Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

Birneybau

hitemfrank wrote: »

Whats on the chopping block?

His dad's fake Rolex :pac:

Sorry, joke!

Cienciano

Cienciano wrote: »

Had anyone sold anything on adverts recently? Just wondering if I should hold off till after the lockdown if it's quiet. I think I know the answer

I've sold things no bother. Certain items are selling like hotcakes because used is the only way you can get them.

Cienciano

Deleted User wrote: »

I've sold things no bother. Certain items are selling like hotcakes because used is the only way you can get them.

Did you post stuff or did people collect? Anything I've ever sold was in person.

Cienciano

hitemfrank wrote: »

Whats on the chopping block?

A cocktail time.

Birneybau wrote: »

His dad's fake Rolex :pac:

Sorry, joke!

Don't mention war or we'll have the usual suspects on a rant in here too :pac:

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Cienciano wrote: »

Did you post stuff or did people collect? Anything I've ever sold was in person.

Sold a computer....left it on my doorstep when I knew the guy was arriving.
Sold a strap for a Rolex...posted it.
Bought gym equipment...thats the best investment every, prices have sky rocketed...guy dropped it to my house, we waved at each other through a window.

All monies transferred electronically. No problem. Hell that strap was sitting for 6 months before this...things flying off adverts.

Cienciano

Cool, that's positive. I'll polish it up and try and get some photos sorted.

893bet

Cienciano wrote: »

A cocktail time.


Don't mention war or we'll have the usual suspects on a rant in here too :pac:

Ironically enough you are just a suspect now........

Cienciano

Cienciano wrote: »

Did you post stuff or did people collect? Anything I've ever sold was in person.

Collection, outdoors. Nobody is stupid enough to be offended when you don't invite them in for a cup of tea and chat. People are sound about distancing and masks/gloves, quick deals etc.

Thirdfox

Btw - if anyone doesn't have a timegrapher - I use Clock Tuner - one of the only apps I've enjoyed enough to pay full price for.

May invest in a proper timegrapher now that the Starlight is coming along but for personal use it can be handy to check watch beats (the app uses the microphone in your phone) and make microadjustments.

Screenshot attached - I found it a useful little app.

This is it

What is an acceptable level of beat error?

I've a Fossil watch which is always forward by 3-4 minutes, which I don't understand. I'd have thought that of it was +X that it would continue gaining time but it always only gains 3-4 minutes. Very annoying but I've learnt to live with it.

Using that app, which I didn't know existed, it varies from -23s to +11s. Which I presume is very bad? Is that per 24hours or per hour!? Is the watch just fecked?

banie01

Cienciano wrote: »

Don't mention war

Word for word was about to post that, but with a Basil Fawlty meme :pac:

Cienciano

banie01 wrote: »

Word for word was about to post that, but with a Basil Fawlty meme :pac:

And I just realised I left out the "the" :pac:

Cyclingtourist

banie01 wrote: »

Word for word was about to post that, but with a Basil Fawlty meme :pac:

Basil said "don't mention THE war".

Thirdfox

This is it wrote: »

What is an acceptable level of beat error?

I've a Fossil watch which is always forward by 3-4 minutes, which I don't understand. I'd have thought that of it was +X that it would continue gaining time but it always only gains 3-4 minutes. Very annoying but I've learnt to live with it.

Using that app, which I didn't know existed, it varies from -23s to +11s. Which I presume is very bad? Is that per 24hours or per hour!? Is the watch just fecked?

It's per day so that is actually well within standards for many mechanical movements. Often for mechancials bad = +/-60 seconds and above. Cosc goes for +7 and -5 I think (and in multiple positions) but that requires tighter tolerances. The Vostok amphibia for example gives a standard variance of -20/+60 seconds per day (so anything inside this won't be regarded as malfunctioning).

The app is very sensitive to sound so the variance could even be due to environmental noises.

-23 to +11 wouldn't actually be all that bad... Think about it this way - a day has 86,400 seconds - if a watch is off by 23 seconds at the end of the day it means it is accurate to 99.973%. COSC's 7 seconds means accuracy to 99.99189%. We don't have too many tools that we demand such accuracy from.

Your average cheap quartz non HAQ movement would be accurate to 99.99884% though.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

This is it wrote: »

What is an acceptable level of beat error?

I've a Fossil watch which is always forward by 3-4 minutes, which I don't understand. I'd have thought that of it was +X that it would continue gaining time but it always only gains 3-4 minutes. Very annoying but I've learnt to live with it.

