Anyone else into automatic wristwatches?

[Broke]

My favorite and most expensive hobby. In fact I'm so enamored with watches that I own a watch forum. Feel free to come by:

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[Fun Size Nick]

Here's my new Seiko 5 (also with the 4 o'clock crown):

and spruced up with a leather nato:

 

[HeavyDuty]

Here's my new Seiko 5 (also with the 4 o'clock crown):

and spruced up with a leather nato:

Cool! I have the black dial version of that watch and really like it.

 

[Broke]

Here's my new Seiko 5 (also with the 4 o'clock crown):

and spruced up with a leather nato:

I had that watch but I sold it because it was smaller than I like. But it was a little workhorse for sure.

 

[Fun Size Nick]

Cool! I have the black dial version of that watch and really like it.

The black dial version looks great! Photos?

I had that watch but I sold it because it was smaller than I like. But it was a little workhorse for sure.

I am pretty much the polar opposite of HeavyDuty in that I have tiny wrists...so this watch suits me pretty well! It is definitely about as small as you could find in a men's watch.

 

[HeavyDuty]

Here - a quick pic. Apologies for the blurriness:

 

[champbassist]

I know this almost goes against the concept of this thread, but any opinions on manually wound watches that they make nowadays?

 

[Broke]

I know this almost goes against the concept of this thread, but any opinions on manually wound watches that they make nowadays?

It's really the same concept. Automatic watches can be manually wound too. They have a clutch that prevents them from overwinding and breaking the mainspring. They don't really make a lot of "true" manual wind watches today but the majority are chinese made movements. And they are decent movements.

 

[Fawkesguy]

I know this almost goes against the concept of this thread, but any opinions on manually wound watches that they make nowadays?

There are several companies currently making hand crankers. I just took delivery of this about two weeks ago. Stowa Marine Original with a sterling silver dial and Unitas 6498-1 movement. Nothing Chinese-made here. All German and Swiss:

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[champbassist]

Again popping up for opinions... any one with any experience with Citizen's Eco Drive watches? They are automatic, technically

 

[mrpackerguy]

This is as close to an automatic as I get. My daily wearer. Simple and time is easy to read without readers (50+ year old eyes)

 

[Broke]

Those Eco-Drives have a battery so they aren't automatic. It's a quartz watch.

 

[HeavyDuty]

Finished up this mod the other day after the new bezel came in. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it since I'm concerned about how the black PVD finish will wear on the bracelet, but it's growing on me. I might red fill a few items on the bezel.

 

[Broke]

View attachment 696686 Finished up this mod the other day after the new bezel came in. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it since I'm concerned about how the black PVD finish will wear on the bracelet, but it's growing on me. I might red fill a few items on the bezel.

The black PVD is going to wear. Most likely where you rub on a table, desk etc. If you are really worried about it, get a black leather strap and use that instead of the bracelet. But I really think it should be worn as it is because it's a fabulous watch and mod.

 

[dangnewt]

I have a Citizen Eco-Drive watch, as well. The cool this is that if you leave the watch in darkness for a while, the hands will stop moving to conserve power. When you expose the watch to light again, they will quickly adjust themselves to the proper time and start ticking again.

I just bought a Citizen Eco-Drive. It replaced a Seiko kinetic that served me well for 20 years. My wife doesn't miss the kinetic, she thought it odd that I would occasionally rotate my wrists or even take it off to give it some shakes when it looked like the internal battery was running low.

 

[champbassist]

This thread gave me major automatic watch GAS, so, as I'm going to blow a little dough on one in the next couple of weeks, I thought this could be the place to ask a couple of questions -

1) I'm not going to wear it every day - I like to mix and match so I'm looking at 2 days a week perhaps. Will it damage the watch if I were to leave it unwound for 5 days of the week?
2) How noticeable will its difference in accuracy compared to a quartz watch be? I'm looking at something like the Seiko SSA001K1 or the Seiko Sports 5 SSA067K1, so I'm not really going for the top of the line ones here.

 

[HeavyDuty]

I rotate through five automatics and haven't seen any problems.

Accuracy? Mine all vary slightly, but my most accurate seems to run about 2 seconds fast per day, and the least about 12 seconds slow. I'm told they will settle down with use, but even if they don't I consider this to be wholly acceptable without regulation. But we're not talking quartz type accuracy.

 

[champbassist]

I rotate through five automatics and haven't seen any problems.

Accuracy? Mine all vary slightly, but my most accurate seems to run about 2 seconds fast per day, and the least about 12 seconds slow. I'm told they will settle down with use, but even if they don't I consider this to be wholly acceptable without regulation. But we're not talking quartz type accuracy.

Thanks!

 

[Pilgrim]

Now I cheat and use a quartz Tissot PRS-200. The T12 Seastar I showed on the first page lives in my jewelry box for duty as needed. The PRS200 is about 15 years old but still watertight.

One very nice thing about the PRS200 is that it has a sapphire crystal which is incredibly resistant to scratching. It hasn't been polished since I bought it.

 

[Fun Size Nick]

I've always liked automatics (i.e. self winders, not battery powered) but never did much about it. Recently I discovered that there's a vibrant market in economical automatics. I've been wanting to put the two good watches my late wife gave me away as keepsakes, so the timing of this realization was good. I picked up a few new watches using a slug of credit card loyalty points I had that were redeemable at Amazon.

I've decided to concentrate on Seiko automatics with the 4:00 position stem, they are decent quality and reasonably priced. I have four already and will probably stop there. Probably.

I don't have pics of all yet, but here are two:

SRP313 Monster ("vampire" variant):

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SKX007 on a Strapcode Super Oyster II bracelet - this one is mod fodder, I'm changing the bezel insert to start:

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Who else is into these silly things?

Hey HeavyDuty, did you get around to modding that SKX007? A pilot friend of mine modded one recently as a pilot's watch with a GMT/countdown bezel and it looks the business.