{"id":32963,"date":"2023-03-04T13:08:51","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T20:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=32963"},"modified":"2023-04-01T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T22:45:08","slug":"expensiver-hobby-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=32963","title":{"rendered":"Expensive(r) Hobby Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on my\u00a0earlier post, Expensive Hobby Update:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_5924\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A new GMT pilot’s watch arrived yesterday, replacing one I bought from Costco but had to return for a refund, no more being available. This one came from Amazon and arrived in perfect condition. Now that I’ve unboxed two of ’em, I realize the first one had been a return, and suspect the original buyer damaged it before sending it back. I’ve heard of such things happening, but it hadn’t happened to me before. People suck, grrr.<\/p>\n

The new watch is a Torgoen T9, and it has a quartz movement. The second hour hand, the red one, keeps Greenwich Mean Time on a 24-hour bezel, a feature I always wished I’d had when I flew for a living. Better late than never.<\/p>\n

The watch behind the Torgoen is a Seiko automatic diver I bought in 2015. It’ll go back in the display case, but not for long … it’s a favorite and I wear it often.<\/p>\n\n\n

This brings my collection up to … well, see for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"IMG_5946\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

The five in the display case and the one in the Seiko box are automatics: mechanical and self-winding. The other five have battery-powered quartz movements. The automatics include four Seikos, one Orient, and one Breitling; the quartz watches include two Timexes, two Casios, and the new Torgoen. The Breitling (the one with the black & gold dial) is Swiss, my one expensive watch. The Seikos, Casios, and Orient are Japanese. The Timexes have Swiss innards but their other parts are American-made and they’re put together here. The Torgoen, like the Timexes, uses a Swiss movement, but the company’s cagey about where where they’re assembled and seems to have paid Google to not give a straight answer, which makes me suspect it’s China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-winding mechanical watches run down and stop when when not in use, so whenever I pull one out to wear it has to be wound and set. It’s a labor of love … I can’t help marveling at their ingenious spring-driven mechanisms and the craftsmanship that goes into them … but I have to say, since I started adding battery-powered quartzes to the rotation, I’ve come to see what so many love about them … put one aside for a week or two and it keeps running, keeping perfect time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to keep the mechanicals on top of the dresser, the quartzes in a drawer below, but now they’re all on top. Well, except for the two Casios, which I think look cheap. They’re still in the drawer. I know Casio makes nice watches, but I’m not overly fond of the two I have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find I prefer leather straps, although the Seikos that came with metal bracelets look perfect as is and I have no plans to change them. Over time I’ve come to prefer light-colored dials over dark ones, even though the darks in my collection are stunners (especially the Breitling and the green-dial square Seiko).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned in another post<\/strong><\/a>, I’m a round-dial aviator and it shows in the watches I wear, which are all analog. I try to wear them all in rotation, but of course some are favorites. The new Torgoen will definitely get a lot of wrist time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My collection’s a mixed bag. A fancier way to describe it is eclectic. I have an eclectic collection, and I think I’m ready now to stop adding to it (I hear Donna saying “yeah, right” from the other end of the house).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I’m ready now to stop adding watches to my collection (I hear Donna saying “yeah, right” from the other end of the house).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2,415],"tags":[4053],"class_list":["post-32963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumerism","category-personal","category-products","tag-bigseikolittledick-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32963"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33151,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32963\/revisions\/33151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}