Other-than-battery-power watches?

[fulloflead]

I'm interested in getting some more watches with other-than-battery power systems. I'm wearing a Pulsar Solar that has served me very well for years and years. I've been very impressed with it. It only goes off a second or two every several months or so. (I set it to my Atomic Clock receiver.) I'm interested in getting another Pulsar Solar, a Swatch automatic and maybe checking out some others.

I very much prefer metal bands - especially silver. I'm not a big fan of plastic and/or digital watches; though I could probably stand a watch that was analog and also had a digital display - I had a Swiss Army Watch like that once and it was handy for traveling.

Where can I find some reviews on:
Pulsar Solars
Seiko Kinetics
Swatch Automatics (Swatch has some all-metal watches)
Citizen Eco-drives

Is there any other interesting stuff I'm missing?

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[Midget]

i dunno about reviews of those specific brands/items that you were asking about, but may i suggest the seiko 5 automatic?

a great, great, great auto that can be had for less than 60.00. it can be your starter auto or the watch that lasts you the rest of your life.

go to ebay and search "seiko 5" and find the dial/bracelet that is to your liking. there are lots of models and lots of variations to choose from, as the seiko 5 line has been around for a very long time.


good luck and have fun.






on a sidenote, and also to hijack your thread, I have a hamilton navy auto fedexing it's way to me at this very moment. ZAM!

 

[Midget]

also on a side note, you mentioned in your requests kinetic and solar watches. i think, technically both of those count as "battery" watches because you're still using a battery to power your watch, it's just that you're using an alternative source to charge it up. but i know you were aware of that an this is all a technical discrepancy.

anyhow, if you are indeed, still interested in solar powered watches, you might also take a look at the G-shock ana-digi line. they can be had with metal bracelets as well, although there will still be some rubber and plastic on the case itself. if it's resilience you're worried about, not to fear-- these things are as tough as... layers and layers of rubber and plastic. but they do have both an analog and digital display and are alternatively powered.

here's an example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31387&item=5002397230&rd=1



i'm wearing a gshock, solar, radio controlled, analog/digi watch right now. soon to be replaced by a hamilton navy auto! zam!!!

 

[fulloflead]

i dunno about reviews of those specific brands/items that you were asking about, but may i suggest the seiko 5 automatic?

I just won one on Ebay! (About the same time you were posting this. )

$51 + $15 shipping from Japan.

They've got a million of them on there. They've probably got one ending every 15 minutes from now until the cows come home.

I hope it's as perty in person.

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[fulloflead]

...also take a look at the G-shock ana-digi line. they can be had with metal bracelets as well...

That sounds interesting too. I'll definately check those out. Thanks for the tip.

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[mete]

I have a Solar TEC by Junghans.I've had that for a few years got tired of replacing batteries.

 

[Temper]

$15 sounds about right for shipping, you are getting a square deal there. Ask him for a tracking number if he is using EMS (its the equivalent of USPS Global Priority) and is easy to track via an English page on the Japan Post's web site.
Japan to the US will take about 4-7 days for the West coast and 5-7 for the East.

 

[tortoise]

You might look at Seiko's new Spring Drive, its pretty neat.


From Timezone.com:

What is Spring Drive it’s neither a mechanical nor a quartz watch. It can be said that it’s a mechanical watch with the high accuracy of a quartz with power only provided by the mainspring. It’s a self contained drive system without the need for a battery or motor.


From europastar.com:

As its name indicates, the heart of this movement is the barrel spring. Seiko had already mastered this technology in 1959, but it needed to develop a new generation specifically for this movement, one made from a highly elastic material called ‘Spron 510.’ The result is a more powerful spring capable of delivering its energy in a more balanced manner over a longer period of time (72-hour power reserve). The spring is armed by a ‘Magic Lever’ fixed directly on the stem of the oscillating weight, thus allowing for better winding (30% more efficient) of the spring.
In this mechanism, it is what Seiko calls the ‘Tri-synchro regulator’ that replaces the escapement. It regulates three types of energy that are used by the movement: the mechanical energy produced by the barrel spring; the electrical energy created from the mechanical energy that activates a quartz resonator; and the electro-magnetic energy that drives the ‘glide wheel’ (literally a glide wheel but here a seconds wheel) to turn eight times a second (which causes a continuous motion of the hand, without visible jerks as in quartz watches).
The engineers at Seiko state that the movement generated inside the Spring Drive is unidirectional, thus eliminating friction due to two-way motion.
With its 276 component parts, of which 80 are found in the mechanical watch for its barrel spring, gear train, power reserve system and its Magic Lever, the Spring Drive thus has nearly all the characteristics of a mechanical timepiece, yet it attains the precision of quartz, which means it is accurate to plus or minus one second a day.

I may look at one myself.

 

[jefff]

21j SKYTIMER auto/date... I love this watch .. it has saphire front and back crystals..
I bought the rubber dive deployment band for it and hardly have had it off my wrist in the past 2 months.
And it is still nice a new looking and running perfectly..
Bought it off ebay from opmtrading .. they're regular store is called Cranster of New york..
they designed this watch in basil and had them manufacture it at the international watch show last year..
Very well crafted IMHO and well worth the price.. if not more
I really like the pilot style watches, easy to read

updated.. here is the best place to buy this watch .. OPM trading post ebay
and here is the band I bought... Throntonpark watches Ebay

 

[Emanuel]

fullo, you did well in buying the seiko 5.

I had one for over ten years, and eventhough I now wear a seiko auto diver (skx007 k2) I still have the seiko 5 and it works just fine.

You won't go wrong with one of these watches.

