Recommendation: Durable watch. Finally made a purchase!

Luminox makes great watches but i completley forgot to mention marathon, dont know how i forgot.

Excellent watches made for government contract with the surplus being made available to the public. spanks the holy heck out of casio. and at a very reasonable price with real tritium: http://countycomm.com/gpqdate.html

you really have no excuse to go with casio when you can get a watch with an eta movement for the same price. eta makes some of the best movement out there. and did i mention tritium vials, thats why the little radioactive symbol is on there.

i know its a big choice but you gotta find something you like and pull the trigger.
 
The marathon watches are deffinately a viable option, no frills, or style for that matter but who cares?

A trip to costco today and they had a few watches of various brands. They had invicta, swiss army watch, and citizen in the range of $100 to $250. I was kinda skeptical too see these good names at those prices but costco doesn't sell ripoffs so they should be fine right? Not sure if they are last years models, costco only models etc. or what.

Decisions decisions.
 
Invicta is a touchy brand. They have kinda spotty QC and their CS is absolutely horrifying.
Then again, there are some people who have $3000 Invicta only collections.
 
Here is the citizen at costco, the price seemed too good to be true. They had a few others that were simpler and cheaper.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/256/01312012184.jpg/

01312012184.jpg



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I have a Bertucci Field watch from REI. It cost me $110 and has served me well that past year. It's super strong, very comfortable, and was even featured in GQ and Esquire magazine's fashional watches one month. 40mm face. Gorgeous, rugged watch.

Here's the exact model I have:


There are many other colors available from Bertucci. Just pick the face and band color, style of face, and order.
 
I was considering bertucci. Some of the watches had mixed reviews.

I think it is going to come down to whatever watches costco had in citizen brand vs that maratac basic watch with the tritium hands.
 
Citizen's are reliable watches, as in they will keep accurate time, and if you get the eco drive, never stop keeping time, but they feel fragile to me and I always have to make sure that I'm not gonna smack into a door with my wrist, and be rather tender with it.

My Bertucci watch, on the other hand, has been to hell and back. It looks rugged because it is rugged. Because of the deep recessed face, it prevents it from getting scratched or cracked. If you look at the citizen watches, the faces are flush with the bezel which makes it more prone to scratches and chips. I wear my Bertucci watch riding my ATV, during yard work, run and gun, even working on my truck, but it is a canvas band and it will soak up water, or other liquids like sweat or oil. You could put a metal band on it...
 
If you're going for absolute toughness, there's one phenomenon that usually reigns true, cheap watches don't break.
It's strange, but Timex still takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'
 
Too many brands.... Nite watch had one I really liked, but too expensive, and in the UK. Found Tawatac, looks like luminox and got good reviews. Some of the luminox get good reviews on amazon, some get mixed, so I don't know. Found special ops watch brand, has interesting magnetic recharging and even an led to light up a map feature.
Citizen seems like a good choice all around though, or i keep comming back to that one casio watch with solar.

I think its hard for me to find one watch with all the features I want.

Here is the UK "Nite" brand.
http://www.nitewatches.co.uk/shop/mx10/MX10-300TS
 
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I can't find watches with the features I want, either, and I like simple.
Seems that watch companies either give you next to nothing or drag the watch through the proverbial garden.
 
id go with the marathon, i mean come on they are at 98 dollars right now, but if the citizens are really up your alley then no costco doesnt sell rip-off stuff, just bulk quantities.
 
Oh, I didn't think about the zombie apocalypse...
I would totally buy the marathon.... if it weren't so dang ugly. Perhaps a better strap would solve the problem. I found a different Luminox watch on amazon and it got consistently high reviews so I am still looking at Luminox as an option. I might just wait till this freestyle finally dies and then get a new watch. Who knows maybe if it lasts another year or more I will have even more options to get confused over.

