Itchy trigger finger- Smith n Wesson or Seiko

Skill Magill

I was given a voucher for Amazon and have decided to treat myself to a watch. I quite like the idea of a tritium tube watch and the Smith and wesson came up, do you have any opinions on them as a make or is the tritium thing a bit gimmicky in watches at this price range? (about €120)
The seikos are a little more expensive but they have a certain classiness to them.
What would you go for yourselves?
(I'm a bit geeky and love the idea of a radioactive watch, but only if it works!)
Any replies appreciated, (€25 vouchers can turn out to be quite expensive )

Seiko Gents Kinetic Divers Watch
Amazon link
[IMG][/img]

Seiko Men's Diver's Watch SKX779K1.PNG
Amazon link



Smith and Wesson SWW-357-SS.PNG
Amazon link

93Cab

If you have to go on Amazon I'd go for the Kinetic. It's €165 on Creation as opposed to €139 for the Monster, so the Kinetic is slightly less of a ripoff!

Skill Magill

^^^^^^^
I'm sort of stuck with Amazon because of the voucher :P .
I've started looking at orient divers,
Black Ray Raven for £134
or
Blue ray for £109

Both seem to have good luminosity (from you tube vids) and don't appear to be such a rip off from Amazon. I like black watches but I'm tempted by the blue.

Do these seem better value? I was on the orient site and they're double the price there.

Wibbs

Short of finding a 1930's radium dial watch and giving your head an xray each time you look at your wrist tritium tube lume is by far the best there is. All the other modern lumes fade and fade fast. At 3 AM your tritium tubes will be still glowing, but the others like super luminova and the like will have long faded. The S&W is based on an originally US military issued watch, the Stocker & Yale 650 Type 6.

You can see where it's the above only in metal. The S&W will a higher quality case and will have a much better movement too. These days "military spec" is a byword for cheap, so civilian models will be better(in general). I've had an original Sandy 650 and it was a great watch and very robust, if plasticky, but the "copies" are of better quality IMHO(though the originals make way more money secondhand. Like an eejit I sold mine for a song compared to today).

Skill Magill

Its a pity they've removed the radioactive sign from the face

I may go for it, that €25 voucher is burning a hole in my pocket!!

Wibbs

Skill Magill wrote: »

Its a pity they've removed the radioactive sign from the face

I hear that.

Just to add you'll see the S&W has a few advantages over the original - and the original was one helluva military/rugged watch - metal case, date, the lume also extends to the second hand, better movement and a much higher water resistance. Of the Seikos, personally I don't like the first one at all. Too "let's be fashionable", not very clear hands. The second Seiko IMHO is much nicer, much like an evolution of their iconic divers watch and actually prcatical and it's an automatic/mechanical.

TL;DR? For that money I'd be looking at the S&W or the the second Seiko. Actually I'd probably go for the Seiko. More quality for me. Not a quartz with a military/fashion pretense like the S&W for a start. Plus you can still get an actual Mil issued watch of a similar design with tritium lume for around the 150 quid mark. Ebay-search-Marathon Navigator.

Skill Magill

Hmm, perhaps a marathon navigator with a different strap, a black metal band might look well, would you choose one seller over another or are they all the same?

MiCr0

Any chance your budget will extend to a traser?
They do have tritium tubes

Wibbs

All pretty much the same SM. Same prices too. Though I would say the marathon navigator is a "cheap" looking watch. Quite black plastic cheapo in look and design. Fantastic as a tool/don't give a fcuk watch, but hardly quality that lasts. I'd still reckon the second Seiko the winner.

Wibbs

MiCr0 wrote: »

Any chance your budget will extend to a traser?
They do have tritium tubes

True M, though it's often cheaper to get the original of the species. Though yes the homages nearly always have better quality.

Skill Magill

Ah but I'm geeky and prefer function over form, a military spec tritium tubed watch looks good to me. The strap can be changed!

Mredsnapper

Skill Magill wrote: »

Ah but I'm geeky and prefer function over form, a military spec tritium tubed watch looks good to me. The strap can be changed!

Doesn't tritium lose its glow after a couple of years. Compared to luminova which does not. Personally I prefer the monster.

Wibbs

You're talking about one of these Skill?

They come in a couple of versions. Dials with the US government on them, and "sterile" dials with just the H3 and radiation symbol. They come with or without a date, some have a red tip on the second hand some don't. There is even one that comes in a green case but they look awful IMHO Really cheap looking

Skill Magill wrote:

Ah but I'm geeky and prefer function over form, a military spec tritium tubed watch looks good to me. The strap can be changed!

They work best on a NATO style IMHO. The strap they come with is pretty shíte.

Mredsnapper wrote: »

Doesn't tritium lose its glow after a couple of years. Compared to luminova which does not.

Tritium as a radioactive source has a half life and IIRC with Tritium it's 12 years, so after 12 years it will have lost half of it's glow and be fully dead at 24 years. Seiko IIRC experimented with Pulonium(sp) back in the 80's I beleiev and that goes dead in 4 years, so it's crap basically. The old Radium has a half life of thousands of years, but is horribly radioactive and that radiation passes through the dial and glass and the metal of a watch so not so good. Plus it kills the phosphors in a few decades. Tritium's radiation is much much lower and of a less energetic type, the glass of a watch would stop it. In the past they'd paint the tritium on as in this example;

You'll note the H3 in red and the "T" above the 6 to warn it's tritium. Totally safe to the wearer, but less so to the watchmakers or those who had to dispose of it. Then the idea came about to encapsulate the Tritium in tiny sealed glass tubes, rendering it completely safe for all.

