Post pics of your watches Part II

scwazrh

Time wrote: »

Haven’t posted here much recently as I’m pretty much watchless at the moment. But I have this on order, will be another few months before it arrives so I’m torn on whether to purchase something else while I wait or not

That’s perfection .well wear.

Any outcome on the stolen watches?

Time

scwazrh wrote: »

That’s perfection .well wear.

Any outcome on the stolen watches?

Nothing unfortunately, i got the money for them but i'm still a bit bitter at losing them, but look they're only watches too at the end of the day.

Fitz II

5164A-001 eh...so thats how you want to play, game on

Thats a beauty. And the John Mayer cheat watch if I remember correctly. His view is that anyone with a travel time, obviously has a ton of heavy hitters, so if you want to cheat just buy it and everyone will assume you have a ton of Richard Mille and AP concepts in the safe :P

It truly is a quality watch, love it. What's the wait time like? Assume from the photo you are going new on that and not grey?

893bet

Time wrote: »

Haven’t posted here much recently as I’m pretty much watchless at the moment. But I have this on order, will be another few months before it arrives so I’m torn on whether to purchase something else while I wait or not

Very cool! That Weirs?

You must have some serious buying history with them to get a sniff.

Wibbs

That Patek is a real beauty. A client of mine has one. It has an odd combination of heft and delicacy in one serious quality package.

Cyclingtourist

Timex Weekender



The Right Stuff 1959 (Mercury Seven) Life Magazine

furiousox

Pablo_Flox

Irish coffee on a miserable day

Time

Fitz II wrote: »

5164A-001 eh...so thats how you want to play, game on

Thats a beauty. And the John Mayer cheat watch if I remember correctly. His view is that anyone with a travel time, obviously has a ton of heavy hitters, so if you want to cheat just buy it and everyone will assume you have a ton of Richard Mille and AP concepts in the safe :P

It truly is a quality watch, love it. What's the wait time like? Assume from the photo you are going new on that and not grey?

Didn't even know JM has one, i know there was some series on YT or Hodinkee or something with him, but i never got around to watching it. But from what i heard about it he has an impressive collection.

It really is a lovely piece, I always thought the nautilus was much nicer based on photos, but when i tried both on the Dual Time stood out much more to me. Although i think the added complications over the 5711 are what i like.

Wait time is up in the air with C-19 afaik, but i believe later this year is what i'm looking at realistically.

893bet wrote: »

Very cool! That Weirs?

You must have some serious buying history with them to get a sniff.

I've bought two watches there and a few non watch bits from montblanc, maybe 20kish spent there or something like that.

Wibbs

One of the few watches I "baby". Longines UltraQuartz from 1970.



The world's only cybernetic watch movement. Hell yes! I got it NOS off ebay years ago for buttons. While Longines were a paid up member of the Swiss consortium to bring out the first Swiss quartz movement the Beta 20/21 and fitted a couple of them to their own watches(vanishingly rare. Once missed out on an auction for one by mistake. Feck. ) they also ran their own internal research on the quiet called Project Hourglass. Instead of using the new fangled and very pricey microchips to control the movement they went for tiny discrete components from the hearing aid industry and used that circuitry as the master that kept a slave tuning fork type setup in time with the (near inch long) quartz resonator 170 times per second. The seconds hand is very smooth running. Crazy loud, you can actually feel it buzzing on the wrist. One of the strangest movements ever fitted to a watch.



Hand soldered components, hand cut Brazilian quartz, hand tuned with microscopic slivers of gold to the correct frequency. The other earliest quartz movements like Seiko's Astron and the Beta 21 were also extremely handmade using scary levels of precision compared to mechanical movements at the time and even since. Surreal.

They were very expensive at the time, even came with their own insurance policy against loss or theft. Advertised in in flight magazines on Concorde sort of thing. Very delicate and few survive in working order. Many were later converted by the factory to standard later quartz movements.

fat bloke

From the other birth year watch thread I followed the chrono24 link an searched my own year of 1975. That produced a list comprising a preponderance of "tuning fork movement" Longines. I had never heard of such a thing! - Is that what yours above is?

