Horological Meandering

End of Year Analysis: Watch Lunacy

 

Hello Gents and Ladies, It's that time of year when we review what we have done, how far we have come - and where we expect to be going and doing in the New Year. It's appropriate to do so with our watches too. But oh, so very frightening for some of us.

Rather than ponder it alone, I thought it might be satisfying for some of you to analyze my watch lunacy, with the knowledge that you wouldn't, couldn't, hadn't yet, once did but will never again commit the same folly.

So I went to the watch closet and brought them all out.

I needed some form of structure for the display. That took some thinking, and a very large piece of felt on a large table with enough height so I could shoot them all, with daylight. This is the best I could do. As I categorize them looking at the photos, I see one or two out of place (row not long enough, one too many, etc.) I know, please don't remind me ...

Watches that, by virtue of deployant or bracelet, must be laid on their sides.

First row - straps and deployants
Second row - bracelets with white dials
Third row - bracelets with black or dark dials
Fourth row - more bracelets with black dials





Watches on straps that lie flat on the table

First row - no dial, white or light dials (yes, I mis-placed the Seiko on the end)
Second row - black dials and dark color dials; starting with shark and ending with rubber straps
Third row - my wife's watches



Sigh. I think there are about 100 in the inventory. The table shows 88 but I am sure there are a few more hiding around the house. Not counting pocket watches.

So let's see what I seem to prefer:

SHAPE
Round Only 3 4 5 of my watches are not round. They include a Reverso, a Jorge Hysek, a Croton, a Vulcain and a very old Bulova. That's deliberate. I prefer round watches, with hands.

MATERIAL
Titanium Approximately 22 of the watches are titanium, or contain some titanium case or bracelet parts - ie the UN 1846 has a titanium back
Gold Out of the 88 watches, four are yellow gold, one is white gold, and another 5 have gold-tone trim or cases. I have one red gold Bulova
Plastic  The 5 Swatches are mostly plastic, and 1 Citizen belonging to my wife.
Bronze  Gerald Genta Gefica Safari
Brass  Croton which a previous owner polished through the chrome and into the base material
Ceramic Two of my Seikos have ceramic bezels
PVD coatings In general I avoid this for fear of scratching, but I have a Sinn and a Swiss Army and the Purists ABR watch that are coated and colored
Steel All the rest. Except for the pot metal and who knows what that is? Possibly it's "Mechanically separated metal bits"

DIALS
Light Two thirds are light, silver or white.
Dark One third are dark or colored.
Other Opus is a skeleton, so has very little dial surface. Likewise the Bulova Accutron SpaceView. The Purists watch is Carbon Fibre. One Citizen watch (gift from a neighbor) has a champagne gold dial - yecch - don't like it.
Lume My oldest Sinn has a fully luminous dial. Many of them have lume on the hands.
Numerals I prefer Arabic numerals. Thirty of the watches have arabics for one or more hours. Three have Roman numerals. The rest have none!
Digital My wife has a digital watch. I have none if you ignore the small digital displays on the Breitling Aerospace and the Swiss Army.


POWER SOURCE & ENGINE
Strictly Mechanical Hand Wind 10 in total
Strictly Mechanical Automatic 35 can be wound if necessary; 3 Seikos can't be wound except by wearing
Mechaquartz 1 PD chrono/moon with IWC/JLC movement
Tuning Fork & Friends 2 Accutrons and a F300 Omega (AAiieee! I just remembered I have 3 more Accutrons downstairs)
Spring Drive 1 Grand Seiko, 1 Credor
Kinetic 1 Swatch, 3 Sony
Solar 2 Eco-drive Citizen, 1 Sony
Battery 30

