Watches at Cyberphreak.com

So, I picked up this little guy Friday:

The crystal is a little scratched, but no cracks, and the bracelet is not to my liking.  Also, there is about 40 years of someone’s DNA on there that is not mine.  So, off the bracelet goes:

Ahh, yes, almost 4 decades of filth.  Poor watch, at least most of the plating is intact. Still, eww.

Cleaned that off:

Using nothing more than water and cotton swabs, I was able to get the gunk off.  Now, the crystal:

I taped off the bezel and used a polishing cloth and CD cleaner to buff out the scratches.  It worked just okay, so I switched to a silver polish instead, and it worked much faster.

Here it is on Saturday morning.  Case and crystal polished and with a Fossil leather band I had.  Although the band was 18mm, the lugs are 17mm, but it still fit.  It works much better than I thought it would.  It surprised my wife as well.

It turned out better than I expected.  It is a pleasing, simple, watch.  It is a common watch, but I love the angular numbers.  It looks like IZ, not 12.  So far, it is keeping decent time on the wrist, not so much in the drawer, but that’s ok.  Here is a parting shot of the radial pattern on the dial:

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Polishing watch crystals.

I just picked up a vintage piece that I don’t want to spend money on a new crystal, since it really isn’t that bad.

I’ll let you all know how it works out.

This is the object of my little project, a lovely little Timex from the late 60’s, possibly 1970.  There is a 3270 on the dial which could mean week 32, 1970.

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It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas or unexpected money, so here is a list of a bunch of watches that I like.  All are newer designs.

Here is a trio of watches that I like, The Orient CEX0P001B (Black), CEX0P002D (Blue), and the CEX0P003W (White). They are all the same watch, except for the color. The clean, simple, styling is very nice, with a power reserve indicator. Price is $169 from long island watch, cheaper on eBay, if it can be found. 39mm diameter, probably my favorite diameter watch.

Two more Orients of similar style, with a simpler chapter ring, but it also has a power reserve. CEX0R001B is the black one, CEX0R001D, is the blue one. There is also a white version, but I don’t like how it looks in white. $179 on long island watch. 42mm diameter, so it is a larger watch.

Another trio of Orient’s. This one reminds me of the Omega Railmaster or classic seamaster, with the inclusion of a large day window. CEV09001D (Blue),CEV09002B(Clack),CEV09002W(White). $149 on long island watch for the metal bracelet, $135 for leather., cheaper on eBay, less than $100 on Amazon. No power reserve, but the large day of the week makes it a more practical watch. 38mm diameter, nice size for everyday use.

Getting a little wilder here, here are three Orient Slide-rule watches, the CEM5Z00AW (White), CEM5Z008B (Black),CEM5Z009D (blue). It has a nice chronograph/pilots watch look, but it is an automatic. I love the day of the week indicator located just above the 6 o’clock position. Nice Sseamaster looking bracelet and a price tag of $165 does not hurt. 41mm diameter, so it is not too large (smaller than several of my watches, in fact.)

Here is another pair of unique Orient’s. What makes these different is the titanium case and bracelet. Again, it has a slide-rule, but a more conventional day/data feature. CEM58002D (Blue), CEM58003k(Gray). At 44mm, they may be a little large, but should be very light. A little over $100 on ebay.

Here are three Seiko’s to add to the wishlist. Simple, easy to read design combined with a reasonable 38mm diameter case. They are the SRP013K1 (Cream) SRP015K1 (Black with yellow accents, brown band), SRP017K1 (Black with red accents, black band.) It has the new 4R16 movement, which is a decorated version of the 7S26 with one more jewel. All three have a display back to show off the finished movement. About $170 on eBay, almost $250 elsewhere.

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Spotted this one on eBay recently:

It’s an Orient CEX0P002, automatic with power reserve indicator.  It has a nice, classic look, 39mm across (not too big) and even comes on a nice leather strap with a signed deployant clasp!  It has a tachymeter scale as the chapter ring, which is a little pointless, but I think it adds to the overall look.  Prices seem to range from $100 to $150 on eBay, which is quite a spread.  It also comes in black or white,  with a brown leather strap.

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Tried out sewing on a sewing machine the first time today.  Using some extra canvas and a an existing diver’s clasp, I made this!

It took three tries, but in the end it looks really nice and it very comfortable to boot.

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A while back, I saw some instructions to make a watch band out of 550 paracord, which is a military specification parachute cord.  I always thought it looked cool, and I wanted to try it myself.

The one thing I didn’t like was the plastic clip.  Too cheap looking and frankly, I don’t trust a $150+ watch on a clip like that.  So, it turns out I had an extra diver’s deployant clasp. I went off to an army surplus store and picked up 20′ of cord for about $3.00.  Following the instructions here (with my modification) I went about weaving my own band.  The instructions are very complete and easy to follow.  It was a little harder due to the metal clasp, but here is how it turned out:

The metal clasp was worth the effort.  It looks much more professional and I hate how those plastic buckles can pinch.

The whole process took about 45 minutes, so less time than I thought it would.  Luckily, I didn’t have to re-size and reweave it.  Plus, the deployant clasp has 3 micro adjustment holes, so if it is a little loose, I can adjust it.  It is surprisingly comfortable and looks pretty darn cool on the wrist.  The cord does come in 4 colors (Grey, Tan, Green, and Black ) so I may try another.

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While Tiffany (the wifey) was getting her ring cleaned, I took a quick look at some Dakota watches at the Dakota Watch kiosk.

