Swatch

By most accounts, Swatch saved the Swiss watch industry. "In a few short years [in the late 70s], the value of Swiss watch exports was cut in half, the Swiss share of the market dropped from over 50 to 15 percent, and competition from Asia slashed the number of watchmaking jobs in Switzerland from 90,000 to fewer than 25,000. Swiss watchmakers were suddenly an endangered species." Long story short, the Swiss watch industry hired a consultant name Nicholas Hayek to figure out how to save it; he proposed selling hip, plastic quartz watches for cheap to ramp up volume; and almost 400 million have been sold since 1983, spearheading a massive Swiss revival. The Swatch Group now also includes a number of Swiss brands that, all together, dominate the low- and mid-range Swiss watch market.

Swatch, of course, is thought by many people of as primarily a youth brand, since Swatches are wacky and plastic. That's not altogether wrong, but in fact, adults do most of the buying and a lot of the wearing. Ownership must taper off in the over-30 demographic, but many models, in both price and design, are squarely aimed at aging hipsters. I owned a fantastic Swatch mechanical a couple years ago. I ended up trading it off because it was too small for my fat wrist. But I've always expected more Swatches would find their way into my watch locker.



My most recent Swatch instead was purchased as a gift for my daughter. We got talking watches the other week, Swatches came up, we looked at a few online, and she fell in love with some striped models. Used Swatches are abundant and can be had cheap. This one is a vintage (1984) "Miss Pinstripe" kids/ladies model. Almost certainly someone in my high school was wearing it's sibling the year of it manufacture. Swatches were everywhere back then. This one cost me $14 shipped. The crystal is cracked at about 4:00, but it's not too visible, and my kid will put more cracks in it forthwith. But for a 27-year-old plastic watch, it's in great shape and keeps perfect time. And she loves it.

I'll probably pick up another Swatch or two for myself sometime. Just 'cause I'm a watch guy. But this Swatch I'll enjoy the most. Swatches and teens, they just go together.

Under the Knife

My favorite daily beater lately has been a Seiko 6309-7290 diver. I bought it well used but restored—new hands, dial, bezel insert and crystal, and heavily buffed. It came on a rubber dive strap, which I first changed out for a cheap and uncomfortable oyster bracelet, and more recently for the Jubilee bracelet that came on my Seiko SKX009. It's now very comfortable.


My 6309-7290, with its original shoes on.

I have low expectations of my mechanicals in terms of timekeeping. If they are no worse than +/- 1-2 minutes per day, they are usable. I've never had a mechanical that was worse than that, and most are much better. My 6309-7290 was easily doing that, until just lately. Now it seems to be loosing maybe 30 sec per hour. Completely unusable.

I have not found a local watchmaker, but anyway, I'm not keen to send it out for regulation. This is not an expensive watch. So I thought I'd try to regulate it myself. In theory, it's not that hard. But putting a watch under the knife for the first time caused me a few jitters. This is no longer the shallow end of the pool.



Luckily the case back, as with all divers, is a screw down, and easy to get off. The regulation lever was a bit stiff, but I gave it a good nudge. How far do I turn it? No way to know, without a timing machine. It's all trial and error. Watching it over the last couple hours, it still appears to be very slow. The lever cannot move that far. I'll give it another good tweak, but it's quite possible that my baby will need some professional attention. Hopefully it just needs to settle in.

I was interested to see that the case back had a number of inscriptions on the inside. They are light and hard to make out, but there are clearly some dates—Jan 8/94, and also the years '88, '89 (less certain) and '97. These might be service dates. Alas, one more may soon be added to them.

Addendum: Right now, the day after, my watch seems to be running about -1.5 minutes per day. That's decent. The only downside to my first home surgery is that I put two big scratches in the case back while tightening it down. The result of cheap case tools and my having five thumbs.

The Shallow End of the Pool

I've always wanted to try my hand at watch repair and modification. I've been collecting projects for while, and even bought a little cheap (in every sense) watch tool kit. But up to now, I have not tried to do anything more complex than changing a battery or watchband, or shortening a bracelet. Definitely the shallow end of the pool.

