Watches - Are These the Best of Times or Worst of Times?

[pablolie]

Hah! I never knew that. Thank you for the knowledge. My parents always set their clocks by the radio so that was a good enough "sync" for me. By the time I was living on my own I just used The Internets.

I remember the days when -if you wanted your computer to synch to a reference clock on the net- you had to configure it.

 

[Ken1951]

Hah! I never knew that. Thank you for the knowledge. My parents always set their clocks by the radio so that was a good enough "sync" for me. By the time I was living on my own I just used The Internets.

And you'd do that dialing on a rotary phone of course! TI4-XXXX, but usually 1,1,1,1 since it was faster!

 

[BlackTalon]

And you could get an up-to-date weather forecast by dialing WE6-1212.

That got killed off a couple years ago.

 

[pablolie]

please don't tell me you guys still have landlines...

PS there was supposed to be a smiley there... I type them in my smartphone but they don't show up. Apologies if at first it sounded smarta**ish.

 

[Frank Dernie]

please don't tell me you guys still have landlines...

PS there was supposed to be a smiley there... I type them in my smartphone but they don't show up. Apologies if at first it sounded smarta**ish.

We not only have a landline but the phone is mounted on the wall.
Anything battery powered in our house gets mislaid by my wife and has a flat battery. Pointless her having a mobile phone, though she does now have one since some things in modern life annoyingly need an app but she only uses the landline.

 

[tomchris]

Indeed, mechanical watches have been expected to die before. And during the 70s they nearly did. It was during the late 70s that my Dad bought me a mechanical watch, a Certina:

View attachment 430287

Many years later, in University in Germany, I was working in a large corporation as an intern, and the department boss wore a beautiful watch (I was still wearing the Certina - until it got stolen during a vacation in Greece), and during a team dinner I was bold enough to start a conversation about it. Mechanical watches hadn't quite recovered yet, but Blancpain held the flag high - and that's what he was wearing. I told myself that one day I'd get one of those. And during the 90s I started to build my collection.

People forget that mechanical watches went through that huge bump in the road, and it wasn't until the mid-90s or so that they became the more popular "man bling" they are now. And people also forget that mechanical watches have never really been about the mere function of telling time. They are a tribute to craftsmanship, to quality. A smartphone has zero lasting value in any way. We toss them away without a thought. A mechanical watch often symbolizes a moment of success, a celebration -and every day when I look at my wrist, I remember to hold myself to a standard of "craftsmanship" in my personal and professional life.

Telling time? I never look at my smartphone to tell time. It buzzes with a reminder and I immediately know what that's about. But yeah, I look at my watch often. And sometimes I think "we've come a long way from being that student that nearly fainted when he saw the price of a Blancpain on the shop window at Wempe in Munich" :-D But... it also keeps me grounded and I am still that exact guy.

And I have zero snobbery in me, I would never judge anyone because they dismiss mechanical watches as something obsolete. Like many things in life... either it's your thing or it isn't. Sure one can go make the argument that in case of a catastrophic EMP a mechanical watch would have advantages, but it's not a scenario I envision...

On my wrist today:
View attachment 430292

To reinterate a question..
Given your experience with mechanical watches, are there any design details you would change, that would make your watch perfect in your eyes?

Here are my two preferences:

• I prefer 'destro' watches (i.e. crown at 9 o'clock), so I would convert the normal crown placement of a watch given the chance/choice.
• If a watch has a date window, I prefer it to be located between 3 and 4 o'clock, keeping the hour marker at 3 o'clock intact.

Unfortunately, I feel that the various brands have been slacking the last 20 years or so. I find that the "newer" models are mostly boring and uninpressive.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Mechanical watches hadn't quite recovered yet, but Blancpain held the flag high - and that's what he was wearing. I told myself that one day I'd get one of those. And during the 90s I started to build my collection.

Have you found Blancpain to be reliable?
My favourite looking watch is the 2100 which I bought and wore every day until it started to be extremely inaccurate. I had it repaired twice under warranty and even, before finding the original was unreliable, bought a gold one as a dress watch, which I have hardly ever worn and when I tried it it was all over the place too.

 

[AdrianusG]

Have you found Blancpain to be reliable?
My favourite looking watch is the 2100 which I bought and wore every day until it started to be extremely inaccurate. I had it repaired twice under warranty and even, before finding the original was unreliable, bought a gold one as a dress watch, which I have hardly ever worn and when I tried it it was all over the place too.

Nice topic so far

I have four watches, 1 mechanical Seiko (5 sports), wearing it right now, it's about 15 years old, still working but not very accurate,
2 quartz watches witch i wear sometimes, and yes .... sigh also an apple watch witch was a birthday present from my wife some 3 or 4 years ago, i like it, just don't love it, if it gives up the ghost it's not likely i will buy another (smart) watch of any brand, i'd much rather buy a nice Citizen Pro-master Divers with Eco Drive when that time comes.

Although a nice Casio G-Shock is also high on my list, it will depend on my mood of the moment