COMPLICATIONS
Chronographs I like Chronographs (unlike some moderators!). I think there are 16 18  19 here. Some are cleverly hidden (MIH and Chronostop). I tend to start them (to measure drive to work, barbeque, etc.) and forget to ever stop them. I need an alarm to remind me to stop the chrono - watchmakers are you listening?
Alarms It looks like 4 of them, not counting that damn watch my wife has that we couldn't get to stop ringing at midnight, so I "deactivated" it completely.
Dual time zone in keeping with my former globe-trotting lifestyle, I like these. I have 10.
24 Hour Display I'm not counting the digital variants but AM counting the time zone watches with 24-hour displays. I have 4 that I can see
Moonphase This is my favorite complication. I have owned over 50 of these. I've currently got 9.
Power Reserve A useful feature. But I only have 3 of them.
Small Seconds display I have 7 (non-chrono, including regulators)  or 21 if you count the chronos (not all of which have small seconds)
Date display via number in window 48
Date display via hands on dial 3
Day of the Week by word in window 9
Day of the week by other means indicator pointer on IWC, moving spot on Ochs & Junior
Annual Calendar The MIH and the two Breitling/Swiss Army ana-digitals
Perpetual Calendar IWC GST is the mechanical perpetual, and I have 4 analog quartz ones
Orientation Omega Chronostop goes sideways in the case and on the strap for wearing under the wrist. Oh Crap. It's a chrono too.
Regulator I have an Oris diver, a Chronoswiss, and
(Oh No! The new Goldpfeil Jutzi. I forgot it's in the winder. Add 1 to moonphases, 1 to small seconds, 1 to white gold, 1 to regulators, 1 to blue straps, 1 to deployant clasps.)
Certified Chronometer BP 7002, Rolex, Ikepod,
Multi-Complications IWC perpetual with chrono and moon; Grand Seiko moon and power reserve; Grand Seiko chrono and power reserve; GO with big date and moon; UN with small seconds and power; etc. etc.

BRANDS
Sinn and Seiko come to mind as my favorites in the past. But I have cut back on both brands. I think. How shall we order them??? Contrary to popular belief, it's not so easy to decide. As with cars, who builds what where and why? But why not try...

15 Low Seiko (low-end & no other variants)
13 High Seiko (high-end & Credor, Grand, etc.)
  4 Sinn (counting the Bell & Ross Space3 made by Sinn and marked as such on dial)
  4 Omega
  5 Swatch
  4 Citizen
  4 Omega
  2 Blancpain
  2 MIH/Ochs & Junior
  2 Chronoswiss
  2 Ikepod
  1 Silberstein
  1 Rolex
  1 Maurice LaCroix
  1 Ulysse Nardin
  1 Jorge Hysek
  1 Jaeger LeCoultre
  1 Rolex
  1 Croton
  1 Wittnauer
  1 Purists ABR
  1 Russian Racketa
  1 Vulcain Cricket
  1 Oris
  1 Eddie Bauer
  2 Swiss Army

oh I give up

NOTORIETY
These are watches I have a special feeling towards (or against). I'll try to explain why in a brief statement.

Greatest disparity in size and era belongs to these two.

Most Readable

Most Bling at least in my collection

Most promise; most wanted to purchase and most disappointing to own. The sum is much less than the individual parts.

Most Incomprehensible encouraged by my interest in moons, and positive reviews by SJX I bought this but I have no idea whatsoever what's going on with this watch.

Best so far this is too thick to wear regularly but it is my favorite in all sorts of ways. Look at the hollow arrow tip on the second hand. It just STARTS there and goes on.

Most Tres Jolie and I don't mean that chick with all the tattoos

Most loudly humming this makes the entire watch cabinet hum

First Watch Over $1000; first watch from Singapore; first big Seiko; first chunk of money wired to the other side of the world; still well-loved and no flaws

Most respected Swiss company (from my personal visits) and most complex

Ultimate essence of round sport watch

Most accurate ten seconds per year, with checkup at the factory after 2 years. Yes, it's super-high-end quartz

Most beautiful dial

Most unusually aligned movement aka upside down

Most wanted this is the only watch I ever sold (to get the GS above) and then immediately bought again

I haven't gotten to my favorite, but I will close with the most recent purchase



OK, that's it. My wife is kicking me off the computer.

Cazalea
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2009-12-28 19:28:26 This message has been edited by ThomasM on 2010-01-01 08:07:01