Horological Meandering

Disappointment is often not far from pleasure and sometimes we make bad decisions and while the world’s best watch maker’s produce ever amazing and complicated fine pieces...there still seem to be some disappointments that bug us as end users.

Is it the watch ...or is it our individual inability to operate it as designed.

I have a “Pet Hate” with a watch I bought a couple of years ago from Breitling.

It is the Crown...but I would not call it a crown... more a Dome.

It is the most useless design that I have ever encountered.  Why?

Well for a start the movement is very stiff to turn.

Secondly the Crown is very smooth. .....but the shape and being partly hidden by the protecting risers, it is such, that my fingers can’t get enough grip on it to wind it ....and Thirdly, because of the dome shape it tends to slip in as I grip it.

The harder I try to grip it..... the more it slips in and then starts to engage the locking screw thread and has to be wound back to disengage and then start again.

Is it me???.....I don’t think so...just bad design...but who knows...I am never too old to learn...is there some trick to winding a stiff and dome shaped winder which only partly comes clear of its protectors on this  Breitling.

What amazes me is that Brietling must have made thousands and thousands of this model.

Let’s hear what really disappoints you about a watch you have owned.....but please...to be fair to the makers...keep it to watches you have actually owned and have personal and firsthand experience with.

Kindest regards,

Jack

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Such as PAM's. I owned several Panerai watches for a Few years, these days everybody’s got one. Definitely dislike trendy watches.

Agree...I am a classic guy...I ilke that ...Classic guy, sounds good..but  seriously.... I guess there is need for trendy everythings....but I dont take them too seriously.

They are the flavour of the month and usless when that fashon trend changes....unless you keep them for a long time and they become collectable.

Kindest regards,

Jack

the crown being too small to operate by people having average-sized fingers!

Regards,

Joe

 

Hi Joe,

I agree on this .....The Breguet 5817 would have to be the nicest crown to use.

It is large.

It is well groved...and

The winding is easy, soft and silk smooth.

Unfrtunatly many makers are still using 1950' s style crowns that are just too fiddly. Plus they look bad as well.

Kindest regards,

Jack

I can come up with now would be that of AP Starwheel and that of AL&S 1815! In my opinion, most of the watches from Seiko really have the crowns sized properly...

Regards,

Joe

This is the crown on my Gerald Genta Gefica Safari - totally impossible to turn OR to pull open!
All you can do is shake the watch to start it, and use a tool to help flip the crown out.





Later versions of the same watch have this larger gold crown and fancier pushers. Apparently I am not alone in my distress




 
Mike

looks wrong out of place not really into gold or diamonds as well, i must say all the time pieces i own or have owned i have loved or at least been very comfortable with  but its very easy to buy a piece and find features that you dont like thats why i think its important to buy what you really like as only then you will be happy , impulse buying can  lead to regret as after you bring it home you realise it might not have been what you really wanted, i have nearly bought certain pieces which im glad i never did as it would have been wrong.

This is my only Bling watch and I thought it a good Saturday afternoon bar-b-Q piece but every time I put it on I curse it.

Nice watch...modest Bling....stainless and rose gold...looks good but don't let it run down or it drives you crazy....

What i can't undestand is that sooo many must have been made and nobody at Breitling has picked up on this.

Maybe they wear them 24-7 and never have to wind them?

Thanks for your reply,

Jack

no matter we all make purchases like that once or twice in life at least you can find the humor to it even though a costly one.

bad resale is the thing I hate. It's the dark side of collecting--a horrible lesson we only half-learn, as we keep buying watches we 'just love' and then have to swallow the razor blade when it comes to resale.

That was and occasionally sometimes still is what I hate the most.

But specifically about watches themselves--I think I hate when a watch is meant to be a sportwatch, but is really a scratch magnet from Hell.

And that covers a lot of sportwatches.

I hate a watch that is an impostor. I hate a watch that is only about Value, and isn't really a great functioning watch, nor accurate... there are a lot of these Emporers floating around... (it's the opposite of bad resale--these have great resale but no Value equal to the price.) This is the 50K watch whose chrono hand does not line up, for instance--despite the Legend of the manufacture's painstaking attention to detail, etc.

Great question!

Here's the worst offender I've had recently. It looks ok here but I had to work on the lighting to get those slim hands to show.

I also really dislike minute hands that are disproportionately large, like this, although this was a custom model and I should have known.

And it's irritating to get a newly "freshened" design watch that has a larger case with a big spacer ring, and in this case, still has 18  mm lug spacing so the watch looks goofy with a skinny strap. I have other the same size with 22 mm straps which at least look in sync with the case.

But what I am most dismayed by is a watch that "has it all" from a noted company, with all the pluses of lineage, technology, art, materials, etc.
And when you hold it in your hand, it's "Yawn, I need a nap ... Z Z Z" How does that happen? 
Sadly, this one nearly made me drop off, even while holding it at the sales counter, and seduced by a low price.

Mike

I remember my first really nice watch--I could see the hands in the AD's showroom--but at home--Houdini!

the AD tried to explain to me the 'designer's intentions' and I was so new to the game, I just tried to like it--even though it made no sense at all.

Never again.

The dial was silver and the hands were also silver...I only bought it because there was a sale on and it seemed like a good work watch...but it did not work for me.

We live and learn.

Thanks for your reply,

jack

... I have the Breitling Crosswind, which is the same model almost... never had any problem winding it...  So maybe there is something with the winding crown of your watch? Who knows... I had a Paul Picot Majestic , that after a year of use, when I started to turn the crown to set the time, after three or more turns the crown stem dislocated and detached it self from the watch... It took three (3) trips to the service to be fixed....
The only thing I hate is scratches and dents that make the magnificent feeling of a new watch vanish...
Hate no, but lost of interest yes (to the point that I wonder what exactly I liked when I bought this model) but that is rare....
Best
Tassos

LOL

Best.

Nicolas

good for removing hair

Cher Borat

A

But I know how to live in the modern times...LOL.

Best, Aaron!

Nicolas

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and you have a great sense of humor happy  trimming my friend   Lol.. Garry

e

and does in fact constitute SATIRE. Quite elevated humor there, friend. Oh yeah, funny as all get out too.

about the cyclops on my Offshore