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There are still some out there, including the original "calculator" watch: https://www.breitling.com/us-e...

I own a Rolex DateJust in Gold and Stainless Steel, and someday I'd like to own a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon 39 in Stainless Steel, as well as a Breitling Navitimer 01. For my father's 70th birthday we bought him a Navitimer 01, which he just loves. (My father and I are both private pilots.)

Here's the thing about luxury watches: for women, you can wear necklaces, wrist bands, rings and earrings. But for men, the only pieces of jewelry that a man can wear (and get away with it) is cufflinks, a tie clip and a luxury watch. And if you're not wearing a shirt with french cuffs, or wearing a tie, then all that is left is the watch.

So basically a luxury watch is jewelry. Functional jewelry, but jewelry all the same. And like all jewelry, if its taken care of you can inherit it from your grandparents (as my wife inherited some pieces), you can receive it when you are young and still wear it when you're old, and you can pass it down to your grandchildren.

When you start looking at luxury watches, you find there are two types: those which use an in-house built movement built by craftsmen who sweat the details and who create all sorts of intricate complications which do interesting things (like keep accurate time, provide a stopwatch function, show the phase of the moon, the day of the month, the month of the year), and those who buy an off-the-shelf movement and wrap it in gaudy jewelry.

From what I've read (I'm not a collector but I'd like to be one someday if I ever really strike it extremely rich, because mechanical wrist watches fascinate me no end), watches from watchmakers who build their own movements are highly respected. Watches from watchmakers who buy their movements from third parties, however, are not very well respected. And the worst are those who use quartz movements: essentially an electric powered watch movement regulated by a small oscillator crystal. Like about 1/3rd of Tag Heuer's product line, many running up into the 10's of thousands, which horticulturally have more in common with a cheap Casio than with an A. Lang & Sohne.

This is why I think luxury smart watches will be an unmitigated disaster. Sure, some people will buy them--because some people have more money than God, and to be able to show off a $10,000 smart watch that you're just going to toss away in a couple of years when the electronics are out of date would be the height of "one upping the Joneses." But I cannot see them being any more interesting to someone fascinated by mechanical watches than a quartz Tag Heuer--it's the sort of watch someone with no sense of connection to the past or any sense of connection to the tradition of hand-crafted watches would shove in your face to exclaim how much better they are than you.

You know: crass assholes.

Excellent point. I had never heard of such a watch or technology before, and searched for it. Here's a link: http://www.breitling.com/en/em...

Watches are still useful. I wear a watch from time to time -- I own 4. A dive watch from St Moritz - a Momentum M50; a low-key dress watch from Skagen; a Breitling Old Navitimer; and my grandfather's Breitling Montbrilliant pocket watch. The latter two don't get out of the safe much any more.

Any watch that is sold as an "automatic" (not "quartz") is generally assumed to be a self-winding mechanical watch. There are a LOT more of them out there than you might think. They tend to be a bit more expensive (an inexpensive quartz watch will be $500), but there are a lot of choices out there. I'm partial to Breitling, myself.

Sorry, but someone had to say it. The chances of Fossett surviving a crash but not well enough to light up his ELT or Breitling 121.5 MHz distress beacon watch are pretty fucking slim. The guy's hard core but still.

You need to include something like this http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/product_short.js p?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673958098&FOLDER%3C% 3Efolder_id=9852723697223384&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=8 45524442492820&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=140847439590 3526&bmUID=1140393060596 , which has GPS, altimeter, and compass, among other features. Naturally, data can be transferred to your computer. What's that? You're a Slashdot reader so you don't go outside? Righto. Then my consider my favorite for a while, the Breitling Aerospace (http://www.breitling.com/en/models/professional/a erospace_avantage/). One button interface with sophistication very much appreciated in this day of unforgivable human factors design. Little things like a alarm that beeps discretely at first, allowing the owner to silence it before it becomes a nuisance. It stopped being my favorite after the minute hand fell off and servicing that broke the speaker and introduced intermittent timing failures. Gott send it back for probably $300+ worth of repairs...

I just got the Titanium Observer for Christmas, and while it's not as geeky as you probably want (only has therm, barom, alti), it's the sharpest looking watch on the market after the super expensive Breitlings.

Get a Breitling.

Made for pilots and divers, they are the pinnacle of technology, craftsmanship and style (also price unfortunately). Their Cosmonaute has an analog 24hr layout that takes some getting used to. And their Emergency model has a built in beacon if you eevr get stranded on a deserted island, but you need to be a liscensed pilot to buy one. Their Professional line has several analog/digital combos. The best watches you can buy as far as im concerned.

I also like Swatches, their Skin line is only like 1mm thick. AND theyre cheap enough you can buy several.

>[electronic watches] won't last nearly as long: they'll either get wet, simply stop working, or wear out electronically long before a Rolex begins to stop keeping the correct time.

N.B.: Among watch afficionadoes, Rolex is something of a joke, mostly because they don't keep time nearly as well as equivalently-priced watches from less-widely-marketed makers (International Watch Co., Breitling, et al), and partly because of the enormous number of counterfeit Rolexen in the wild.

And, in case anyone's wondering, the original Moon watch is the Omega Speedmaster Professional.

I met an engineer from Sun who had a really interesting watch - it was made by Breitling - and the round bevel around the watch face was a slide rule!.

Heres a pic

And the Datora is quite nice: here

Umm, perhaps you'll tell the Swiss.

At the beginning of the process, the user enters a password on the watch~.

What happens if you take your watch off and leave it next to the computer? It never encrypts!

Worse yet---what happens if your watch gets stolen? Now you can't get at your data! Better make sure you get the Casio watch option instead of the Breitling. No one would want to steal a Casio POS, so you should be safe.

I was a little bit excited when I heard about this - will he really make it? - until I found out about the Breitling Orbiter 3. Turns out a very similar balloon has already gone around the earth, and it wasn't that long ago. The only difference? It was two people, not one. It kind of deflated my enthusiasm for the whole thing. (No pun intended...really!)

But then again, what prupose does it serve to fly a huge weird looking balloon around the earth anyway? These rich people should go find a cure for cancer or something.

My watch has an E6B built in! See Navitimer image

There are hundreds to choose from... or if you want vintage, try an ebay for older Hamilton's or Omega's.

Bell & Ross
Oris
Breitling

There are even automatic watches with slide rules on them. Check out the slide rule watches HERE. Not sure if there are any autos on this page, but the shop near my house has a new one. Something about a watch with PI on it.

Breitling , a Swiss watch company, makes a watch with a built-in distress beacon, activated by pulling the aerial out of the case. Might be cheaper than Inmarsat phone + airtime, plus it tells time as well.

Breitling , a Swiss watch company, makes a watch with a built-in distress beacon, activated by pulling the aerial out of the case. Might be cheaper than Inmarsat phone + airtime, plus it tells time as well.