Horology on the LTT forum- A watch thread

[iBabySlapper]

So, I noticed there wasn't a watch thread on LTT forums. Since most online watch forums are... not beginner friendly, I thought it might be a good idea to start something here.

Post pictures and/or discussions about watches of any kind; hand-wind, automatic, quartz, mecha-quartz, pocket watches, cuckoo clocks, Swiss, Japanese, Chinese, Khyber pass, I'll even torelate smart watches. If you're looking for something, maybe one of us will be able to help you.

 

You might love it, you might hate it (or more likely a bit of both), write your opinion so others can chime in too. Not agreeing is okay, just don't be a dick about it.

 

Right, I'll start. With one of my favourite makes; Vostok.

 

This is a vintage Vostok Amphibia (70s/80s it's difficult to tell the exact vintage), and is made of Titanium nitride plated brass. While not my only, or rarest Vostok, it's a nice piece and a good place to start. These were rated to 200m of water resistance, being Soviet navy dive watches, but I'm not exactly keen on testing that out on a vintage watch (though the crown/caseback seal is in good condition). These early Amphibias have a proven in-house 17 ruby hand-winding movement called the 2209, which while not the most accurate, are rugged and will work over a decade between services (though this one was serviced 3 months ago). The strap is an 18mm Fluco Montana Zlege Brown Goatskin strap.

 

I'd say this watch has two main charming qualities; the size and the green-copper starburst dial.

This watch was designed in a time very different from today, and has very diminutive dimensions by today's standards.

With a lug width of 18mm, a width of 38.5mm (including the screw-down crown) and a lug-to-lug of 40mm, this watch is dwarfed by even a modern Vostok Kommanderskie (which is a pretty small watch as well), and is even smaller than many women's watches.

The starburst dial catches the light exceptionally, and the slightly unconventional colour works very well with the Titanium nitride plating.

 

A side note about the strap: The strap is a bit unusual that it's a goatskin strap. Goat leather, while is slightly harder on the outside, has a high fat content compared to cow leather, so the back of the strap has a very buttery texture. If you want a exceptionally soft, but relatively rugged leather strap, goatskin might be a good choice.

 

I don't want to make the first post too long, but I'll add one more. This one's the cheapest piece in my collection, I believe I got it for £10 from Aliexpress (the strap was more than the watch). Anyone could afford this one, which is why I wanted to post it.

 

This is a watch from a Chinese brand called "Naviforce", that flogs their watches cheap on Aliexpress. As you may or may not notice, it's a rough Timex Inteligent quartz fly-back "homage".

The strap is a 22mm Beco-Technic Arizona Sport Brown.

Looking at Aliexpress now, it seems the watch is a bit more now at £15, but I'd still pay that for this watch.

 

It's not a bad looking watch for the money, and with the Seiko quartz inside this thing, it'll be dependable.

The measurments are: Lug width 22mm, L-t-L 53mm, width incl. crown 50mm. This makes the Naviforce a medium-to-large watch.

The dial is printed well, and the watch features a weekday and date complication.

The caseback seems to be machined, and is surprisingly nice. The stainless steel case itself is surprisingly reassuring for a £10 watch, and doesn't feel cheap.

The included strap is a fake suede deal, that'll do in a pinch, but I thought the watch was nice and cheap enough to justify a strap upgrade.

[sub68]

here is a couple of my watches

my daily is a casio AQ-S810W

my grandpas old watch a Casio ft610

my garmin fore runner 225

[iBabySlapper]

1 minute ago, sub68 said:

my grandpas old watch a Casio ft610

I really like the two bottom day/date screens. Very retro Casio

[sub68]

also on casio AQ-S810W I am thinking of getting a NATO band (once I get enough money)

https://vario.sg/

thanks to @Nine Tailed Foxfor recamending this strap company

[sub68]

3 minutes ago, iBabySlapper said:

I really like the two bottom day/date screens. Very retro Casio

yes, I never wear this watch because well I don't want to mess it up

[iBabySlapper]

20 minutes ago, sub68 said:

also on casio AQ-S810W I am thinking of getting a NATO band (once I get enough money)

https://vario.sg/

thanks to @Nine Tailed Foxfor recamending this strap company

Those straps look pretty good, and the fabric ones aren't too overpriced.

