lets talk watches

[Switch]

cheers for the comments - it was a recent-ish purchase and took me over 12 months to find the right one. It was also fresh from a Rolex service (i met the seller there) and I went snorkelling with it earlier this summer. I was surprised that even after a few days in the hot sun that the lume kicked out but it didn't last very long. Markers are just going to a slight warm cream & thankfully everything on it is pretty sharp and very clean considering its age. It's also keeping well within cosc.

I nearly opted for the SD 16600 after finding it hard to find a good vintage 5513/1680 but this one popped up right at the last minute.

[borkborkbork]

Just as a follow up to the chat way earlier about J Crew's suede NATOs...

Don't bother.

1) Stretches like crazy and loses its shape in the middle of the strap.

2) Too loose for me even on the tightest notch.

3) Strap so long it needs to not only be folded back under the keepers once, but *twice* (very difficult).

4) In about three weeks, the finish on the buckle has worn off almost entirely, exposing the brassy-coloured base metal underneath.

Complete junk. Avoid at all costs.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

[Magsåvningsreserven]

noice .

[denimdestroyedmylife]

thanks, it was my grandfather's, then my dad's then mine

sat in my drawer for years (nearly 10)

didn't like it until i got rid of the odious aftermarket gold stretch bracelet

[borkborkbork]

what is it, an omega dynamic?

[pokpok]

...first I need to find a good fat font bezel for my 76 1680, nice patina developing on a v clean face and immaculate silver date wheel - bezel is a replacement though....

[iG]http://i553.photobucket.com/albums/jj363/Notsyo/P4090744.jpg[/img]

[iG]http://i553.photobucket.com/albums/jj363/Notsyo/P4090718.jpg[/img]

[iG]http://i553.photobucket.com/albums/jj363/Notsyo/P4090727.jpg[/img]

very nice, love the tall acrylic crystal. I would love to own a red 1680 in the future.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

what is it, an omega dynamic?

dunno

i saw its (fraternal) twin in a 1974 omega catalog

and they just call it "self-winding"

[borkborkbork]

love the cushion case, whatever it is. nice seventies aesthetic.

[dismalfuture]

That white-faced Omega on the left is a beauty

[DJ_Flame]

Thoughts on Seagulls?

[Statham_Race]

Like the one that did the rounds of the blogs last year with the colours on the watch face but I think it's out of stock now? Also, the re-release ones are very, very small.

[patrick_b]

RE: Leather or nylon straps on a Diver's watch, I think they can be a nice change of pace. My seamaster spends most days on the bracelet but I found these nice thick leather Paneria-like straps and modified a 24mm to fit on my 20mm lugs. I posted this a while back.

It's far from perfect but looks OK at arm's length.

A similar black strap dresses up the seamaster nicely, but I'm not opposed to wearing these sport watches on a bracelet with business attire.

I also spend a lot of time on the water and for those kinds of activities, I often throw on a NATO style strap for the extra security. If a springbar breaks, the watch stays on the wrist.

[mattah]

Eriddw: Ye Watchbuys is the only authorized sinn dealer within the US. You would have to go through them and see what they could do for you. No other AD out of the US will sell you a Sinn.

There was this great pic of a beat up 656s. made me want the 656s so bad, and when i went to watchbuys, it wasn't there =(.

Edit: here it is

Hey my watch is famous!

[yachtrock89]

NATO on an SKX. Tan, Olive, Black or Grey?

GO.

[ubiquitous]

btw how do you guys feel about two-tone watches?

[po_boy_fuuma_hatesbargerz]

What did you expect? If you're putting any watch over $100 on one of those...

[WhoGotMeIntoThis]

^ What is this in reference to?

[eversuns]

Probably the jcrew strap.

[ericdw]

someone talk me out of buying this

[Switch]

nope - buy it, it's a beauty

[therelativity]

ericdw，its a very nice watch! more info on it please!

[fadingblue]

Got a very similar watch from my dad a couple years ago, I never wear it though because I'm afraid to beat it up:

[patrick_b]

Neat story involving Patek and a WWII POW:

I saw this on the Today show today and found it very compelling. I'd read that Rolex also shipped watches to US and British soldiers in POW camps in Germany and France. They sold them on credit and actually shipped the watches to the POW camp...where the German guards actually delivered them to the POW's!!

