Need assistance picking a watch

[Fred Castellum]

I plan on purchasing a watch for myself for my upcoming birthday, I think I've narrowed it down to 5 watches so far. Do take a look at each of these and let me know which you would pick if you don't mind. I know this isn't a watch forum but I value your opinions all the same.

I have a thin wrist coming in at 5.75" total so the largest watch I'd dare go for would be around 40mm, though even some 40mm watches are a no go due to their lug to lug length. Not planning to spend more than $300, I would have loved to get a mechanical chronograph watch but the only mechanical chronograph I can find under $300 is made by Seagull 1963(movement is the Seagull ST19) which is a Chinese company and their watch dials all look unappealing to me. So my only options for a chronograph are quartz unfortunately... on top of that all the smaller mechanical chronograph watches I could find were from brands like Omega which are towards the high end of the price range(thousands). 

 

The watch purchased will most likely be added to my everyday watch collection, I currently have a Seiko SNK805, 1994 Seiko 7002a Diver, and some random Chronotime mechanical watch of which I can't tell the model of. 

 

I'm open to suggestions as well, thanks!
 

Watches listed in the poll below: 

 

1. Seiko SSB031 Chronograph - Link to Buy

 

2. Seiko SNDC33 Chronograph - Link to Buy

3. Seiko Presage SRPB07J1 - Link to Buy

 

4. Seiko Presage SSA339J1 Limited Edition(2000 made, individually numbered) - Link to Buy

 

5. Orient Bambino Open Heart - Link to Buy

[Bigbootyjudy]

I really like the limited edition presage and the Orient. The presage looks simple but also not at the same time and the orient looks classy and simple. If you couldn't tell I like simple watches

[Fred Castellum]

Just now, Bigbootyjudy said:

I really like the limited edition presage and the Orient. The presage looks simple but also not at the same time and the orient looks classy and simple. If you couldn't tell I like simple watches

Thanks for the input, I personally prefer the Limited Edition Presage and the Orient as well. The micro engineering that goes into making watch movements are impressive and nice to look at.

[Fredrikmikael]

Oh man, that orient is beautiful.

[Fred Castellum]

Just now, Fredrikmikael said:

Oh man, that orient is beautiful.

Indeed, that's the open heart version of the blue Bambino. 

 

They make a non-open heart one with a date complication as well: https://www.jomashop.com/orient-watch-fac08004d0.html

[Arika]

those have some significant difference in styles. so i would say what ever one your prefer and what feels best on your wrist. they are all going to be good watches

[kasugatei]

3 hours ago, MyInnerFred said:

Thanks for the input, I personally prefer the Limited Edition Presage and the Orient as well. The micro engineering that goes into making watch movements are impressive and nice to look at.

I would recommend you to go with Seiko in that case. It has sapphire crystal and trust me you want sapphire crystal watch.

[Dash Lambda]

I don't have one (yet), but even still, some of my favorite watches in that price bracket are the Seiko kinetic perpetuals.

 

I love the way Seiko does the Kinetic watches, they're quartz but they have an automatic style rotor that drives a little generator, so you never have to replace the battery. I think most of the Kinetics use capacitors rather than lithium batteries, so they have extremely good endurance. The battery life when left alone is on the order of years.

(Yeah, there are other autoquartz movements, but Seiko's the only company so far to run with it.)

 

What really fascinates me about them, though, is that -as far as I can tell- the perpetual calendar is entirely mechanical, and the quartz movement essentially just pushes a lever once a day. I really love mechanical perpetual calendars. Making a perpetual calendar watch is actually a long-term project of mine. As it stands, the cheapest true automatic perpetual calendar is about $8,000, which is kind of absurd given that you can get mechanical chronographs (which are usually more complicated) for ~$1,000...

 

Here's one of the most popular ones, here's one that I really wish wasn't a limited edition, and here's one that looks suspiciously like a Patek.

 

Really, Seiko is the only company I know of that has managed to make honest-to-god cool quartz watches. I love the Springdrive too...

[Fred Castellum]

11 hours ago, Sierra Fox said:

those have some significant difference in styles. so i would say what ever one your prefer and what feels best on your wrist. they are all going to be good watches

Yeah that's true, I was initially looking for chronographs but I couldn't find any that were small enough to fit my wrist. That's why I ended up looking at automatics again. 

 

9 hours ago, Niksa said:

I would recommend you to go with Seiko in that case. It has sapphire crystal and trust me you want sapphire crystal watch.

A sapphire crystal is definitely nice, It beats out mineral crystals and Seiko's proprietary hardlex crustal which is a step above stand mineral crystals.

 

Though I've found hardlex has done just fine under my use, I take pretty decent care of my watches. None have gotten any scratches except for the older 1994 Seiko 7002a diver.

