The "Official" Watch Thread and all Things Horological

[Mad Mike]

It was interesting that the 'quartz crisis' , the 1970-80s , when mechanical watches went right out of style that a watchmaker was a dinosaur , then starts the revival and colleges start to offer courses again and it become a very viable trade. Manufactuerer training and certificatioin is a big thing , brand protection. I think it will be around for a while .

There were a lot more watchmakers in the 60s and 70s than today. Back then watches were necessary, it was hard to operate without one. It was cheaper to service a watch than to replace it.

In the 70s, Quartz watches redefined the business, they were cheaper, more accurate, and did not require winding or service. As prices fell, watch companies transitioned from making timekeeping tools to making fashion items.

My small village had 3 watchmakers in 1975, none today. My dad ran a fairly big watch operation, he had 30 watchmakers in repair and service in the mid 70s, by 1990 there was only 1, he retired and then there were none.

It’s almost 100% fashion today, a tiny fraction of watches sold today are for primary timekeeping.

 

[crankcall]

The Monaco brings up an interesting point , when James Bond switched from Rolex to Omega , they actually used a line in a film where he referred to the ‘omega’ . So product placement in films has been around longer than I realized. The story of the Monaco being created just for the film GrandPrix is legend in watch circles and they have traded on that for 50yrs . Novelist Clive Cussler’s hero Dirk Pitt wears an orange faced Doxa . Which has sold more Doxa watches than they imagined .
Which other watches got “famous” from tv and film?


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[FullMotoJacket]

The story of the Monaco being created just for the film GrandPrix is legend in watch circles and they have traded on that for 50yrs .

Le Mans (1972). James Garner was the star of Grand Prix. Don't recall what watch he wore in it, if he even wore one.

Speedy in Apollo 13 (duh), Porsche Design Orfina in Top Gun, Hamilton Ventura in MiB (honorable mention to Elvis), Casio DW-290 in Mission Impossible, TAG Heuer Professional 1000 in Wolf of Wall Street. Datejust in American Psycho. And that OMG scene when Stephen Strange opens his watch drawer in Doctor Strange.

 

[Mad Mike]

Most US presidents have worn a Timex in their run up to and as president. Bill Clinton is probably the best known, he wore an early Indiglo watch that was placed during campaign stops, and an Ironman to his inauguration. Both were went zero to the top selling models in the world inside 3 years.

John Cameron Swazey and Louie Armstrong did live promotions and wore Timex 100s, which went to #1 in the world inside a year.

Mark Whalberg makes a strong statement, he has a world renown Rolex collection, but his daily driver and the watches he wears in movies and tv are usually Timex.

 

[crankcall]

Jagmeet Sing wears a Rolex , the US president wears a Timex , that’s comical .
I’ll have to start paying attention to what’s worn in film just for sport.
A small shop in London Ontario, called Watches to Buy provided a lot of watches to the set of ‘MadMen’ . Did a little for standard 60s watches .
I like the very occasional slip up , like when you’re watching Spartacus and see someone in the extras crowd wearing a wrist watch . I can never figure out what it is , but a Roman wristwatch would be pretty rare .


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[Mad Mike]

Jagmeet Sing wears a Rolex , the US president wears a Timex , that’s comical .
I’ll have to start paying attention to what’s worn in film just for sport.
A small shop in London Ontario, called Watches to Buy provided a lot of watches to the set of ‘MadMen’ . Did a little for standard 60s watches .
I like the very occasional slip up , like when you’re watching Spartacus and see someone in the extras crowd wearing a wrist watch . I can never figure out what it is , but a Roman wristwatch would be pretty rare .


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Next Sunday, flip on any football game and try to identify the watch worn by almost every NFL head coach.

 

[crankcall]

Miami dolphin coach was interviewed recently about his 1952 Brietling Navitimer chrono . It’s something in the neighborhood of 19k . I’ll have to look for what the others wear . My guess it will be a common brand paying them a sack of money to wear it ?


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[Mad Mike]

Miami dolphin coach was interviewed recently about his 1952 Brietling Navitimer chrono . It’s something in the neighborhood of 19k . I’ll have to look for what the others wear . My guess it will be a common brand paying them a sack of money to wear it ?


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They are not paid, and they are not gifted to them, and the brand keeps it low-key.

It's not the same watch they wear on dates, it's the one they rely on for more important things... game day.

 

[GreyGhost]

That 60th Anniversary Carrera is stunning, and I'm not normally a chronograph fan. The Monaco will always be an icon, but that ad breaks the first rule of cool: you can never acknowledge that you're trying to be cool or even give the appearance that being cool is the goal...

Considering I saved a packet on the vintage Hamilton as a dress watch (incidentally, Polywatch worked wonders on the crystal, looks like a different watch - has actually made me much less fearful of acrylic), I had some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket for a daily. I was looking at a bunch of options, including a Ball Trainmaster or Engineer, a Hamilton Spirit of Liberty (horrible name and strap but handsome case), and Tissot Ballade. I've always loved the previous-gen Longines Conquest as a sport watch with incredible water resistance that can be dressed up or down, so when I found a 41mm one on Chrono24 out of Japan for an incredible price (thanks to a soft Yen, I assume), I grabbed it. Having received it yesterday, I couldn't be happier. It's definitely 'inspired' by the Explorer, but I'm fine with that as I think that's the best looking Rolex...

Here's the obligatory hairy wrist pic:

View attachment 65429

As usual, the pic makes it look bigger on the wrist than it does in person. All that polished steel means it's going to be a scratch magnet, but as a daily, I'm fine with that...