Using that app, which I didn't know existed, it varies from -23s to +11s. Which I presume is very bad? Is that per 24hours or per hour!? Is the watch just fecked?

I reccomend you DO NOT buy a timegrapher or check the accuracy of your watches. Its just another useless thing to obsess over, and we are all of that personality. If you are a watchmaker you need one, but really what does it matter if you watch runs a bit fast or a bit slow. I dont set a watch exactly anyway or wear a single one long enough for the error to build up to a noticeable error.

Thirdfox

Sky Helpful Fencer wrote: »

I reccomend you DO NOT buy a timegrapher or check the accuracy of your watches. Its just another useless thing to obsess over, and we are all of that personality. If you are a watchmaker you need one, but really what does it matter if you watch runs a bit fast or a bit slow. I dont set a watch exactly anyway or wear a single one long enough for the error to build up to a noticeable error.

It has been described as the devil's toy (along with a loupe). But obsessing over little things isn't necessary wrong in our hobby either I think - just as long as expectations are set (some movements just can't be economically fine tuned to Xs/d).

@This is it - picking on poor Vostok was wrong too - here are the standard accuracy tolerances for other common movements:
Sellita SW200 (standard) - -12/+30 s/d
Sellita SW200 (elabore) - -7/+20 s/d
Seiko NH35a - -20/+40 s/d
Hangzhou 5000 :pac: - -/+20 s/d

You'll get plenty of threads on forums saying "my Seiko runs to +1 second a day!" - in almost all cases that's because of the lucky coincidence of how that person wears the watch - effectively the +X s/d from one position is being cancelled by -Y s/d from another position.

It's also why COSC is valuable in a sense - they perform the s/d test from a variety of positions - meaning (in theory) the watch will never be more than -4/+6 s/d in any one position - and if there is -3 or +2 in other positions it helps to bring the ultimate s/d when wearing close to 0 s/d.

Cienciano

Sky Helpful Fencer wrote: »

I dont set a watch exactly anyway or wear a single one long enough for the error to build up to a noticeable error.

This is the thing for me. There's no point if you rotate watches. These and watch winders, I couldn't be bothered.

Cyclingtourist

Re the Steinhart OVM I asked about a few days ago, I decided against it and have ordered the Steinhart Ocean One 39mm black ceramic instead. I was put off by those straight lugs on a 42mm watch. Invicta say they're expecting to re-stock on their 40mm no-date 1953 sub homage in June so probably will get that if and when it happens.

Thanks everyone for the response to my original inquiry.

Thirdfox

Cienciano wrote: »

This is the thing for me. There's no point if you rotate watches. These and watch winders, I couldn't be bothered.

And I don't know if watch winders actually wear out a watch quicker by having the movement run non-stop vs having it stopped and "resting" when not in use.

I don't use winders anyway - personally I find it easy enough to restart a "dead" watch as I'm setting the time/date anyway.

If I had an annual/perpetual calendar watch though I'd understand needing a winder

AndyBoBandy

Before I sent my Tag to England for its glass replacement and service, it was running at about + or - 10 seconds every day (can't remember which it was), which annoyed me.

So I opened it up and adjusted it down to less than 1 second per day, and I did this using a free app on my iMac called Audacity. It's nothing to do with watches, its for basic music/sound editing. It was quite easy to do actually.

I rested the watch on the top of the iMac (over the computers microphone), and recorded about 20-30 seconds of ticking. I then reviewed the clip, trimming off the beginning so that my first (zero) data/reference point was a second stroke, I then moved forward about 8 or 16 seconds and zoomed in to incredibly small time amounts (I think it's down to 1 ten thousandth of a second, but could be wrong), and was able to see how far ahead/behind that stroke should have been at, then made a slight adjustment in the watch and checked it again. I think within 3 adjustments I had it down to less than a second which was fine for me.

Thirdfox

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Before I sent my Tag to England for its glass replacement and service, it was running at about + or - 10 seconds every day (can't remember which it was), which annoyed me.

So I opened it up and adjusted it down to less than 1 second per day, and I did this using a free app on my iMac called Audacity. It's nothing to do with watches, its for basic music/sound editing. It was quite easy to do actually.

I rested the watch on the top of the iMac (over the computers microphone), and recorded about 20-30 seconds of ticking. I then reviewed the clip, trimming off the beginning so that my first (zero) data/reference point was a second stroke, I then moved forward about 8 or 16 seconds and zoomed in to incredibly small time amounts (I think it's down to 1 ten thousandth of a second, but could be wrong), and was able to see how far ahead/behind that stroke should have been at, then made a slight adjustment in the watch and checked it again. I think within 3 adjustments I had it down to less than a second which was fine for me.