[Fred Castellum]

16 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

I don't have one (yet), but even still, some of my favorite watches in that price bracket are the Seiko kinetic perpetuals.

 

I love the way Seiko does the Kinetic watches, they're quartz but they have an automatic style rotor that drives a little generator, so you never have to replace the battery. I think most of the Kinetics use capacitors rather than lithium batteries, so they have extremely good endurance. The battery life when left alone is on the order of years.

(Yeah, there are other autoquartz movements, but Seiko's the only company so far to run with it.)

 

What really fascinates me about them, though, is that -as far as I can tell- the perpetual calendar is entirely mechanical, and the quartz movement essentially just pushes a lever once a day. I really love mechanical perpetual calendars. Making a perpetual calendar watch is actually a long-term project of mine. As it stands, the cheapest true automatic perpetual calendar is about $8,000, which is kind of absurd given that you can get mechanical chronographs (which are usually more complicated) for ~$1,000...

 

Here's one of the most popular ones, here's one that I really wish wasn't a limited edition, and here's one that looks suspiciously like a Patek.

 

Really, Seiko is the only company I know of that has managed to make honest-to-god cool quartz watches. I love the Springdrive too...

I've actually looked into some of those kinetic powered watches Seiko has, I heard they were heavily marketing those a couple of years back but it ended up being a failure due to the high failure rate of the capacitors in their watches. Don't they still have a small li-ion battery in Kinetic watches? I was pretty sure it wasn't 100% capacitor powered. 

 

Yeah unfortunately all those perpetual calendar ones are out of my price range unless I have a insanely good day at work, same goes for mechanical chronographs.

 

Haha the price difference between the first one and the other two that you linked is huge. Shame I wanted something with a darker colored dial.

 

I really appreciate how Seiko makes some really quality watches given their low price, all of their low end watches have some variation of hardlex crystal opposed to other companies that use mineral glass. Their Spring Drive stuff is pretty impressive, the engineering they put into it is really top notch. 

 

What do you own watch-wise? 

[Dash Lambda]

1 hour ago, MyInnerFred said:

-snip-

I hadn't heard about the failure rates. I'll have to look into it more.

With the batteries, I remember there being some that used capacitors and some that use batteries, though it's been a while since I researched it.

 

As for my watches, I have quite a few. Here's my watchbox:

Spoiler

From left to right, top to bottom:

-An Eberle automatic dual-time/world-time power-reserve with retrograde date.

-A Stauer Graves. Not a really high-end watch, but it was my favorite for years. It's actually my only watch with a month complication that changes on its own (though not perpetual).

-An Android Ninja-Star. The face is an aperture that you can open and close with the top crown.

-A Stuhrling Emperor's Grandeur. Very pompous name. I love the pocket-watch style.

-A Trias automatic with dual time zones and interesting semicircle day/date windows. I think it was called "Eye of the Tiger" or something like that.

-A Citizen Promaster Titanium diver.

-A Seiko 5.

-An Orient automatic power reserve.

-An Orient automatic world time.

-A Deporte quartz chrono.

-A Fossil quartz chrono. My dad actually found it battered up in a parking lot, we took it to Fossil and got it fixed up.

-A Trias automatic with 24 hour sun/moon, day, and date.

-An Orient automatic with a slide rule. It's titanium.

-A Joshua & Sons triple-time. It actually has an automatic movement under the blue face and two separate quartz movements under the other two.

-A Croton Diamond Automatic. Not sure how much the diamonds are worth, but it's probably my dressiest watch.

-A Rousseou automatic power reserve. Somebody scratched it at school in grade-school, I have yet to replace the crystal.

-An Orient 'perpetual calendar'. I think this type of calendar is actually popular on Russian watches, it has a wheel that you move to line up the year and month on top so the days and dates on the calendar on bottom line up correctly.

-A Rousseou automatic with dual time, world time, day, and date.

 

The one I wear daily is a Seiko Orange Monster. Currently I have a random rubber strap on it because I have the safety clasp issue on the stock bracelet, I'm looking into something like a Super-Engineer 2. It's an Italian rubber strap (my dad loved them), so it smells like vanilla.

 

I have a few more, but they're not really conveniently stored.

My dad was a watch collector, so we have more beyond mine. Nothing crazy expensive, there are a lot of Invictas and a few from mushroom brands, but most of them have something interesting about them. He really liked Android (now Aragon for obvious reasons).

 

I really like Seiko, I think Orient makes good watches but most of my Orients feel cheaply made in certain ways, and I like Android but I'm not crazy about the Seagull movements they usually use (they're fine, just not great).

 

EDIT: Apparently they used to use battery-shaped capacitors, but switched to lithium batteries due to manufacturing faults with the capacitors. This was around 2000, so it's been a while.

