Then I got a Longines automatic, and I remembered why I loved mechanical watches so much.
So, it's back to basics for me. While the features are nice, It's nice that my watch is "charging" itself as I wear it.
While the functionality they add-in is intriguing, their low processing power is taxing the mobile phone a lot. I'm in apple ecosystem, and constant communication and process offloading reduces battery life of the phone considerably. Esp, when on the move.
I want a watch primarily. A time keeping device which I can depend and can use for a long time (i.e. years). So returning to a vanilla, bona-fide watch was refreshing and liberating. Having a self-winding, completely mechanical heart inside is also nice.
If you're exercising, band establishes and keeps a constant connection about your movement data and pulse. It also gets some information from app (is GPS healthy, etc.).
Both modes keep the phone out of its deep sleep, and halves your daily battery stamina if you have a moderately active day.
Because of that, I actively kill the Zepplife application most of the time if I'm wearing the band that day, unless I'm exercising.
The only annoyance is that a recent update which added support for a device I don't use has caused GadgetBridge to prompt my for a permission that device support needs every time I open the app, and doesn't care that I have no reason to grant that permission. I should make a bug report…
My main battery issue is that the Mi Band's "up to 14 days" (or whatever) is nowhere near enough. I get about 7 days, and I'd prefer "at least 30 days", or...dare I say it?...a few years . (-:
I think it was pretty common in old days to damage the balance wheel assemblies and the mainsprings since the shock absorbers were not that well, or non-existent. However, modern/upscale watches have much more robust assemblies and alloys.
I may send my watch in for regulation and check in a decade, but I don't expect that its mainspring will be replaced at that interval. Even my entry level Seiko 5 is pretty much spot on after 5-6 years.
On the other hand, my first mechanical, a Swatch Diaphane automatic has died because it had no shock absorber and fell to a soft carpet from my hand, approximately from 1M above ground. It can no longer keep accurate time if it's not flat on a table.
If the only reason you take your watch in for service is because the time is drifting a lot each day, you've waited too long. At that point the lubricants have almost certainly broken down and the metal contact points are grinding away. The metal that's worn off ends up on other parts of the movement as dust and can be abrasive.
Your Seiko 5 can be cleaned and serviced (you can regulate it yourself with a Timegrapher you get on ebay for $100), but I'd probably just replace the movement with a new one. They are essentially disposable.
Neither confirm, nor deny. It's not my watch, I'm just the messenger of the owner. He said it's not opened. I can't say anything else.
> If the only reason you take your watch in for service is because the time is drifting a lot each day, you've waited too long.
For me a drift for service is a minute/day at most. Also, these are the words of the retailer I bought the watch from. They carry and service from Tissot to Omega, and everything in between for the last 20+ years, so I'm assuming they at least they know what they're talking about (Longines official recommendation is 6-8 years on their website, BTW).
> Your Seiko 5 can be cleaned and serviced (you can regulate it yourself with a Timegrapher you get on ebay for $100), but I'd probably just replace the movement with a new one. They are essentially disposable.
I'd rather not replace a japan made movement which constantly hits +/- 4 seconds every day, esp. if it's designed to be very low maintenance and repair. Of course I can upgrade it in myriad of ways, but I bought it for what it is, and I'd rather keep it stock. A 7S36C can be a very simple movement, but it's not exactly disposable.
I'm aware of the depth of the rabbit hole, and I'm making a conscious choice of staying at the surface, because I rather have less number of dependable items rather than a fleet which needs constant love. I've found the depths of proverbial rabbit holes in other ways, so I'm pretty experienced about the consequences.
Why? :)
This means you have an hermetically sealed unit which rewinds itself as you live your life, and works off its reserve when you put it aside. This unit runs off mechanical energy, with no electricity whatsoever, and keeps time pretty spot on for what it is.
Moreover this steel+sapphire construction is made to held up against daily elements and some (a 30 bar designation is no slouch), over the decades you presumably own the piece.
As a result, you carry something you can depend (and love to look at) for a very long time, and live your life together, in a sense. Long living items collect memories with you, and act as a trigger for these memories too.
This is very different from an item which you consume and (have to) throw away three years later. This is why some people are this much into watches, fountain pens, and other low tech items which have long lifespans, presumably generations.
This is a damning with faint praise.
Yes, mechanical watches are amazing if you think of them as tiny devices packed with gears and rotors and jewels and springs. This is what drew me to them in the first place.
But in an absolute sense, they are simply poor timekeeping devices. The "elite chronometer" certification on high-end watches means that a mechanical watch is required to be +/- 2 seconds/day. A normal quartz watch is +/- 20 seconds/month, which is significantly better. There are high-accuracy quartz watches which are +/- 5 seconds/year.
There is nothing preventing you from owning a quartz watch for decades just like a mechanical watch. It's just going to cost you - a small fraction compared to mechanicals. Replacing a battery every few years will cost you less than a full mechanical rebuild every decade.
> daily elements and some (a 30 bar designation is no slouch)
A silly flex. More WR comes with more weight/size. Divers mostly use diving computers now.
Well, considering a lowly Seiko 5 can always point to the correct minute within some (+/- 15) seconds without adjusting it ever is a remarkable achievement if you ask me. A top of the line server has more drift than that gearbox.
> But in an absolute sense, they are simply poor timekeeping devices.
If you want sub second accuracy to time F1 races, yes. For catching your metro, no.
> A normal quartz watch is +/- 20 seconds/month, which is significantly better. There are high-accuracy quartz watches which are +/- 5 seconds/year.
Yet, their batteries tend to go flat on the most inconvenient times, and without warning if you're not using a higher end movement.
> Replacing a battery every few years will cost you less than a full mechanical rebuild every decade.
Every 2-3 years to be precise, unless you use an entry level Casio digital wristwatch, which will last a decade.
> A silly flex. More WR comes with more weight/size. Divers mostly use diving computers now.
It's not a flex. A 30 bar watch will just last. It's not about just WR.
You don't need to like automatics, that's OK. If I want utmost precision, I'd wear a GPS enabled Casio. However, for some of us out there, using these things are about appreciating the craft and engineering going into these things. Like vinyl, fountain pens and mechanical keyboards.
No need to be frantic about some seconds unless you're synchronizing server farms for TLS, TOTP or other stuff. Even life is not that rigid about timing. That rigidity is something we enforce on our lives.
Use what you enjoy, get your favorite hot drink and relax. :)
Swatch shop employees in my country wears a watch on each wrist, again which I don't like how it looks.