What watch you're wearing?

TONY M

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That's a pic. of a vintage Seiko.

You will love the latest one of mine Mono, just in and new to me complete with AR sapphire mod.

8ooc.jpg


Tony
 

sidecross

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Up until the Swatch Group took control and distribution of the Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic movement and stopped selling them to independent watch makers you after 2012 you had a wide choice of good quality mechanical watches made by small watch manufacturers.
 

jeffdenney

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Sep 19, 2013
Messages
35
Alarm clock
Efficiency timer at work
Kitchen timer
Run stopwatch
Hunting
Compass
Thermometer
Solar

I beat the crap out of this watch and it is by far my favorite. . Daily timer. Lol

And its a special gold and black edition with a reverse lcd display. I hated the painted ones.

G-shock g9300gb mudman
zenyzytu.jpg

Shes dirty but thats how she likes it.

My old watch was a suunto t3. I still have it but havent worn it in a while. It was a good watch tho
 

Monocrom

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Up until the Swatch Group took control and distribution of the Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic movement and stopped selling them to independent watch makers after 2012 you had a wide choice of good quality mechanical watches made by small watch manufacturers.

Swatch Group controlled ETA for decades now. Non-Swatch Group watch brands can still get their hands on ETA movements. Just not to the degree they could in the past. Oh Hayek Jr. definitely wants to immediately shut off the supply. But the Swiss government pretty much very nicely asked if he'd simply reduce the supply year by year until Non-SG brands become cut off entirely. Honestly, an extremely stupid move on Hayek's part. Hayek Sr. never did anything that stupid when he was in charge of the conglomerate.

You can still get good quality mechanical/automatic watches from the small boutique brands out there. Few of them are suffering. Steinhart recently ordered a few hundred ETA movements and received 40. Yes, they are back-ordered. But other non-Swatch Group brands have found perfectly good ways around the now trickling supply. Many, including the big brands, are turning more and more to Sellita to provide basically the very same ETA 2824-2 that they used to get from ETA. Sellita's SW200 is literally the very same movement as ETA's, but with an extra jewel tossed in. (26 compared to 25.)

Now to be specific, it's not a clone, it's not a copy, it's definitely not a 2824-2 fake. It's literally the same thing but with an extra jewel. Sellita used to be a sub-contractor for ETA. Sellita used to make ETA movements for ETA. A lot of good watches out there with ETA movements inside which in reality were made by Sellita. So Sellita knows how to make the very same movements. TAG Heuer has switched over to Sellita SW-200s in their Aquaracer line instead of having to put up with a limited supply coming out of ETA. Some of the boutique brands have done the same thing. Though the problem is, Sellita is not nearly as big as ETA. Therefore, non-SG brands can't just rely on Sellita. There are other, also smaller movement makers located in Switzerland. They are all now extremely busy filling orders thanks to Hayek's idiotic move to put some of his competitors out of business by greatly reducing and then finally cutting off the supply of ETA movements to them in the near future. Give you one guess which of the 19 Swatch Group brands has been the most profitable year after year ... Yup! ETA. By selling movements to absolutely countless non-Swatch Group brands over the years.

The micro or boutique brands have other options. After all, with that ridiculous 51% rule in place for ANY watch to legally qualify as "Swiss-Made," it's just not that difficult for them to stay in business. Plus, they'll likely be getting a boost in a few short years thanks to Citizen. The Japanese brand plans on opening up a new factory in Switzerland. Thus, their excellent Miyota movements will now legally qualify as "Swiss-Made." Seiko is apparently also looking into the idea of such a factory of their own. Why? Rather simple actually ... ETA got the bulk of business from non-SG brands. Now that that supply has been almost completely shut off, the demand for movements is still there. Hayek Jr. has chosen to say "No" to the massive profits ETA used to bring in. Any intelligent business professional is going to see that a new supply is going to be needed to cater to the very same demand that still exists out there. Why shouldn't Seiko and Citizen pick up the giant ball that ETA dropped because its coach was dumb enough to tell them to.