Though changing watch batteries is, in some cases, no easy thing. On a good quality watch, snap on case backs may be fitted very tight. I have a couple different kinds of case opening tools, but even so, I've gouged some terrible gashes in watch backs in trying to pry them off. I have a couple of dead watches whose backs I just cannot remove. I'll either have to take them in to a proper watchmaker (I only know of one in state, not close) or buy me a case crab (not cheap).

Yesterday a simple battery change took me into whole new territory. I needed to put a new cell in my Zodiac Sea Dragon. The movement is a gilt ten-jewel Ronda 5012.D. The tricky bit was that the battery is held down by a metal tab secured by a watch screw. This screw is a typical watch screw, meaning, impossibly tiny. Meaning, one thousand per teaspoon tiny.


Five-jewel nickle version of the Ronda 5021.D.

Luckily I had a screwdriver that was small enough, though as soon as I unscrewed it, the springy metal tab it secured flipped the screw into the ether. A stab of panic. But it landed right by the watch. Long story short, trying to resecure it, I did the same thing three more times. One little screw, lots of trouble.

But I liked it. A simple little job, but I felt like this gave me my first real taste of what watchmaking requires. Slow and careful work with microscopic parts. A true craft. Let's call this a modest start.

Chinese Skeleton #1

A week behind my previous, a second Chinese mechanical just landed, this one a skeleton. My very first skeleton, in fact. Last post, I probably fudged a bit in saying that my first Chinese mechanical was just a buck, since in fact it was $18 shipped. But this watch, also a mechanical, was $6.50 shipped. Yowzah, my Chinese friends, how low can you go?


Click image to embiggen

My first Chinese mechanical was unbranded, but this one is branded Fuyate. It has a 38mm case—as big as I like for a dressy watch—and weighs a very modest 52g. The case is chromed mystery metal and the display caseback is stainless, badly polished. Otherwise the fit and finish is excellent for the money. It came on a black patent leather strap with contrasting white stitching. The strap is less crappy than that of the previous watch, and is surprisingly wearable. I think I'll stay with it.

A skeleton watch has a see-through dial and case back which reveal a movement that (usually) has been carved to reveal its escapement and train, and often is engraved or otherwise decorated. This watch is not highly skeletonized, but for its absurd price it is very nice, even sporting some blued screws. The movement is another Chinese standard, but compared to my previous, it lacks the date wheel and the auto-wind module actually appears to work. It seems to keep decent time, but the crown is stiff to wind and the stem very difficult to pull out. This is my only disappointment with it.


Click image to embiggen

I like this watch. Most cheap Chinese skeletons look tacky. Even expensive skeletons can often look like they are just trying too hard to be noticed. This one is comparatively restrained. Even the my wife and daughter dig it, which is a real seal of approval. Usually they could care less what's on my wrist. And watching that escapement working away, every time I glance at my wrist, is great fun.

And for the price of lunch at McDonalds? Yes, I'm already shopping for a second.

A One Dollar Mechanical

I have some other watches made in China, but this is a Chinese Chinese watch, purchased straight from the mainland. (There is yet a third level of Chinese watch, but let's not get into that.) I bought it for £1 + £10 shipping (about $18 total).

Yes, I like fine watches. But I became intrigued by cheap Chinese mechanicals a while ago. Mechanicals typically demand a price premium. My cheapest new mechanical previous to this was $50. A dollar mechanical is in effect the talking dog of watches. That it works at all at that price is a wonder. I decided to buy the least ugly example I could score for a buck at auction. £1 seemed close enough, and the candidate actually looked decent. So I went for it.


Seller image

eBay sellers often refer to this model as an M-12, but it is unbranded. I might wish that the maker had also dropped the bogus dial copy that claims the watch has a co-axial escapement (an extremely exotic technology) and is a limited edition. Uh, sure it is. It is an automatic, true enough, but the auto-winder does not actually work. That's typical for this grade of watch.