Yeah I've used that too - found it just a little too onerous to me - I'm super lazy like that - but it is very good if you're willing to play around with it.

For people who want to adjust the timing of their watch one tip is very, very small adjustments are needed to regulator arm - it's better to move slowly than big changes.

redlead

Thirdfox wrote: »

And I don't know if watch winders actually wear out a watch quicker by having the movement run non-stop vs having it stopped and "resting" when not in use.

I saw a video on Federico talks watches with Hans who is their master watch maker. He was in the camp that leaving the watch rest is better. He said the thing about the lubricants going dry is a bit of a myth. Naturally having it on a winder means its running all the time so there will be more wear and tear on the watch. He didn't seem to be strongly in either camp but that was his take on it.

Was thinking this morning that if Covid19 hadn't happened I'd be after two days of Punchestown Races with my Dad.

4 years ago I bought this on the way to Punchestown, have no hankering to change it after wearing it daily since then.

Thirdfox

I've been a subscriber to his videos for some time (very informative) - but if anyone wonders why an independent watchmaker charges 200-300 euro for a proper tear down service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W1L9r_H4b4

Now not every watch has a GMT complication - but even without that you can see how long it takes to get through the watch and process it correctly. A good example however of the previous watchmaker leaving behind pretty shoddy work too. So if you find a good independent servicer their time is definitely worth it for your Swiss pieces at the very least.

edit: just to say that I found that particular video really soothing to watch (at least at 1:30am in the morning) - a beautiful disassembly and reassembly of well machined pieces.

unkel

So I have been hankering after the Explorer 214270. Beautiful classic watch. And the newer model is 39mm. Perfect.

Or is it? It has a black dial and I strongly prefer blue. Black dial watches never lasted long in my collection. There is a very similar watch, but in blue:



The Oyster Perpetual 116000. Problem is that it only comes in 36mm, so I always dismissed it. But everyone says it wears big. And unlike the big divers I am used to, there is no wide bezel around the dial taking up space. I'm a fairly big lad (over 6'1 and close to 100kg), but I have small wrists

Thoughts? And yes, of course I should try one on in an AD. I plan to do so as soon as they are back open, provided they have one in stock. One drawback is that the OP does not have the glidelock that the Explorer has. Which is a real shame. But I guess it should not be a deal breaker.

KrustyBurger

I've been mooching about this forum for a while now. This lad caught my eye

https://www.chrono24.com/longines/conquest-vhp--id14032053.htm

I'd welcome your opinions as I'm clueless. I think I've fallen in love though!

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Unkle - I dont think the 3mm difference is much different, The case and bracelet wear big enough. Also 36mm is where the bargains are (feckin mad bargains TBH. I love the blue dial. Trend is towards smaller watches at the moment....now having said that, I wouldn't buy 36mm, wrist is too big,

KrustyBurger - thats a lovely watch, really nice dial and Longines are generally very good quality (some say the glued in crystal is a problem but its not). Its a good brand with long history, and genuinely Swiss made. Cons on that are that it is quartz. There is nothing wrong with quartz per say, but at that sort of price, a mechanical watch might be a better buy. There is something nicer with a mechanical watch, especially a mechanical chronograph.

Cyrus

unkel wrote: »

So I have been hankering after the Explorer 214270. Beautiful classic watch. And the newer model is 39mm. Perfect.

Or is it? It has a black dial and I strongly prefer blue. Black dial watches never lasted long in my collection. There is a very similar watch, but in blue:



The Oyster Perpetual 116000. Problem is that it only comes in 36mm, so I always dismissed it. But everyone says it wears big. And unlike the big divers I am used to, there is no wide bezel around the dial taking up space. I'm a fairly big lad (over 6'1 and close to 100kg), but I have small wrists

Thoughts? And yes, of course I should try one on in an AD. I plan to do so as soon as they are back open, provided they have one in stock. One drawback is that the OP does not have the glidelock that the Explorer has. Which is a real shame. But I guess it should not be a deal breaker.

You have seen the op39 I assume ?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Cyrus wrote: »

You have seen the op39 I assume ?

He is just having a wobble...he want the explorer and a post 2015 one, just eyeing up other women out of loneyness You know what your after unkle....sure you could get a 34mm blue faced airking for a couple fo grand.

unkel

Cyrus wrote: »

You have seen the op39 I assume ?

Yes. Does not exist in blue though. Would be my ideal watch. Rolex, are you reading this?