Watch of Today

[fjseal]

mk3,

How about this for an advertising watch...'gimmick?'

I found it on ebay and there were no bids on it so I got it for one penny! Understandably the battery was dead, but the only other fault was the pos and neg terminals were shorting out so it was not difficult to fix. It is an LCD display that lights in sequence. Not much good as a timepiece as in certain lighting conditions you can hardly see the 'hands.' Setting the time is laborious; you keep a button on the side of the watch pressed until the hands go all the way round to the time you want.

Unusual though, isn't it?

 

Regards,

Frank.

 

 

[mk3]

Yes it is great, I love it! It looks to be in "mint condition" (pun intentional!)

 

I found a Mcdonalds watch not long ago, not a happy meal one and a Burger King watch. I've also found a nice Fedex watch, a Best Buy Watch and many others. They are fun novelty items I think, I know that many of them have very little commercial value but fun to own or wear on occasion, I must confess that I wore a Mcdonalds happy meal Hello Kitty watch for a day a few months ago.

 

Commercial advertisement watches would maybe make an interesting new thread.

[mk3]

As Monty Python would say "and now for something completely different", so today I went with a vintage Gruen Veri-Thin which is engraved on the back with the name "Herbert Margulies", there are a couple of people of note with that name according to some preliminary research I did.

 

 

[Geo]

Now that is an interesting old watch. You could do to find a strap that fits it properly. ;)

[mk3]

That strap was already on it but I can now see it is about 1mm too narrow, I hadn't noticed it and it looks worse in the pic. I have a load kicking around that will exactly fit it and will change it up when I take it off my wrist later.

[Marc]

I'll play.

I picked this one up a few months ago for just over £20 as I just fancied a manual wind Citizen.

After a full service and a spruce up it has become a regular wearer.

I just love the lollipop seconds hand.

[Geo]

Tidy watch Marc, not that I would expect anything less. :)

[mk3]

I like that, the seconds hand is definitely unusual and was obviously made to be seen at night. I don't recall having seen a second hand like that before on a Citizen watch, a nice find.

[anilv]

Wearing an Omega Dynamic today..... believe it has the 1010 movement inside.

 

This watch has some issues,

 

1. Stem has been replaced with a one piece unit and will pull right out if you pull it too tight.. These watches are supposed to have a 2-peice stem as the movement comes out the front.

2. Crystal has been swapped to a non original one. The rehaut (inner ring which sits inside the crystal) is missing.

 

Just checked on cousins and the prices are 'astounding'.

 

I haven't opened it up as I'm afraid of what I may find, I'm tempted to leave it be but as the problem with prices and availability of Omega parts will keep on getting worse I may bite the bullet and get it done right.

 

Anil

[WillFly]

All this watch of the day stuff got me going back over my collection to choose one for the next day or three. So, dear members, may I present... the Gruen 370 Precision Curvex!

 

[mk3]

@Willfly - Love the Gruen Curvex, it is very similar to the Veri-Thin. 

 

@anilv - That is a nice Omega, I know what you mean about the parts, the crown and stem kit which you have to cut to size is nearly $40 alone and that is just for the female side and a genuine Omega acrylic crystal is about another $50 from Ofrei which doesn't even include the male half of the stem, so I'm guessing about $150 total just for those couple of jobs? It cost me $92 I think for a crystal and stem kit for my 1965 Omega Seamaster Cosmic which is posted somewhere earlier in the thread.

 

OK, so my watch of the day for today is another Timex, this time a 1975 day/date model.

[Marc]

Today's offering, Swatch Irony Aluminium.

A departure for me as although I do own a few I don't usually wear a quartz.

This one though I really like. It's high contrast display is just so readable, and being all aluminium it is incredibly light and very comfortable to wear.

This was a £1.50 car boot find. Non running and stained orange from rust coming off other stuff in the same rummage box. Thankfully the old battery had been removed so no leakage damage and all it needed was a clean up.

A really nice grab 'n go watch.

@Will, lovely Gruen. Reminds me that I have a WGP Gruen tank of a similar vintage sitting in my "to do" box that I must get around to sorting out.

@mk3, like the Timex. I don't think we see enough of them.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Marc

[Geo]

Even my aging eyes you can read that one Marc. Great find and very well cleaned! :)

[Gryf]

Marc - I noticed that the typeface used for the numerals on your Swatch is the "Chicago" font that was the default for the original Macintosh computers. That's a really nice-looking watch! I was quite taken by the Swatches when they first appeared, and were all mechanical. By the time I actually got one, they were quartz, and mine didn't run very long.  :-(   On the other hand, I still have it.

 

Cheers,

 

G

[mwilkes]

Junghans Chronoscope today - this has a 7750 movement under the hood.

[mk3]

@Marc - I'm a sucker for Timex watches, I have quite a few, so I'm sure some of them will become watches of the day at some point.

 

I like the Swatch, very bold.

 

@mwilkes, that Junghams is an interesting watch, I like the long slender hands on it, very elegant.

 

It is great to see other people's watches coming out of the woodwork, keep them coming!

[Marc]

Absolutely love the Junghans Chronoscope. 

If I were to own a chrono then it would be one of those.

Does that count as Bauhaus?

[mk3]

Today I introduce the Chromachron which was a 1970's innovation by Tian Harlan using colours to represent time and was purported to be the new way to tell time. This of course never really took off evidenced by the lack of watches that look like this one being sold today. HERE is more information about these watches although they come in various different shapes. Mine is showing nearly 5:30, it really helps if you can do fractions to own one of these things.

 

 

[Geo]

Now that's different, but how do you know what time it is?

It reminds me of the "magic eye" on my gran's old valve radio that indicated when you had tuned into a station properly.

I quite like it though! :)

[mk3]

As I said, you do have to kind of familiar with fractions to work it out, if it was fully blue it would be 6:00 but it is just a little more pink than blue so just before 5:30, probably 5:28 at best guesstimate. A third onto the next colour would = 20 to the hour etc. These are a little bit of an enigma at first but they do have the cool factor.

[Geo]

Gottcha! I would never have worked it out.

[Gryf]

 

 

It reminds me of the "magic eye" on my gran's old valve radio that indicated when you had tuned into a station properly. 

Interesting... I have just such a radio across the room from me as we speak... a 1937 RCA 811K, with a Tuning Eye tube.

 

Gryf

[mk3]

Today I chose a retro Seiko Quartz Sports 150 model with rotating bezel, nothing special but still a pretty solid watch.

[Marc]

I'm starting the week with this one.

Certina Waterking 215.

[mk3]

I've not seen one of those before, nice watch though. Today I grabbed this LCD Fossil watch to wear.