Thirdfox

Wibbs wrote: »

One of the few watches I "baby". Longines UltraQuartz from 1970.

The world's only cybernetic watch movement. Hell yes! I got it NOS off ebay years ago for buttons. While Longines were a paid up member of the Swiss consortium to bring out the first Swiss quartz movement the Beta 20/21 and fitted a couple of them to their own watches(vanishingly rare. Once missed out on an auction for one by mistake. Feck. ) they also ran their own internal research on the quiet called Project Hourglass. Instead of using the new fangled and very pricey microchips to control the movement they went for tiny discrete components from the hearing aid industry and used that circuitry as the master that kept a slave tuning fork type setup in time with the (near inch long) quartz resonator 170 times per second. The seconds hand is very smooth running. Crazy loud, you can actually feel it buzzing on the wrist. One of the strangest movements ever fitted to a watch.

Hand soldered components, hand cut Brazilian quartz, hand tuned with microscopic slivers of gold to the correct frequency. The other earliest quartz movements like Seiko's Astron and the Beta 21 were also extremely handmade using scary levels of precision compared to mechanical movements at the time and even since. Surreal.

They were very expensive at the time, even came with their own insurance policy against loss or theft. Advertised in in flight magazines on Concorde sort of thing. Very delicate and few survive in working order. Many were later converted by the factory to standard later quartz movements.

You have to post a video showing the hands and the buzzing

Wibbs

fat bloke wrote: »

From the other birth year watch thread I followed the chrono24 link an searched my own year of 1975. That produced a list comprising a preponderance of "tuning fork movement" Longines. I had never heard of such a thing! - Is that what yours above is?

Not quite FB. The ones you were looking at were very likely the pure tuning fork Ultronics. Like an updated Bulova Accutron. No quartz involved "pure" electric. Omega used the same movement in their f300 range at the time. Zenith, IWC, Tissot, Movado and others used the same movement under licence. Very popular at the time. I've one of them myself, the Longines diver version.



Really nice quality 70's diver and luckily the seals and services were kept up throughout(one of the very few watches I know the original owner history on), so the inners were kept damp free and factory fresh. It really doesn't look like a 40 year old watch in person.

Thirdfox wrote: »

You have to post a video showing the hands and the buzzing

Funny enough T, about five years ago I did take some vid, but sadly couldn't capture the sound. I could hear it clearly but the crappy camera microphone couldn't. But you can see what I mean with the smooth seconds hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0jv6c1NKU0

njburke

Again wibbs, that Ultronic rings all my bells.

The project hour glass, was the tuning fork needed because they didn't have a stepper motor. So they drove a tuning fork and used index fingers to turn the gear train?

What year did the stepper motor appear, was it in the astron?

njburke

Just in from bulgaria, a 1974 Accutron. As plain and simple as they come.
I had no white dial and fancied another Accutron. It hums, second hand sweeps smoothly , spring drive esque which fools the eye that it's continuous motion but it's not.
My 1969 accutron is going back to the seller for service. This one is accurate, so far rate is + 2.5s, not bad for a 47 year old, I'll track over a longer period.

Wibbs

njburke wrote: »

Again wibbs, that Ultronic rings all my bells.

The project hour glass, was the tuning fork needed because they didn't have a stepper motor. So they drove a tuning fork and used index fingers to turn the gear train?

Exactly NJ. The tuning fork was the stepper motor of the time. At least in Switzerland.

What year did the stepper motor appear, was it in the astron?

As far as I'm aware yes. Looking at the movement no sign of a tuning fork mech is evident. Plus one of their early promo ad copy was "have you ever seen a second?", because it was ticking once per second.