Anyway I've a trit dial watch that's 16 years old and still lights up pretty well. luminova is a non radioactive lume, it works by charging it with a light source, which it then releases over time. This release of light varies with application, but in the majority of cases you'll be hard pressed to read a luminova watch in the dark after an hour or two, with some you're talking minutes. Tritium you can read all the time no matter how long it's in the dark becuase the radioactive decay provides the internal "power" to the phosphors. A pic paints a thousand words

By two hours all but the Citizen are dead. TBH fair play to the Citizen lume. Roll on three or four hours and even the citizen would be dead. PLus you can always replace the tubes/hands when they finally go dim 20 years later. luminova is grand, but compared to Tritium or similar radio sources it's very much the inferior as a luminous material.

EDIT judging by one of the Seikos second hand the pics were taken with a five second exposure time so you might not be able to read even the Citizen after an hour.

Mredsnapper

@Wibbs Thanks for the informative post.

Mredsnapper

Did an experiment last night with my luminova speedy. Lume was still easy to read after 7 and a half hours. I'd be curious to see what results others get of they test their watches this way.

peasant

Mredsnapper wrote: »

Did an experiment last night with my luminova speedy. Lume was still easy to read after 7 and a half hours. I'd be curious to see what results others get of they test their watches this way.

I've got a good few (cheap-ish) watches that can pass that test ...if you charge them directly under a lamp for 30 sec / 1 min before you start

The real test for lume is what I call the "cinema test". Wear your watch on a dull day, under a sweater/jacket (i.e don't expose it to a lamp or direct sunlight) and then go to the cinema. After an hour or so, pull back your sweater /jacket to look at your watch and you will see ....nothing

The only watches that pass the cinema test are tritium light watches or something battery powered with an extra light in the watch.

Mredsnapper

Fair enough.

MiCr0

Gerlach have a tritium diver launching soon

Skill Magill

In the end I went for the Marathon Navigator with date :

and as Wibbs said the strap it comes with is terrible, so I need to change it / bin it. At the moment its unwearable. The dimmensions are : 44x48mm (not including the crown) with a 20mm lug width (strap size). Would anybody have any suggestions for it?



Where in Dublin has a nice selection of straps and can fit it for me?

Eoin

Fitting should be dead easy unless there's something unusual about the watch, but if you're not comfortable doing it, then most places would fit a strap that you got elsewhere.

eBay will have tons of options - just search for 20mm watch strap and check out the massive range that's out there. A NATO strap might suit it, but it could look a bit top heavy at 48mm. Still, you can get them for well under a tenner, so it's worth trying out.

Wibbs

I'd second the NATO. Looks the business IMHO. A fancy, strap especially a leather one looks wrong on one of these as they're a carbon/plastic work type watch. Here's mine on a NATO;



Just a bit of advice though Skill Magill, I found don't go for a 20mm strap if you're going for a NATO. It's too tight a squeeze. Go for 18mm. That's what's on mine.

PS the springbars are aren't the usual kind, they're just solid pins pushed in from one side or the other, so you don't even need tools to do it. With the NATO you don't have to remove them anyway.

Skill Magill

Really is super advice, I've just come back from town and there is a very small selection of Nato straps to be had. Any I did find were way too long for my wrist (I suppose you could double the excess back in through the clasp, and now that I think about, perhaps is what you're supposed to do, the excess length being needed to go over outer garments, should the need arise) However, I found the material too thin anyway, so I'm thinking of this one from amazon : It looks quite robust and better quality than any I've seen down town.
And I'm going for the 18mm as Wibbs suggested.
ZULU PVD NATO MILITARY/DIVE WATCH STRAP

Eoin

yeah, the NATO ones double back through the loops. You get used to the thinness of them.

Wibbs

Word of caution Skill Magill, the space between the bar and the watch is tight on those marathons. Like it's a squeeze to get the NATO's in. I'd reckon a Zulu won't fit, or it'll be a thundering bitch to do so.

And yep the NATO isn't like an ordinary strap. As you said you double the excess back into the metal keepers.

Check out this page

Bear in mind I've small wrists SM and I'd have a Nato on damn near all my non dress watches. Put it this way on all my NATO's I use the last/tightest buckle hole and then double back the strap. With some NATO's my wrist is so small, I cut them to size a little. Stout scissors and take off an inch (two CMs for the younger readers) from the end.

Skill Magill

Thanks Wibbs - looks like Zulus are too thick , damn

"I found a old 20 mm Zulu and tried it on mine.It didnt seem to fit very well. The band was too thick and didnt fit thru the lugs. So I wouldnt suggest the Zulu maybe a Nato would work. I dont think they are as thick as the Zulu's"

from

http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/archive/index.php?t-10313.html

Think I'll go for


from Amazon
It looks good on this watch

Eoin

I've got one in those colours; they look great and will suit your watch nicely, I'd say. And they're so cheap you can get a few to mix things up whenever you want.

Skill Magill

Of course I'm getting a black one and an olive one too!
and then thats it. No more money on watches












although I do find it easy to justify needless purchases to myself

Wibbs

Skill Magill wrote: »

No more money on watches

Ahh bless. The optimism of youth... :pac:

Skill Magill

Cheers, I must still be young cause I'm getting great kicks sitting in a dark room looking at my watch glow in the dark!

Wibbs

Naw I did the same at around 36 when I got my first tritium watch. When I got one that had been made within the last 12 months the brightness was unreal and yep I was head under the covers going wooooooow. The girlfriend at the time was ready to speed dial the men in white coats. I was 42 or 3.