What's on your wrist?

Silver Blues said:
Are you for real??

Just had a look at the Steeldive AliExpress storefront. This is danger.
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Yeah man. It's bad.

So...there is a bit of a learning curve to the brands there.

Steeldive: haven't ever received anything from them that wasn't 100% solid. They don't always make fantastic design choices, but overall they're a super safe buy. Bezels click well, extremely bright lume, built like tanks.

Addiesdive: these folks tend to compete directly with Steeldive and tend to offer lower prices. Those lower prices come at a few minutely noticable corners being cut, though. Lume is almost as good, dials are a little less crisp, but overall solid. FWIW: I've read that this was a break-off company started after a falling out at Steeldive.

Baltany: a step above steeldive, IMHO. They have a perplexingly similar sister brand called "Milifortic" that is slightly lower priced and just as good. Mostly focused on vintage field watch designs.

Sugess, Tactical Frog, Seestern, Seagull: generally very good. Sometimes QA issues mar an otherwise good product. I've had to replace a couple of crown stems on these.

Heimdallr is good, Militado does some reasonably nice cheapies, Tandorio is...solid, but their lume is sub-par in comparison to others, but also quite cheap.

San Martin is supposed to be part of the creme of the crop. I've got one, and it's good, but nothing that I'm crazy about.

Rdunae makes about as close to a vintage-spec sieko turtle as is possible, right down to the 19mm strap.

It's danger. They have sales that make them even cheaper. The 11.11 sale was where I got everybodys Christmas gifts the year before last.
 
Stickman393 said:
Yeah man. It's bad.

So...there is a bit of a learning curve to the brands there.

Steeldive: haven't ever received anything from them that wasn't 100% solid. They don't always make fantastic design choices, but overall they're a super safe buy. Bezels click well, extremely bright lume, built like tanks.

Addiesdive: these folks tend to compete directly with Steeldive and tend to offer lower prices. Those lower prices come at a few minutely noticable corners being cut, though. Lume is almost as good, dials are a little less crisp, but overall solid. FWIW: I've read that this was a break-off company started after a falling out at Steeldive.

Baltany: a step above steeldive, IMHO. They have a perplexingly similar sister brand called "Milifortic" that is slightly lower priced and just as good. Mostly focused on vintage field watch designs.

Sugess, Tactical Frog, Seestern, Seagull: generally very good. Sometimes QA issues mar an otherwise good product. I've had to replace a couple of crown stems on these.

Heimdallr is good, Militado does some reasonably nice cheapies, Tandorio is...solid, but their lume is sub-par in comparison to others, but also quite cheap.

San Martin is supposed to be part of the creme of the crop. I've got one, and it's good, but nothing that I'm crazy about.

Rdunae makes about as close to a vintage-spec sieko turtle as is possible, right down to the 19mm strap.

It's danger. They have sales that make them even cheaper. The 11.11 sale was where I got everybodys Christmas gifts the year before last.
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You know your watches. Good to have a watch guy.
 
Honestly? Only cheap Chinese watches and a bit of Seiko's history.

Most of the rest of it is general, surface-level understandings of the evolution and various vintage styles. I've got blind spots *friggin everywhere* when it comes to the swiss brands, high end blingy nonsense, and heritage stuff.

I'm afflicted by a tendency to get super interested in extremely niche topics and absorb everything I possibly can by them.

Woulda been great if I could have harnessed that tendancy towards mechanical or electrical engineering when I was younger.
 
Stickman393 said:
Yeah man. It's bad.

So...there is a bit of a learning curve to the brands there.

Steeldive: haven't ever received anything from them that wasn't 100% solid. They don't always make fantastic design choices, but overall they're a super safe buy. Bezels click well, extremely bright lume, built like tanks.

Addiesdive: these folks tend to compete directly with Steeldive and tend to offer lower prices. Those lower prices come at a few minutely noticable corners being cut, though. Lume is almost as good, dials are a little less crisp, but overall solid. FWIW: I've read that this was a break-off company started after a falling out at Steeldive.

Baltany: a step above steeldive, IMHO. They have a perplexingly similar sister brand called "Milifortic" that is slightly lower priced and just as good. Mostly focused on vintage field watch designs.