I'm 99% sure Girard Perregaux were the first to run a stepping motor on the Swiss side(and they locked the optimum quartz frequency at 32768 Hz, which the vast majority use down to today) and IMHO its design was fundamentally better than all those that followed it(though pricier to produce). Out of the box it had no exposed coil and could drive much bigger hands more efficiently and 50 years on it's rarely the stepping motor that fails in one. If you look at early and even later quartz the hands were less substantial than on mechanicals, basically because the stepping motors didn't have the torque.

njburke

Right, I hadn't looked into the stepper motors yet, I know the torque limitation of typical quartz. GS address that by double pulsing so they can use hands with the same inertia as their mechanicals. Bulova with the UHF 262kHz probably doesn't have an issue either as each pulse has only to propel the second hand 6/16 degrees round the face as it pulse at 16Hz. 16 Hz is the threshold of human motion perception, above that still frames appear as continuous motion to the brain.

I'm sure in some meeting in 60s and seventies some electronic engineer pointed out that if the hour hand was the large hand and the minute hand was smaller, torque was less of an issue and battery life would be longer.
And then the zodiac astrographic mystery dial, plastic discs instead of hands, no quartz version there.

Wibbs

Miserable day that was in it I thought I'd go for gold and try to look classy for a change... Fail.

Longines Tank from 1950.



14Kt American made gold case. Have this one nearly 30 years. It has the original dial that's 90%. The vast majority up for sale have redials. Common with dials from this period across brands. The fine brushed linen metallic finishes didn't wear the years well. Dials from the 20's and 30's often fare better. New manufacturing process maybe? The general lack of case sealing didn't help, though I've seen similar foxing with "waterproof" cases. Typical Longines movement quality from the time.



Clean, well finished, does what it says on the tin(crazy power reserve). All their model's movements from top to bottom were of a similar finish and grade. As a brand they almost never did over fancy show off movements, nor cheap, even their very rare chronometer grade stuff was the same(inc the for competition movements). Omega were similar in this.

Within the industry they were thought of highly enough that when Jaeger LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin wanted to bypass the high tariffs on precious metal cases into America they teamed up with Longines to import and install their movements into US made cases and distribute under the LeCoultre and Longines/Wittnauer banner. So if you've a JLC or VC made from the 30's to the 70's sold in the US it was bolted together by Longines.

Birneybau

Lovely innards on that Longines.

Tilikum17

Pablo_Flox wrote: »

Batman

SNIP

Absolutely love that watch. On YouTube all day looking at reviews. Defiantly my next purchase.

MrSparkle

It's been quite a while since I've been on here, hope everyone is well. Still wearing the Seamaster multiple times a week that I picked up from Cyrus back in 2012. I have managed to stay away from buying anything for a couple of years, my Aquatimer being my last purchase six years ago or so.

Was in the market for a dress watch for a long time and as was half tempted to save up for a ALS 1815 but was a little bit too much to spend. Did try on a couple of their models but decided against it.

I've always liked Glashütte Original and decided to pick up a PanoMaticLunar to scratch that dress watch itch. Almost haven't taken it off since I bought it, except to look at the caseback



My photography skills have not improved over the years either, here's some more info is anyone is interested.

PanoMaticLunar-1-90-02-42-32-05/

Fitz II

Very very nice, love that Glashuitte original, a very nice watch indeed. Does it wear big? Get the impression they are smaller than they look in photos.

fat bloke

MrSparkle wrote: »

Was in the market for a dress watch for a long time and as was half tempted to save up for a ALS 1815 but was a little bit too much to spend.

Reading your post and admiring your beautiful watch I found myself nodding sagely in total agreement with what struck me as an eminently prudent frugal sensibility.... until I saw the price of this "cheap" option. -Mudderagad! :eek::eek::pac::D

MrSparkle

Fitz II wrote: »

Very very nice, love that Glashuitte original, a very nice watch indeed. Does it wear big? Get the impression they are smaller than they look in photos.

Thanks. Meant to post a wrist shot also. The strap is still quite stiff so looks like it's cutting into my wrist which it isn't really, that bit will look better when it settles.

