/wt/ Watch Thread

This thread is about the appreciation of horology, as well as the micro-engineering and materials engineering that are required to make a fine watch, clock, or other timepiece.
>Required viewing for noobies:
youtube.com/watch?v=Gb4_xxfoUZE
>Strap Guide:
pastebin.com/SwRysprE
>Watch essentials 102:
pastebin.com/VBAu4Rwi
Previous Thread:

Other urls found in this thread:

ebay.com/itm/POBEDA-LACO-Aviator-VERY-RARE-Mechanical-Mens-Wristwatch-Made-in-USSR/202089587199?
amazon.com/Seiko-Prospex-Automatik-SNE437P1-Wristwatch/dp/B01N5J6Y2M
creationwatches.com/products/black-friday-sale-276/index-1-5d.html
creationwatches.com/products/hamilton-watches-250/hamilton-khaki-h68311533-mens-watch-3603.html?currency=USD
wsj.com/articles/with-mens-watches-small-is-cool-again-1490704981
ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluco-Horween-Shell-Cordovan-Watch-Strap-Black-Brown-Dark-Brown-Natural-Y8-/171978325652
watchunique.com/seagull-1963-original/seagull-1963.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Post your deals. I haven't gotten anything yet.

ebay.com/itm/POBEDA-LACO-Aviator-VERY-RARE-Mechanical-Mens-Wristwatch-Made-in-USSR/202089587199?

I sold pic related for 70€ last night (bought it for 25€ 6 moths ago). With the money I've just ordered 2 DNA kits on the Black Friday discount for me and my gf. Pretty much a good deal IMO.

Nice DW tribute.

Crown and buckles does -40%, not sure how good they are but I may get a leather strap.

Will this be too big for my 6.5" wrist? SKX007/009 is probably the biggest that can fit there.

amazon.com/Seiko-Prospex-Automatik-SNE437P1-Wristwatch/dp/B01N5J6Y2M

This Raketa Kopernik just came in the mail. Pretty cool piece of slavshit desu.

thanksgiving is for the perfect diver

>goes 20 years without service
>electronic accuracy
>runs months between charges

...

Please address my question:

it's pretty big, you should try it on and see if the lugs hang off

I am 6'3 and it's not too big for me, it's only 3mm larger than a skx007

My man, can you measure the lug-to-lug length for me? Thanks in advance.

>My man, can you measure the lug-to-lug length for me? Thanks in advance.

it's 48mm

Nice windy knob, my man.

thanks, it's the windyest

:^)

Any black friday dealeros?

Only shitters are ever discounted on Black Friday.

:(

Crossposting in-case the user who asked the question missed the replies:

>What are some nice Seiko watches to look for on Yahoo auctions?
Are you interested in vintage mechanicals? Are you prepared to take the time to find an independent watchmaker near you to service them?

If the answers to both those questions are yes, then a few models you should consider looking at are:

1) Lord Marvel 36000 with the 5740C movement. This was Suwa Seikosha's test-bed for a 36,000 bph beat rate movement before they designed one for the Grand Seiko line, and in order to focus on that technical challenge they designed the movement to be manual winding, non-hacking, and without a date complication. As it turned out the movement design is one of the best Suwa designed movements of the late pre-quartz era and crucially is one of the most reliable and robust. As a result of that, and the popularity of the Lord Marvel 36000 model, Suwa Seikosha made a boatload of these between 1967 and the late 1970s. In fact, Suwa continued making these until it was one of the very last mid-range models still having a mechanical movement as quartz took over the range. The net result of so many of these having been made is that you can find them in very good condition for ~$200-300 on Yahoo! Japan Auctions.

2) King Seiko 5245/5246/5256. The 52xx caliber was the last mechanical movement designed by Daini Seikosha prior to the quartz revolution and they took the opportunity to self consciously design a statement for posterity of what they were capable of. The 52xx is a 28,800 bph, hacking, handwinding, screw type micro-regulator movement with quick-set day and date and (on 5245/5246 versions) instant day/date changeover. It is one of the best designed production automatic movements of the pre-quartz era, and in King Seiko form was adjusted to at least chronometer specs (better in the KS Special versions). These can be found for under $300 in good condition, if you're patient.

