posted
I needed a new watch, so last night I biked out to WalMart (I don't like WalMart, but it's the only store that's within biking distance of me) and looked for watches. Well being a picky guy I stared at watches for about 15 minutes until I determined which one was best, tried it on, and discovered that it's also got a really soft band. So now I want to recomend it to everyone.
Simple, cheap, really is what you need, not a whole bunch of extra features that you will never use.
3 Alarms, very handy, easy to use. Simple stopwatch Countdown timer 12-24 hour time Day and date Big display Small and light comfortable Easy to set (can increment and decrment time, making the setting much easier) Nice indiglo feature (lasts for a very decent, but not overly long period of time).
Timex Expedition, it's cheap and it's everything you need (as well as no problem to wear).
Wow, I feel like I just particpated in a pyrimad scheme.
posted
The only watch I want is a pocket watch... between the years 1800-1920. An elgin or a watham with a hunting case Why I have a thing for pocket watches is unknowned.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I wear a Timex Ironman that I've had for almost 6 years now. It's gone with me all over the world, doesn't have quite as many features as the latest ones apparently (only one alarm and can only increment time) but it's an awesome watch. I did have to get a new band for it, but I'll stand by the Timex brand anytime.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Ohh, agreed. Timex is accurate, reliable, and affordable. I really like the display on this one, it's very big, very easy to read, and yet the overall watch is much thiner, and overall smaller than a typical digital watch.
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I mainly bought mine b/c it was the most inexpensive one and I didn't expect it to survive where I was taking it. I was pleasantly surprised, needless to say.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2002
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OOOO! If I had a pocket watch and someone pawned it... Oh, it would be on... Uncharacteristic swearing would ensue.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I have a pocketwatch, though not a vintage one. I don't wear it, cause it needs a new battery and I've been too lazy to get one. I don't particularly like wearing wristwatches for some reason, so I carry my old digital watch (sans band) in my pocket. I've lost track of how many times I've lost my watch from having it fall out of my pocket (too many handstands, perhaps? or just comfortable couches and random front lawns (long story)), only to find it minutes or hours or days later. Not very elegant, I know, but knowing the time can come in handy.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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Knowing the time is a neccisty. At least once a week I set my watch to the atomic clock (via updating my cocmputer time with a NIST Time program), and no matter how sick of it people around me are, I will not stop reading off the time to the second. Seconds are important!
posted
I carry both a cell phone and a pda (that's synched to the atomic clock). There's no need for a watch. It was weird at first not wearing one, but I'm fine with it now. The pda is a great alarm clock. I can have it wake me up with whatever .wav file I want.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
One of the greatest advantages to a pocket watch is that it is difficult to read.
You have to reach into your pocket, pull it loose (which requires some stretching if you are sitting down or driving), bring it up to eye level, find the clasp, open it, and usually turn it around so you are reading it correctly.
With all of that to do, guess what. Before you check the time, you ask yourself, "Do I really need to know what time it is again?"
Usually, you don't.
With a wrist watch, a quick turn of the head and you can see the time.
This means when ever you get the urge, you check the time.
If you are waiting for something, the time doesn't go fast enough. You try willing it to speed up, and all you do is give yourself stress.
If you are late for something, the time goes too fast. You try willing it to slow down, and all you do is give yourself stress.
However, if you stop and don't check the time, you can spend your time doing what you need to do in the time you have.
You don't worry that you are 14 seconds behind where you hoped to be, or that you still have five hours, 23 minutes and 54 seconds left in the work day.
People talk how the artificial TV and Telephone have taken over our lives.
They are wrong. It is clocks, the artificial ennumeration of the passage of our lives, that have taken over our lives.
How many clocks do you own? Every Cell phone, most TV's, every computer, vcr, etc have them built in. Every room needs one. Every car with its radio has one. THey outnumber us to a ridiculous extent.
You can't escape having the passing of time displayed for you anywhere you go.
So why strap another mortality reminder to your wrist when hiding it in your pocket is so much more relaxing.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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True dat. Mortality reminder is a good descriptor. I also like to use "shackle of death."
I wear a wrist watch because sometimes I do interviews where I need to know how much time has elapsed. But the only number on my watch's face is an XII at the top. The rest of it is an illustration of Tin Tin.
Digital watches are just plain creepy.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Ahh Dan, then answer me this, how many molecules are in your computer? Assuming actually want to give me an answer, one the first questions you atleast should ask is when do I want this answer by? If I want it in about 45 seconds it probably be best to assume it's a perfect rectoid and all made out of the same material (like silcon for instance). If I say I have about a year and half until I need it and until then I'll subsidize the project you might want to have a little more detailed knolwedge of it.
Knowing the time is very important for planning and acting. I like walking fast, it's true, but if I knew I had say, 7 minutes to get to a class where my normal walking pace would take me in 5, I'd probably slow down and enjoy it a little more, whereas if I had 3 minutes, I'd kick up the pace. If I didn't know the time then I would either be late, or I wouldn't enjoy the walk as much as I could've. Knowing the time is important, like you said, we all have a limited amount of it during this life, and knowing when things occur is a must for getting the maximal amount done over that time.
Though I also agree that you can keep checking the time instad of using it, I think it's necessary much of the time (no pun intented) and reassuring much of the time.
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I'm not sure if a ring can fit on my finger... *looks at it* I don't really like jewelry. I don't own one single ring.. So I'd rather just get a pocket watch
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I remember my physics teacher saying something about some humans giving off a magnetic field that stopped watches, but it was always hard to tell when he was being serious. Is that really possible?
Posts: 377 | Registered: May 1999
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quote: Even if she felt strongly about not having one?
