What time is it? Watches and horology

I guess you could always get it bead blasted.

Please don't bead blast a zaratsu finish.

Also, Spring Drive for the win. It is a great technology.

Got to say on the thickness chat, that it seems to be an almost totally ignored consideration for automatic watches by their designers.

I'd sooner something was one or two mill thinner than have extra meters of WR that no one needs or some other trivial bit of marketing innovation. Probably hard and expensive to do tho.

Just can't get into GS at all. Too thick, too shiny and just stuck in a styling loop.

stuck in a styling loop

Bro, do you even Rolex?

I think a lot of the GS stuff exists in the context of their vintage designs, but that's no different to Rolex, Omega, etc etc.

They're starting to overdo it with the dials and the "ooh Japanese craftsmanship / culture" stuff a bit, but that's their point of differentiation so, y'know. You just have to sift out the overdone ones because there are some gems there. If they'd sort the bracelets and end links out they'd be killer. Also I wish they'd do a nice sub-12mm thick mechanical or spring drive GMT. The recent 40mm spring drive ones with the ceramic bezel look really nice IRL but are still too thick and have the rotate-a-date at 4 that I can't abide.

I have similar criticism of other brands, except they have some really good looking and we'll proportioned models. I guess I haven't tried on/seen a GS I like.

A lot of modern GS is so-near-yet-so-far. And obviously taste comes into it, a lot of people just aren’t into the look and the vibe and that’s fine.

They might never make the GMT I want them to make but I still would love to own a GS at some point. The “taisetsu” one in the 62GS case really does appeal to me as a kind of heavy hitter of modern GS attributes - fancy (but restrained) dial, titanium, blued seconds hand, spring drive - but without the bulk of the snowflake.

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I loved this when I tried it on.

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My impression of the titanium / spring drive ones (winter & spring) is that the case looks to wear better (lug holes lower, less case and more crystal, etc) than the steel hibeat ones (summer & autumn). Did you notice a difference there? I imagine the weight makes a massive difference as well.

The titanium ones wear better than the steel ones, but I also like the dials better. The rose blossom dial is the pick for me.

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👍

The silver date wheel looks a bit odd with the blue dial on that one.

.

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My mate sent me this picture, it’s not my arm, by the way.

What a guy.

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Thanks for the info. To be honest I don't really know the difference between automatic and spring drive so need to do more reading before deciding and a lot more before handing over any cash.

GS come in a few flavours:

• quartz (including high accuracy variants)
  
• mechanical hand-wound (needs winding daily)
  
• automatic (wind themselves when worn)
  
• hi-beat automatic (as above, but a faster beat rate which is a bit more exotic and is considered capable of greater accuracy at the expense of power reserve)
  
• spring drive
  
  

The latter is the one that is a bit of a head scratcher if you’ve not read much on it. It is automatic (ie self-winding) and powered by a mainspring like an automatic, but instead of having a mechanical escapement to regulate the rate of the hands it has a very clever and unique system that is regulated by a quartz crystal and microchip, using a magnetic brake. It is entirely self powered by the mainspring (no battery), hence “spring drive”. This is also why the second hand sweep on spring drive models is perfectly smooth (they don’t tick).

Pretty good legibility there.

Worth adding that the accuracy on Spring Drive is within a couple of seconds a month.

Indeed, that’s the benefit of the quartz regulator, but it does cause a bit of confusion - eg “is it not just a quartz watch”, to which the answer is yes, and no.

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/does-spring-drive-have-an-escapement

There are also a small number of hand-wound spring drive models, they tend to be used in the higher end dressier models.

And I thought I was living dangerously taking this paddleboarding/kayaking 😂

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Haha!

I’ve been going to the beach quite a lot lately and find myself not wearing a watch at all. The thought of sun cream/sweat going into the nato/bracelet or even around the watch case is just not very appealing. Is anybody else bothered about this stuff?

Yep, I wear my watch everyday but if it involves water, slopping on creamy muck muck or working on motorbikes it comes off. This is with a dress watch though, wouldn't care about a £20 casio.

I’ve worn the SLA017 to the beach once, and a Turtle a few times, but tbh a G-Shock is the best choice. Just run it under the tap after.

Teal GBX-100 is looking like being my beach watch this year.

Y’all need one of these babies

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I'm not sure if I'd trust a speedmaster in the water given the push buttons but I've worn my Seamaster in the sea loads of times - that's what they're made for right?

Obv suntan lotion goes on when getting dressed at the start of the day, watch then goes on top.

This was really helpful. After going off and watching a few videos on spring drive your brief explanation was still the easiest to understand. Sounds like the best of both automatic/quartz worlds.

My initial reaction was to discount it as not being 'pure', but it feels almost like a resto-mod when comparing it to cars. Knowing the basic overview of models will help a lot for the next few weeks as I keep my eyes peeled on all things GS. Ta!