "precisionist" quartz watch that is +/- 10 seconds/year for anywhere from $250 on up, depending on the model & features ... isn't necessary. At any given moment, almost none of us require "temporal accuracy" finer than "give or take a couple minutes". Right now, I think the watch I'm wearing is about 45 seconds fast. No biggie.

Now, it may be a personal "hobby" sort of interest to have an ultra-highly accurate watch. It strikes me as akin to the guy who arranges all the pencils on his desk exactly two inches apart, and who has his desk facing true north (rather than magnetic north) or whatever.

You can spend as much or as little as you want on a watch. Five bucks at the dollar store ... fifty for a Timex ... five hundred for a Seiko ... five grand for a Grand Seiko ... fifty grand for something Swiss and prestigious ... five hundred grand for something Swiss, prestigious and diamond-encrusted ... very little of the price increases have to do with increased performance. Some of it has to do with a nicer-looking watch, some has to do with a more durable or longer lasting watch, and especially as you go higher in price, a lot has to do with "intangibles" (which is a polite way of saying a lot of guys who spend a lot of money on a watch do so in order to show the world that they have that much money to begin with.)

Some guys like the "set it and forget it" reliability of quartz, some guys like the "romance" of all the little moving pieces of manual or automatic ... personal preference, nothing more.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

... personal preference, nothing more.

Well said doc....particularly the last four words.

 

[Argonaut]

I get the preference and appreciation for the mechanics, honestly I do. It comes down to what you want out of your watch. I used to think the old Allis-Chalmers tractor with the fly wheel starter that I used to bail hay with on the horse ranch was what being a "real" ranch hand was all about, until it got cold outside and that piece of crap wouldn't start until my arms were about to fall off. I quickly grew to appreciate the electronic ignition of the John Deer. It all boils down to what you like. I have both kinds, I love to hear the ticking of the mechanicals, but get irritated when I don't wear one for a couple of days and have to reset them. I love the reliability of the Quartz watches, but they have no nostalgic appeal.

 

[rajagra]

But how does a watch tell time better?

The same way a good comedian tells the same joke better than a bad one? In the delivery.

Not a big mechanical fan myself, but I'll dig my only one out and show it some love.

 

[DunEdinRanger]

I understand where you gents are coming from. I would have much preferred a mechanical wind up or automatic but the cost, to me, was prohibitive. Thanks for your comments.

For me, a watch has to look nice, be accurate, reliable, and durable. I'm an engineer so function will usually trump form.

I find fountain pens both functional and beautiful, and am willing to spend the extra money for the enjoyment I get out of writing with them. The way the ink flows unto the paper, the way it glistens before it dries, the differing widths of the lines and the shading - artifacts which have been lost to a generation weaned on the cold, hard, unforgiving plastic of ball points.

I shave with DE's and SE's - especially the GEM Micromatic Clog-pruf because I find it to be the perfect melding of form and function; designed to efficiently eradicate stubble. I enjoy the feel of the razor, the sense of knowing this implement designed and built almost 80 years ago still functions the way its long dead designers envisioned; as perfectly as the first day it rolled off the assembly line.

In the matter of fine distilled Single Malt Scotch Whisky, I do enjoy the varieties that have given up quite a bit of the "Angel's Share", but there are some 20+ year olds that I have sampled at Whisky tastings that are not worth the price. Then there were those that were almost ambrosia like. BTW, if memory serves there are only a handful of distilleries in Scotland that bottle their own whisky on the premises. These are Balvenie, The Glenfiddich, Bruichladdich, and Springbank. Of these, Bruichladdich still runs on Victorian Era equipment.

 

[little Big feather]

Well, here is something for an engineer to answer....Why do all astronauts,(U.S.,Soviet,Chinese,U.K.,French,Japanese)wear mechanical watches
and not quartz?

 

[cstone28]

I'm an engineer so function will usually trump form.

What type of engineer, I ask because most mechs I know swoon over all those gears, springs, plates, finishing techniques?