For handmade stuff, eBay can also be a decent place to look. I've found this guy for zulu/nato straps, which seem to be good quality.

I've ordered one of his black leather Zulus, so we'll see how good it is.

[HM-2]

I've got a fairly meagre collection these days, cut down from ~12 at its peak. Nothing hugely special or rare anymore.

 

As posted in the other thread, my daily wear is a 2003 Omega Seamaster Professional Chrono Diver Titanium 300m. Serial number makes it one of the last watches to be released before they switched to the newer hands and movements. Had this one for about a year and a half, picked it up fairly cheap as it needed some work including a crystal replacement. No box but I've got the original papers including chronometer certification.

 

These days I tend to wear it on a custom Marine Nationale diving strap from Erika's Originals.

 

Others:

 

L-R;

Tag Heuer Aquaracer 500- 30th birthday present from my wife

Tag Heuer Formula 1- had this since my 21st birthday

Seiko 6309-7290 "Mini Turtle" from 1988, bought as it was a "birth-year" watch but now for sale as I never wear it.

Custom mother-of-pearl Seiko SKX007, serves primarily as a knockaround watch for holidays and stuff.

[Blue4130]

Picked this up about 5 years ago in Tokyo. Their used gear is pristine in general. Omega speedmaster reduced. 

[lewdicrous]

A few of the watches that I have.

Spoiler

Spoiler cause bad photo lol.

Not picture here: Galaxy watch (46mm), another Obaku watch, a watch from Royal London, and a Timex Expedition (don't know if it's genuine or not, I didn't buy it).

[iBabySlapper]

2 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

A few of the watches that I have.

  Hide contents

Spoiler cause bad photo lol.

Not picture here: Galaxy watch (46mm), Hublot replica, another Obaku watch, a watch from Royal London, and a Timex Expedition (don't know if it's genuine or not, I didn't buy it).

Nice Sturmanskie, I love Russian watches in general

[sub68]

I had a casio F-108WH

had this for about 1.5 years

than broke it by accidentally running into a wall

[atxcyclist]

I don't usually wear a wristwatch, but I do have a Vostok Amphibian for fishing trips or somewhere that I don't want to drag a cell phone out to check the time. The price was right, and I've always been a fan of self-winding watches. I went through a phase where I got into watches and bought a lot of tools for repairing/maintaining them, but aside from changing the battery in every watch owned by people I know, I haven't done anything with them recently.

 

I also have an old and quite beat Waltham, it works but is ugly.

[FloRolf]

I wanted to post here for quite some time and i have this Chrometab open on my phone for months now lol. 

 

Here's my small collection.

 

1. The first watch i bought after stepping over the edge and starting my fall down the rabbit hole.

A Dan Henry 1962.

I'd honestly not buy it again because the quality really isn't what i was hoping for. On the other hand it doesn't come with the biggest price tag either.

They just released the Black and Gold version which i quite like though.

Spoiler

Wearing it here while driving my 3y/o nieces Audi

 

 

 

2. The second watch i got is this absolutely beautiful Junghans Max Bill. I bought two, one for me, one for GF and presented them on Christmas 2019.

Even though i cheaped out and got the Quarz Version (many say it's more in line with the Bauhaus Style) it's still my favorite watch right now. 

I fall in love every time i put it on.

Spoiler

Got myself the silver version

 

and a smaller Gold version for my girl

 

 

3. After waiting for Stock for around half a year and then securing a spot on the waitlist i finally received my Lorier Neptune just in line for my birthday in July this year.

While it is certainly higher priced than the Dan Henry you can really feel it being so much higher quality. I'm a skinny guy with a ~16cm wrist and it wears perfectly.

