Watch Wednesday Follow-Up: The Departed

Over the years I've been writing this blog, I have posted around three dozen watches in my Watch Wednesday series, and that's only counting ones that I own, or owned. (I didn't know the exact number, so I had to go back and count the posts.) Over time I decided to sell a few of them, and there were a couple of others that I never posted because they were already in line to be sold for one reason or another.

Writing yesterday's post reminded me that there are a few watches that I'd posted that I no longer own, and that led me to the idea of doing a quick review of the ones I no longer have. Going back to look through the posts from the beginning, I posted a Seiko 5 automatic in May 2010 that I had purchased just a couple of weeks prior. It was a case of liking the look of it more than I ended up liking the actual watch. I didn't care for the hands, and it wore a little small on my wrist. I sold it not long after I posted it.

Then there was a quartz chronograph that I bought in 2008 and featured in June 2010. I wore it off and on for about four years, and it always ran perfectly, but by this past winter I was looking to sell some stuff on eBay and decided I didn't need to hang onto it any longer. It found a good home.

There was another Seiko automatic that I didn't like as much after I'd had it for a while, and that ended up selling this winter as well. Yesterday's watch is more or less replacing it, and I'm much happier with it overall and plan on keeping it a long time.

There are a few others that I still have, but have stopped working or are problematic in some other way. This Casio chronograph receives time setting signals every day via a radio frequency, but after I had to get the battery replaced it would not set properly. It's now running about four hours ahead of where it should be, and the only way to get it to the correct time is to set it to a different time zone (there is no crown to set the time manually).

A couple of my many old Timex watches are also no longer working properly. I like this automatic a lot, but it was never in especially good condition and I'm probably lucky it kept acceptable time for as long as it did. It's not worth spending whatever it would cost to get it running properly again. Then there was an old Timex Carriage quartz that looked just like the ones J. Crew was selling for $150 (they recently dropped the price to $98, which is still too high). For a watch that cost no more than $20 new it lasted a long time, but even with a battery replacement it just stopped running one day, so that's that.

I'll be putting a couple of my other watches up for sale soon, and will post a link when I do so.

Watch Wednesday (7/24/13)

What's this? Someone in my financial situation shouldn't be buying a watch. Well, I got this one back during the winter, with the money the landlord pays me to clear the snow. You may recall that we had a lot of snow this winter, so it was kind of like getting a bonus. I only just realized that I had never posted it here.

I'd had my eye on this Seiko chronograph for some time, since I first saw it back in the October issue of Esquire. Right after that, Dappered did a comparison between it and a Citizen chronograph, with the Seiko coming out slightly ahead in their opinion. I started watching it online, and over the next few months the price drifted downward another $25 or so, which worked in my favor. During that time it also went in and out of stock a lot on various websites, suggesting to me that it was popular.

This watch isn't as large as the picture makes it look; the case is 41 mm across not counting either crown. 42 mm is about the largest watch I can wear that doesn't make my wrist look like that of a nine-year-old, so a watch like this looks substantial without being excessive.

It has the sort of large-numeral dial that I've mentioned my fondness for, plus a rotating compass bezel inside the crystal. It's also solar powered, but that had no bearing on my purchase, nor did the compass. In fact the compass is a superfluous feature to me, and the crown that rotates it (the one adjacent to the 10 o'clock marker) gets moved at the slightest brush, so I end up adjusting it constantly. It would have been better if Seiko had made this one screw-down, or at least made it so the mechanism required a little more force to turn.

I also didn't care for the tan strap that came with it (shown at the above link). I was hoping it would look better in person than in pictures, but it's just too light and orangey for my taste. This is mainly why I tend to stick with black straps for my watches—it's really difficult to find attractive shades of tan or brown. In addition, this watch takes a 21 mm strap, which is one of the hardest sizes to find.

I ended up doing something I don't like to do: I bought a 22 mm strap and squeezed the edges in a little before putting it on the watch. It fits fine and I don't think anyone could tell if I didn't mention it, but as someone who likes to customize his watches with specific straps, the odd sizes are another barrier to getting it just right. (Ask anyone who owns a Rolex or Tudor that takes 19 mm straps.)