Continued:

3) King Seiko 45xx. These movements were the culmination of Daini Seikosha's total obsession with mechanical accuracy and with the Swiss chronometer trials. The 45xx movement was designed from the ground up solely for the purpose of absolutely maximizing accuracy in a production mechanical movement, and boy does it show. The 45xx is a manual winding 36,000 bph movement with a screw-type micro-regulator and available in both no-date and quick-set date versions. Be warned, however, that the 45xx is unusually prone to excessive wear issues compared to most Daini designed movements as accuracy was essentially the sole design target. These movements are more likely than most Daini movements to eventually need donor parts and donor's aren't easy to find for cheap as no mid-grade watches were ever produced based on the 45xx movement family. That being said, I personally think the King Seiko 45-7001 is the single most perfect expression of Seiko's Grammar of Design, and the movement has a legitimate argument for being the most inherently accurate production mechanical movement in the pre-quartz era (with only the Girard Perregaux 32A family having a reasonable alternate claim on that title). It is also the only production movement to ever both win a Swiss Chronometer trial and pass Neuchatel Astronomical Observatory testing, and this movement family broke the records for mechanical movements in both Geneva and Neuchatel in 1968. One user in /wt/ has one and he will tell you how outrageous this movement's performance is even today, as his runs something like +2 SPD in six positions at full wind and after 24 hours. Just remember that these movements are not for the economically feint of heart. In the first place, you'll typically have to pony up at least $500 to get one in decent shape, and as I said, these movements are more prone to more than average TLC in servicing and possibly eventually needing spare parts.

Oh, I almost forgot:

4) LM Special 5206/5216. These were the mid-range variants based on the same 52xx movement range that was used (in much more adjusted form) in the 52xx King Seikos. These watches are plentiful and available quite cheaply, but cannot be expected to deliver the same kind of accuracy today that the vintage 52xx King Seikos do. Still, as many in good condition can be had for $100 or less, they offer a cheap way to get your hands on a movement roughly equivalent to an ETA 2892-A2 elabore or perhaps even top grade. Just make sure you try to buy one in decent shape, as a lot of these have been abused as they were not that expensive in-period either.

Finally, make sure you don't confuse the King Seiko 56xx or Lord Matic 56xx for the other watches I've mentioned here. The 56xx series was produced by Suwa Seikosha and the design is overall inferior to the 52xx, as well as having a plastic gear in the quick-set mechanism that tends to shrink and crack with age, causing the day/date quick-sets in most 56xx movements to eventually fail. The only 56xx movement models I'd even consider would be 5621 King Seikos which have no date complication.

Not that they are expensive to begin with, but Amazon seems to have pretty good pricing on the Casio AE1200.

I wonder what this could be......
(pro-tip: it's underwhelming)

How should I clean perlons? Just wipe with moist cloth or I can just straight put it in washing machine?

looks, smells, and even tastes like chinkshit
that can only mean one thing

Can you recommend me good european self-winding watch under 700$

I really want of these, specifically a no date version, but when you say parts are known to wear down what are we talking about? Would I need to service every 2 years or something

Chinkshit!
Turns out it's also not a chrono
Guess I should actually translate the titles of listings instead of just looking at the pictures

>Can you recommend me good european self-winding watch under 700$
No, because any "European" mechanical watch under $700 will have been made to the maximum legal extent possible in China and only assembled in Europe enough to obtain a "Made in Germany" or "Swiss Made" designation.

There are some decent mechanical watches available for less than $700, but none of them are going to actually be European.

ok, so how much should I pay then to get actual watch made in europe? I don't need anything prestige

Well the leather strap is shit so I replaced it with a leather nato I had but that's too chunky so I replaced it with a normal NATO
The finishing isn't bad for ￥358 but if I paid the tag price of something around ￥2100 or even the ￥700 non-sale price I wouldn't be super impressed

The face is clearly some sort of low quality plastic, the numbers on one of the subdials doesn't even make sense (why go from 1-7??), there are some polished parts on the side of the case which don't look great.

I did however figure out that it's not a chrono, but the top subdial is a month dial (probably) and the left dial is a day dial (probably)

The cheapest watches completely made in Europe will probably be by Nomos Glashutte who manufacture their watches entirely in Germany. There are cheaper options where everything but the movement will be made in Germany, but those all use movements from a large company called ETA or its competitor Sellita, and both of them only make their cheaper mechanical movements 60.01% in Switzerland to qualify those movements as "Swiss Made".

>dna kit you could've taken anytime probably would've gotten cheaper
>watch that will only get rarer

you dumb.

