Which watch ?

[wizard]

This is mine, it keeps perfect time and has been the only Rolex I ever owned that does.
I also use a Casio GW-5600 for the outdoor trips and for some rough work days. I have had the GMT since 2001, great watch but it is more valuable than my everyday auto an Isuzu Trooper 4x4! Cheers!

 

[Chinkapin]

I wear a Pulsar solar. The face is a solar panel (but you cannot tell by looking). It is a very sensitive solar mechanism because it will keep charged and running in the dimmest of room light. The back of the watch proclaims: "no battery change required." I have had it for nine years, it has never stopped, never been wound, and since it doesn't have one, never had a battery replaced. It is water proof and the case and band are titanium, so although it is heavily built, it is quite light on the wrist. In every way, it is an almost "perfect" watch, but strangely enough when I go out into the woods I generally carry a Russian pocket watch that my daughter bought me about 10 years ago. I just love a good pocket watch and I love a mechanical movement. Its all so 19th century, wheels, levers, cogs, springs, etc. Probably a lot of Bushies are Luddites at heart!

 

[demographic]

For the people with mechanical watches who say they don't like quartz watch batteries running out....

You are of course aware that its reccommended in my nice Practical Watch Repair book that mechanical watches are lubricated every five years (If I remember right) anyway?

And that its reccomended that you have the back removed about once a year to have the watch inspected, and a brand new seal put in there to protect it.

Oh by the way, for anyone interested in mechanical watches, that books a huge resource of information.

 

[Robby]

I must admit that I'm in favour of lower price watches for working or outdoors. I have 2 different watches that I use depending on what I'm doing

First is one that I got for £8 from Lidl, Water resistant to 200M, with a screw down crown and rotating bezel. Strong robust and waterproof.

Second is a watch (already mentioned) that I got from tesco for £16. It operates as a watch stopwatch or compass

Watch

Compass

I prefer cheaper watches because I have, in the past, lost or broken expensive watches during outdoor pursuits and working outdoors.

 

[Chinkapin]

Robbie, I like that first watch, is it quartz or "you wind it" variety?

 

[Stiks]

Yep CWC ... My W10, Nato strap, has coped with everything I've trown at it for many years.

 

[Robby]

Robbie, I like that first watch, is it quartz or "you wind it" variety?

It's a quartz movement, and water resistant to 200M apparently. never been down to 200M to test it. Deepest it's been is 4M, the bottom of the deep end at the local swimming pool.

 

[harryhaller]

For the people with mechanical watches who say they don't like quartz watch batteries running out....

You are of course aware that its reccommended in my nice Practical Watch Repair book that mechanical watches are lubricated every five years (If I remember right) anyway?

And that its reccomended that you have the back removed about once a year to have the watch inspected, and a brand new seal put in there to protect it.

Oh by the way, for anyone interested in mechanical watches, that books a huge resource of information.

..and I've gone and ordered it

At my local market there's a guy who sells spare parts for mechanical watches and we have shop which specialises in watch makers tools - so no probs there. Just the know-how was missing.

Thanks demographic.

 

[Chinkapin]

LOL, I'm always amused by these 200M and 300M claims on watches. Most people wearing an ordinary watch who are 200M under the water probably are not going to return to the surface. Those that are still alive are divers, and have on diver watches.

Advertising, ain't it grand!

 

[demographic]

..and I've gone and ordered it

At my local market there's a guy who sells spare parts for mechanical watches and we have shop which specialises in watch makers tools - so no probs there. Just the know-how was missing.

Thanks demographic.

Its an interesting read and even the section about watches keeping different time when kept in different positions is worth a read, people imagine that once the watch is "set right" to keep good time that thats it, it will keep good time as long as its wound but if its right for a right handed person (to wear pendant down on their left wrist) it won't be quite right for a left handed person to wear on their right wrist.

Some people just buy someting dead expensive and don't bother learning about why they are expensive.
Some of the Soviet chronometers are fascinating, cheap to buy and take to bits and as good as some of the swiss stuff.

Don't write them off just cos they don't cost a grand and don't look "Bling" enough.

Hope you like the book, its quite old and some of it is slightly dated as far as I can tell (not being much of an expert to be honest) but its damn good all the same.

 

[harryhaller]

Do you know anywhere that sells the old soviet watches? Googling just turns up the new russian watches - quartz

 

[demographic]

Do you know anywhere that sells the old soviet watches? Googling just turns up the new russian watches - quartz

Ebay salls loads, Poljot chronographs are some of the really nice (but pretty spendy) ones, then theres Vostok, Raketa which as far as I can figure out is something to do with Seconda and a few others.

