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Mechanical Watch

ciechanow.ski

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Re: Mechanical Watch

#111

Post by mmcgaha »

ghostpepper wrote: post #9
zppln wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An SKX isn't gonna outlive you and once it fails they'll just replace the entire movement anyway. Mechanical watches are still indeed cool though. :)

As an owner of an SKX who doesn’t know much about watch longevity, how long can I expect it to last? Are there other automatics that will outlast a person’s life? It still blows my mind that you can take the SKX scuba diving, especially when you factor in the price. This may sound cynical but as I get older and see the world becoming more and more digital and connected, I find myself appreciating analog, mechanical t…

My father's Seiko from the late 70s still keeps time at around 30 seconds per day. It has never been serviced so I am sure it is bone dry and really should not be run. I regularly wear a 2015 Seiko that used to be 8 seconds per day fast but has fallen to 5 seconds per day slow so it is probably time to service it. My two newest watches are from 2017 and 2021 and they are consistent since break in. So given my limited number of data points, I would say 5-7 years between service but if you just want to wear it until it dies, 10+ years is probably reasonable.

On a side note, I have read about 40 year old Seikos being worn daily without service but that sure feels outside of the norm.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#114

Post by coredog64 »

germinalphrase wrote: post #82
boesboes wrote: post #72

Wow very comprehensive & well done. If mechanical watches tickle your fancy, there is a ton of watch repair video on YT. I particularly enjoy wristwatch revival ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD80T1s2Za4K682CQDGwEKQ ). A warning though, if you consider to get into that hobby. I tried, it's really hard, expensive (I spend close to €1k and that is with b-quality stuff. Good stuff is 5-10x more expensive.) and can b…

If you wouldn’t mind answering a question, how difficult is it to swap a dial/handset/movement set into a different case? I saw a custom mod watch that paired the face/movement of a Marathon navigator with an O&W diver case*. Is a combination I find desirable (as the Marathon bezel is too chunky for my use), but the maker won’t respond to emails. Is it possible that the combination could be “ drop in” or is it likely…

Depends. The ETA-2824 is a fairly common movement with inexpensive Chinese clones, so dials and hands are reasonably cheap and common. If the target case also uses the same ETA movement then it’s simple: Unscrew the back, remove the crown stem, drop the movement. Assembly is the reverse of removal.

Where it gets tricky is if the target doesn’t use the same movement. In that case, I’d just buy an AliExpress watch with the same dial size and an ETA clone movement. Otherwise you have to ensure your target is the correct size and you’ll probably need to 3D print a movement holder.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#117

Post by CydeWeys »

_fat_santa wrote: post #2

There's something magical about mechanical watches. Maybe it's just knowing that you have this perpetually winding machine on your hand (in the case of "automatic" mechanical watches). Also knowing that the thing will last forever, take care of it and it will probably outlive you. Can't say that about an Apple Watch. If you want a good mechanical watch that won't break the bank I suggest picking up a Seiko SKX (thoug…

> I suggest picking up a Seiko SKX

Sadly this advice is a little bit out of date, as the SKX has been out of production now for a few years and the price on uses examples has risen above what one is worth (except to collectors).

The newer advice is to grab a Seiko 5*. There's a million different choices, and all the current ones come with the 4R35 or 4R36 movement, which are better than the 7S26 which was in the SKX divers.

* https://www.seikowatches.com/us-en/products/5sports/lineup

Re: Mechanical Watch

#118

Post by jclardy »

_fat_santa wrote: post #2

There's something magical about mechanical watches. Maybe it's just knowing that you have this perpetually winding machine on your hand (in the case of "automatic" mechanical watches). Also knowing that the thing will last forever, take care of it and it will probably outlive you. Can't say that about an Apple Watch. If you want a good mechanical watch that won't break the bank I suggest picking up a Seiko SKX (thoug…

I feel the same way, I write software for a living and I'm sure an outsider browsing through the thousands of lines of code in my codebases everyday would be confused, but I get that same feeling when looking at a mechanical watch. To think that people were building the first mechanical timepieces 500 years ago, just a hundred or so years after the printing press is incredible to me. How did they even create parts that tiny so accurately?

Re: Mechanical Watch

#120

Post by throwaway821909 »

causi wrote: post #21
aliljet wrote: post #4

This may not be the most valuable comment, but my goodness, the quality of this writeup and it's interactive descriptions of complex mechanical components AND their interactions is radically impressive. The treatment of complex topics in deeply visual and partially interactive ways, for me at least, is a remarkably helpful way to learn.

True multimedia is a lost art. We had it back in the 90s when software came on discs and it was a high-density, polished product that combined text, audio, video, and interactive elements on the same page. The internet taking over turned everything back into text, and then as bandwidth grew the only thing we thought to use it on was higher and higher bitrate video. When I was a kid I thought the future was going to b…

Last time I used Amazon Prime Video, around 2017, it would show info that Amazon deemed relevant for that bit of the show (apparently it's called X-Ray). Back then at least, it wasn't on the same level as what you described but still something.

The danger was it made me want to pause all the time in case I missed something interesting, but by putting the user in control of what they get info on, you could avoid that.

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