I have its much less pretty grandmother. I don't have a plan for it and I know very little about it. It was a gold filled Swiss watch for pocket change. I have been picking up old watches cheap as stock to learn watch disassembly/repair. I don't think ibwill sacrifice this one to that project.

 

[jc100]

I have its much less pretty grandmother. I don't have a plan for it and I know very little about it. It was a gold filled Swiss watch for pocket change. I have been picking up old watches cheap as stock to learn watch disassembly/repair. I don't think ibwill sacrifice this one to that project.

Is that a plastic ”glass”? Top right corner looks a bit odd.

 

[GreyGhost]

Is that a plastic ”glass”? Top right corner looks a bit odd.

Yup. You can see the scratch at the centre easily. The crazing isn't visible normally. There is a ton of light coming from 12 o'clock in this pic. Acrylic crystals used to be really common.

 

[jc100]

Yup. You can see the scratch at the centre easily. The crazing isn't visible normally. There is a ton of light coming from 12 o'clock in this pic. Acrylic crystals used to be really common.

It’s odd how perspectives change. When that watch was made presumably Longines was still thought of as an upper tier watch maker and they likely thought of acrylic as an advanced wonder material worthy of use on a a fine timepiece. Fast forward to today and you might be lucky to find that on a low tier swatch.

 

[backmarkerducati]

It’s odd how perspectives change. When that watch was made presumably Longines was still thought of as an upper tier watch maker and they likely thought of acrylic as an advanced wonder material worthy of use on a a fine timepiece. Fast forward to today and you might be lucky to find that on a low tier swatch.

While "acrylic" can be defined as a wide range of materials "plastic, plexy, poly, or marketing terms like hesalite", plenty of modern high end sport watches still come with these crystals. Usually ones that are still intended as some sort of sport or tool use, or just because the model always did. Some may have two versions, one with the above for one crowd and one with sapphire as they know many people will not use it for the intended task. It is also still common for micro-brand sport and tool watches, I suspect their volume is too low to justify tooling for sapphire.

But you are correct, back in the day it was a miracle material much stronger than what was around and for watches like GG's it also allowed for different shapes and designs much harder to do in glass of the day. It can also be temporarily shrunk to install, can be pressed in with decent force, etc. Scratch resistance is the downside.

Now, sapphire is tough and near impossible to scratch and would be the modern go-to alternative for higher teirs, but it can still shatter with a sharp impact.

Mineral glass (or worse yet just glass) is usually the sign of cheap low to mid grade.... with acrylic also still used here as well. If you break a cheap glass crystal acrylic also makes for an easy replacement...

 

[FullMotoJacket]

polyWatch works, but you're paying 8 oz. of (eg: Turtle Wax) headlight restoring paste money for 5 grams of watch bezel restoring paste. Kinda like buying 1/2L of bicycle fork oil in a bicycle shop for the same price as 1L of fork oil in a moto shop.

 

[FullMotoJacket]

I’ll have to start paying attention to what’s worn in film just for sport.

Jordan Belfort wore a Rolex. Leo Di Caprio drew a line in the sand with the director and wore 2 different gold TAG Heuers playing him in the Wolf of Wall Street because he's a TAG Heuer ambassador and get's paid by them to wear their watches.

 

[jc100]

While "acrylic" can be defined as a wide range of materials "plastic, plexy, poly, or marketing terms like hesalite", plenty of modern high end sport watches still come with these crystals. Usually ones that are still intended as some sort of sport or tool use, or just because the model always did. Some may have two versions, one with the above for one crowd and one with sapphire as they know many people will not use it for the intended task. It is also still common for micro-brand sport and tool watches, I suspect their volume is too low to justify tooling for sapphire.

But you are correct, back in the day it was a miracle material much stronger than what was around and for watches like GG's it also allowed for different shapes and designs much harder to do in glass of the day. It can also be temporarily shrunk to install, can be pressed in with decent force, etc. Scratch resistance is the downside.

Now, sapphire is tough and near impossible to scratch and would be the modern go-to alternative for higher teirs, but it can still shatter with a sharp impact.

Mineral glass (or worse yet just glass) is usually the sign of cheap low to mid grade.... with acrylic also still used here as well. If you break a cheap glass crystal acrylic also makes for an easy replacement...

I’m just interested in the marketing aspect. We are sold on key terms like “robust”, ”rugged” high end etc, look at Rolex’s marketing about the watch being hewn from a solid steel chunk of metal. While acrylic does actually fit those terms it’s been tarnished by the catch all “plastic” term over the years which in turn has been associated with cheap products. The bullet proof windows in the US President‘s car are made of acrylic materials but no one is marketing those as anything other than a functional necessity. I just find this interesting in terms of how we change our minds to think about things. I guess bakelite was similar when it was first introduced.

 

[crankcall]

My speedmaster was hesalite ( whatever the f that is ) , since you wouldn’t put glass where it could break in your face ( again 1960s) . It doesn’t look near as nice as the new Safire sandwich models . But I dig tradition.


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[85K100]

Lexan is acrylic. Bullet proof. Submariners and Sea Dwellers. Acrylic crystals for deep saturation diving.

 

[FullMotoJacket]

hesalite ( whatever the f that is )

Omega-speak for acrylic (polymethyl methacrylate).

 

[85K100]

polyWatch works, but you're paying 8 oz. of (eg: Turtle Wax) headlight restoring paste money for 5 grams of watch bezel restoring paste. Kinda like buying 1/2L of bicycle fork oil in a bicycle shop for the same price as 1L of fork oil in a moto shop.

Have you tried and compared them, side by side?