What time is it? Watches and horology

Billy big bollocks over here.

@Dammit - you should get one. Or a Master II.... although they do now seem expensive for what they are. I'm sure I remember them being £3-4k second hand. Any particular reason for preferring the original one?

£9k it would appear these days https://www.watchfinder.co.uk/Rolex/GMT%20Master%20II/16710/7450/item/128967

I didn't rate then until I tried a few on, now I kind of want one too.

Any suggestions on how to get a strap on this watch? I assume it used to have some kind of specific strap but obviously not anymore. Would like a leather or NATO or whatever.

A normal spring bar is a little thick, needs something about 1mm diameter but not sure how I'd stop it falling out (it's currently got half a needle in there).

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NIce price

I quite like a Panerai, lots of wrist presence. Not sure about their scattergun approach to design in the last few years but I guess you have to keep producing to keep selling. I’d be going sandwich dial too, I haven’t looked but there must be some reasonable bargains in the secondhand market.

me too. i'd love a 112 or 390 or 590. 44mm are just fine. 47 are a bit to big although they sit nice on the wrist.

I have a similar strap on a CW I've had for a while. My fitting is with what appears to be a threaded bar/screw. I can take it apart later if that's of interest.

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Cheers. That's given me an idea of what I should be searching for and I reckon that these may do the job.

https://www.watchbattery.co.uk/shop/products/SB-STB.shtml

hahaha this is great. i oddly like them too. a very prominent italian professor in my old research field would always be wearing one. I thought he was cool as fuck

So pleased to have this grubby little survivor back from a service, first time I’ve seen the chronograph working.

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So not sure what folks on here think of these, perhaps a bit of a gimmick but I’ve seen one in the flesh and thought it was kind of cool - does anyone know anything or have any advice on this Art Deco jump hour watch, case is silver, it’s missing the seconds dial and probably needs a bit of renovation, any thoughts welcomed!
Cheers,
Matt

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Two watches arriving tomorrow. A Nomos Orion 389 and a Stowa Marine, Roman Numerals and date.....

Need to calm down a little.

Congrats. The 389 is the nachtblau right? two watches i really like but are on the i really like but will not buy list.

Yes, the nachtblau. Hopefully that is the blue dial itch scratched

looks great. came really close in getting the midnight edition. got it for a really good price at an ebay auction but the seller wanted payment by bank so i opted out. csb!!

Saw this today out and about

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Still can't find my cheap watch kit.

Does anyone have a spring bar tool recommendation?

I was thinking about this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002CVUO4C/ref=asc_df_B002CVUO4C58142109/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22122&creativeASIN=B002CVUO4C&linkCode=df0&hvadid=222796646081&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13160364981720590614&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9041110&hvtargid=pla-363738633070

Does anyone have one?

Cheers.

Anything by Bergeon is super solid...

One down, one more tomorrow :)

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I have that one. Strongly recommend. You can bend the pin, but it’s not easy.

Cheers guys.

So after buying one from @pdlouche I can say that I enjoy wearing a watch every day. So I can move on with the plan, namely getting myself a 24h watch, or failing that a GMT.

I see there were talks about GMTs a few pages back, but would anyone like to offer recommendations for 24h watches? Something automatic, reasonably precise and robust (I will wear it every day so it will get knocked about), not too big, budget in the hundreds rather than thousands.

If nothing fits the bill I quite liked the Steinhart GMT posted a few pages back, where would one go to try one of these or something approaching to get an idea of the fit etc (in London)? I'm still a total watch noob so bear with me.

cheers!

Steinhart don't have any bricks and mortar retailers in the UK so trying one on in person won't be possible unless you know someone with one. There should be plenty of images online of 39mm/ 42mm Steinhart Ocean Ones on different wrist sizes if you search - which can be a good indicator.