Summary (full story and link below):

http://www.motomax.nl/watch-news/682-allied-prisoner-of-war-bought-a-pate

Great story about an Canadian who was kept as prisoner of war in 1944 in Germany. He wanted to buy a Patek Philippe but had no money. But the watch was still delivered! After the war he sent Patek Philippe $300. The following story was published by the Star Tribune, a daily from Minneapolis/St. Paul (USA).

During the Second World War Charles Woehrle, who grew up in Pine City, Minn., served as a bombardier in a B-17 bomber of the 351st Bomb Group, US 8th Air Force. His bomber was shot down by the Germans on May 29, 1943, during a bombing mission above St. Nazaire in France. Four of the crew of ten were killed outright, but Woehrle miraculously landed in the sea with minor injuries. He was saved by French fishermen, but the German soon found him and in June 1943 he was in Stalag Luft III, in Germany. The story of how Allied prisoners of war could buy a Rolex on credit has often been told, but in the story of Woehrle it is another brand that is in the spotlight.

In early 1944 Woehrle spotted a brochure from Patek Philppe and, having nothing else to do, filled out an order form, writing that he would pay for the watch after the war. Months passed and then, to his surprise, his Patek Philippe arrived. Everybody in Stalag Luft III wanted to see the watch, which Woehrle somehow kept in his possession in the camp and even during a death march of the prisoners to another camp at the end of the war. The war ended for the survivors when General George Patton rode into the camp in a jeep.

Charles Woehrle returned to Minnesota, from where he sent Patek Philppe $300. He treasured his Patek Philppe for 30 years and then... it was stolen and he never saw it again.

However, that is not the end of the story: there will be a happy end. After hearing the story, Patek Philippe has invited Charles Woehrle, now 94 years old, to New York. There, on June 17, Patek Philippe will give Woehrle a vintage watch from the era when he was in Stalag Luft III.

His niece made a documentary about the a story of Charles Woehrle.

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/122779979.html?page=all&prepage=2&c=y#continue

"Time (and a watch) heals

Article by: JOY POWELL , Star Tribune

Updated: May 29, 2011 - 9:58 AM

A Swiss company delivered a new watch to an American POW in 1944, lifting spirits at Germany's infamous Stalag Luft III.

World War II veteran Charles Woehrle survived two years as a prisoner of war after jumping from a burning plane 68 years ago. The images of the German pilots bearing down on his plane, guns blazing, stay with him.

At 94, the St. Paul man long hailed as a hero still tells that story and many more in vivid detail. His tales are not only ones of service and courage, but also of a single, kind gesture by family-owned Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe, and the delight that it brought countless prisoners of war.

The brand-new watch, sent to him while he was imprisoned in Germany, was with him through the darkest days of his life.

"As I look back, I wonder even today how I ever lived through it," Woehrle said one recent afternoon in St. Paul.

He held onto that watch through the postwar years and into the 1970s, when it was stolen in a burglary.

For Woehrle, who is among the fast-dwindling ranks of WWII veterans and the only survivor among his bomber crew and prison-camp roommates, the story of the watch is about to come full circle.

But first, his combat story.

Woehrle grew up in Pine City, Minn., and served with the 351st bomb group of the 8th Air Force. The 8th had the highest U.S. casualty rate of the military during the war, which killed more than 405,000 Americans altogether.

In 1943, he was stationed at RAF Polebrook, an airfield in Northamptonshire, England. On May 29, he flew out on his sixth mission with his squadron in the "Concho Clipper."

As bombardier for his 10-man crew, he lay in the nose of the B-17 as it targeted Nazi-built submarine pens off the west coast of France. At St. Nazaire, he had just bombed a pen when German anti-aircraft guns fired upon the B-17, knocking out two of four engines at 30,000 feet. It began losing altitude.

Then came six or more German fighter planes. Four Concho crew members were killed. Woehrle and five others jumped from the burning B-17.

It was his first jump. Hurtling toward earth, he pulled his D-ring. Nothing.

He saw that neither his 10-foot "drogue" parachute nor the 30-foot main chute could come out because a grommet had stuck on a release post. Reaching down, he yanked open a chute flap.

"Then everything exploded so fast and powerful that it dislocated my shoulder, fractured my jaw, and I nearly tore out of my harness," Woehrle said.