If I was the CEO of Seiko, Citizen, and those smaller movement makers already based in Switzerland; I'd sent Hayek a giant gift basket with a "Thank You" note while enjoying my huge new profits. Sr. consolidated 20 brands under the conglomerate which would later become known as The Swatch Group. Back then, it was necessary. Otherwise, except for literally a handful of brands, all the Swiss watch brands would have ceased to be after the Quartz revolution from Japan in the 1970s. Sr. saved practically the entire Swiss watch industry. Oris bought their way out of the conglomerate before it officially became known as The Swatch Group. There are plenty of excellent watches from various SG brands. But Jr. royally screwed the pooch with his decision to limit ETA movements only to Swatch Group brands.
 

yifu

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The limitation of sales of ebauches to watchmakers outside the ETA was masqueraded by the Swatch group as an attempt to increase competition in the Swiss watchmaking industry. What it really did was to force the smaller players out of the market, those who did not have millions of capital needed to develop a new movement were left with no other Swiss alternative, due to the annexing by Swatch of other movement makers like Unitas etc. A lengthy government investigation, during which ETA was forced to continue selling its ebauches in volume did not find the action illegal. However, during that time, there have been many Swiss 'clones' of popular ETA movements. The ETA2824 for example is cloned by no less than 5 other Swiss movement makers, Sellita SW200, Soprod A10, TC2824 just to name a few. And there are the Chinese clones, such as those by Hangzhou or Seagull.

The fact of the matter now is that even if the smaller watch brands choose to use Swiss movements in their watches, there are many quality Swiss options outside the Swatch group and even more made in Asia. Many are making the transition, and with ETA movements getting harder to get the alternative is more cost effective as well. Bottom line is many are glad that the whole ETA fiasco is over and we can continue to enjoy our watches without worrying about running out of parts at a regular service. Can we get back on topic please?
 

Monocrom

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As pointed out earlier, Sellita isn't making "clones" of ETA movements. Twins would be a more appropriate term. Yeah, not even the Swiss government fell for Hayek Jr.'s BS of stimulating competition. As for the smaller micro brands, literally none have gone out of business. Steinhart is struggling, that's true. But still cranking out watches. That's why Jr.'s plan is idiotic. It's not causing anyone to go out of business, and is simply causing ETA to lose a significant percentage of its profits.
 

TONY M

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Now that's a very nice vintage Seiko. Congrats!
It's not vintage it's a SBBN015 Tuna, you can have them for just $1500 new.:eek: I'm really not sure it was a wise buy (at app $1000 used) and a few of my other Seiko and other divers will have to go (just sold a mint Black Monster) but they do hold their value well. I really can't stop staring at it and it looks superb under some lighting, the quality is very high and it is smaller than the comparison pictures would suggest.

As the bracelet for this watch is $400 and mine is near mint I will look into getting a sacrificial super engineer 2, watchadoo or similar just to keep it looking good. This has been my favorite and grail watch for me for several years now and with the AR sapphire pressure tested post fitting this is the perfect timepiece and most expensive totally unnecessary item I own.

As I am suffering from both broken wrists 5 weeks ago good photographs are out of the question at present so the cellphone shot will have to do.:mad:

If anyone is interested I have attached a few of my watch photos below.


Citizen AV0031. Large, heavy and totally under priced. Real quality piece with the only negative being the lack of AR sapphire. Now sold.
rsad0301262100citizene2.jpg




SKX007 & 009. Decent and very popular budget auto divers. The most commonly modded watch. 007 now sold but swapped the bezels and kept the 009 with 007 bezel (SKX008b). It looks great especially with this bracelet.
rsad030768.jpg




Seiko SLR001. Rarer than hens teeth and a keeper. HEQ perpetual movement and a was made briefly before the popular Seiko Monsters were released. It is from 1999 has been well worn with plenty of scratches and scrapes, this has better lume than the Monsters and is in fact the brightest watch I have ever seen.
rsaslr001stacklumec.jpg




Seiko Orange Monster. Perhaps the best selling mechanical watch of the last ten years and yet I have only ever seen one - mine. A watch enthusiasts classic and no collection complete without one... or several. Same movement as the SKX007 and frequently modified but mine is stock and of course has never been worn.
orangemonsterstack3crop.jpg




Orient "Blue Mako." Nicer and more detailed dial and case then the Seiko's with a more accurate movement, less common too though Monocrom has one (in black):thumbsup:. Great value and I had planned on getting an AR sapphire to take it to the next level but never got around to it - must follow that up. The bracelet and clasp is superb however the folded end links let it down. Never worn like many in my collection.
rsadsc0756bbluemako2.jpg


This hobby can be very expensive but luckily if you know what to get and don't keep what you don't need (ahem - note to self) then it can be a lot of fun.