They also just launched the Hyperion, which is a GMT Version of basically the Neptune. It really turns me on but i fear they might be too similar.

Spoiler

Reasons why a watch pleb buys a 200m+ Diver.

It can get wet in the rain lol.

 

 

 

 

Now i need your opinion though. A couple weeks ago i well in love with the Sinn 104 St Sa A B E. A limited Edition piece that was sold out basically minutes after release early this year. Now there are a couple in mint condition available here but at +50% the price. Does anyone have experience with the 104? I've never seen one in the flesh unfortunately.

Spoiler

After seeing many picture online it shines in all kind of blue hues, it's simply stunning!

The standard 104 is probably the best price to performance watch you can currently buy.

 

 

 

Cheers guys!.

[iBabySlapper]

5 hours ago, FloRolf said:

Now i need your opinion though. A couple weeks ago i well in love with the Sinn 104 St Sa A B E. A limited Edition piece that was sold out basically minutes after release early this year. Now there are a couple in mint condition available here but at +50% the price. Does anyone have experience with the 104? I've never seen one in the flesh unfortunately.

Yeah, this thread was dead for almost 5 months I think. Thanks for reminding me that it still exists lol. Maybe I'll make a post one of these days. My collection has grown since then with interesting stuff, both new and vintage.

 

I do actually really like Bauhaus style watches, but I don't think I'd be able to justify the cost of a Junghans, since I probably won't wear it that often. But luckily there's a lot of microbrands popping up recently, so maybe I'd be able to get a homage for cheaper.

 

You aren't the only one that has a dive watch and doesn't do anything with it.

 

 

The most water this Phoibos leviathan 500m diver has seen is my 80l fish tank.

 

As for the Sinn, I really don't know anything about the brand or the watch, but quickly looking purely at the webpage, I can think of a couple things.

-Specs really don't impress for the price. I've seen very similar specs (crystal, movement, etc.) on watches around $350. One notable spec the 104 has, would be the fact that the crystal has AR coating on both sides of the crystal (most only have it inside, if they have it at all). It doesn't mention what the bezel is made of, but it should be ceramic at the price. The build quality would have to be absolutely spectacular for the watch to be worth it purely from a specs perspective (although these days there are plenty of watches around the $200-300 range that are made exceptionally well).

-The bad thing about sunburst dials, and other reflective types of dials, is that they don't always photograph amazingly. Maybe you could somehow find a shop that stocks these watches, and see how their sunburst dials look? A nice dial can be worth a lot to the right person; are you that person?

-The use of old radium lume really brings a vintage feel to the whole thing. I like it.

-The old issue of "Made in Germany" not really meaning anything legally. Those words are definitely adding to the price since they carry a good reputation, but they could mean very little to where the watch is made since there's no apparent legal definition, unlike the term "Swiss Made" which is pretty clearly defined. Be very careful and thorough in your research if the watch actually being made in Germany is important to you. As a side note, if "Made in Germany" had the same rules as "Swiss Made", this watch wouldn't be "Made in Germany" since it has a Swiss movement (it would have to be a German movement). That stuff can be interesting to read if you ever have spare time.

 

 

 

I guess I'll include a watch from my collection in this post.

This is a Vostok Partner (forgot the model number). I call it the golden choco. My DSLR ate shit and I think the PCB was damaged, so no macro photography here. RIP my Pentax K-S2.

 

The dial has a tacky sheen that makes it look like it's made of very dark (80-90%) chocolate. The bezel it came with was pretty mismatched from the rest of the watch, so I put on this clean bezel. I actually mangled brushed this myself with a 9000 grit whetstone, and it has an admittedly uneven frosted finish. I'm fairly sure no other Vostok looks like this, and I like it a lot. The red second hand isn't a great match either, so I may replace the hands with another set I have in the parts cabinet.

[Volbet]

I was never too into watches, but I am into weird and unusual tech. In this day and age I do believe a watch should serve as more than a timepiece. 