I wish I could love solar/eco drive but I had a citizen eco that died on me and it was a bitch to repair (meaning it couldn't be repaired at all unless you swapped out the entire module). Also I feel like solar is less "alive" than kinetic or autos.

buy Japanese or Chinese. europoor is overrated

no thanks

>the numbers on one of the subdials doesn't even make sense (why go from 1-7??)
Day of the week

yeah I went back and looked at the listing and figured that out but forgot to include it in the post
it will be interesting to see if it actually moves after 24 hours

>but when you say parts are known to wear down what are we talking about?
There are two kinds of wear related issues that can occur with mechanical movements. One is needing more frequent servicing (i.e. every 3 or 4 years instead of every 5 or 6 years). This will definitely apply to a 45xx King Seiko as it is a hi-beat movement that runs at 36,000 bph instead of the more common 28,800 or 21,600 bph. 25% more beats per hour mean 25% more wear and tear on the movement per hour, meaning it will need tune-ups more frequently.

The second issue is in terms of the risk of actually wearing out parts. Ideally, a well designed mechanical movement should not need parts replaced at regular services. The parts should be designed well enough and tough enough to last the life of the watch as long as it is maintained regularly, ideally. However, the reality is that most mechanical movements don't achieve this mark and that over long enough time spans (i.e. decades) there are parts in the movement that will have a risk of wearing enough that they will have to be replaced. The 45xx is known to be at a higher risk of this type of situation eventually occurring than most other Daini Seikosha movements, which typically were so well designed that they don't really tend to wear out parts that often even over really long timescales (e.g. the 701x, the 68xx, the 52xx, etc.). This doesn't mean its eventually going to happen that EVERY 45xx is going to need parts, but if it does, the other issue is that you then will have to buy a spare 45xx watch to scavenge parts from, and since there was never a cheaper version of the 45xx, all the potential donors are going not going to cheap (like they would be on a 52xx).

Finally, as far as I recall off the top of my head, Daini never made a 45xx King Seiko with a black dial from the factory and the one you posted is probably a redial (though I'm not 100% sure on that).

If anyone wants seikos creation watches has a good sale.

creationwatches.com/products/black-friday-sale-276/index-1-5d.html

The question is, is 300 CAD for a Prospex Turtle a good deal?

>tfw no 50% off sale of Calatravas on amazon.com

Thanks for that seikoman.
>tfw still couldn't afford 50% off calatrava

your loss

Wouldn't look out of place in Fallout New Vegas.

Looks good but pobeda is very low in the soviet watch hierarchy which goes like this:
Poljot
Vostok and Luch
Raketa
Pobeda (Zim) and Slava
Chaika
Moljina (pocket watches only)

Some brands are not mentioned as they are not so common.

Go a little higher to $1k and get a Sinn. Though you can probably get one used for $700.

>solar is less "alive" than kinetic or autos.

While Sinn manufactures and assembled their cases, dials, hands, and straps or bracelets in Germany, they use Sellita movements which are 60.01% manufactured in Switzerland to eke into being able to be called "Swiss Made". That being said, Sinn and Damasko will be far more made in Europe than most brands under $2,000 (Damasko's in-house models are entirely European made, but are also much more expensive).

Why is there a stripe on the crown? Style?
My Sinn uses an ETA. I don't have a problem with a 2824 in my Sinn because it's TOP grade and right now runs on my wrist within 2 seconds per day. Not going to say thats what you'll get but the TOP grade ETAs are pretty nice.

If anyone cares about deals Hamilton Field Khaki for 200 USD. Requires their promo code.

creationwatches.com/products/hamilton-watches-250/hamilton-khaki-h68311533-mens-watch-3603.html?currency=USD

I was not asserting anything about the quality of ETA or Sellita movements, I was just pointing out that both ETA and Sellita only assembled their movements in Switzerland as much as necessary to be able to call them "Swiss Made" and thus any watch using their movements won't be entirely "European made" as that user was asking. I happen to think that looking at country of origin rather than quality is silly, but that's what that user was asking for.

>Why is there a stripe on the crown? Style?

that's the windy knob, it's so you can see quickly while under hundreds of meters of water if it is screwed down properly

True. Good point. I guess for someone not in the know about watches they would assume swiss made means swiss made.
>Windy knob

You know what, your solar diver shitposting used to annoy the shit out of me but I've actually started to find it amusing. Is this a bad sign?

which Sinn is that I'm a fucking pleb

>You know what, your solar diver shitposting used to annoy the shit out of me but I've actually started to find it amusing. Is this a bad sign?

is good sign

Sorry I'll rename files soon to include the actual name. That's the Sinn 556 i Red hand special edition. The i means indices and the a means arabic numerals if you're checking out the different offerings.

Is Liberty the best strap to put on sarb017?

