re: #177 Dr Lizardo

Heh.

I prefer automatic watches, as I never to worry about a battery going dead. They need to be cleaned and serviced periodically, of course, but I’ve had automatic watches in the past that I’d picked up in pretty bad shape, and they ran fine. They were Seiko5 automatics, and those are workhorses.

But here, yeesh……really expensive. A used one here in decent condition will sell for about $150 - I saw a really broken-down one at a second-hand shop downtown, and they wanted $50 for it, on the grounds that “It’s a Seiko automatic!”.

Yeah……a Seiko automatic that doesn’t work. Not even remotely worth $50; maybe $10 at the most. The one I want to get is a Seiko bullnose, like this:

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but those are really pricey. Even a beat-up one sells for mucho dinero.

Not sure how it is there, but antique and secondhand stores are a lousy place to get watches here. Independent watchmakers often have a number of watches for sale which have the advantage of having been professionally serviced.

I pick up my watches exclusively on Ebay, but then I’m a collector who has made a careful study of one brand (Elgin) from one era (1935-1964), and learned how to do my own servicing. If you don’t know your brand, and you can’t do your own services, it’s like dancing through a minefield.

Seikos - especially the Seiko 5s - are designed to run a long time giving good accuracy without being serviced, with the caveat that they’ll wear out like any other unserviced mechanical watch. But they’ll run more accurately till then. Some of the Elgins I’ve picked up were nonrunners just because of dirt, and ran beautifully once serviced.