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Poll

My wristwatch is

the cheapest available
[ 1 ] (25%)
digital with light button
[ 1 ] (25%)
gym smarty with heartrate counter because i am very old/fit
[ 0 ] (0%)
inherited from grandfather
[ 0 ] (0%)
other (specify - extra points available for watch collectors!)
[ 2 ] (50%)

Total Members Voted: 4

Topic: Best about wristwatches (Read 14465 times)
  • ersi
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Best about wristwatches
Maybe not totally worth it, but here's a whole new thread on wristwatches. Not worth it, because this is a deadish forum with barely any participants, but I feel like doing another useless poll, so let's do it! The moderate market penetration of smartwatches, expensive futile gimmicks in themselves,[1] indicates that the wristwatch format is a lasting idea.

Wristwatches are of two main types in terms of the driving engine (called "movement" in professional circles in English, as I have learned in my recent research):
 A. mechanical
 B. quartz

In terms of display (or "face"), they can be categorised as:
 1. analog (these can have either type of movement)
 2. digital (quartz movement only)
 3. combined



My first watch ever was an analog mechanical kiddie style watch at the age of 9 or so and I lost it already next week. The first watch that I somewhat cared about was a Citizen digital watch towards the end of eighties. Right now I have a Casio digital watch.

In terms of functionality, there's not been much evolution in the arena of cheap digital watches. The alarm function of my current Casio is missing the common-sense alarm feature that Citizen used to have: alarm per weekday. On the Citizen digital watch in the eighties, it was possible to activate the alarm for the five workdays of the week and keep it off for weekends. On the current Casio, there are all sorts of weird barely useful options available, e.g. a specific date each month, a specific date each year (once a year - useful I guess to remind you of your spouse's birthday or the wedding anniversary), all days for a specific month every year, every day, or nothing. No options for a weekdaily alarm on the Casio. Did Citizen patent weekday alarms or what? But Citizen has moved into the more prestigious analog segment these days and it hardly produces digital watches these days.

In this lockdown situation, some of my old fascination with wristwatches has returned. I bought four cheap quartz watches last month and tried them on. The cheapest of them all became the winner. I am giving the others away as Christmas presents. Last weekend I additionally thought it would be nice to gift myself a mechanical or at least an analog watch due to all the amazing promotions and payraises I have gained in my current job. After much figuring, I am inclined towards a true mechanical watch with some serious calendar features (e.g. a Triple Calendar Moonphase or a Multi Year Calendar watch), but this decision needs to be precise and lasting. Some other time maybe.
1 Futile because they duplicate the functionality of smartphones, but the users still need a smartphone for the complete functionality. The only ingenious thing about smartwatches is that they are fastened on the wrist, so you do not need a pocket or a bag to carry them along. But wristwatches were ingenious this way long before smartwatches, plus wristwatches - with battery - last for years, and with winding they last for a lifetime, while smartwatches pass out weekly or even daily, defeating their own purpose.↵

Re: Best about wristwatches

Reply #25 –
USA is the land of the free and whatever. In USA you are free to announce a watch without disclosing the movement.[1] Buyers are free to pay the bargain $100,000 now expressly *without* a guaranteed delivery date. Can be bitcoin too, if you please. Also, "images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product."

This is the watch I'm talking about https://gettrumpwatches.com/products/tourbillon-full-gold



Trump's campaign merch knows no limits and stops at nothing. Even the famous "little lady Secret Service Agent" is now a perpetual collateral damage of his grift.


1 Actually I understand: Which respectable movement maker would want itself associated with this disaster? It can only be "Swiss craftmanship" outsourced to China.↵

Re: Best about wristwatches

Reply #26 –

Re: Best about wristwatches

Reply #28 –
One of my favourite watch features is world time, particularly traveller's world time. It is so favourite that I do not have a watch with this feature (except a Casio, but on a quartz it is trivial). I won't get it unless someone gets world time absolutely right.

A proper world time watch shows all time zones in the entire world. It is especially proper when it does it at a single glance. Right now the closest to my ideal appears to be Nomos Sport Club neomatik Worldtimer.



For comparison, here is Oris Propilot Worldtimer.



A particular feature called "traveller's world time" means that the watch has a pushbutton that conveniently changes the hour hand *of the main dial* because a true traveller would want to see the current local time on the main dial, not on a subdial.

On the Oris it may seem that the pushbutton is missing, but actually it is provided by the turn of the bezel. Moreover, the bezel works in both directions, so the next time zone is available whichever way one is travelling. Still, even though the marketing name of the Oris claims that it is a worldtimer, it is rather a GMT watch. Different from a worldtimer, a GMT watch displays only one other time zone at a time and without a label, not all time zones labelled like the Nomos does.

Another difference between the watches is that the Oris has the date, which in my opinion is unnecessary in a worldtimer. Also seconds are mostly unnecessary, but both watches have it.

I like very much the way the other time zone has been solved on the Nomos. The Nomos has a 24h subdial, good for determining whether it is night or day in the other time zone.[1] Also, the 24h subdial has a single hand, which is honestly sufficient for the time zone where one is currently not residing and makes the overall look of the watch less busy, i.e. more legible.

Strictly in terms of functionality, any multi-time-zone quartz watch is better though, because it is possible to set a quartz GMT to any random time, while mechanical GMTs and worldtimers usually need to point to the same minutes on both dials. This is the reason why I have not bought a mechanical worldtimer: I value the functionality and I already have a quartz that is excellent with it.

Edit: And Jaeger-LeCoultre released Reverso Geographic.


1 On the Oris, the day/night indication is provided by a white window on the subdial, which flips to black for night,↵