 

[spyder8]

look at the invicta watches also. i have a pro diver automatic

 

[fulloflead]

You might look at Seiko's new Spring Drive, its pretty neat.


From Timezone.com:

What is Spring Drive it’s neither a mechanical nor a quartz watch. It can be said that it’s a mechanical watch with the high accuracy of a quartz with power only provided by the mainspring. It’s a self contained drive system without the need for a battery or motor.


From europastar.com:

As its name indicates, the heart of this movement is the barrel spring. Seiko had already mastered this technology in 1959, but it needed to develop a new generation specifically for this movement, one made from a highly elastic material called ‘Spron 510.’ The result is a more powerful spring capable of delivering its energy in a more balanced manner over a longer period of time (72-hour power reserve). The spring is armed by a ‘Magic Lever’ fixed directly on the stem of the oscillating weight, thus allowing for better winding (30% more efficient) of the spring.
In this mechanism, it is what Seiko calls the ‘Tri-synchro regulator’ that replaces the escapement. It regulates three types of energy that are used by the movement: the mechanical energy produced by the barrel spring; the electrical energy created from the mechanical energy that activates a quartz resonator; and the electro-magnetic energy that drives the ‘glide wheel’ (literally a glide wheel but here a seconds wheel) to turn eight times a second (which causes a continuous motion of the hand, without visible jerks as in quartz watches).
The engineers at Seiko state that the movement generated inside the Spring Drive is unidirectional, thus eliminating friction due to two-way motion.
With its 276 component parts, of which 80 are found in the mechanical watch for its barrel spring, gear train, power reserve system and its Magic Lever, the Spring Drive thus has nearly all the characteristics of a mechanical timepiece, yet it attains the precision of quartz, which means it is accurate to plus or minus one second a day.

I may look at one myself.

Sounds expensive.
But cool.

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[tortoise]

Sounds expensive.
But cool..

Oh they are that! (Both!)

I'd love to get one for the quartz accuracy without the potential of battery or capacitor failure. I love my automatic but the voices in my head do sometimes mention the higher inherent accuracy of the quartz movement.

Maybe someday.

 

[gorlank]

Here's my Pulsar Solar, it's a discontinued model but they come up occasionally on the trade forums on the watch boards. It's a great casual sport watch, I love the orange accent on the dial. There was another version with a blue dial and titanium bracelet. An ebay seller had a good supply a couple of years ago, the orange was $90 and the blue was $110 if memory serves.

 

[fulloflead]

Here's my Pulsar Solar, it's a discontinued model but they come up occasionally on the trade forums on the watch boards. It's a great casual sport watch, I love the orange accent on the dial. There was another version with a blue dial and titanium bracelet. An ebay seller had a good supply a couple of years ago, the orange was $90 and the blue was $110 if memory serves.

I like the orange too. I'd probably like the blue better. I'd pay that for that watch.
My Pulsar Solar is only 100m resistant, but I got it for $60 + shipping on ebay about 7 or 8 years ago.

They should make more Pulsar Solar models. You hardly ever see them and a lot of them look alike. Though, I've never seen another like mine (or yours).

 

[bquinlan]

My wife and I have both been wearing Citizen Eco-Drive watches for the last few years and we're quite pleased with them. Reliability has been 100% and both watches keep exceptionally good time.

My Skyhawk Titanium is the most accurate watch I've ever owend (it loses less than 15 seconds per year). I think it looks pretty good too.

--Bob Q

 

[fulloflead]

My wife and I have both been wearing Citizen Eco-Drive watches for the last few years and we're quite pleased with them. Reliability has been 100% and both watches keep exceptionally good time.

My Skyhawk Titanium is the most accurate watch I've ever owend (it loses less than 15 seconds per year). I think it looks pretty good too.

--Bob Q

I'll get around to getting one of those. A little more than I'm used to spending on a watch (for now). That's all relative. I used to say that about knives when $115 for a Benchmade was a lot for me. But now...

 

[liner lock]

http://www.watchzone.com/cgi-bin/watchzone.storefront?AID=8109726&PID=250060

This is a good place to purchase your watches.

I have a Seiko Kinetic that I purchased locally, and I like it, metal band. I had a wrist injury about one year after I purchsed it and can not wear it due to nerve damage in my wrist. It keeps accurate time and I have it on a watch winder to keep it ready if I do try to wear it on a special occasion. I wanted a Seiko for over thirty years and finally decided to purchase this one. The watch winder is a Sparta Watchwinder that uses two D-Cell Alkaline batteries. My e-mail is trfe@despammed.com if you have any questions.

 

[jefff]

IMO the skytimer watches are on par or better than the Seiko watches.. This one is really impressing me so far as far as durability and craftsmanship goes..It has swiss sweeping second hand movement and screw down water tight stem and rear bezel.. I am very hard on watches so the saphire crystal option was a must and you just can't find a good auto watch for this price.. I updated my above post to direct you to where I bought it from and the watch band also if anyone wants to know..Here is a couple more pics.

 

[fulloflead]

IMO the skytimer watches are on par or better than the Seiko watches.. This one is really impressing me so far as far as durability and craftsmanship goes..It has swiss sweeping second hand movement and screw down water tight stem and rear bezel.. I am very hard on watches so the saphire crystal option was a must and you just can't find a good auto watch for this price.. I updated my above post to direct you to where I bought it from and the watch band also if anyone wants to know..Here is a couple more pics.

NICE!
This is going to sound crazy, but I LOVE the big fat numbers. It's kind of a form-follows-function sort of thing. I think a watch SHOULD have big clear numbers even though we all call tell time even with nothing but dots.

I'm going to look around for one.

That's one UGLY knife, though. You just gotta fix that.
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