Nah it goes better with a banana peel strap in the trash

that thing is ugly

>Is Liberty the best strap to put on sarb017?
I would put a Fluco padded shell cordovan strap in brown on that watch, like pic related, but I can also see a distressed brown minimal stitch working.

But that's like, your opinion, my man.

I can't wait for the Alpinist meme to die

W2C IN EUROPE ROOOO

my 856 runs at about +8 seconds a day. "top" is not an acronym by the way

That's unfortunate. yeah I have this bad habit of doing it in all CAPS because on Stowas website thats how they write it. Silly thing.

frequently in my travels i see a watchmaker shop that looks like it's trustworthy to adjust it, but i refrain because i don't want them to let out the argon gas

What do you think about this one?

looks gay enough to go on a faggy alpinist

go for it

Alpinist on nomos shell cordovan is pretty good.

Love how nobody had problems with Alpinist untill 3 weeks ago when a certain eceleb faggot made a video. Did you support Archie's parteon today already?

Archie didn't really say anything other than it's ugleh and not muh rolex. Muh toyota crown muh tacky japanese, he didn't even mention the fit or finish that's not really a review desu. He didn't even wear one.

It's enough for fanboys to parrot him though.

this looks like a hockey puck, is it about 46mm?

most guys in these threads live and die by archie's reviews. it's pretty pathetic desu.

archie apologists like

i saw a lot of alpinists in-store last week when i was in SE asia. it looks pretty sharp in person. i didn't get one because i hate green

wsj.com/articles/with-mens-watches-small-is-cool-again-1490704981

Remember: Small Watches Are Back in Style. 40mm is the new 43mm. Don't go larger.

nigga what I was criticising him?

Are youn even in this thread? There are dedicated alpinist haters always

ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluco-Horween-Shell-Cordovan-Watch-Strap-Black-Brown-Dark-Brown-Natural-Y8-/171978325652

That was the fastest thing I could find. In North America I'd order from Holben's Fine Watch Bands.

Why do some retailers for the seagull have a different caseback?
watchunique.com/seagull-1963-original/seagull-1963.html

Compare the caseback advertised here with this one on the reissue. They're quite different.

And why are some 19 Jewel and others 21?

I don't like leather straps like that, and I certainly don't think the fitted ends would suit an Alpinist.

>Are youn even in this thread? There are dedicated alpinist haters always
Come on now. I've been here for a couple of years and while the Alpinist was always polarizing, the enormous torrent of memetic Alpinist hate didn't start until fairly recently. Personally the model really isn't for me aesthetically, but then that goes for lots of watches other people here like, so I usually don't bother ragging on watches for looks alone.

Me fucking neither

God this watch is such a hideous piece of shit, hate the faggot that shills it in every single fucking thread. The dial dots on the second layer literally look like an STD.

i meant the alpinist.

>wsj.com/articles/with-mens-watches-small-is-cool-again-1490704981
thank the lord

the guy is actually shitposting and then some retards come in and agree with him thinking hes being serious and actually want to buy the shit. Actually fucking hilarious.

different factories

>ehehe now we can sell watches with less raw material and precious metals for the same price

good

Because china, expecting consistency for hundreds of dollars is too much to ask for. Seagull themselves can't keep anything consistent, my experience with the ocean star has taught me to stay away from china for a couple of generations until they stop behaving like insects. They'll fucking assemble things with whatever is lying around, QC is non existent.

You're retarded Seagull doesn't even sell the watch anymore.

>dumb laowai is too dumb to simply check what he's getting and learning variations

The original watches were 19 jewels, the reissues are 21. The 19 jewels dial on a new watch is a nod to the vintage watch, it's not accurate to the actual movement.

>buy one of those seatbelt natos for $20 after shipping, just to see what they're like
>later that day
>buy my dog a 15 ft long, inch wide nylon leash for $20
hmmm

Did you get it from Watchgecko?

Can the plastic gear be replaced with a metal one?

ToxicNato

Last I heard someone did start making metal replacements for that gear in the quick-set, but as 56xx King Seikos tend to go for similar prices to 52xx King Seikos, and the 52xx is overall a better movement, I'm not sure why anyone would want to deal with the hassle (unless they're a hardcore Suwa fan, I guess?).

I bought a watch a couple of months after first production and they changed the design of the bezel and completely fucked it up without updating any pictures on the website. Retailers had to update all their shit and point out the differences because people were buying the watch based on a review from WIAA which showed a flawless watch from first production which is not even comparable to the garbage they are selling to the public now.

There are at least 6 major defects on the watch I received, not including the fuckups with the design change. Fuck china.

21 jewels are better than 19 right?