Do we have a thread about watches? (that are interesting?)

This was my father’s watch. He bought it “online” (or whatever the equivalent was) in the late 90s. He had it shipped to my work in NH because, like a good republican, he didn’t want to pay sales tax on it. I inherited it in 2012. It was in rough shape. My dad was smaller than me so I had to buy two additional links for the band. Like the rest of the watch, the band is gold and they were $350 each.

It’s self-winding but when you stop wearing it it stops in around 36 hours. Which I find disappointing for such a high quality timepiece. It’s rather heavy so I only wear it when I go out. Which means it would stop every weekend.

A few years ago something internally broke. When I took it to the Rolex-certified jeweler she asked, “Did it break or did it just stop?” Which I found pretty odd. The thing had already stopped on me hundreds of times. Anyway, it had to be shipped out to the Rolex repair center in Texas. They charge a flat fee based on the metal of the watch - steel, gold, or platinum. The gold fee at the time was $1500. Paying the extra $200 to get the crystal replaced felt like a drop in the bucket in comparison.

I’m not a fan of the yellow gold. I much prefer the steel or white gold look. But what can I do?

I will say this, though - it does feel good wearing it.

For gold, that is pretty classy though. It’s not gaudy gold.

Though I’m so unsentimental that no matter what the family heirloom, I wouldn’t pay a few grand to get it fixed. I’d chuck it in a sock drawer somewhere and forget about it probably.

Yeah, I’m a bad person.

Well, to me a gold Rolex Day-Date is simply a beautiful watch. It’s informally known as the Rolex “President” because more than one POTUS has worn it.

However, it’s also been the watch of choice of a different kind of boss:

gandolfini-soprano_2595264b

I had a pocket watch from my grandfather. I’m not terribly sentimental and somewhere along the way it was lost during a move in my twenties. Every now and then I feel a twinge of loss.

I ended up blowing an hour today looking at ebay listings of old Soviet watches. I want to go look in person (I know a flea market / vintage stuff market that might have some) but Covid makes that a poor choice for at least a little longer. By that point common sense might have won out. Afterall, I actively like wearing my Zen Watch and getting notifications.

I will say my lack of sentimentality about things probably stems from being an Army brat and moving 26 times by the time I was 18. Stuff simply didn’t stick around long enough for me to grow attached, and after a while, every physical thing became disposable.

Oh hey I just remembered, I totally have a Russian watch! My first job out of college was working for a good distributor that did business in Russia, whenever my colleagues went they brought back all kinds of knickknacks. I never got to go, sad face. But I did get this -

Oh hey, a Vostok Komandirskie! I actually have one on the way with the exact same dial that should be arriving in a day or two.

Ha sorry, I don’t actually know anything about the watch. I’ve had it for wow, 25 years now. Off topic I realize, but I have this cool hat with all these pins too -

There’s not too much to know about it, really. They’ve been in production since 1965, don’t use serial numbers, and haven’t changed much at all mechanically. They’ve got a variety of dials, bezels, and cases, and seem to be combined more or less in a grab bag fashion. Unless it has some sort of telltale markings (such as saying made in Russia instead of USSR, or celebrating a specific event), there’s not really a good way to even nail down the decade.

To further complicate matters, it was(/is?) common practice in the Russian watch industry for workers to build their own custom pieces in off-hours to sell privately.

Basically, all that matters is if it works and you like how it looks.

Is there a hat thread? 'cause this should definitely be in it.

Seriously, I want that hat to an unreasonable degree.

I’ll contribute a photo of my watch if I can get better lighting to work with, but it’s very similar to a few already in the thread with a slightly different band on it.

My newest arrival: a Soviet-era Raketa Pilot 24-hour watch. Sadly, the shape of the case means that the nice leather NATO strap I had picked out won’t fit. Bummer. This red two-piece will work for now.

24 instead of 12 on the numbering…does that actually go around once per day instead of twice?

Yep. Noon is at the bottom, and midnight at the top. It’ll take a bit of getting used to, but I think it’s pretty nifty.

That will make time seem like it’s just going slower.

That’s really sharp.

I found myself looking at watches again today. My problem is that I am unwilling to pay very much so I’m constantly looking at the cheap stuff ($30 or less) and they all have a fair amount of wear. Can you get new crystals for them? I love some of the colors and even textured dials on the Pobeda Zim watches but the crystals are scratched (I am looking at the cheap stuff).

I was going to post some pictures but everything is from eBay and they seem to block copying the pictures.

I have an old POS watch that is ugly, but the numbers are large and in different colors, depending. Also the backlight looks very nice. (It looks best in the dark.) Are the multicolored numbers and backlight a feature that has a specific name I can filter for? Thanks.

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Not the same watch, but very similar:

How about something like this? You can find a lot of older Vostok Komandirskies for under $30–especially if you don’t mind picking up a strap elsewhere. I prefer NATO straps myself, which you can pick up for as low as $10 from Crown & Buckle.

The thought of attaching a NATO strap to a Soviet era watch amuses me.

I rather enjoyed that aspect myself. But irony aside, I prefer NATOs (and Zulus) over metal bands or two-piece bands because I find them more comfortable, they’re more secure (if one pin fails, the watch will still stay on), and you can swap them in and out within seconds if you want a different color or pattern.

Even Bond wore his Rolex on one.