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?"

Comments

Some suggestions...

[mmclure]

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.

Japanese Domestic Market Watches

[mr.henry]

As with everything else, Japan keeps the best watches for itself and ships the merely OK watches to the US. A Seiko in America is nothing special, but the "Grand Seiko" line in Japan is higher quality than Rolex/Omega/etc. I think the best bang for the buck in Japanese domestic market watches is the Seiko Alpinist -- $300 -- and includes auto calendar, GMT hand, titanium, and 5 year battery. They are "interesting" -- it is unlikely you will see anyone else with one.

Higuchi is a great place for Japanese watches, BTW. They ship to USA.

Re:Japanese Domestic Market Watches

[Glonoinha]

The Alpinist is a sharp looking watch - I wear a stainless Rolex Submariner and love it (couldn't imagine wearing anything else) but it was a gift.
Would I drop ~$3,500 on a watch for myself ... not so sure. I'd like to think so, but if the Alpinist is anywhere as nice as it looks online and is 1/10th the price - it would be a hard choice to make.

That said, I recommend a Swiss automatic to the OP. If he can carry it well and afford it, a Sub will be a life-long companion wherever he goes because a. it will last forever, and b. at $3,500 he isn't likely to leave it somewhere it can get stolen or broken. I actually asked the shop-owner if I needed to baby mine when I got it, for fear of damaging it - he explained that the amount of force required to scratch the crystal was easily enough to blow my arm off. He was right - five years later and nary a scratch.

Storm of London

[kafka47]

Nice topic! Watches are my only accessory.

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.

/K

Get the Abacus AU5005 or AU5006 instead.

[Richard Steiner]

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...