[straight_stewie]

I know it's not on the list, but personally, I prefer the Timex Ironman Original. It's extremely accurate, easy to read and set, easy to access all features under pressure, and easily read in the dark. They are also very resilient.

I have lost these watches in lakes, only to find them 6 months later when the lake was drained, still functioning just fine. For $60 USD, I don't think you could find a better watch.

Here's a link to the specific watch I own: 
https://www.timex.com/ironman-original-30-shock-full-size-42mm-resin-strap-watch/IRONMAN-Original-30-Shock-Full-Size-42mm-Resin-Strap-Watch.html?dwvar_IRONMAN-Original-30-Shock-Full-Size-42mm-Resin-Strap-Watch_color=Black-Gray&cgid=

Here's a link to a page of watches that are basically exactly the same:
https://www.timex.com/search?q=shock&lang=en_US

[Fred Castellum]

2 hours ago, Dash Lambda said:

I hadn't heard about the failure rates. I'll have to look into it more.

With the batteries, I remember there being some that used capacitors and some that use batteries, though it's been a while since I researched it.

 

As for my watches, I have quite a few. Here's my watchbox:

  Hide contents

From left to right, top to bottom:

-An Eberle automatic dual-time/world-time power-reserve with retrograde date.

-A Stauer Graves. Not a really high-end watch, but it was my favorite for years. It's actually my only watch with a month complication that changes on its own (though not perpetual).

-An Android Ninja-Star. The face is an aperture that you can open and close with the top crown.

-A Stuhrling Emperor's Grandeur. Very pompous name. I love the pocket-watch style.

-A Trias automatic with dual time zones and interesting semicircle day/date windows. I think it was called "Eye of the Tiger" or something like that.

-A Citizen Promaster Titanium diver.

-A Seiko 5.

-An Orient automatic power reserve.

-An Orient automatic world time.

-A Deporte quartz chrono.

-A Fossil quartz chrono. My dad actually found it battered up in a parking lot, we took it to Fossil and got it fixed up.

-A Trias automatic with 24 hour sun/moon, day, and date.

-An Orient automatic with a slide rule. It's titanium.

-A Joshua & Sons triple-time. It actually has an automatic movement under the blue face and two separate quartz movements under the other two.

-A Croton Diamond Automatic. Not sure how much the diamonds are worth, but it's probably my dressiest watch.

-A Rousseou automatic power reserve. Somebody scratched it at school in grade-school, I have yet to replace the crystal.

-An Orient 'perpetual calendar'. I think this type of calendar is actually popular on Russian watches, it has a wheel that you move to line up the year and month on top so the days and dates on the calendar on bottom line up correctly.

-A Rousseou automatic with dual time, world time, day, and date.

 

The one I wear daily is a Seiko Orange Monster. Currently I have a random rubber strap on it because I have the safety clasp issue on the stock bracelet, I'm looking into something like a Super-Engineer 2. It's an Italian rubber strap (my dad loved them), so it smells like vanilla.

 

I have a few more, but they're not really conveniently stored.

My dad was a watch collector, so we have more beyond mine. Nothing crazy expensive, there are a lot of Invictas and a few from mushroom brands, but most of them have something interesting about them. He really liked Android (now Aragon for obvious reasons).

 

I really like Seiko, I think Orient makes good watches but most of my Orients feel cheaply made in certain ways, and I like Android but I'm not crazy about the Seagull movements they usually use (they're fine, just not great).

 

EDIT: Apparently they used to use battery-shaped capacitors, but switched to lithium batteries due to manufacturing faults with the capacitors. This was around 2000, so it's been a while.

That is a very nice watch collection! About that Orient Power Reserve, does it have a inner rotating bezel? I noticed a 2nd crown on the side. I actually saw a couple of inner rotation bezel watches that I liked but they were either too large, out of my price range, or both. The Seiko Orange Monster is great watch!

 

I wonder if the kinetic line still has lithium batteries in them, if so then it still requires a battery swap eventually which is a shame. I honestly think the market would respond nicely to a cheaply priced Swedish or Japanese mechanical chronograph movement, but then they'd be cannibalizing their own sales for their high end priced ones.  

 

Do you have any aftermarket straps? If so where do you get yours? Know a trustworthy brand? Are you eyeing another watch right now to add to your collection? And while I'm shooting off all these questions I might as well ask you where you typically buy your watches as well.

 

2 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

I know it's not on the list, but personally, I prefer the Timex Ironman Original. It's extremely accurate, easy to read and set, easy to access all features under pressure, and easily read in the dark. They are also very resilient.

I have lost these watches in lakes, only to find them 6 months later when the lake was drained, still functioning just fine. For $60 USD, I don't think you could find a better watch.

