The Official Watch Thread.

[KungFooBob]

Your idea of cheap is different to mine.

It was cheap compared to the ones in the Omega shop two doors down.

[Cousin Jack]

I like Seikos, I have 4.

The one on my wrist now is 25 years old.

[KungFooBob]

I've got a 15 year old Seiko (that needs the glass replaced), the stainless straps feels like it's made to much tighter tolerances than my much more modern everyday wearer Casio Ediface, and feels much nicer to wear because of it.

[ZRX61]

I just picked up a George brand (Wally World) watch for $10 because it has green trim which fits well with my Kawasaki obsession & as an added bonus also satisfies my like of big fat ugly watches.

[Potter]

The bottom has fallen out of watches as investments, most watches will lose money as soon as you walk out of the shop with them, which is a fairly big swing from 12 months ago when you could easily make 20-30% at least on most.

I sold my 'investment' watches in Feb/March, i.e. the ones I didn't plan on keeping forever. Despite protests to the contrary from a lot of people I could see where it was going. I could now buy the same watches back at about 30% less than I got for them.

It will take a while for the knock on effects, luxury sales like this will be a lagging indicator of the economy, so most Rolex/Patek shops still have low stock and you probably can't just walk in and buy a Submariner off the shelf yet without a wait, but it will come.

[Count Steer]

For those of you with an interest I caught an episode of the morning book serialisation on R4 this am. It's 'Hands of Time' by Rebecca Struthers (designer, watchmaker, historian). Today I caught the bit that covered from Rolex to Smart watches via quartz, digital, Swatch. May be
worth a listen or a read if you have an interest.

All episodes available on the Beeb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lqm9

(This was an RTTL public service information snippet ).

[KungFooBob]

The wife was concerned about her blood oxygen and heart rate, so I bought her a rose gold Samsung Watch5 thing.

She hates technology, but has become obsessed with it. She never usually wears a watch, but she's even sleeping with it on to get all the health stats... "Did you know I only got 30mins of deep REM sleep last night" etc...

I'm an IT person, I should love this shit, but it leaves me cold.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I have that sleep tracking data stuff to.

I'm still none the wiser about what I'm supposed to do with the information

[MrLongbeard]

I was totes undecided about smart watches so went for a 2nd hand Galaxy 3 watch to test the waters.
Now? It gets worn 24/7, 2.5 hours REM sleep last night, although to be fair I think it's main use will be to give the coroner something to read if I drop down dead.

For me it's main uses are sleep tracking, finding where I left my phone, and countdown timers when BBQing / Smoking.

[Count Steer]

I have that sleep tracking data stuff to.

I'm still none the wiser about what I'm supposed to do with the information

Mentioned it before but I've been trying to correlate what gives me (according to the watch) a good night's sleep (and 'body battery' recharge). Also whether I feel different when the watch says

My main observation from over the Christmas period was that it's true, alcohol doesn't improve your sleep in any way. (I did try and be scientific about it after and - suffering in the name of science - had a few cans of Guinness Original one random evening and lo! poor quality sleep ie less deep and REM, more light and more excursions, unsurprisingly).

[Horse]

I'm still none the wiser about what I'm supposed to do with the information

Worry?

Serious answer: I was with someone recently, waiting for an ambo to arrive*. A paramedic phoned from the control room. One of the questions was "do you have a smart watch with heart rate recording?"

* They couldn't find us. 100 yds down the road, parked pointing the wrong way. "No, we don't use What 3 Words"

[Potter]

I've tried, but smart watches don't work for me, as soon as I don't need to know the time then I take my watch off, you'll rarely see me wearing one after 6pm or at weekends.
I can't sleep with one on, that would be weird, I can't sleep unless I'm completely starkers - it causes people to look at me askance on the train

I've mostly stopped wearing one to work too, I was uncomfortable with being asked about my watches, even if I wore a Timex I'd get people asking what it was, I'd explain that it's a cheap Timex and they'd ask why I wasn't wearing a Patek, it got tiring.

I wear my Garmin for running, I use the ships clock for sailing and my phone for the time otherwise.
In the garden I actually use a properly aligned sundial.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm the other way around, I always have a "time telling" watch on my left wrist and often a Garmin on my right. Garmin is for running and the like.

I don't like smart watches for telling the time, an old fashioned face clock is way better IMO. Even a screen showing a face clock isn't as good because you can't read it at an angle and a glance.

[Potter]

I'm the other way around, I always have a "time telling" watch on my left wrist and often a Garmin on my right. Garmin is for running and the like.

I don't quite know why but people wearing devices on both wrists annoys the hell out of me.

There is a famous watch aficionado that wears very expensive wristwatches on both wrists at the same time, IIRC he even wears them over his shirt.
He says it's because he loves watches so much but I think it's a very crude display.

[Mr. Dazzle]

No-one's ever accused me of being sophisticated.

Well...that's' not true, they have. But they were wrong!

[KungFooBob]

No-one ever accused me of being sophisticated.

Well...that's' not true, they have. But they were wrong!

Is it because you thought that the Albert chain on your pocket watch was supposed to be attached at the other end to your Prince Albert?

[Mr. Dazzle]

That was pendulus, glad they set me straight.

[Horse]

In the garden I actually use a properly aligned sundial.

That must be a ball ache to move around and align if you go for a stroll

Our garden (at least, the 'usable' section) is only about 100' x 25', but there are still plenty of places where the sundial can't be seen even in it's usual elevated position. Especially since, at the moment, it's in the shed for polishing

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[DefTrap]

I've started wearing humongous watches because, without my glasses on, I can't effing well read them. Has to be very contrasting face / hands, then I'm good to go.

No investment stuff, I'm too cheap, too clumsy.

My current favourites are the maverick range from TWSteel.

[Nordboy]

I'm currently wearing an Amazfit Falcon, titanium smartwatch thingy, pretty pricey but I do like it quite a lot.

Does all the smartypants stuff like texts, emails etc, all the healthy stuff, heartrate etc plus some offline mapping. It was a crap load cheaper than the equivalent Garmin would have been.

I can also do the face choice, so daily is a mixture of digital screens and then, these days I can't be bothered putting my Brietling on, just change the watch face to something smarter. It's very clever.