Watch Thread

You guys have some really nice watches....

Here's one of mine

 

All watches are welcome in this thread!

Nice Maurice Lacroix! Skeletons are fun!

 

Tine to update this thread!



This is a Raymond Weil, nothing fancy but it got me into mechanical watches and looks nice.

 

Wow that is beautiful @Kunlun ! So is it a manual wind watch or is it battery powered when you say it is mechanical? My Omega Speedmaster is manual wind, I wish it was automatic, but it keeps incredibly accurate time.



(Click for larger image)

 

And here's a watch I was trying to decide on earlier in the thread.






I'm happy with it!

 

That's such a nice watch, sporty, classy, and masculine!

So, a mechanical watch uses no battery but is either 1) hand wound or 2)automatic, which means a rotor spins as you move your arm while wearing it and this winds the spring that powers the watch.

The wound up spring is the power source, but if it let go all at once, you'd have a minute where the hands would fly around wildly, then nothing as the spring was uncoiled. So, what's called an escapement lets the power of the spring "escape" or unwind in little tiny steps. In many mechanical watches this is 8 or 6 times a second. That's the ticking you hear can hear!
A quartz watch uses the electric currect of a battery to induce vibrations in a quartz crystal many, many times faster than a mechanical watch mechanism, which is one reason it's more accurate. But, a mechanical watch can be very beautiful and cool.

 

Nice watch, but I'm a little confused - the DeVille has always been associated with the Seamaster line; there's no reference to a DeVille Speedmaster anywhere that I've looked? Granted I'm no Omega expert.

 

I am not sure either @rott . The case back and bracelet state speedmaster, but it also says DeVille. It is an older watch (The Moonwatch) I believe it is from the late 1990's so maybe they changed the newer Omega watches. I guess it is pretty rare, but it is a Speedmaster and DeVille. I am no expert on Omega watches either, it is the only one I own. It is an authentic Omega watch, I work on watches and have a professional watch repair kit and opened the case back, and it is definitely an authentic Omega Swiss Made watch (can;t remember how many jewels though). So you got me why it says it is a DeVille Co-Axil Speedmaster.

 

Fascinating, perhaps rare watch indeed!

 

Here's my Marathon SAR. Trying not to get sucked in to this thread, though... I've retired from my watchmaking / watch-collecting hobby.

 

Nice dive watch!

No, definitely get sucked into this thread!

Show off your other watches and tell us a little about them!

 

Nice shirt!

I don't remember when I stopped using mechanical a watch (because that what watches were then) and moved into electronics.

In late 60s I saved up my school holiday-job and bought an Omega watch. It was not an "expensive" watch, but I liked it very much. It was with me for quite a few years, then, one day I lost it --- at some time during a day out rowing. Very sad: it would probably have still been working today!

 

All my watches are wind-ups - I quite like the ritual of starting the day by winding and setting the time. Of course, I sometimes don't have the correct time but that's what mobile phones are for!

This one's a good little workhorse: 1950s Leonidas Chronograph. It's taken plenty of knocks but still going strong.

 

Marathon makes some nice tool watches.

Come on and follow the thread. I bet a number of us would love to talk more about simple watch repairs. I've got an Esslinger order I'm putting together to do simple strap swaps and stem repairs.

 

@Kunlun nice to see a familiar name on TRF. Just started visiting there.

 

The Rolex Forum is nice. Definitely a positive place if you're thinking of picking up another Rolex. I find Hodinkee has a lot of interesting articles.

 

oh man, can I have that???

 

Okay, here is a fun resource, Watch 101 at Hodinkee: https://www.hodinkee.com/watch101
Be sure to click on the "Bridges Removed" and "Dial Side" tabs!







Here's an interesting watch: The Breguet Classique Chronometrie 7727. It won the Grand Prix d'Horologie de Geneve in 2014, kinda like the top award in watchmaking given each year. Why? Well, usually, magnetism is the enemy of a mechanical watch. Magnets can futz with the mainspring that is the power for the watch, or the hairspring that is part of the escapement (which doles out the power of the mainspring in little tiny increments and this is the beating, ticking heart of the mechanical watch). Or, other metal gears will be futz'd with. Anti-magnetic and paramagnetic materials are commonly in use now, for example, my Rolex I posted a picture of above has a hairspring made of a niobium, zirconium and oxygen alloy. Silicon is another popular material (used now often in Omega watches and Rolex ladies watches, for example).

Here, in the Breguet 7727, we have a watch that actually uses magnets in the watch! It can do this by having a number of parts made of silicon, such as the pallet fork and the escape wheel (see the Watch 101 page with Bridges Removed). The silicon has less friction and is lighter as well, allowing the whole watch to beat at a much, much higher rate than is usual for a mechanical watch. usually, we're at 3hz or 4hz, while the 7727 beats at 10hz! This allows for better accuracy and silicon avoids issues of eating power too quickly or friction burning a hole in the parts (thanks to the lightness and reduced friction I mentioned).

Now, about those magnets... Well, basically, the escape wheel which goes clockwise, then counterclockwise, back and forth very quickly as part of that process of doling out bite-sized quanta of power from the mainspring. The pole--called the balance staff-- the escape wheel is attached to actually has a magnet on either end. One end is slightly stronger and the other end basically "floats" in space! It's super cool. Any shock the watch receives which would disrupt the time-keeping now just gets corrected by the magnets pulling the escape wheel back in to place.



the golden thing in the middle is an edge-on view of the hairspring

Here's an article about it!

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-breguet-classique-chronometrie-7727


And here is the 7727 on my wrist because I couldn't help trying it on!



The fancy patterns on the dial are called guilloche, it's done by hand, holding the dial against a spinning chisel sorta thing called a rose engine. Here, Breguet is showing off a bit and there are 6 different designs. The dial itself is a wafer of solid gold which has a silver surface added and you get a nice bright dial. So, a mix of high-tech with classic watch making. Not sure I'd buy this, but I like it!

 

I wonder if we should have a "Trade" thread for watches - or offer trades in this thread. A lot of us have very nice watches and some of us may like to trade some of our watches for different ones that both parties agree on and both parties like and want. I think that would be cool -but that is just my opinion.

 

Moon watch, 20th Anniversary edition (engraved on side of case). Original tritium dial, hands.