Here's a link to the specific watch I own: 
https://www.timex.com/ironman-original-30-shock-full-size-42mm-resin-strap-watch/IRONMAN-Original-30-Shock-Full-Size-42mm-Resin-Strap-Watch.html?dwvar_IRONMAN-Original-30-Shock-Full-Size-42mm-Resin-Strap-Watch_color=Black-Gray&cgid=

Here's a link to a page of watches that are basically exactly the same:
https://www.timex.com/search?q=shock&lang=en_US

I've looked into a couple of Timex watches, they have a history of horology and have been making watches for a long time now. The do make some really good quality stuff, but it seems the majority of all their pieces are quartz or digital now. I don't really have a interest in digital watches even though they are extraordinarily tough, I can appreciate a quality Casio G-Shock or a classic Seiko Digital but I find the appeal to analogy mechanical watches more enticing for me. 

The Timex Ironman watches also seem a tad on the large size, I don't think I could pull one off given my small wrist size. Thanks for the recommendation though!

[Dash Lambda]

4 hours ago, MyInnerFred said:

That is a very nice watch collection! About that Orient Power Reserve, does it have a inner rotating bezel? I noticed a 2nd crown on the side. I actually saw a couple of inner rotation bezel watches that I liked but they were either too large, out of my price range, or both. The Seiko Orange Monster is great watch!

The Orient power reserve has a crown on bottom and a date pusher on top, no rotating bezel. The Eberle, Orient world time, and Orient slide-rule, however, do have rotating inner bezels.

Spoiler

 

4 hours ago, MyInnerFred said:

Do you have any aftermarket straps? If so where do you get yours? Know a trustworthy brand? Are you eyeing another watch right now to add to your collection? And while I'm shooting off all these questions I might as well ask you where you typically buy your watches as well.

I have a few aftermarket straps, but they're all from my dad. The place I'm looking to buy the SE2 from is Strapcode, which seems to have a good reputation.

 

As for watches I'm looking to get, aside from the kinetic perpetuals and making my own automatic perpetual, I've been doing a lot of looking into vintage railroad pocket watches lately. I'm thinking a Waltham, maybe a Hamilton. I have a fascination with tools, and I love that railroad watches were built almost purely for function -Not to mention that they tend to have accuracy that rivals quite high-end modern watches. Also not to mention that I really like pocket watches in general. I just wish railroad watches were automatic.

I've ogled at Omegas, specifically their annual calendars, but the price is a bit steep.

I'd also love to get a Seiko Baby Tuna (SRP637), but first I need to find one XP

 

I don't really have a good place to buy them. Or, at least, a better place than Ebay, Amazon, and the Watchuseek classifieds.

[Fred Castellum]

20 hours ago, Dash Lambda said:

The Orient power reserve has a crown on bottom and a date pusher on top, no rotating bezel. The Eberle, Orient world time, and Orient slide-rule, however, do have rotating inner bezels.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I have a few aftermarket straps, but they're all from my dad. The place I'm looking to buy the SE2 from is Strapcode, which seems to have a good reputation.

 

As for watches I'm looking to get, aside from the kinetic perpetuals and making my own automatic perpetual, I've been doing a lot of looking into vintage railroad pocket watches lately. I'm thinking a Waltham, maybe a Hamilton. I have a fascination with tools, and I love that railroad watches were built almost purely for function -Not to mention that they tend to have accuracy that rivals quite high-end modern watches. Also not to mention that I really like pocket watches in general. I just wish railroad watches were automatic.

I've ogled at Omegas, specifically their annual calendars, but the price is a bit steep.

I'd also love to get a Seiko Baby Tuna (SRP637), but first I need to find one XP

 

I don't really have a good place to buy them. Or, at least, a better place than Ebay, Amazon, and the Watchuseek classifieds.

Saw this video earlier today about someone buying watch parts on ebay and building their own watch that way.

 

Not sure if that's the route your going for. 

 

Omegas all look really clean and solidly built, it's just the price tag is usually pretty killer haha. I'd like a baby tuna as well but I don't think they would fit on my wrist unfortunately. 

Thanks for the information.

 

[Dash Lambda]

18 minutes ago, MyInnerFred said:

Saw this video earlier today about someone buying watch parts on Ebay and building their own watch that way.

-video-

Not sure if that's the route you're going for.

What I'm planning is to use a movement from Eta or Seiko, then design and build both a calendar plate and a case from scratch.

I would want to make the whole movement from scratch, but watch escapements and power mechanisms are extremely precise and sensitive -It would take a hell of a lot more for me to learn how to do those properly.

The two main hurdles are simplifying the design (I'm hoping I can get close to the Ochs perpetual) and learning how to fabricate the parts.

[Canada EH]

Which one is cheapest?