Just type Soviet watch into the search engine and see what turns up.
Theres some good stuff thats enough different looking that it really wouln't embarrass me to wear them, unlike some others.
The CCCp ones are old enough so that theres hardly any quartz ones.
Can't say i am too impressed by mechanical watches that have a date displayed, they either have a 31 day month or have a perpetual calender that adjusts for how many days the month has, then if you leave it till it unwinds you have to **** about setting the date as well.

Meh

The ones I really like are the Sputnik watches made at a time of real optimism for the USSR, they might not be the best movement but for some reason I don't care, going against most things I say I just like the picture on the front.

Seiko movements are also often very good as far as I know but I'm really no expert at all.

Pocket watches are bigger things to have a look at and perhaps better to have a go on.

 

[Stephen Conkie]

I'm tight and wear a £25 Lorus from Argos when I'm playing out

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2535975/Trail/searchtext>LORUS.htm

The rest of the time I wear a Tag which I bought myself for my 30th

There are lots and lots of amazing watches I'd love to buy/keep/ogle/buy dinner for, but a Lorus is all that's needed. Top-notch quality-control courtesy of Seiko, WR100m, Hardlex crystal and very light and comfortable. A G-Shock is the only other one I can think of with that magic combination of quality, huge robustness and price. Also, the more knackered it looks, the cooler it looks. Taking a Rolex out to the bush seems a bit....I don't know....wrong somehow

 

[Dave_the_Pilgrim]

Steve,
Your choice of watches is impeccable but I have to disagree with the wearing of a Rolex in the ulu.
Mine was bought for me by my parents as an 18th b'day prezzie. Cost £350 back in 1981.
I've worn it all over the world in temperatures from -mid 40's centigrade to plus mid 40's in the tropics. And we are talking working here not poncing about near a swimming pool posing. My Rolex has never let me down. It was bought on the back of a reputation as a rugged watch and the ads of the time had all sorts of great explorers etc wearing one. They were not the jewellery that they have become and wearing one hard was using it properly. It's a bit like most 4x4's never going off road.
The only reason I tend not to wear it kayaing these days is that it's nostalgic value now makes it irreplaceable despite the fact that it is insured and aways has been. I could always find it in the forest with time and my metal detector but in water ?????? Unlikely.
It has never kept great time but I have never grown tired of looking at it and the memories it holds for me.
Dave

 

[Stephen Conkie]

Hi Dave
I've absolutely no doubt about the robustness of Rolex (apart from maybe Air-King as its not sapphire crystal), just the rightness of it. To me ( and this is only personal taste) it seems a bit decadent?

 

[MancsMan]

I just love my swatch, day/date, totally waterproof, and most importantly for me zinc free, £20 quids delivered from the swatch shop, 3yrs down the line going good on the same battery...

 

[Stephen Conkie]

I just love my swatch, day/date, totally waterproof, and most importantly for me zinc free, £20 quids delivered from the swatch shop, 3yrs down the line going good on the same battery...

The only thing that puts me off the Swatches is the acrylic crystal, which I tend to scratch a lot. But big respect to them for their design-philosophy though. My mate recently got a "Swatch-a-like" called a "Watch", which is a great brand-name. The model he got looks like a hi-res computer-generated model and it just says "Watch" on it. Really knowing piece.

 

[featherstick]

I have a USSR Komandirskie Tank Commander for hacking about, a very 70s Seiko 5 for day-to-day, a gold Vostok that was given to SWMBO's grandmother's second husband on his 50th in 1977 (he was an interesting chap - spent some time in Vietnam advising the NVA on IEDs to use against the US Army- I also have the ivory chopsticks he brought back), and a Certina that was given to me by a girlfriend's father. All either mechanical or automatic. The Komadirskie gets a lot of abuse and is robust and accurate.

 

[featherstick]

Do you know anywhere that sells the old soviet watches? Googling just turns up the new russian watches - quartz

Hmm. Buying a genuine soviet watch can be tricky - the market is flooded with chinese copies. Don't buy anything off ebay, it's not worth.

How much do you want to spend, and what do you want to buy? I go to Russia frequently and if there's an opportunity can scout around and perhaps pick something up for you.

 

[Jedadiah]

Up 'til recently, i've been using a Sunnto Vector for my forages out and Bushy weekends but my favourite watches have'nt been getting a look in. They've served me well on Ops the world over so i thought ' Hell, how am i going to damage them Bushcrafting?' so, here are my old watches but new to Bushcrafting:

The left hand one (Sterile Sub Homage) is my everyday wear, just in the pic for scale. Center Marathon SAR and right, Marathon GSAR. Both autos and not as bulky as everyone makes out.

Here with my SMP and Speedy, just for size comparison!

Love all of them to be honest, the lume on the SAR is initially brighter than the GSAR's tritium but fades during the night which is not a problem with the GSAR.