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Comment by LCDninja | Hacker News Reader

> nobody needs expensive watches, but the communicate that you have disposable income

I respectfully disagree.

Like all objects, watches hold different meanings to different people. For you, it sounds like they are a social signalling mechanism - but not for everyone. For example, if you collect watches you'll appreciate many aspects of these wonderful objects. Take the Omega Speedmaster 105.003 - it's vintage, it's probably expensive, and it looks like your grandfathers watch. I could care less what it signals to others, for me - it's the watch NASA sent to the moon. It's mechanical. It's an object that I love! I wear it because it pleases me to look at it.

However, having said that - I now wear an Apple watch for a completely different reason - it's functional. It's more useful than the Omega.

Wearing a watch is not about social signalling for everyone. Some people just like watches :-)

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> Take the Omega Speedmaster 105.003

An interesting example. If they had been assembled under license by a little-known NASA contracted-company in Illinois, would you still be as keen on it?

Until 1979 Soviet cosmonauts used their standard pilot-issue Strela watch, including on EVAs. In the West it was branded and sold as Sekonda[0]. Without the cachet of a luxury brand and extensive marketing it is almost unknown despite being just as functional as the Speedmaster.

http://www.netgrafik.ch/russian_space_watches.htm

[0] The Sekonda trademark was later sold and today has no connection with the original watch

> If they had been assembled under license by a little-known NASA contracted-company in Illinois, would you still be as keen on it?

Yes, the brand doesn't hold a lot of meaning for me - in any case (no pun intended) it's not just Omega. Arguably one of the most important parts - he movement itself, wasn't actually designed by Omega. It's a Lemania Calibre 1873 (Omega branded this as Calibre 861).

Extreme temperatures, vibration, pressure, acceleration, shock and so on; the 1873 enclosed within an Omega case survived all of this with +- 5 seconds per day accuracy. Moreover, it outperformed the qualification conditions against other well-funded, experienced watch makers. For me, this is impressive.

If the same watch was built by a little-known company out of Illinois, I'd be even more impressed!

P.S. Thanks very much for the information on Soviet watches, I'm really interested to learn more about these models. Thanks again!

Totally agree with you. Before switching to the Apple Watch(black stainless steel metal strap), I also had an Omega Seamaster!

Let me know if you start thinking about selling that Ed White ;)

Got an original Broad arrow to trade? ;-)

I have two broad arrows, but they’re not Speedmasters :)

https://omegaforums.net/attachments/img_0405-jpg.125750/

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