 

Here's my daily-use watch:

 

The name of the watch is The Watch Firebird. 

 

It's a nixie, cold-cathode vacuum tube digital watch made in Russia. The clock chip is a Micro Crystal RV-8803-C7 and the housing is made of anodized aluminium. The watch is only splash proof, but I've also never gone diving with a watch. 

 

It did originally come with a silicone strap, but I never really liked the feel of those. I swapped the strap with a metal strap from an old, broken Omega watch I had laying around. Mainly because it was the only 24mm strap I had access to. 

 

No worry, the Omega watch is now sent out for repair. 

 

 

Apart from that this is what I got:

 

From left to right it's an older model Garmine Vivomove, a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and a Seiko 7T92. 

 

I use the Garmine for my daily runs. The battery life is pretty decent, and the statistics it provides are accurate enough for me. 

 

The Samsung smart watch was a gift from work. I never really could get used to it. It's a really nice piece of tech, but the features it offers are pretty overwhelming. All I wanna do is see the time, but that's often buried under notifications, a pedometer and a heartrate sensor. 

I also can't get used to charging my watch once every two-three days. 

 

The Seiko used to be my daily carry until I broke the strap by accident, hence the random replacement. It's surprisingly good and sturdy for a cheap quartz watch. Once I find a suitable replacement strap I might very well take into my daily rotation again. 

The only quirk is that it tends to just randomly lose five mintures after setting the time. 

[FloRolf]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Eco Drive

I find it fascinating that the dial still looks like a dial even though it's a solar cell. I know other brands have that as well but it's interesting. Also didn't know that Citizen had Titanium watches. Considering they are Quartz as well I guess they are crazy light? 

 

 

Anyways, as I discussed with @iBabySlapperon here before, I did actually go with the Sinn

I know you said it isn't the best bang for the buck at the premium limited edition price (wasn't +50% after all, just like +15%) but it's just absolutely fabulous. I always liked it on the pictures but in real life it's even better. Got it on steel now as well as both canvas straps that the watch comes with. 

Oh and yes I am a fan of German watches. I guess because I'm German myself. The connection to Sinn, as an Engineering brand comes from being an engineer myself too so I guess it's the perfect watch. 

 

 

 

Not the best pics, I'll try to make better ones over time. 

[iBabySlapper]

On 12/8/2020 at 8:46 PM, FloRolf said:

I find it fascinating that the dial still looks like a dial even though it's a solar cell. I know other brands have that as well but it's interesting. Also didn't know that Citizen had Titanium watches. Considering they are Quartz as well I guess they are crazy light? 

 

 

Anyways, as I discussed with @iBabySlapperon here before, I did actually go with the Sinn

I know you said it isn't the best bang for the buck at the premium limited edition price (wasn't +50% after all, just like +15%) but it's just absolutely fabulous. I always liked it on the pictures but in real life it's even better. Got it on steel now as well as both canvas straps that the watch comes with. 

Oh and yes I am a fan of German watches. I guess because I'm German myself. The connection to Sinn, as an Engineering brand comes from being an engineer myself too so I guess it's the perfect watch. 

 

 

 

Not the best pics, I'll try to make better ones over time. 

I put an order in for a German watch myself recently. It's a kickstarter watch, but it seems to be done by a guy who knows what he's doing (apparently he used to work at Bosch or something). I really like the 70s style. It's called the Heinrich Taucher

 

 

Orders will be complete soon, and I think they'll be delivered by May 2021. Can't wait really.

 

 

They've enamled the caseback, and it looks pretty fantastic.

[spartaman64]

Seiko Presage arita porcelain i have the 2020 version also but no independent picture.

As the name suggests it has a porcelain dial.

 

Seagull 1963

A column wheel chronograph for 200 dollars can't get better value than that really.

 

Orient Triton

Relatively cheap ISO certified watch and I have a thing for power reserve indicators.

