Any watch lovers or collectors here ?

Thanks! It would look even better if it weren't on my little girly wrists. Even when I lived at the gym, developing thick wrists was genetically impossible. After wrestling season I would weigh about 140, bench 250, and appear to have hands that were attached to my forearms with twigs. The Gucci I have is wafer thin to offset that fact. This TAG is ENORMOUS by comparison, but the big bulky stuff seems to be pretty common these days so I thought I'd try and get away with it.

Now I can't wait to see Jim and Yoshi to talk about the latest developments in automatic watch winders ...

 

JakerMC/Rob,
Your watch looks very sharp! I already like it based on the look. Black on black goes w/ formal or casual clothing. Good choice!

I have the same problem on twiggy wrist. Big watches look like some sort of 007 communication gadget on my wrist.

 

Yoshi-san:

Can you recommend a good winder for an even better price?

Domo arigato,
Guyjin

 

Orbita makes Sparta winders which run $2-300 as their "value" line. A Sparta winder can run as low as $50 in promotional or co-promotional situations, but requires patience and usually a purchase of a watch.

 

Watches R k3wl!



RMX

 

Eric-san,
Why do you want just a winder?? Or are you joking???

You must be already in Asia, and missing US of A.

REMIX,
What is k3wl mean?

 

Rob, you don't need a winder until you have at least 2 automatic watches. Keeps shopping.

Eric, check Ebay. Winders are cheap. Good winders are not. My wife paid about $80 for my winder that winds 4 watches. It looks great, but the mechanism isn't exactly stellar. You can spend as much as you want to. Orbita's are sort of the de-facto standard, but they are pricey.

 

I ended up buying a cheap one on Ebay to hold me over. $40 including shipping. It holds 2 watches on the winder and stores 3 others. I figure cheap winding is better than no winding, and it does have three settings including a long rest mode that will work well with the Tag.

I'm scared to look at anything else. I've always admired nice watches from a safe distance, wanting them but resisting. Now that my cherry is popped I am afraid of becoming a whore. One crack like addiction is enough.

 

I have two automatics and Spicy has three now. Need something to keep everything going. I'll look in on the Orbitas.

 

I had one watch for the longest time. In 2000, I got my second.... that was my downfall. I'm over 10 now, with 5 winding rotors in a couple of packages, so definitely an addict. If you want e-fixes, go to TimeZone.com; but it only feeds the disease.

 

He's right, www.timezone.com is almost as addictive as Fchat. The best solution is to simply stay away. In just a few short hours there, I made a list of about 10 watches I'd like to have.

Rob, since you like racing, check out the Chopard Mille Miglia....

 

Is there really any reason to keep mechanical watches wound (i.e. running) anymore? I would think that the switch to synthetic oils would have eliminated most concerns about them getting gummed up with no use. It's not like a car where the oil drains into a pan or something. (This is probably a better question for timezone, but there would probably not be any consensus there and I don't need another addiction.)

 

If you invest a few $k into a watch, are you going to risk that your assumption is correct, or buy a $50 winder to do what every watchmaker suggests?

 

Thanks for the link. Do you guys also hand out needles to people as they are leaving the methadone clinic?

I love the band on the Chopard! While I hate wearing rubber bands (uncomfortable), the Dunlop tire pattern is just too cool to dismiss. If they used recycled tread that actually ran in the race, with authentic oil stains I'd be reaching for the credit card again ....

 

I warned you, did I not?

Don't blame ME for your weakness!

If you want to see the Chopard up close, ask our pal Yoshi to wear his to the next event!

 

Will someone post a Pic of the G. P. Ferrari Challenge watch? How many were made, and for what years?

 

Perhaps we could return the favor to the TZ guys - let's head over to the GP forum there and start talking about the pleasures of owning a Ferrari and that great site: F-chat

 

Well, given that I wear my expensive mechanical watch maybe 4 times a year, and I might be suspicious of advice from folks that make their bread and butter from replacing wear items (like bearings) in mechanical watches, well yes, I am happily taking that chance. What, it starts keeping crappy time and I end up paying for a cleaning and relube that they would have me do annually anyway? Seems pretty silly to me to be wearing it out the other 361 days of the year.

Since I went to the watch board anyway (pretty damn risky given what happened to me with fountain pens ) I can fully understand why an auto winder would make sense with a complex movement that needs to have time, date, moon phase, tide, alternate time zone, repeater, laser beam, swiss army knife, 4 cam valve timing, vacuum advance and coffee timer set. Mine has time and date, so it only takes about two minutes to wind and set it, so it doesn't seem much of a burden.

 

I totally goofed! I thought you are asking for a self-winder part of a watch! (like a movement part of a watch) Somehow I never thought of a watch winder.

I think Steinhausen's 4 or 8 watch winder is good enough, unless you want to pay over few thousands for luxurious decorative winder. 4 watch model is about $200, and 8 model is about $300, if I remember correctly. Save more w/ 8 & have more space for your future acquisition. Steinhausen's have 4 different mode for moving watches, but the appearance looks too classic. I like the look of black leather, metal, or something like that better. Ex., Chase-(something),,, I don't remember or Wolf's.

 

I see both side, Jimpo & Dozzina, of logic. There's a truth to both side.

Get a winder if you want peace of mind, have multiple watches & doesn't want to prep when you switch a watch to wear, & want a nice display of your collection. But be careful for over winding & don't forget to excercise leuze (sp?) sometime. I think a winder is great for people who have multiple watches, and wears them frequently but not continuously the same watch.

You can manually wind watches, too. If you manually wind by rotating leuze about 20 times, a watch should be working for about 50 hours, and you can admire a watch during doing this.

It is true the current synthetic oil is much better than what it was 40 years ago. But I read it in the article before that the best oil is still fresh-water trout oil. It doesn't coagulate nor clot, and w/stands wider temperature range.

I just realized this discussion is little similar to discussion between well-driven F & garage queen F

 

Thanks Yoshi, I'll take a look when I'm back stateside in November.

BTW, in Tokyo Sept 15-22, you around? I'll be in Akasaka (as always).

 

The analogy that popped into my head is that I don't leave my cars idling when not using them, even though this would continue to circulate the oil. Of course the analogy is flawed six ways to Sunday, but it just struck me as funny. Imagine if every time you walked through your garage you would hear multiple cars always purring at the ready.

 

Just picked this one up - a Sekonda Strela from the 1960's. This is the same model that was worn by the Cosmonauts on the first space walk - think of it as a Soviet Omega Speedmaster.
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Yeah, that would be funny yet strange! (or even scary. This reminds me of the movie, "Christine")

To me, a car is not a car unless it is driven. It could be 1:1 scale kit if it's always in a garage.
Watch is not a watch unless it tells time, so a winder can be useful, but not required.

 

Oh yeah? When was the last time you drove your Ferrari?