Tony
 

sidecross

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Messages
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Swatch Group controlled ETA for decades now. Non-Swatch Group watch brands can still get their hands on ETA movements. Just not to the degree they could in the past. Oh Hayek Jr. definitely wants to immediately shut off the supply. But the Swiss government pretty much very nicely asked if he'd simply reduce the supply year by year until Non-SG brands become cut off entirely. Honestly, an extremely stupid move on Hayek's part. Hayek Sr. never did anything that stupid when he was in charge of the conglomerate.

You can still get good quality mechanical/automatic watches from the small boutique brands out there. Few of them are suffering. Steinhart recently ordered a few hundred ETA movements and received 40. Yes, they are back-ordered. But other non-Swatch Group brands have found perfectly good ways around the now trickling supply. Many, including the big brands, are turning more and more to Sellita to provide basically the very same ETA 2824-2 that they used to get from ETA. Sellita's SW200 is literally the very same movement as ETA's, but with an extra jewel tossed in. (26 compared to 25.)

Now to be specific, it's not a clone, it's not a copy, it's definitely not a 2824-2 fake. It's literally the same thing but with an extra jewel. Sellita used to be a sub-contractor for ETA. Sellita used to make ETA movements for ETA. A lot of good watches out there with ETA movements inside which in reality were made by Sellita. So Sellita knows how to make the very same movements. TAG Heuer has switched over to Sellita SW-200s in their Aquaracer line instead of having to put up with a limited supply coming out of ETA. Some of the boutique brands have done the same thing. Though the problem is, Sellita is not nearly as big as ETA. Therefore, non-SG brands can't just rely on Sellita. There are other, also smaller movement makers located in Switzerland. They are all now extremely busy filling orders thanks to Hayek's idiotic move to put some of his competitors out of business by greatly reducing and then finally cutting off the supply of ETA movements to them in the near future. Give you one guess which of the 19 Swatch Group brands has been the most profitable year after year ... Yup! ETA. By selling movements to absolutely countless non-Swatch Group brands over the years.

The micro or boutique brands have other options. After all, with that ridiculous 51% rule in place for ANY watch to legally qualify as "Swiss-Made," it's just not that difficult for them to stay in business. Plus, they'll likely be getting a boost in a few short years thanks to Citizen. The Japanese brand plans on opening up a new factory in Switzerland. Thus, their excellent Miyota movements will now legally qualify as "Swiss-Made." Seiko is apparently also looking into the idea of such a factory of their own. Why? Rather simple actually ... ETA got the bulk of business from non-SG brands. Now that that supply has been almost completely shut off, the demand for movements is still there. Hayek Jr. has chosen to say "No" to the massive profits ETA used to bring in. Any intelligent business professional is going to see that a new supply is going to be needed to cater to the very same demand that still exists out there. Why shouldn't Seiko and Citizen pick up the giant ball that ETA dropped because its coach was dumb enough to tell them to.

If I was the CEO of Seiko, Citizen, and those smaller movement makers already based in Switzerland; I'd sent Hayek a giant gift basket with a "Thank You" note while enjoying my huge new profits. Sr. consolidated 20 brands under the conglomerate which would later become known as The Swatch Group. Back then, it was necessary. Otherwise, except for literally a handful of brands, all the Swiss watch brands would have ceased to be after the Quartz revolution from Japan in the 1970s. Sr. saved practically the entire Swiss watch industry. Oris bought their way out of the conglomerate before it officially became known as The Swatch Group. There are plenty of excellent watches from various SG brands. But Jr. royally screwed the pooch with his decision to limit ETA movements only to Swatch Group brands.

Thank you for an explicit and much better comment on Swatch and the ETA 2824-2. :thumbsup:
 

Monocrom

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@ TONY M:

Sorry about your injuries. Those are indeed some good-looking watches in your collection. That Tuna especially. I had a Black Mako myself. Excellent watch in terms of quality. It was +8. Only one second out of COSC. For a watch that barely cost me over $100, I was very happy. Stolen out of a secure drawer at the medical institute I used to attend a couple of years back. Yup, one of my classmates. I'm sure the thief has likely tossed it into a garbage can by now because it likely kept stopping on him and he thought there was something wrong with the "battery." :rolleyes:

@ sidecross:

Happy to help. There's a ton of misinformation out there about watches and various brands. Only hard-core enthusiasts and collectors know the real story behind the scenes and behind the marketing nonsense.