Found this seiko Automatic, good reviews, looks good, automatic. Below that is a simpler one, looks ok. Kind of weary of automatics as it seems the more moving parts the more to go wrong.
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-Divers-...r_1_3?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1328788411&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SNZJ41-...r_1_6?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1328788178&sr=1-6

Pulsar is made by Seiko?
http://www.amazon.com/Pulsar-Mens-P...r_1_2?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1328789904&sr=1-2
 
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yes, Pulsar IS made by Seiko.
The marathon watches are great watches, all utility with little to no fashion.
 
It sounds like the OP has been given lots of ideas. I have a G-Shock that's the 'perfect watch' for me now. Very ruggeed. I never have to wind it or worry about the batteries since its solar powered. And I never have to worry about setting it since its does that automatically each night. Its absolutely right on time down to the second. (We have several 'atomic clocks' in the house that I've checked the watch against.) The watch has a digital readout and also hands on it. That makes it much easier for me to take a quick glance and read when driving. Add the other functions including stop watch, countdown timer, alarm, etc and its a very versatile watch.
 
Well I think I have given up on the whole tritium hands thing, seems like I will rarely if ever need to see the hands when either I cant use a light or the glow in the dark stuff has discharged too much and there is no ambient light to see. Sorry Luminox, decent price but a lot of unfavorable reviews and complaints. Reactor... nice watches, just too expensive.
I have been looking at diver style recently. They look rugged (I am assuming divers watches are actually rugged), have large amounts of glow in the dark material and are not that expensive. Seems like I will never be able to get everything I want in a watch, at least not at a price I can afford. I don't want to change a date every other month but that is hard to avoid.

I have come to like these two diver style watches. One from freestyle (yes I know a inexpensive watch made in china) that had good reviews and has a button that makes it light up. Good reviews, good price, and I have never been letdown by a freestyle timepiece. No solar though. Good looking.
http://www.amazon.com/Freestyle-FS7...LB5U/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1335284279&sr=8-7

Another I found yesterday was a seiko diver watch with solar. So its a good name watch, solar power, really good reviews. At the store they wanted $290 or so on sale, found it on Amazon for $175. Metal band too. Good looking
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SNE107-...NRWG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335284258&sr=8-4

Found some similar diver style watches from Citizen but the rubber bands seemed proprietary so if they broke it would be difficult to get a replacement or put on a metal band.
 
Two watches that I have that have taken a lot of use and abuse are a Casio and a Dakota.

The Casio is a simple analog watch that runs on a battery. It is 30+years old, cost me $20 back then. Still is going, keeps good time.

The other one is a black analog Dakota Ion. They are about $55. I've had mine for 5+ years and it has held up very well. The case is stainless steel.

I had the same problem of the plastic bands wearing out or cracking, replacing them once or twice a year. I thought that the Maratech and Zulu watch bands were a little pricey. Got one and found out that I was wrong. Mine hardly shows any signs of wear after 4+ years. No fraying edges, no ripped or distorted holes where I buckle it. Haven't had to buy a watch band since then. I just rinse mine out once every couple of months and have had no problems with it getting stinky or disgusting.

Ric
 
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SNE107-...NRWG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336443166&sr=8-1
I have a question, I decided to get the seiko SNE-107, seemed like a good deal on Amazon at about $170. The first one I got had minor scuffs/scratches and two links missing, I returned it saying it was used. The person on the phone said that it should have been new. I ordered another one but this time it wasn't 3rd party but Amazon.com themselves and the price was $180. The customer service lady said to reorder and that should get a non used one.
Well I spoke to a local shop owner and he told me that for the watch to have an MSRP of about $350 but be on sale at $180 means it must be refurbished. He said he doesn't even get to buy them that cheap.

So I looked online again and I noticed two different internet areas. Some places, like Amazon, had the watches for about $180 give or take a few dollars. Some of the other online shops that had the watch all listed them in the $260-280 range.

Is amazon ripping me off? Are they selling my a refurbished model? Is $180 way too cheap for this watch new? Might have to cancel or send it right back if it turns out to be used. Costco had a similar model for $20 more but I did not want the chrono feature, maybe I will have to get that one?
 
Myself, I would raise cain with amazon because they said it was new and it wasn't. False advertising IMO.
 
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