Author Topic: Wearing a watch  (Read 126682 times)

mattc

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Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #500 on: 17 October, 2018, 06:31:10 pm »
If you want your watch to be seen, it follows that big is useful. This, alongside the fact that no-one in the microchip age is impressed by the miniaturisation of clockwork (that drove the impossibly small watches of the 1800s), is the reason for the trend. It takes an experienced – not to mention biologically sound – eye to identify what someone is wearing at a few paces. Extend that by 40% and the catchment area of your status symbol doubles.

I can't fault your logic, but my thinking is that this is purely a fashion thing. Despite knowing way less than the next bloke my (advanced) age about fashion, I'm prepared to wager that big watches won't be The Thing in 20 years time.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #501 on: 17 October, 2018, 06:50:52 pm »
If you want your watch to be seen, it follows that big is useful. This, alongside the fact that no-one in the microchip age is impressed by the miniaturisation of clockwork (that drove the impossibly small watches of the 1800s), is the reason for the trend. It takes an experienced – not to mention biologically sound – eye to identify what someone is wearing at a few paces. Extend that by 40% and the catchment area of your status symbol doubles.

I can't fault your logic, but my thinking is that this is purely a fashion thing. Despite knowing way less than the next bloke my (advanced) age about fashion, I'm prepared to wager that big watches won't be The Thing in 20 years time.

TBH, it's not The Thing now - A couple of years ago your footballists and mumble rappers and what not were walking around with dinner plate sized watches, like ridiculously huge, but they're much more conservative now. I.e. Lil Yachtys $100,000 Patek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwuHHhX10Ec

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #502 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:23:30 pm »
We actually saw the opposite with phones. Pre-smartphone mobiles got smaller and smaller as a sign of blingness, until they started sending emails and youtubing and stuff, when we needed bigger screens – so in that case it was small for bling, large for function. Now it's all large and, yes, combines bling and function. If we start watching movies on our watches, they'll end up as big as, well, current phones – probably. But otherwise, I reckon MattC is right and in the swing of fashion they'll get smaller again. And then bigger and then...
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #503 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:35:22 pm »

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #504 on: 17 October, 2018, 08:36:32 pm »
So the size of watches could be linked to the availability of wrist porn? Oh, hang on...
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #505 on: 18 October, 2018, 06:34:59 am »
Would work well for automatic watches

ian

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #506 on: 18 October, 2018, 07:41:02 am »
Having spent yesterday staring at wrists, I have deduced the following.

1. Watch size for men tends to correlate with age and apparent financial status (accounting for wishful thinking)
2. Most men wear middling watches. Very few 'smart watches.'
3. Women don't like middling sized watches – it's either very small bracelet watches or oversized ones. Surprisingly, far more women in 'smart' watches – Apple or Fitbity things.

I'm in Paris though, and things might be different here.

I will test my deductions in London. If I don't get arrested first.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
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Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #507 on: 21 October, 2018, 02:51:39 pm »
It seems that there are a lot of "le Locle" style watches about which bear the legend "AUTOMATIC" whereas mine says "POWERMATIC 80". I googled the difference and found a rather interesting piece about watch movements, accuracy and shock resistance. Apparently "Powermatic 80" has only become available since 2012. The claim is that the watch, although automatic, will carry on working for 80 hours without being worn. Apparently Tissot achieved this by means of reducing the number of oscillations of the balance wheel from 4 to 3 per second, so that the single spring can last longer than normal. It wasn't immediately apparent to me why other watches with a lower hertz rating could not also do this, but it seems that it's the first time this has been achieved within this price range.

My watch seems to be losing about 3 seconds a day, which is perfectly acceptable given that it will need a manual adjustment at least 7 times a year - once for every month of less than 31 days, and again for the annual time changes in March and October.

https://quillandpad.com/2016/09/03/measuring-time-seconds-truth-behind-high-frequency-movements/
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #508 on: 27 October, 2018, 12:58:12 pm »
Years ago I bought a cheap black plastic Casio watch (would be about £10 now), the strap broke fairly quickly and I haven't worn a watch since then until about a year ago when I bought about 10 analogue quartz watches from Ebay for about £1 to £3 each. All of them work and keep good time.

When the first one stopped working, I put that aside and got the next one out and wore that. After I got to the fifth one, I bought some new batteries and all the ones that stopped working are now working after a change of batteries.

On the other hand the cheap Casio copies I got from Ebay were crap.

