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Interesting Wrist Watches?
brobak asks: "I've always been interested in interesting, wearable timepieces, and lately I've been wanting to start my own collection. They needn't be wiz-bang, high tech gizmo's, so much as interesting ways of displaying the time. What are some unique, or interesting time pieces that Slashdot readers own? Where should I start my collection?"
There's the selection of binary watches at ThinkGeek. I personally prefer simple classic analog timepieces, though.
This guy's the limit!
First I'd take a look at getting at least one mechanical automatic in your collection. You can get brand new mechanical Seikos using their 7S26 movement (a real workhorse) off eBay for around $50. These usually have glass backs so you can see the movement and the hairspring ticking. Another option is a skeletonized automatic - Swiss versions of these are quite expensive, but recently there have been a lot of lower-cost mechanical automatics available.
Another good option is an ana-digi - i.e. a watch with hands over an LCD dial - the LCD dial can show the time digitally while the hands show it as analog.
It's sort of embarassing to say this, but if you have the ShopNBC channel on your lineup, you might want to look for their watch shows. The guy who runs them (Jim Skelton) is knowledgeable about watches, and they often have interesting watches available. If you're looking for "funky", watch out for shows with Android Watches. Often they will have inexpensive (relatively - note that in the watch world anything under $1000 is considered a "poor man's watch") skeletonized automatics ($100 - $500 depending on the complications and the quality of the decoration on the movement.)
Of course, if you want really funky and price is no object, take a look at either the Ulysse Nardin Freak or the Harry Winston Opus V.
Higuchi is a great place for Japanese watches, BTW. They ship to USA.
I've bought several interesting / alternative watches from TokyoFlash My favorites have been the Equalizer, Pimp, and Twelve 5-9 B. When I was in China and Thailand, I bought some by brands called ODM and Thix, a few of which are carried / were carried by TokyoFlash as well. You'll see many of the same models on ebay too, although often around the same price.
I did have to send back my Equalizer due to it being extremely dim, even with a new battery, and TokyoFlash turned it around pretty quick and paid me back for my shipping to them. As far as readability of those funky designs, I find the Twelve 5-9 to be the quickest / easiest, with the Equalizer a bit behind the Pimp.
http://www.tokyoflash.com/
I remember an old saying that went:
"A man with two watches doesn't know what time it is"
My watch is a Casio MTG with a black metal band.
Syncs to an atomic clock every night, solar cell keeps battery charged, simply rasing my arm and tilting my wrist to read it turns on the backlight for a few seconds.
It's nice to know the accurate time. Isn't that what a watch is for?
Actually, daylight savings was brought in primarily to benefit farmers.
Actually, that's a myth. Farmers base their schedule around when there is going to be daylight, not around what the clock says. And chickens and cows don't care at all what time it is.
Not geeky, no gizmos or doodads, but Storm watches look the coolest (and are fairly cheap, too).
I have two Storms, one Diesel and a beautiful St. Moritz for scubadiving. Am always on the lookout for nicely designed watches.
If I were to wear an analog watch, I would definitely consider this one:
Swatch analog watch with visible gears (zoom in to see detail)
There's something about watching moving parts that inspires the engineer in me.
-B
I'm not much of a collector but being a driving enthusiast the watch I would hunt down would be the old Gruen Ristside Curvex. It's the only watch I know of that was ever designed to be worn with the watch face on the side of your wrist instead of the top.
Link here: http://www.pixelp.com/gruen/1929.html (about halfway down the page)
I'm not sure why this concept never caught on but I wish some designer would start making such watches again. Maybe it died when clocks started showing up on dashboards...but i still want one anyway!
I have two. They're lighter than the Fossil branded variants.
http://www.abacuswatches.com/
Tiger Direct is selling them for $49.95 plus shipping right now, and all kinds of folks are selling them on eBay for around US$50 (with shipping).
Not bad for a very portable B&W PalmOS 4.1 device, IMO...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
I found Nooka watches (www.nooka.com) to be a perfect combination of cool (unique looks), geeky (linear time) and stylish (beautiful finishes and straps).
cat