It has a 40mm case that the watch back claims is all stainless. Possibly. And it's fairly substantial (66g). The dial is a black mil-style with surrounding tachymetre bezel, all looking very Speedmaster, though the skeleton hands and red-tipped sweep second are right off a Seamaster. Amazingly, they are lumed. It's weak, but it works. The crystal is nicely curved and made of quite thick glass, but is a fingerprint magnet.


Seller image

Through the display back you can see the basic Chinese standard ordinary-grade automatic movement that has been made by the millions. It has a date wheel (at 3 o'clock) and, as a minor cosmetic upgrade, the rotor is decorated with a cross-hatch design. It handwinds (alas, only handwinds) and has a quick-set date. It runs well and and keeps good time. For a buck, that it runs at all is a marvel.

The "Genuine Leather" strap that came on it went straight in the garbage. The lugs are 20mm. I put it on a black nylon Seiko "tough band" that really suits it. The band is a bit short and abrasive, though, and I may buy an olive drab NATO for it. The watch is not uncomfortable, otherwise, though it sits high on the wrist. Here is a (terrible) video of the ensemble.

Overall the fit and finish is not great, and the bezel is a low point. Very cheap. But it was a dollar, it's mechanical, and it's totally wearable. No complaints.

Reboot

It's been 2.5 years since my last post. Reasons? At that same time I started a general blog, I couldn't really maintain two, and I enjoyed the other one more. Also, I have not purchased a new watch in 2.5 years, and when I stopped collecting watches I stopped blogging watches. I had been quite seriously in the hobby for about 18 months by then, but I was both burning out on it a bit and, more crucially, I lost a small second income that had sustained it. Finally, I've had some wrist problems that often makes wearing watches uncomfortable. Couldn't buy them, couldn't wear them, quit blogging them.

I'm still on a modest budget and my wrists are still often tender. But I still like horology, I've always liked what I'd written here, and it seems like it's time to blow the cobwebs out of the old blog. My interest has been rekindled, too, by the completion of my PhD. I've always thought that as a reward-to-self for that accomplishment, in lieu of some gaudy class ring, I would get myself a "grail" watch, specifically an Omega Speedmaster Professional. I am in no position financially to do that right now. But a couple of dramatically cheaper stand-ins are in the mail, and with that, this blog is back in business.

In my inaugural post I said, "I want to create in blog form something like a Consumers Report, or a Dummies Guide to Wristwatches. This is less another blog for enthusiasts (though it will be that too, in part) than a guide for the wristwatch perplexed." Now that interests me much less. This is straight-up an enthusiast's blog, not a buyer's guide. I also said that I would be focusing on entry-level affordable watches. That will probably prove to be true, but I'll go wherever my interests roam: junk watches, vintage, history of horology, watchmaking, book reviews, haute horlogerie, etc.

I've updated my post on presidential watches. New content coming soon. À les montres! À l'horlogerie!

Seiko Reviews I: Diving Watches

The best values in watches today are produced by Japan's Big Three: Casio, Citizen and Seiko. Casio never strays far from its special niche, digital watches, and stays in the bottom end of the consumer market. Citizen and Seiko produce far more diverse product ranges, in terms both of style and price. I pay a lot of attention to these two companies, as do all affordable watch enthusiasts. They produce a lot of interesting watches at great prices.

I would introduce you here to six Seiko diving watches (divers). All are currently in production and are among the more popular entry to upper-mid level models. Note that the Seiko SKX031 is not an ISO-rated dive watch. Many would consider it, strictly speaking, a sports watch with diver styling. But this is not of practical importance to most owners, who will use them only for "desk diving." Most divers prefer dive computers over simple diving watches.

Seiko SKX007 200m Professional Diver

• Quartzimodo’s Time Journal
  
• GMT+9
  

Seiko SKX031 “Submariner”

• Quartzimodo’s Time Journal
  
• Seiko and Citizen Watch Forum (Peter Bendheim)
  
• TimeZone
  

Seiko SKX779/781 "Black/Orange Monster"

• Quartzimodo’s Time Journal
  
• TimeZone
  
• The Purists
  

Seiko SBDA001/SNM011 "Samurai"

• Dan's Watch Collection
  
• Quartzimodo's Time Journal
  
• Seiko and Citizen Watch Forum (Andy)
  
• MinuteMachines [art photos]
  

Seiko SBDC001 "Sumo"

• Quartzimodo’s Time Journal
  
• WatchUseek (robzilla)
  
• Seiko and Citizen Watch Forum (Isthmus)
  

Bonus: See now the review by Quartzimodo of the new sports versions of the Black/Orange Monster, which offer several variations of the Monster in a 100m sports watch.

