Watcha wearing?

There are lots of options in both leather and steel that won't cause problems.
Certain steel bracelets will pull hairs, no argument there, but others won't. The style I use on my DSSD is not a hair puller. Also mesh bracelets are very flexible and won't pull hair.

As for leather, I use a conditioner and sealer on my straps. This keeps them water and sweatproof. Wet leather smells, so you have to protect it.

 

Cold day and I'm wearing my leather jacket, so I needed a nice leather strap. This is one of my oldest watches, a Citizen sailing chrono from the 1990's. It's been all over the continent and suffered a lot. The guts had to be replaced when salt water got in through a bad seal. The crystal and bezel are also new. Really, it's just the case that survived, thought I have some of the original parts in storage. It's on a leather NATO that seems to fit it nicely.

 

Replica Seagull 1963

 

Monday is for Marcus Gronholm.
Its full name is the limited edition Marcus Gronholm Orient WRT CDB04001D, number 0949 of 2007

 

Happy Friday!
Here is another solar powered watch that needs some light to keep moving. It's a Citizen grand complication solar that I purchased from another collector.
Great watch, but really hard to reset once it stops. It's a 6 armed beauty.

 

The other two watches in the rotation. A Padron automatic I got off their kickstarter ...



and the old skyhawk.

 

The Padron is really cool, and great to see a US maker. I think those have Miyota movements if I'm not mistaken. Can't go wrong there.

Man, that Skyhawk has seen some action. I love it! On the Asian forums, they would say it has great "Wabi".

 

Ecozilla w/suppa adapters and a custom Diaboliq strap.

 

The skyhawk was my daily while I was underway, so plenty of nautical miles on it. The Padron is the Vuelta with a seagull ST21 movement. It's mostly being used for when I want something minimalist but dressy.

 

I like the Seagull movements as well. I believe the ST21 is an ETA 2824 clone minus some of the quirks. I've been thinking of using one in a watch instead of trying to fix an ETA that someone botched up.

 

Nixon 5130 Black Light Wood. Was a deployment gift from my mom in 2011. It's my going out watch. It's not usually a daily driver, my Luminox is.

 

A little experiment today. I recently dumped my Windows phone for an Android, so now I can finally try a smartwatch. Since I'm cheap, I found a $26 dollar one on AliExpress. For the money, it's actually a good watch. Syncs to my phone app, tells me who is calling and texting. I turned off mail notify as I get a ton of mails and don't really care.
The step tracking and health monitoring seems to work nicely. Plastic shell (supposedly carbon fiber) is next to weightless, so your hardly feel the watch.

 

How do they make that and sell for $26 dollars is a mystery to me. I suppose I can't make a shit toaster for less than $3000 but they sell them for $8. The magic and wonder of the economy of scale.

 

Everyday wear...
18k/SS-16613 Engraved Rehaut

 

A polish will leave it looking like new, even gets rid of scrapes at times. I get this one polished once a year, towards the end of the year it looks really beat.

 

There's a couple of reasons for the low price. The design costs are free, since most of their stuff is made on spec. They make a large run of them, then anything leftover gets sold off cheap. The features change so often that older designs get dumped when a new model is introduced.
It would happen to Apple products but they control their distribution chain and hold prices high. Also, the China government encourages trade by basically providing free shipping. If there is any room left on the shipping container, they will jam in these small parcels to make it more cost effective. Since they ship this stuff by boat, weight isn't a factor. Imagine if FedEx said "Hey we have 10 cubic feet of free container space going to China!, first one gets it". Chinese labor is dirt cheap and many companies don't pay large taxes. They are subsidized in order to keep materials flowing through the country. Bring in trash from the US, process it, turn it into goods, sell it back. As long as the cycle keeps moving, the government is happy and people are working. If they make 2 cents on a smart watch, who cares, they made money.
Personally, if China wants to sell me stuff below cost, I'm good with it. I recently purchased a Kreg clamp (supposedly US company, making US tools in US). It's stamped "made in China". I guess the fine print is "US assembled but foreign parts". All I know is I paid way too much for a Chinese made clamp. Next time, I'll get the cheaper version.

 

You just can’t compete with that strategy, but then again, everyone finds a niche way to fight for survival in this global market. Water run down hill and so cheapest price and the lowest labor will always have a place in everyone’s heart.

Talking watches. Most of the affordable “Swiss” watches are actually mass produced ETA movements. Everyone and their mother couldn’t get enough of them and will be quick to stamp “Swiss made” on the face to get people to go “Ooooh, quality, take my money please”. I’m starting to wonder what’s the point of all this? We wear automatic watches not for its accuracy but for the novelty and craftsmanship. But good lord they are dime a dozen everywhere. I guess what it’s boiling down to is an object is just an object unless it carries a significant importance specifically to you. One day you pass this old mass produced watch down to your son and who cares if it’s a Casio or a Rolex. To him it’s the most valuable thing that he can hold on to in your memory. I think I heard that in some movies somewhere with some old dude wore a watch up his ass for 5 years in a gook’s camp
I digress.

 

ETA is a good case study in mass production. At one time Omega and other brand companies were using their movements, and then came the SWATCH. That was ETA's way of marketing their movements to a larger audience, and getting them to buy a Swiss-WATCH. It kinda back fired. While may people purchased them (I have the Irony) it also revealed that their movements are mass produced and relatively low cost. Soon people realized that high dollar brands like Omega were using them. Big issue when you find your 5K watch has a $200 movement. So Omega purchased the design of the coaxial escapement and started making their own movements to push away from ETA.
I like Seiko because their movements are computer CNC made and hand assembled. This is why old Seikos keep better time than old Rolex's. Each was hand assembled but Rolex also hand made their parts. Big issues in cross compatibility and repair. There were always small variances that could affect timing. Now, I believe everyone has their parts machine made. The huge difference is quality control. Something which is foreign (literally) to the Chinese. When you take low-skill cheap labor and crank out product, the first thing to go is quality. Think about it, quality control is all about pulling samples, testing them to destruction and often stopping production if there are too many defects. That's an idea which baffles the Chinese way of thinking. If your product sucks, the customer will stop buying. If sales continue to drop, just drop the price. My $26 dollar smartwatch has some quirks, but it's $26. It is comfortable, tells great time and the features are fun to play with. A Samsung smartwatch costs 168% more. That's not very smart to me.

 

My Sea Dweller, older model. I wear it everywhere.

 

skx007 with ceramic bezel on a cheap nato.