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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?"
When I get a job, I will be finding myself a nice old red LED watch. These old watches are the defacto standard for fine programmers everywhere. LED watch == fine programmer.
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Nixies are neat http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/
I also prefer analog or the old 70's LED watches. Funny now many people look at a LED watch and are just astounded.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
I have a neat watch from Mondaine (makers of Swiss Railways watches) that only has one hand, and little hashmarks that show the minutes in 5 min increments. It's very minimalist - after all, if you have a good enough eye, one hand is all you need - and it never fails to confuse people when they see it. (Someone has it on ebay.)
sulli
RTFJ.
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.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
Kramer: "I don't wear a watch."
Elaine: "Well, what do you do?"
Kramer: "Well, I tell time by the sun."
Elaine: "How close do you get?"
Kramer: "Well, I can guess within the hour."
Elaine: "I can guess within the hour and I don't even have to look at the sun."
Kramer: "Yeah."
Elaine: "So what do you do at night?"
Kramer: "Well, night's tougher, but it's only a couple of hours."
English is easier said than done.
Yeah, but:
1. Do people who wear binary watches even go to bars?
2. Do foxy chicks ask people with binary watches what time it is? I mean, if you're wearing one of these things in a bar, you're probably also wearing a shirt off of ThinkGeek with some profound saying like "Got root?", a holster containing a graphing calculator, and maybe even this hat, things collectively known as The Foxy Chick Repellant Kit.
3. And even if all you have is the binary watch, and the chick is interested enough to ask what it is, how long will it take for her eyes to glaze over as you try to explain, at which point she walks away?
Of course, this all goes out the windows if she happens to be a geek chick, but if she is, she may already have her own binary watch, so she won't even have to ask you what time it is.
The more important part there though is, if you meet a foxy chick in a bar, do NOT let her know that you have a binary watch.
Also, make sure the bloody thing doesn't actually *display* in base 10.
I was very disappointed when I opened my binary clock and found that each base-10 digit was represented in binary, so 35 would be 0011 0101, rather than 100011, as it should be.
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