@ gunga:

Technically? Yes.

But only in legal terminology. Citizen and Seiko would open up factories in Switzerland and simply make their bread & butter automatic movements there. Thus, allowing the movements put together in that nation to qualify under the ridiculously flimsy 51% rule in place to legally be defined as "Swiss-Made."
 

N8N

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As I am suffering from both broken wrists 5 weeks ago good photographs are out of the question at present so the cellphone shot will have to do.:mad:

Eeep... sounds painful... I dropped a motorcycle a while back and fortunately my wrists are fine but my SKX009 doesn't run anymore :/

Edit: I lied. Not about the motorcycle. I'd shoved the 009 in my pocket earlier today thinking I'd track down a watch repair place that a guy had told me about and see if they could do anything with it. Guy really didn't want to have anything to do with it... just emptied out my pockets and saw that it wasn't set to the same time as it was when I grabbed it this morning. Shook it a couple times and it started running. Damn those Seikos are tough; don't know why it stopped in the first place.

Hope your wrists are healing well...
 
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tjswarbrick

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PCC and Flying Turtle - you make your Seiko's look so nice!
lightcycle - that's an amazing find. Congrats.

I've been following this thread off and on with interest for a while. I'm just no good with a camera.
I like my watches analog and fairly thin and small, with a date, lume, and a few numbers or at least good-size hashes on the dial. Few have all those.

Today, it's a Skagen 355LSSB. I love the thinness, but it's light on features. Still, the best 5-year anniversary gift available through work, so I'm happy.

Most days, it's a blue face Seiko Solar. It was a gift from my wife, and really has everything I need and nothing I don't.

Swimming, running, biking, or camping it's a G-Shock AWGM100-1A. Kinda big for me, but I was very happy to find an "analog" G-Shock. And I do like solar.

My EDC for a year was an Orient CEV0E001B. I think an automatic is great if you can wear it evey day, but sometimes I like to mix it up. When I do, this one is rather cumbersome to re set the day on. Their estimate of 40 hours reserve is quite close. It's fine the first day I don't wear it, but on day two it usually dies before I wake up in the morning. Frankly, I think I'd like it better with just date and time, but since it has the day I can't walk around with it wrong. I find it a little heavy for its size. It would generally lose 6-8 minutes a month, when worn daily, which I thought was pretty good. I still enjoy it on special occasions, but only don it a couple times a month.

Mostly on recommendations from this thread, my new "fancy" watch is a Citizen Ti Eco-Drive. Again, has all the features I look for in a watch, but sometimes feels just a little bigger than I like. It usually comes out when I carry my custom Ti light and knife.
I wanted something quality, Ti, and made in USA to match those - but just couldn't find it. I thought about going European, but I still have trouble justifying the cost to myself when the Japanese ones fill the need and work so well. Still, I think, someday...

I swapped the tan Orient band to the Seiko because I tend to wear tan shoes and belt. It's lighter and sleeker, and I just find the solar less hassle than mechanical for most-days wear. I then got a cordovan band for the Orient for when I wear those. The other 3 go well with black already.

I'll see if I can't get some decent pictures, but don't hold your breath.

Update: I managed to get a couple half-decent photos:












After just over a year, the battery in the Skagen dies this morning. It's the only one of the lot that'll have that problem.
 
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TONY M

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Thanks guys!

The details for those who love to know these things. :naughty: Two breaks on either side both needed reduction, the right one more severely broken and required two reductions - first on the day of injury and later at 16 days when X-Rays showed that it had slipped out of aliment at some stage in the cast... that was frustrating and is the last time I will say no to anesthetic.:mecry:

I have no pins or plates which is good enough, I understand that in the USA surgery is more common for breaks like this and would have prevented movement and further displacement. Unfortunately there is still numbness through the right hand which I've been told is nerve damage to some extent but this could still heal with time. The left side is now in a splint which helps a lot.

Anyway not the end of the world thankfully. Time will help and is helping me and I'm very fortunate to have people around me who could be my hands for a while and help out with eating, showering, getting clothed, going to the...:eek: you get the picture.

TGIF

Left glove.
2ba6.jpg


Right glove.
oa0f.jpg


Tony
 
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PCC

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Sitting' on the dock o' The Bay...
Wow, that looks painful. Back in high school I broke my arm at my wrist and that was the second most painful experience I've had. Basically, I broke the end of my right radius at my wrist and it hurt like hell.
 
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