[iBabySlapper]

1 minute ago, spartaman64 said:

Seagull 1963

I've had a 1963 in my buy list for a pretty long time, it's such a timeless design.

[spartaman64]

4 minutes ago, iBabySlapper said:

I've had a 1963 in my buy list for a pretty long time, it's such a timeless design.

yep and i would consider it the best value watch. i got really lucky with mine and its around +3/4 seconds a day ironically its my most accurate watch rn

[FloRolf]

9 hours ago, iBabySlapper said:

I really like the 70s style. It's called the Heinrich Taucher

Yeah that does look pretty vintage. Not my style but I like it. Only thing that I find doesn't match is the bracelet. Kinda looks cheap and doesn't fit very well. You'd have to see in person though. 

 

 

9 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

yep and i would consider it the best value watch. i got really lucky with mine and its around +3/4 seconds a day ironically its my most accurate watch rn

Interesting! I've been to China a couple times for business reasons but wasn't into watches back them. I told myself that I'll get a 1963 directly from China next time I am there... And now we have this covid thing going on soooooo no Seagull for me anytime soon

It's handwound right? How often do you bother winding and wearing it?

 

[spartaman64]

6 hours ago, FloRolf said:

Yeah that does look pretty vintage. Not my style but I like it. Only thing that I find doesn't match is the bracelet. Kinda looks cheap and doesn't fit very well. You'd have to see in person though. 

 

 

Interesting! I've been to China a couple times for business reasons but wasn't into watches back them. I told myself that I'll get a 1963 directly from China next time I am there... And now we have this covid thing going on soooooo no Seagull for me anytime soon

It's handwound right? How often do you bother winding and wearing it?

 

 

yep its hand wound and i think its a 45 hour power reserve. ive worn my seiko and left the seagull without touching it for a day and the next day when i put it on its still running. im sort of OCD so i end up handwinding my automatic watches to full also LUL. ive been pretty much alternating between the seiko presage and the seagull except on some days when i feel like wearing one more than the other.

[FloRolf]

Do you guys follow any Watch Youtubers?

 

I personally follow quite a few at this point. Started with The Urban Gentry and TGV kinda lit the watch-spark and now everything is on fire

Then i slowly added others like Jenni Elle, it's nice to hear a womans perspective sometimes. She doesn't have a lot of content but the stuff she has is pretty good.

Hafiz J Mehmood is another one and he has some very well made reviews. Shows many macro shots and shows the watches in a little more lifelike situations and not just on the wrist. Sadly he only does quite expensive watches so i can't really relate a lot.

Teddy Baldassarre has some very nice content too albeit not as indepth but he has lots of affordable pieces so it's always worth a watch (pun intended).

Just recently i added a rather new Channel, Pride and Pinion. The guy Nico does mostly reaction videos though on Celebrity Collections and then some Hublot bashing.

[iBabySlapper]

On 12/21/2020 at 11:02 PM, FloRolf said:

Do you guys follow any Watch Youtubers?

 

I personally follow quite a few at this point. Started with The Urban Gentry and TGV kinda lit the watch-spark and now everything is on fire

Then i slowly added others like Jenni Elle, it's nice to hear a womans perspective sometimes. She doesn't have a lot of content but the stuff she has is pretty good.

Hafiz J Mehmood is another one and he has some very well made reviews. Shows many macro shots and shows the watches in a little more lifelike situations and not just on the wrist. Sadly he only does quite expensive watches so i can't really relate a lot.

Teddy Baldassarre has some very nice content too albeit not as indepth but he has lots of affordable pieces so it's always worth a watch (pun intended).

Just recently i added a rather new Channel, Pride and Pinion. The guy Nico does mostly reaction videos though on Celebrity Collections and then some Hublot bashing.

I watch Just One More Watch, and a few smaller channels, but most of my time on YouTube is taken up by Vtubers these days.

[Radium_Angel]

My Grandfather's (on my father's side) pocket watch.

Still works too, thought it has seen better days.

Unsure of the age tho.