You get it or you don't
TerryPancake said:
Breitling makes one of the finest watches known to man. The Avenger is an automatic, so I don't have to get batteries. But, if you let it set for a few days, it will "go to sleep". Oh well, just a good reason to not take it off.
The problem I have with all the fancy watches is they really are hard to read at night or even in the day with all the tiny tiny marks.
I have a Automatic watch winder, which sits on my dresser, just bought it from e-Bay. It holds and winds both of my auto watches. It was less than $40 and is a beautiful cherry wood case. It has a drawer to hold two more watches.
My Rolex Explore II is 12-13 years old and keeps good time. I like it because it keeps time, easy to read, 24 hour GMT time and (local) hour hand. The hour hand can be set without stopping the watch (second hand) for differnt time zones. Also you can stop the second hand by pulling the crown out to the last position for the time hack feature. Also I like that it appreciates in value. I could easily sell it for $500-$700 more than I paid for it.
Of course mechanical watches need occasional overhaul service, which is many hundred, so the cost of battery for quartz watches is not a great argument, since an overhaul is more than you pay for batteries. Rolex I recall says 5 years. A master watch makers told me 10 years or as long as it runs well. I have not had it overhauled yet (13 years), but as long as it runs well, I'll hold off for a few more years. I did have it adjusted once in the first two years, at no charge.
Why have a mechanical watch? Quartz watches are boring and uninteresting. Mechanical watches have a mystic and tradition about them.
Quartz electrical wrist watches where developed in 1959, first became commercial in 1969 and it was not till 1978 it became widely available and reasonable in cost. Of course they where expensive for the time. Then Japan made them cheaper and cheaper. Now Japan has been put out of the market lead by China. So no wounder many of the early aviation records where set with mechanical watches on board.
There's no explaining having a mechanical watch. You either dig them for their intrinsic coolness or you don't. I dig them. Before 1970 it was really the only way to go. The amazing thing is a mechanical watch can keep time within 1-2 seconds a day (Chronograph standards).
Reasonable Accuracy Expectations by Type of Watch Seconds gain/loss per day
Best Accuracy: +/-Worst +/-Typical +/-Best
Vintage mechanical watch in good repair: +/-60 +/-15 +/-5 <99.9826%
Modern mechanical watch non-certified: +/-10 +/-5 +/-2 <99.9942%
Modern mechanical watch chronometer certified: +6/-4 +/-3 +/-1 <99.9977%
Modern quartz watch non-certified (normal): +/-2 +/-1 +/-0.1 <99.9998%
Modern quartz watch chronometer certified (rare): +/-0.02 +/-0.02 +/-0.0 <99.9999%
My Explorer II is a modern certified chronometer, and is about +/-3 sec a day, or about 1.5 minutes a month. However over many days and weeks depending on how I wear it, temp and resting postion (when you have it off -Dial Up, Crown Down, Dial Down, Crown Left, Crown Up, Crown Right), it can gain or loose speed, which balances out.
A mechanical/automatic watch does not have to be expensive to be accurate either.
I don't care about calculator, gps. I want accurate time, local and GMT plus date. My Explorer II does all that. I hope to have it 40 years from now. I wear it every day. G