Sugess, Tactical Frog, Seestern, Seagull: generally very good. Sometimes QA issues mar an otherwise good product. I've had to replace a couple of crown stems on these.

Heimdallr is good, Militado does some reasonably nice cheapies, Tandorio is...solid, but their lume is sub-par in comparison to others, but also quite cheap.

San Martin is supposed to be part of the creme of the crop. I've got one, and it's good, but nothing that I'm crazy about.

Rdunae makes about as close to a vintage-spec sieko turtle as is possible, right down to the 19mm strap.

It's danger. They have sales that make them even cheaper. The 11.11 sale was where I got everybodys Christmas gifts the year before last.
Click to expand...
Saving this for later, this is excellent. Thank you for the detailed breakdown!

Stickman393 said:
I've got blind spots *friggin everywhere* when it comes to the swiss brands, high end blingy nonsense, and heritage stuff.
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I mean, that's not what we're here for, right 😂 Better to have knowledge of the cheap but solid stuff that more people can afford. And here I was just complaining about how you can't find anything good for cheap anymore.
Stickman393 said:
I'm afflicted by a tendency to get super interested in extremely niche topics and absorb everything I possibly can by them.

Woulda been great if I could have harnessed that tendancy towards mechanical or electrical engineering when I was younger.
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Mood.
 
1755983665509.jpeg

Oh man this thread is making me miss the days when I left the house often enough to wear a watch. The closest I ever got to being a collector was buying a couple of vintage Elgin watches on ebay before prices went absolutely bonkers. I have a couple other super basic watches (Timex weekender, seiko 5, etc), but this was my daily for many years. It's about as basic as they come but I love how light it is (and c'mon, who doesn't love titanium gadgetry?) and the swiss clock ripoff face just makes me feel calm. I think I paid like $80, which was a huge splurge at the time. Need to replace the battery and the cracked strap and put this thing back into rotation.

edit: model would help. This is a Boccia 521 03b.
 
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A hair tie to tie my hair. Should I get a watch? 😂

I'm thinking of getting an analog watch. Been trying to disconnect more from technology, and using my phone as a clock does not help
 
CR0SSBL4DE said:
A hair tie to tie my hair. Should I get a watch? 😂

I'm thinking of getting an analog watch. Been trying to disconnect more from technology, and using my phone as a clock does not help
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YES!

There's something about the smooth consistent beat of an automatic that I love. The seiko NH35 movement is a workhorse and...while not as accurate as a quartz, will maintain around -20 to +40 seconds a day.

AliExpress is full of those. Generally, decent examples start around $75. They can get expensive, but there's a ton of really awesome models in the 75-200 range.
 
Stickman393 said:
Sure. That's the part you have a problem with.
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I like the blue + silver, but pairing it with that orange stripe band…
1756057722030.gif

There, I can have other problems with it. 🤡

I do like the look of some of the Steeldive watches I've seen, though. Very tempting, but I've got a new home HVAC to pay off 😩
 
andare said:
Spoiler alert: analog watches are technology too.

What you really want is to use the sun and the stars only. No glasses and binoculars allowed! :)
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haha, right! More of a dopamine detox then. I moved to using social networks a few times a month now, limited my app use and disabled color from my iphone screen.
I've realized that the best times I've had lately have been when I left my phone somewhere else.

I had a cheap watch thet I really liked a few years back, but after a year it started eating a battery a month, so I stopped using it.
 
CR0SSBL4DE said:
haha, right! More of a dopamine detox then. I moved to using social networks a few times a month now, limited my app use and disabled color from my iphone screen.
I've realized that the best times I've had lately have been when I left my phone somewhere else.

I had a cheap watch thet I really liked a few years back, but after a year it started eating a battery a month, so I stopped using it.
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Get you a Casio F-91w!
 
jessenator said:
I like the blue + silver, but pairing it with that orange stripe band…

There, I can have other problems with it. 🤡

I do like the look of some of the Steeldive watches I've seen, though. Very tempting, but I've got a new home HVAC to pay off 😩
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Whatt. Come on man, that's a complimentary color combo. 100% straight across the color wheel.

I was referring more to the floating hairy potato.
 
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