All of the watches are quartz (with 3 exceptions) but the quality seems pretty decent for the money.  I tried on this one:

It’s more a less a tactical watch.  It has black ion plating over stainless steel.  It has a pleasing matte finish and a surprisingly decent rotating bezel.  The tachymeter on the chapter ring is a little pointless, but it does not hurt the look of the watch.  Classic Mercedes hands actually work on the smaller face.  It comes on a nylon band and the whole package was $49.95 – 30%, so about $35.  The quality seems quite a bit better than a comparable Timex or Armitron in the same price range.  I was not able to test the lume, which is very important in a ‘tactical’ style watch.  It would make a great beater watch.

I also took a look at a submariner clone, but I have not found it on Dakota’s web site.  It did not have a rotating bezel, which was a big disappointment coming from the nice tactical watch above.  They also sold 3 different mechanical pocket watches, all of which were less than $50, after discount.  They also have an amazing amount of clip watches.  I don’t care for them, but some people just don’t like having a watch on their wrist for personal or allergenic reasons.  So, if you at a mall, check out Dakota.  They claim to use Miyota movements, so quality should be decent.  However, if anyone out there has a Dakota, let me know how they stand up to the rigors of daily use.

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For an interesting watch blog to read, head over to a blog to read.com.

I swear, there is not a watch on there less than $2,000.  His ‘bargain’ watches are well over $1,000.  So, like I said, it is the opposite of this site.  I love watches, but I love staying married and having a nice home, so you won’t see watches I own over $500 on this site.

That all being said, the site is attractive, well written, and very entertaining.  You can drool over ‘timepieces’ you can never afford.  I really like the photos that compare a watch to something else, like an aircraft or automobile.

Edit:

Looking at Ariel’s site more, I do see quite a few watches he personally owns are less than $500, and he has pretty similar tastes to my own in terms of what he actually wears.  (Except for the digitals, never did like them ,even in the 80’s.)  All I can say is I wish I could try on some of those watches that he reviews.

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Had some free time and I decided to take a look inside of my two quartz watches.  It seems like not many people take photos of quartz watch movements and I wanted to add a little to the internet.  The first one I opened was my trusty, 5M62 based Seiko Kinetic:

As you can see, the movement is well detailed with thick cast and stamped metal parts.  All the metal surfaces are machine tooled or bead blasted.  The movement has 6 jewels, 2 are used on the self generating system.  The rotor or uneven weight is identical to mechanical automatic watches.  What is different is in an automatic watch, the weight spins pretty freely, then comes to stop.  This rotor starts slowly and takes a second or so to stop moving and does so with a slow, braking looking motion.  This is somewhat to be expected since what it happening is the rotor turns, turning 3 reduction gears, then turns the rotor on the generator.  You can see the cap jewels for the reduction gears here:

From what I have read, the generator inside spins at up to 100,000 RPM!  I don’t there are many companies out there that can manufacture a generator less than a 1/4″ across and work at those speeds.  The coils you see are actually the stepper motor and generator for the watch.  I am quite surprised how large they are.  They should last damn near forever with that many winds to the coils.

The one on the left is the generating coil, the one on the top is the stepper motor coil.

In this photo you can see the power storage cell, which is a titanium lithium ion battery in a shock absorbing housing.  This is something I have never seen in a quartz watch.  I wonder if other high end quartz watches share this feature?  Speaking of quartz, around the 10 o’clock position you can see the quartz oscillator. It looks like a metal tube.  There are two companies in the world that make their own quartz crystals, ETA and Seiko.   I looked at the service manual for it and the watch actually uses 4 jewels in the gear train.  2 for the stepper rotor, 1 for the fifth wheel, 1 for the center wheel.  Most companies don’t bother with jewels on quartz watches, but it really does extend the life.  The entire movement is held is what looks like a hard, thermal set plastic, then shock mounted (using the brass springs you can see at the edges of several photos) in a soft set plastic spacer ring.  I, again, have never seen so much shock protection in a quartz watch.  The movement has a traditional metal base.  Many aspects of this movement show that this watch was designed by a company that began with mechanical watches.  With 61 individual parts and the level of workmanship displayed, I expect this watch to work for decades to come.

As a contrast, here are the guts of my Fossil watch:

Inside my Fossil Speedway is a Miyota OS10 no jewel quartz chronograph movement.  Who is Miyota?  Miyota is basically Citizen’s movement making division.  They sell to anybody who wants a quartz or mechanical Japanese made movement.  They are very respected in the watch making world and a godsend to low end watch makers.  They make robust movements at low cost.  If you don’t care about having a Swiss movement and it’s not a Seiko, it probably has a Miyota movement.

The movement is based on a gray, plastic base and covered with a thin metal plate.  There is not much to see here, the stepper motor and quartz oscillator are hidden.  The battery is held in place with a small, metal clips.  Dispensing with the tradition machined metal base is certainly a cost reduction.  The plastic movement is held inside of a soft, plastic spacer ring.  Of course, this is not a very fair comparison.  The Miyota is a low cost quartz movement, the Seiko 5M62 movement alone is over $150.  A better comparison is to the Seiko 7T62 quartz chronograph:

The workmanship is pretty similar.  The Seiko movement does cost a little more, and has quite a few more features like 1/5 second tick, alarm, and second time zone.  I am actually quite happy to know that my Fossil has a Miyota movement, made in Japan.  I hope they continue this trend.

It was neat to look inside some quartz watches.  They are remarkable machines, but I still like my automatics more.  They are great for people who just want to slap on a watch and not worry about it.

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