I have a larger wrist and size wise it looks good I think.

Wibbs

In my humble the German marques are blowing the doors off a lot of the Swiss offerings in the "dressy" end. Traditional and contemporary without going the homage route, or tweaking decades old designs and with more complications. Very nice.

fat bloke wrote: »

Reading your post and admiring your beautiful watch I found myself nodding sagely in total agreement with what struck me as an eminently prudent frugal sensibility.... until I saw the price of this "cheap" option. -Mudderagad! :eek::eek::pac::D

Oh sure, we're not talking Casio money here, but again in my humble you're getting far more bang for the buck compared to similar price ranges with the Swiss.

893bet

I really like GO also but I am firmly in the German camp mentally these days. There is little from the ALS/Stowa/Nomos/dornbluth line up that I don’t like.

I was hovering over a panoreserve for long time last year or the year before (it’s still 2020 right??). But the proportions are wrong for wrist and for my tastes.

They are too big and thick to dressy, yet to dressy to be sporty.

But I do love the design of them and finish.

fat bloke

Wibbs wrote: »

Oh sure, we're not talking Casio money here, but again in my humble you're getting far more bang for the buck compared to similar price ranges with the Swiss.

Oh don't mind me, I'm an horological illiterate. Inured though I am to Rolex fantasy football prices it still comes as a shock to me that brands wholly unfamiliar to me are way up there also. I was only beginning to recover from the Zenith ten grand for an homage debacle. I see "German" as a manufacturer and think to myself "Ah yeah, that's lovely, I'd 'ave that, if only I had a spare 1500 quid or so" only to be smacked in a face with a wet trout 5 times the size! .

I'm learning all the time, now if you'll excuse me my microwaved baked beans are ready. :pac:

MrSparkle

Wibbs wrote: »

In my humble the German marques are blowing the doors off a lot of the Swiss offerings in the "dressy" end. Traditional and contemporary without going the homage route, or tweaking decades old designs and with more complications. Very nice.

Oh sure, we're not talking Casio money here, but again in my humble you're getting far more bang for the buck compared to similar price ranges with the Swiss.

Yep I'd agree with the bang for the buck comment. I was looking at the JLC Master Ultra Thin Moon but there was no budging on the price.

I like that the GO is a bit different, have liked them since I tried on some models about 10 years ago or so, got a good discount on this one and it helped make the decision for me.

Thirdfox

fat bloke wrote: »

Oh don't mind me, I'm an horological illiterate. Inured though I am to Rolex fantasy football prices it still comes as a shock to me that brands wholly unfamiliar to me are way up there also. I was only beginning to recover from the Zenith ten grand for an homage debacle. I see "German" as a manufacturer and think to myself "Ah yeah, that's lovely, I'd 'ave that, if only I had a spare 1500 quid or so" only to be smacked in a face with a wet trout 5 times the size! .

I'm learning all the time, now if you'll excuse me my microwaved baked beans are ready. :pac:

The fun really starts when you see watches and you genuinely can't say if they cost 500,000 or 50 euro (the big crystal "showy" pieces like a Jacob & Co or Big Bang or an Invicta/Chinese homage of a Hublot/Richard Mille) - unless you spot the name :pac:

MrSparkle

893bet wrote: »

I really like GO also but I am firmly in the German camp mentally these days. There is little from the ALS/Stowa/Nomos/dornbluth line up that I don’t like.

I was hovering over a panoreserve for long time last year or the year before (it’s still 2020 right??). But the proportions are wrong for wrist and for my tastes.

They are too big and thick to dressy, yet to dressy to be sporty.

But I do love the design of them and finish.

Funny you mention that, I was actually going to say that it's not a dress (should have put that in inverted commas in the original post perhaps) watch at all for watch purists due to the size and thickness.

I've tried on dress watches from quite a number of the brands and they always felt a bit lost on my wrist due to the size of them. I preferred the size of this GO, just felt right when I tried it on, fits under my shirt cuff and looks good with a suit.