Automatic watch

I haven't posted in a while because of the holiday's and stuff.

I've been researching automatic watches. I've always wanted an automatic mechanical watch. Just something about the sweep of the second hand and the idea that this is a collection of springs and gears that are dependent on me for life. There is no battery, no circuit board. The second hand of a quartz watch "jumps" from one second to the next with each tick, a mechanical watch ticks 5 or 6 times each second. So the second hand seems to sweep around the dial, a thing of beauty.

The basic concept has been around since the 1500's, refined and updated and made more durable, but it is essentially the same. The self-winding or automatic watch was invented in about 1770, but was only put into production in the 1930's.

Think about it: On your wrist is a collection of tiny, precision gears and springs turning on bearings made from tiny jewels. It only "lives" because you put it on every day and wear it. If you don't wear it, it stops.

I think this is one of those things that you either get or you don't. Like collecting rare stamps, fine wine or having a fine shotgun handmade for you. Why have a gun made if you could buy a perfectly good one off the shelf? If you have to ask then it probably can't be explained to you.

As an adult I don't think I've ever owned a digital watch, except as a tool to use for a stopwatch. I remember being fascinated with military watches when I was a kid. After I joined the Army I had several military watches, little black-faced watches with tritium on the hands and green nylon straps. I destroyed all of them. The most complete destruction was one in the turret of my Bradley Fighting Vehicle. I was a gunner and after a qualification run down Table 8, I was clearing the weapon. This requires breaking one of the links that hold the ammo together. I had to stick a long flat-tipped screw driver in between two links and pry them apart. My screw driver slipped a couple of times and my wrist hit the side of the plenum (where the gun is mounted), smashing the watch to bits.

I never really thought to worry about the tritium on the hands, until someone mentioned later that it is radioactive.

So for a long time I gave up on nice watches. I still never had a digital, but I stuck with fairly cheap versions of military style watches. I had one with a metal bracelet that was powder-coated black. I wore it to the field in a swampy area where the mosquitoes were pretty bad. I used a bottle of Army "bug juice," which is mostly DEET. By the end of the field problem the watch was silver. All the powder-coating had melted. Again, I didn't feel like I should spend a lot on a "good" watch.

But I've never been able to walk past a watch counter without stopping. I've never wanted a Rolex though. The brand has always seemed very pretentious. Plus there are so many fakes around that, if I spent the money on a real one, I would be pissed if people asked me if it was a fake all the time.

The brands that I've always looked at are Tag Heuer and Omega. I'm not really sure why, other than they have good reputations and make really good looking watches. Omega has a great history. They make the watches that our astronauts wear and the first watch on the moon was an Omega. I only learned about that recently though. I really only knew of the brands from their ads and the "Bond" movies.

So now I have decided that I really want a nice watch. My first thought was the Tag Heuer Aquaracer, a nice looking watch. But when I went to see it in person at a jewelry store it didn't impress me at all. It's a bit small and light. It seems insubstantial. Tag also has some other styles that are much nicer but their prices go up as well. When you get into the Carrera styles, the prices are comparable to the Omega and I like the Omega more.

I didn't want to look at an Omega, they are expensive. But I'm drawn to them. I looked at the "Bond" watches (Seamaster) and the "moon" watch (Speedmaster).

The Speedmasters are all chronographs, that is they have three extra dials around the face of the watch that function as a stopwatch. During the Apollo 13 mission the Speedmaster stopwatch was used to time the manual steering maneuver the astronauts did which put them into the proper descent for re-entry. So it is said that the watch helped save their lives. That's some heavy history, I would love to own that watch. But I have a quartz watch with a chronograph now, a Festina. I like the watch a lot, but I never use the stopwatch. Plus I want a full size second hand so I can see the smooth sweep of the mechanical movement.

So I looked at the Seamasters. Beautiful. Perfect. Only one thing I don't like is they have a little crown on the left side of the watch that is a helium release valve. It exists for divers to use during decompression from extreme deep sea diving. I would never have any use for this and that just rubs me the wrong way. Unnecessary fluff, kind of a "hey, look at my watch!" gimmick. They make a version of the watch without the extra crown and with the additional complication of a second time zone. (Any extra features on a watch besides hour, minute and seconds is called a "complication.") I travel in the Army, so a second time zone makes sense. The Omega has a reputation for durability, so I think the watch will stand up to daily use and, as a senior NCO, I don't do a lot of crawling around in the mud so I'm not so worried about destroying it.

So this is my perfect watch. The Omega Seamaster GMT.



Black dial, steel bracelet. But that's just the beginning of the story. This is the perfect watch for me, but it's expensive. I'm a little worried about taking a $2100 watch on a deployment to Iraq. The only thing I have ever had stolen from me in 18 years in the Army was an electric razor, which I left in the bathroom for a couple of hours, and a gold "puzzle" ring which I left at the gym. I'm not that worried about thieves as much as I'm worried about leaving the watch somewhere.

So I decided to look around and see if a similar watch is available for less. There are many web resources available on mechanical watches. Web sites and forums in addition to dealers at the mall. I found the web more helpful, the people at the mall give conflicting information. So there are a lot of watch makers and hundreds of models. I'm sure I didn't look at all of them, but I checked out most. If I eliminated the second time zone, I could find several watches that would do very nicely. The MKII MMT is perfect. Handmade in the USA for you when you order it, for around $500. There are several other military style and divers watches that are very nice.

But if I insist on the second time zone the number of watches I like goes down to about four. Of those watches two are cheap (quality, I mean) and two are just as expensive as the Omega.

At this same time a couple of things happened. I read a discussion on a watch forum about insuring expensive watches and realized I could add the watch to my homeowners policy to cover theft or damage.

Someone I know through another internet forum, who rides the same motorcycle I ride, was killed on his bike. He was 25 years old. Here in Denver a huge snowstorm hit, I spent several days digging out. At least one person died of a heart attack shoveling snow.

The final straw was when I realized that no matter what watch I bought now, I would end up buying the Omega one day. So I would spend more money in the long run and I would deprive myself of the watch I really wanted for several years. And who knows how many years that might be? I could go back to Iraq this year, for that matter I could slip in the shower and hit my head today and it would all be over.

Life is too short to compromise. I bought the Omega yesterday.

But, I also found out the PX is an Authorized Dealer, so I got a huge discount and didn't have to pay taxes! I was thinking about going to an online dealer, but you never know with the net, plus you don't get the factory warranty if you don't buy from an Authorized Dealer. I think I got a good deal.

Here it is on a rubber strap.