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.

Together again!

So here we are. The left and the right are all pretty much in agreement that Iraq is a mess. The Iraq Study Group has issued their report and it seems we have given up. This is a victory for our enemy, no doubt.

So both sides have traveled different paths and we find ourselves at the same place. The right has tried and failed to bring peace and democracy to Iraq in the hope of changing the fate of the entire region. The idea being the same as taking a horrible tasting medicine to cure a steadily worsening illness. Had we been successful, a peaceful democratic Iraq would have been a very helpful ally in bringing the rest of the middle east into the current century and into the community of nations.

The left, on the other hand, tried and succeded in playing politics. They never wanted the Bush administration to succeed. There was never any real support from the left or its military wing: the mainstream press. I wonder how many cocktail parties are being thrown this weekend in New York and San Francisco celebrating the "defeat" of Bush? Of course this also means that America has lost, but I guess that's less important than getting Democrats elected.

That sounds pretty bitter but there it is. All sweetness and light on the one hand and all evil on the other. I realize that things are never really this cut-and-dried, but the exact opposite is how people on the left describe the situation back to me.

Bush and his rich cronies knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks. They took advantage of the situation to whip the American people into a war mongering frenzy. They ginned up fake evidence of WMDs in Iraq and lied to the English and to the American people to get them to go along with the invasion. This was all so they could get the oil in Iraq, to make themselves richer. And get revenge for the failed attempt to kill Bush's daddy. And to place our military in an advantageous position for further invasions of innocent, peace-loving middle eastern nations. God those Republicans are evil bastards.

I have heard this crap so often, from so many different people, and they believe it. So when I say the radical left is happy we lost, and that the media actively helped create this situation, why is THAT such an unbelievable notion? Are the selfish and cynical restricted only to one side?

So let's get out of Iraq. The left doesn't want to win and the right doesn't know how. Again, the Soldier is stuck in the middle.

Those poor, crazy bastards...

I wonder sometimes if the people who run the media, whoever that is; and the people who make the movies, whoever that is, have any knowledge or experience with the military? Seriously, do these guys even know anyone in the military? Or is there some agenda here to make the military seem like a mismanaged, uncaring, refuge of last resort for the desperate, hopeless trash of our society?

I believe that most of the American people hold the military in high regard. I believe that the people I meet on the street who thank me for my service and shake my hand really mean it. And I believe that those folks are still in the majority.

That said, there are an awful lot of people who are clueless about the military. These people all seem to be getting on the air lately.
Like this quote from Rep. Charles Rangel, the draft guy:
"I want to make it abundantly clear: If there's anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq."


And this goes unchallenged. I have soldiers in my platoon who are doing whatever they can to get deployed to Iraq. I suppose they would be written off as stupid or crazy by the leftys. There's no way that they could be patriotic, could they? No, patriots are the ones holding the protest signs, right?

And I already wrote about Senator Kerry's comments in a previous rant. But this is more about the way Soldiers are portrayed in the media and the movies. I heard a heartbreaking story on NPR today about how Soldiers at Ft. Carson are not receiving the mental health care they need. How they are hounded out of the service if they complain about PTSD. Poor, crazy bastards.

There is a movie coming out about a Soldier who comes home from the war and goes nuts and shoots some stuff up. Poor, crazy bastard.

Rangel and Kerry tell us that no one WANTS to be a Soldier, we are forced to do it by poverty or stupidity. Poor, crazy bastards.

Other than showing how poorly Soldiers are treated, the only stories I can find about the military in the popular media are accounts of crimes committed by us. So we are all victims or criminals.

I suppose I could read "Soldier of Fortune," maybe they are doing stories about individual acts of heroism in Iraq, or portraying Soldiers as something other than witless victims. But I shouldn't have to.

It's as if we are not allowed to see our own military as the good guys. But if we are not the good guys, who is? And if we put this much time and effort into convincing ourselves that NO ONE should serve in the military, how are we going to respond to the NEXT 9/11 type attack. (Because there will be a next attack.)

If we have no military who will WE turn to for protection? A hollywood special effects artist? I wonder if an impassioned George Clooney speech would stop a car bomb?

If we are not the home of the brave, we will not stay the land of the free.