Addendum [12/01/2010]: The Seiko SKX031 has apparently gone out of production. There are still some remaining in stock at a number of vendors, but prices have gone up. For smaller Seiko divers, there remains the SKX013, a 38mm version of the SKX007, and the SKX023, which is identical to SKX031 but 2mm smaller in diameter (38mm).

The Watches of James Bond

No single movie movie character has shaped taste in men's watches more than James Bond. Now, to be sure, in the movies Bond has worn some wristkitsch from time to time. The Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900 LED watch in "Live and Let Die" (1973) was an understandable expression of high-tech enthusiasm, but all the Seikos of the 70s and 80s were just lucrative product placements. And all of the gadget watches, and Bond's spy gadgets generally, have been very appropriately satirized. Admit it—both the movies and the gadgets could get really silly. (Statement of disclosure: This Bond fan refuses to recognize any Bond movies not starring Connery or Craig. Well, there may be a couple of exceptions.)

But the primeval and archetypal Bond watch was merely a functional timekeeper. It is described specifically in Ian Fleming's books as a “Rolex Oyster Perpetual Chronometer on an expanding metal bracelet.” So it was a Rolex. But the rest of that description does not pin down a precise model. One watch enthusiast has recently done some serious sleuthing and arrived at the likely answer: a Rolex 6350 (Dress) (Proto) Explorer I. Or at least, this is most likely the watch Fleming was wearing while writing his first Bond novel, and we know Fleming closely modeled Bond on himself and other Naval Intelligence operatives he knew.

But this is not the Bond Rolex as everyone knows it. From the very first movie ("Dr. No" [1962]) Bond wears a Rolex Ref. 6538 or 5508, commonly called the Rolex Submariner. It is a professional diver's watch, really the first, depth rated for 200m. It came on a stainless steel bracelet, like most Rolexes, but in the first two Bond movies Connery wore it on a leather strap. That watch was actually the personal Rolex of director Terence Young. Upon arriving in Jamaica, it was discovered that Connery was wearing a white-faced dress watch, and no Rolex had been sourced by wardrobe. Bond had to wear a Rolex, so Young handed over his own watch. That simple response to exigency made his watch one of the most famous in the world of horology.

By the third movie, "Goldfinger" (1964), the Bond Rolex appears in its first close-up, sporting a new band, a gray and black NATO-style wraparound strap that is still today called a "Bond strap." These straps were commonly used in the early 60s and apparently Connery himself was still wearing his watch on a similar one in the 80s.

NATO "Bond" strap on Seiko SKX009

The original Bond Rolex was not a product placement, but rather a detail carried over from the books. From the 70s until today the watches appearing on Bond's wrist have been placed there at great expense to their manufacturers. The 70s Seiko digitals are of no interest to lovers of fine watches. But after a brief reappearance from Rolex, the latest Bond watches have been Omegas, either a Seamaster Professional or a Planet Ocean. While the Seamaster Pro is similar to the Rolex Submariner, the Planet Ocean in somewhat more distinctive, especially the usual orange-bezeled models. I think these are great Bond watches, and for Omega, this has been money well spent. There is no question that the iconic popularity of the Rolex Submariner has been driven enormously by its association with the world's greatest spy. I think Omega has now captured for itself a little of that magic.

Omega Seamaster Professional

Omega Planet Ocean



More on the Bond watches:

• What Watch Did James Bond Really Wear?
• James Bond Gadget Watch History
• QBranch
• Watch his Movie - James Bond

Horological Topography I: The Price Ladder

It is difficult to talk about "fine" or "quality" watches in general, since the meaning of such descriptive terms is very relative. So to make this all a bit more specific, I'm going to start by breaking down watches into three major categories, by price, with some additional subcategories. This is fairly arbitrary, I admit, but it will provide one clear reference point when discussing the many variables of watch quality. Prices are street.