Most likely. If she didn't want one, I wouldn't get her one, but I would still feel wierd. I'm not incapable of not giving an engagement ring, It would just feel strange not to.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Sheesh, between Synth and Dan, I think I'm going to get out one of my old Elgins.
All three were Christmas gifts from my Dad and date from the 1920s. I haven't carried them in years, but they really mean a lot to me.
My Dad gave them to me over a series of three Christmases after he had lost his business, his home and his car and he'd gone back to carpentry and cabinet making. Those were some tough, tough times for him and my step-mom. Unable to buy presents, I guess, he dug into his collections (my Dad was an avid collector) to give gifts. While a pocket knife went to many of the other men in my family, I already carried a one of kind pocket knife that I would never give up (it was my great grandfather's Case Texas Toothpick and happens to be a unique manufacture...) and so I got pocketwatches.
Man, I dearly love those pocketwatches he gave me. They were probably picked up at estate sales or at auctions, but it was how and why he gave them to me that mean so much. I hadn't thought seriously about them in a year or so, though, until now. I think I'll go wind one up and set it, mebbe carry it for a day or two...
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Really Lara? I've never heard about it as a recognized thing... I just know dkw can't wear a watch for any period of time and have it keep working. At least, she didn't used to be able to, I haven't lived in the same state as her in several years, maybe it's stopped. I'll poke her to stop in and say if I'm remembering correctly or just off my rocker.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:and no matter how sick of it people around me are, I will not stop reading off the time to the second
I think that it is things like this that drive people to murder. (Or maybe putting the milk infront of the potatoes on too many times, but that guy was off his meds, so this has to be it)
This is also the reason that I tell time is 5 minute intervals (I am also lazy and have a analog watch).
----
You also have your very own personal gravity field, but people (or at least most people) don't mass enough for it to have any effect.
Posts: 1458 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Eljay, yeah, he said that. So I wonder how a person could go about finding out the strength of his personal magnetic field.
Posts: 377 | Registered: May 1999
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Do you guys bash your watches into walls or something? I have a watch I was given a watch 4 years ago that's still ticking. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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The funny thing about this is that Bob loves watches. He has a collection of vintage watches. Could be an interesting experiment here . . . does the watch have to be on my wrist for me to kill it, or is just being in close proximity enough?
I think it has something to do with the wrist (or maybe skin contact) since I seem to do okay with pocket watches. Until I run them through the washing machine, that is. Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Heehe.. I, too, own a pocket watch that's not-old. Dead battery. I own a watch that hangs on a belt loop. Dead battery. I own a watch that hangs on a belt loop just like the watch that hangs on a belt loop. Dead battery.
It's a shame. I really like knowing what time it is. I tried to get the battery fixed last month, but the watch shop told me they refused to open watches that weren't from their store (worried about breaking it). Pooh.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: To: bioelectromagnetics@yahoogroups.com From: "James McCourt, Ph.D." <drjem@earthlink.net> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 16:17:12 -0700 Subject: Re: [bioelectromagnetics] Can a human have a magnetic field that stops watches?
Yes. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lara" <laralu_mg@yahoo.com> To: <bioelectromagnetics@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 5:51 AM Subject: [bioelectromagnetics] Can a human have a magnetic field that stops watches?
I have some friends who claim they cannot wear digital watches because they have such a strong magnetic field they mess up the current of electricity going through it. Or something. I find this hard to believe and think they just need to get new watch batteries. Is it really possible?
posted
Ooooooh, I want to know the strength of my personal magnetic field. I wonder if I can find out at the Y, they measured my body fat percentage for me...
Hey, cool, the street sweepers are going by! *distracted*
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
My mom had to have a watch either on the dashboard or on her keychain.
Hobbes, seconds matter which is why I don't spend them reading down to the second.
My aunt seemed to find that she could wear a men's watch but not a women's watch. I was surprised because she usually never agrees with my mom, is cynical and no longer Mormon. Previously the "personal watch breaking magnetic field" had fallen into my "spiritual mumbo jumbo" bin but now it's in the "transmundane" bin.
I broke my only two windable watches by overwinding them.
Remember those Texas Instrument digital watches? They came out when I was in 2nd grade.
I also love the idea of pocket watches. But maybe I'll get a brass compass instead. People don't know the direction at least as often as they don't know the time.
quote: I also love the idea of pocket watches. But maybe I'll get a brass compass instead. People don't know the direction at least as often as they don't know the time.
I would say far more often most people don't even know which way is North at their own home.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
I know a little old man in TX who sells old pocket watches and wrist watches. He repairs them as well, but is mostly interested in buying and repairing watches to resell them.
If anyone's interested, I could send the info.
But the neat thing is that he'll show you exactly what the watch is worth in the book if you want to be sure you're getting a good deal.
I have a Hamilton PW from around 1900 that I got from him. Hunter case and really cool. Elgin & Waltham are great too.
I'm planning to get Dana to at least try a windup watch or a kinetic one. I may have to sneak up to it though. She's definitely built up an aversion to watches.
Actually, with that much natural magnetism, it should be possible to power a watch just by putting it on your wrist. <mental note to ask a physicist>
She's not that fond of clocks either. I think a room is bare if there aren't at least two clocks in it. Preferably old ones that make a lot of noise.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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But make sure you put it in a room where you can't hear it ticking when you're trying to go to sleep...
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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See, now, I just can't stand cuckoo clocks. That bird gives me the willies!
No, actually what bugs me about them is that people tend to start a decorating theme based on the clock and pretty soon their entire house is full of little figurines and overly-ornate "stuff" that needs frequent dusting.
And it's the little figurines that scare me.
The wake up at night and move around. That little girl on the swing is vicious!!! She gets down and kicks all the other figurines in the legs and breaks them.
Nasty stuff!!!
And you don't even want to know what the Jack & Jill figurine do at night. Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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