re: I need watch recommendations

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I would like to know what watch Obtuse wears for a beater. Mid 90's Submariner?

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While I am not afraid to wear any of my sports watches 99% of the time I do have one quartz watch and it is my true beater, here is a post I wrote about it 5 or so years ago on a different forum.

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What we have here is an 8 or so year old SLT-095 Seiko Mile Marker with the 8F56 quartz GMT perpetual calender movement. When I say beater I mean it has been beat on it has been my only beater during this time and I wear a watch when sane humans wouldn't but I figure it is harder than my wrist and cheaper too if it gets whacked. It has a "10 year" battery but I was dismayed when I had to replace it just a few months into ownership but that's where the interesting bit of the story starts, more on that later. It was the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006 when my old beater, also a Seiko, needed a new battery but was so beat up I thought I would just start fresh and a trip to Amazon found the Mile Marker for right at $200 and for a beater I thought it was cool and the perpetual calendar would be nice to set other watches by when I was at the watch box. It does have a USGS map measurement tool built-in but even though I spend a lot of time in the woods GPS is more my thing now. I have used it a couple of times for fun and it indeed works. The impetus for the thread is the 8F56 movement which for the costs I think is stellar. It has a perpetual calendar and has a GMT function and the hands are changeable hour to hour without hacking the movement which means since the battery was changed in late 2006 the second hand has not stopped. After DST I was going through my house changing all the clocks and stopped to change the Mile Marker at my watch box, I don't bother with the others since they are all mechanical watches and I just set them when I pick them up to wear them. It hit me the Mile Marker had been running for 7.5 years and I wondered where it was at on accuracy, I set it to NIST time then so I could easily check it. Pulled up NIST and compared it to the watch...what that has to be wrong...22 second fast in 7.5 years!!! Double and triple check, yep 22 seconds fast. Right at +3 seconds a year, good HAQ territory! I can't say enough about how good this watch has been and the accuracy speaks for itself. I have no idea if it has drifted over time and just happen to be 22 seconds off, for all I know it has been minutes off during that time, it doesn't matter as it is still amazing. Just like mechanicals, quartz is luck of the draw but it seems I drew a royal flush. 7.5 years of abuse and this $200 watch keeps coming back for more, I had figured I would replace it when the battery died but now it may be a long term keeper just because.

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The picture was taken about 5 years ago and the angle prevents seeing how scratched and gouged the Hardlex crystal really is, it is much worse today, I take pride in abusing it. The 8F56 movement in my mind is the best non-Grand Seiko quartz movement Seiko ever produced, it is a shame they discontinued it.

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Pretty neat vintage field watch homage. I think it has a ETA 2801-2 or the Sellita clone in it. Manual wind makes sense for an homage of a watch of that era. I do like that you chose the broad arrow hands

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Thought so too. It is an ETA 2801-2 in it.

I believe Matt Hranek who authored “A Man and His Watch” is involved with the company/watch. The idea was to do an early British military field watch homage, so one of the requirements was to be waterproof, hence the screw down crown. They retail for $540 and you get a choice of black or white dial and broad arrow or alpha hands. Also get a leather watch strap and a nato band. I’m really enjoying it so far.

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I'm curious what people have actually paid for it, and where.

I will absolutely own this watch in the next year or so... just need to decide if I want black or blue.

ETA: Seamaster not Speedmaster

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The current wave dial Seamasters in SS on bracelet can be had for about $4200 at most any grey dealer, maybe even at an AD. I honestly prefer the better 3D effect from the wave dial 2 generations ago but it doesn't have an 8XXX movement but the often troublesome 2500 Coax. The 8800 is an incredible movement and the 8XXX movements are the first I considered better than their analog at Rolex.

While I prefer the Planet Ocean and Ploprof in the Omega diver range this would be my Seamaster choice or the current catalog.




PS if you don't mind grey market watch Jomashop they often have great deals on Omegas.

I'm not quite OT baller yet so I can admit that this would be my first luxury watch. I'll definitely want to see it in person before dropping 4k.


Back on OP topic, I also bought the Seiko 5 SNZH55 and tossed it on a nato. It gets a ton of compliments for <$200 on Amazon. Runs a little fast, but tolerable for the price.

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I love the speedy pro, but this is a thread about $400 watches. Not sure why it would come up.

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It was a general observation since I've seen pretty much every watch thread here. I already gave my recommendation on his $400 watch.

You see a ton of those SNZH55s modded, most are the Fifty Five Fathoms in homage to the $12k Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

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I have a fun sistem51 swatch that I own. It isn't anything high end for sure. It was an cool endeavor by the company that most people who aren't into watches for pretentious reasons would find passably interesting.

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You forgot to tell them why it is interesting. The Sistem 51 is the first mechanical watch movement built by a fully automated process. Some (possibly) interesting facts. The 51 comes from the fact the movement has 51 parts (a much lower parts count than the average mechanical movement) and the reduction in parts was what make the automation possible. Swatch back in 1983 made the mass production of Swiss watches possible by reducing the parts count of a quartz movement to 51 parts compared to the normal ~90 parts which allowed for full automation of quartz production. These low cost "fun" Swiss watches really helped revitalize the Swiss watch industry. So 30 years later they made the mechnical 51 part movement and released it at Basel 2013. The initial dials below looked like a constellation but they also evoked the Copernicus theme of the movement as it was built with a single center screw which other parts revolved around. The "stars" are actual points where major parts or jewels of the movement lie. One of the downsides is the movement is hermetically sealed and can not be serviced. As is Swatch they introduce new dials every year. Prices vary now that they have more dial and case options but the originals were $150.

Get a Seiko Prospex or any of their divers watch’s very tough dependable I have one that i have had 25 years