Consumer Watches ($50 or less)
Affordable Watches

• Entry level ($50-$300)
  
• Mid-range ($300-$800)
  
• High end ($800-$2000)
  
Luxury Watches

• Entry level ($2000-$6000)
• Mid-range ($6000-$20,000)
  
• High end ($20,000 and up)
  

Consumer Watches: These are your basic Wal-Mart watches, brands like Timex, Casio and Armitron, and all those countless fashion watch brands that do not actually make watches themselves, but know people with factories in China that do. If your only interest is keeping time, they are by far the best value. They are also the only watches that the vast majority of people will ever wear. But they are cheaply made and do not much interest us here.

Affordable Watches: These are the watches that interest here, because they are generally fine, quality watches. And among quality watches, they offer the best value for price. They are constructed from high-grade materials, with smart designs (many of them, anyway), and built by very capable robots. Actually, most will receive some personal attention from human watchmakers as well, and overall quality is high. This segment is dominated by the Japanese giants Citizen and Seiko, though both also have some entry level luxury lines as well. They are your typical jewelry store watch. There are also a few Swiss brands in the low end, like Swatch and the various Swiss army brands, but especially in the mid-range and high end one also finds Swiss makers like Ball, Hamilton, Fortis, Glycine, Oris, Tissot and numerous smaller concerns. These are all good brands.

There are also a number of upscale fashion brands in the low end of this category, many owned by Fossil, Movado, and other fashion conglomerates, or OEMd by Timex, or made by contract in unguessable Chinese factories. These are less interesting. There is also the very popular Invicta brand, a Florida company that manufactures in Asia. There is much debate about Invicta, in part because their quality and service is uneven, but the brand has its fans. Finally, Russia has a rich tradition of watchmaking and has recently started marketing its better products to the West, especially under the Vostok Europe brand. Even more interesting are the high-end Russia-only brand watches, made by companies like Buran and Poljot, with mechanical chronograph movements of Swiss design made on Swiss machinery. All of these fall comfortably into affordable watch territory.

Luxury Watches: These watches are very interesting, but not to me, since I will never own one. This is the domain of the manufactures of the Swiss canton of Jura and the German craftsmen of Glasshütte. In the low end one starts to find the familiar Swiss brands of Omega, Rolex and TAG Heuer. Then in the mid-range and high end are found the handcrafted, micro-mechanical wonders of world-famous manufactures like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantine, as well as the work of smaller "independents" like F.P. Journe. If this is what interests you, browse on over to The Purists. If they sound elitist, well, they can afford to be.

This blog is devoted to affordable watches, and skewed somewhat to the lower end. These are fine watches any middle-class person can afford. They do not receive as much attention from many watch collectors for that same reason. But their value is excellent. In subsequent posts we'll take a closer look at just what makes a fine watch fine.

Wristwatch Art

Many aficionados regard fine watches as functional art, especially mechanical watches. These watches are now enjoying a renaissance, in large part due to the aesthetic pleasure their owners derive from these marvels of mechanical miniaturization. But watches are also being turned into other forms of art far removed from their original purpose.

The round dials, bezels and cases of most watches naturally suggest wheels, even steering wheels.



And there has long been a connection between watches and racing, which is now even expressing itself in race-car inspired watches by manufacturers like TAG-Heuer and Richard Mille. So perhaps it's natural that someone would eventually repurpose watches as the raw materials for creating motorcycle sculptures.



While watch sculpture is quite unique and rare, wearable watch art is comparatively common. Cufflinks, rings, broaches, necklaces and more are easily found online at auctions and handicraft vendors like Etsy.



Aside from watch cufflinks and tietacs, which are really aimed at the lawyer who has everything, much of the popularity of watch jewellery seems to be driven by interest in the artistic and literary genre of Steampunk, or more precisely by a Steampunk subgenre called Clockpunk (see here, here and here). That is why so much of it has a Victorian character, a central motif of that genre. Now Clockpunk, there is a topic worth blogging about . . . another day.