"But there I was hanging by the shrouds of the 30-foot parachute, and it was so quiet up there, after all the shooting. I was alive!"

The terrible pain in his shoulder eased once he got it back in place. His broken jaws wouldn't mesh, yet he mumbled the Lord's Prayer.

Relief turns to anguish

He knew not to let himself swing like a pendulum or he'd get sick, so Woehrle yanked his shroud lines to straighten out. That dumped the air out of his big chute. Again, he plummeted.

Remarkably, at 2,000 feet, a crosswind filled his parachute.

The lieutenant landed softly in the Bay of Biscay. He could see only water and two black specks, which grew into fishing boats. French fishermen took him to an island home, where a farm wife fed him an egg, dark bread and wine.

Germans had spotted his parachute, though, and soon hauled him to a dungeon in Vannes, France, where the Gestapo interrogated him. By June 1943, Woehrle was in the infamous Stalag Luft III, near Sagan, Germany.

"Hunger was the overwhelming concern of prison life," said Woehrle, who cooked for the POWs.

One dull day in early 1944, he spotted a brochure from Patek Philippe, the Geneva watchmaker. The lieutenant knew the watches were beyond his means. Still, he filled out an order form and wrote that if there was a watch he could afford, he would be willing to pay for it after the war.

Months passed and Woehrle forgot about it until a package arrived from Geneva.

"There was this beautiful wristwatch, and it had a nice black alligator strap," Woehrle said. "It was just unbelievably beautiful. And the fact that it happened at all was the miracle to us. The whole camp was affected by it."

For days, POWs lined up at his door to see the watch with its sweeping second hand.

"Even if I was on the perimeter walking, they'd say: 'Oh Charlie! Can I see that watch again?'"

A death march

During a subzero snowstorm one night, the Germans began relocating prisoners to a camp in Moosburg, Bavaria, 300 miles away. They covered the first 75 miles on foot, Woehrle said.

"We had our shoes, but we didn't have any overshoes, and we weren't dressed warm enough," he said. "This was the lowest point of my life. At least 20 men froze to death."

He didn't think he would make it as they trudged through 6 inches of snow for three days and two nights, sleeping in barns.

They survived, he said, "because we had food, everybody took what they could, and we managed to stick together."

Next, they crammed into rail cars, with no sitting room, for three days and two nights to get to Moosburg.

"That was a terrible place," he said. "It was built for 100,000 prisoners, and they had people from all over the world."

On April 29, 1945, Woehrle and other prisoners were hanging onto a fence, looking down at the village, when they saw a puff of smoke on the square. A command car stopped next to a flagpole.

"Down comes the swastika flag. They were fussing with a big flag there, and up it goes. And when it takes the air, it's the American flag," Woehrle said.

All the POWs cried, he said -- "You can't imagine how overwhelming it was because for us, the war was over."

Within 15 minutes, Gen. George Patton rode into camp in a jeep, an ivory-handled pistol on each hip.

Woehrle soon returned to Minnesota, and he sent Patek Philippe $300. He married his wife, Elizabeth, and they had a daughter, Betsy Kelly. He began a film company.

And he treasured his watch for 30 years -- until the burglar stole it. He hasn't seen it since.

Recently told of the theft, the owners of Patek Philippe have invited Woehrle to New York City for a special presentation on June 17. They'll give him a vintage watch, from the era when Woehrle survived his toughest times."

Note, I tried searching for the story and didn't find anything. Hope this hasn't already been posted.

[M4TM]

did not read the above, but i'm thinking :

The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.

[WhoGotMeIntoThis]

Last two posts were epic. In their own right(s).

Now I need to go watch Pulp Fiction.

[funkdoobi]

cross post from recent purchases.

my new watch.

and a shot of my collection currently on rotation

citizen nighthawk (asia version), bell & ross vintage br123, breitling superocean steelfish v2

[Ryan]

love those 123s

[ericdw]

ericdw，its a very nice watch! more info on it please!

it's a lecoultre moonphase

http://www.farfo.com/menswatches/Page5/lecoultre_vintage_triple_date_moonphase_watches.html

please buy it so i don't

cross post from recent purchases.

my new watch.

is that a yellow strap? dope.

[funkdoobi]

this is the strap.