I know someone on min wage and works 12 hours 6 days a week who got a Tissot watch for about £300, it stopped working, took it back to the shop, stopped working again, couldn't find the receipt, and AFAIK it's still not working.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/19/luxury-watch-industry-survive-digital-age

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/26/swiss-watch-sales-fall-10-per-cent-china-corruption-crackdown

Samuel D

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #509 on: 27 October, 2018, 01:12:41 pm »
I'm in Paris though, and things might be different here.

I will test my deductions in London. If I don't get arrested first.

You’ve left us on tenterhooks. What is the fashion in London?

By the way, I have a standing offer to anyone to join me for a few laps of Longchamp (on a bicycle, not a horse) if they’re visiting Paris and have some time to kill.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #510 on: 27 October, 2018, 10:01:13 pm »
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/19/luxury-watch-industry-survive-digital-age
Quote
As one of Tom Stoppard’s characters put it in his 1982 play The Real Thing, “It looked all over for the 15-jewel movement. Men ran through the marketplace shouting ‘the cog is dead!’”
The cog is dead, long live the sprocket!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #511 on: 27 October, 2018, 10:56:39 pm »
I also like that the watch Jose Mourinho was given was called the Special One!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #512 on: 28 October, 2018, 07:05:31 am »
I wonder, does anyone else here recognise The Omega Incabloc Oyster Accutron 72? (without Google, that is)

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #513 on: 28 October, 2018, 08:58:33 am »
It's the only wristwatch for a drummer.

Clive James lyric for Pete Atkin.

Blodwyn Pig

  • what a nice chap
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #514 on: 28 October, 2018, 03:37:24 pm »
IMG_0320 by mark tilley, on Flickr

watch #1 CWC 'L'


IMG_0322 by mark tilley, on Flickr

watch #2, Pulsar kinetic, (special'Guardian readers offer watch, ..........its never wrong, and it has 2 LEFT hands). Now 18 years old, and extreemly battered, but keeps perfect time.Still available, now £70ish

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #515 on: 28 October, 2018, 05:32:42 pm »
I had the mechanical version of this model. It looked too small on my wrist, so I eventually sold it.
I like the simplicity of the dial.


Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #516 on: 28 October, 2018, 09:35:06 pm »
It's the only wristwatch for a drummer.

Clive James lyric for Pete Atkin.

I suspected I wouldn't be quite alone here. I sometime wonder what would have happened if I discovered him only recently, I suspect it wouldn't have as much impact as it did finding him in my 20s

For those that are in blissful ignorance, I give you a few lines of a verse that often runs through my head when I'm on a bike

Quote
Perfect Moments
Perfect moments have a clean design
Scoring edges that arrest the flow
Skis cut diamonds in the plump of snow
Times my life feels like a friend of mine

Perfect moments wear a single face
Variations on each other's theme
Renoir's mistresses in peach and cream
Rembrandt's mother in a ruff of lace

Perfect moments bear a single name
They're placed together though they never meet
Charlie Chaplin policing Easy Street
Charlie Parker playing My Old Flame

Perfect moments should redeem the day
Their teeming richness ought to be enough
To take the sting out of the other stuff
A perfect bitch it doesn't work that way



(Clive James/Pete Atkin

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #517 on: 28 October, 2018, 09:49:43 pm »


That's my Tissot.

I've decided that it's too expensive to risk a nasty crash on the bike, so I've also bought a cheap Casio F-91W for £5.99 off Ebay. That should arrive tomorrow or Tuesday.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112668886151
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #518 on: 29 October, 2018, 12:46:29 pm »
Prodded the buttons to make my G-Shock go back an hour.  The digital bit did as it was told, but no amount of button-jibbling has yet persuaded the hands to point to the correct time.  I have had to set the digital side ten minutes slow, so now it goes "beep" at ten past the hour.
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Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #519 on: 03 November, 2018, 02:32:16 pm »
A few of my Ebay specials:



£1-3 each. All quartz.


Jaded

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Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #521 on: 11 November, 2018, 12:09:59 am »
So it didn’t go to the moon.
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #522 on: 21 November, 2018, 09:42:36 am »
So it didn’t go to the moon.

Nope. NASA famously used Omega Speedmasters from the Gemini days through to the Space-shuttle. You can still buy them new from Omega today. A really nice watch and functional not flashy like that Rolex.

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #523 on: 21 November, 2018, 10:19:49 am »
these were NASA issue whereas the Rolex is a personal watch. he would have bought it back in the day prob overseas when on deployment. these luxury watches were a lot cheaper back in the 60s as there wasn't the same cachet on branding. Rolex Submariners were standard issue to RN divers for a while and in the US Navy, Tudor or Rolex were issued or were available from the P/X

fuzzy

Re: Wearing a watch
« Reply #524 on: 21 November, 2018, 10:35:23 am »
There are some cracking lots in that auction!