Watch

The Stories Behind My Dad’s Omega Speedmaster

by

I’ve written before about my dad’s Omega Speedmaster Professional, now my Omega Speedmaster Professional, and how he passed it down to me. But before I forget, I want to write about a few of the stories he told me about that watch. They’ve always stuck with me.

When I first got it, I thought he’d bought it in 1969. Turns out that wasn’t true. After some research, the serial number puts it around 1970 or 1971. When my dad was still alive he confirmed that timeframe. Still, an absolute classic.

One thing he told me that always made me laugh was how Omega almost never buys back their old watches, but more than once, when he sent it in for maintenance, he claims they offered to buy it from him. He always said no.

My dad was a physician assistant who worked in trauma and surgery, so the watch saw some things. He used to joke that it had been sterilized more times than he could count, which, considering where it had been, I appreciated hearing.

He told me about one time when one of the links on the band came apart while he was literally working inside someone’s chest, and the watch slipped off his wrist. They had to fish it out, clean it thoroughly, and fix the band afterward. I still have that original band, so I know it got fixed.

I can’t imagine that would be allowed now. I don’t know what the current hospital rules are, but I’m guessing “no watches in open chests” is probably written down somewhere these days, sterilized or not.

When I tell people that story, some of them are grossed out, others think it’s amazing. I’m firmly in the “amazing” camp. It’s history, after all.

Another quirk is the bezel. Instead of the usual tachymeter, his has what Omega called a pulsometer bezel. It’s what I grew up seeing on his wrist, so to me, that’s just what the watch is supposed to look like. When I had it serviced maybe ten years ago, they asked if I wanted them to replace it since it doesn’t rotate anymore. I said absolutely not. The bezel’s part of its story.

Years ago, when I was living in New York, I brought it to the Omega Boutique for maintenance. The guy behind the counter said he’d have someone take a look and disappeared into the back. A few minutes later, an older gentleman, clearly one of their watchmakers, came out excited to see it. He thought the pulsometer bezel was great and said it was a really special piece. He also told me they could do the service in-house instead of sending it back to Switzerland, which was a relief. Apparently if it was slightly older it would need to travel for service.

It was nice seeing someone else appreciate it that much. That old watchmaker was genuinely happy to work on it.

I don’t wear the original metal band anymore, it was always a little loose even when my dad wore it, and apparently that specific band design is rare now. So I keep it stored safely and use a NATO strap instead.

It’s funny how polarizing this watch can be. Some people hear its stories and get squeamish. Others think it’s the coolest thing ever. I’m clearly in the second group.

Every time I take it in for service, it still gets attention. It always starts a conversation. And I love that.

Apple Watch Went British

by

My Apple Watch is sporting UK colours for the Tokyo Olympics. Well in commemorating the Tokyo Olympics Apple came out with Country colour watchbands. I was already debating another band for my watch so I was intrigued at the options.

Out of all the national ones to choose from I thought i could only get away with the UK or US ones.Out of all the options I kind of liked the Swedish one the best. Since I don’t live there and really have no affiliation to their Olympic team I went with the Great Britain colour scheme.

To all my American friends and family that is not a political statement. I kind of just liked it better than the stars and stripes American one.

I am still torn on who I will be rooting for in the Olympics. Either no one since I doubt I’ll watch it or the US team.

For full disclosure that watch face is on my watch however i am not using it since other than for this photo and to show off how cool it is. Using it totally takes away from the added value of the shortcuts on almost all the other watch faces of the watch.

I Figured Out My Problem With The Apple Watch

by

Back in early October I was curious enough to pick up and other Apple Watch. I bought a series 138 mm. I felt the 30 mm was better fit on my wrist even though my other watches are larger. From what I read series 1 was as fast as the series to and should solve all the problems that I felt I had with what is now called the series 0. As much as the series 1 wasn’t super cheap, it wasn’t that expensive. At present it’s actually the most expensive watch I own since my Seiko was slightly more.

Since I bought the Apple watch for the second time I’ve been using it exclusively. I like it. Functionality wise I’ve been pleased with it. I haven’t had major frustrations with the speed of anything that it does like I did with the series 0.  I find myself telling the watch to set the timer or an alarm often. I also like the ability to see how much times less than the timer instead of having to go to my phone. Other advantages of the Apple watch for me has been the fact that I do not need to wear my Fitbit. Seeing and sometimes replying to texts on the phone has been useful however I don’t do it often. Also the ability to answer the phone and talk on speakerphone briefly from the watch is something I don’t do often but I’ve done it and it’s been helpful at those times.

Right after I bought the series 1 I regretted not having the waterproof series 2. The series 1 was available immediately when I ordered it whereas the series 2 I would’ve had to wait almost a month for. When I bought it I didn’t think I really cared much about the waterproof. I had some buyers remorse and thought about returning it within the two week period I get from Apple to make a return. In the end I opted to keep the cheaper version of the watch did not think the waterproof would come in handy for me.

Until Friday of this week I’d worn the watch every day since I got. Recently however I missed the nicer looking watches I own. I contemplated switching back however i was concerned about the loss of functionality if I stopped using a “smart watch”. Friday for some reason I decided to put on my X-33 and where that instead. What I found was a few times during the day I went to look at the watch to see the date. I also went to set the timer and after two seconds I put my arm down and reached for my phone to do it instead. Other than that I didn’t really miss the smartwatch. I had to get used to the fact that the X-33  was noticeably heavier then the Apple Watch. It makes sense that it was heavier however I am use to my titanium X-33 being the lightest thing I wear.

When I first started wearing my jawbone Up several years ago I wanted to encourage myself to be more active. Nowadays I’m pretty knowledgeable in knowing what I do and how active that makes me. I learned a lot from four or more years of wearing an activity band. Friday when I put the Fitbit on since I wasn’t going to be having the Apple Watch I immediately took off the Fitbit. I did not want to wear the extra weight or hear the clanking of the Fitbit against my Omega. The loss of the standup notifications in my activity tracking was slightly noticeable however I was pretty okay with it.

We are traveling this weekend and at first I packed the charger for the Apple Watch so I can bring it with me. Before we left however I put it away and unpacked all the gear I needed for it and just put on my Speedmaster instead. Yesterday I again went to my wrist for a few things that the  Apple watch does for me before I realized I didn’t have it. Other than that I don’t really miss it day-to-day. I miss the idea of it and how cool I think doing electronic stuff on my wrist sounds like. In practice however I don’t miss it. I also like how my mechanical watches look significantly better than the smartwatch.I feel like that sums it all up for me and why I’m not so sure if I’ll wear the smartwatch again.

Unfortunately I know myself and I’ll sell something and not have it for a while and little get updated and I’ll feel like hey this major issue I had with it is solved I should get it again. That’s why I got the series 1 in the first place. I’m glad I did because it was an improvement however when you boil it down I just don’t feel like I need it. I do waffle about this stuff so it doesn’t mean that I don’t want it sometimes however functional speaking I don’t miss it.

The Blog Post Were I Write About Watch Straps for Seven Paragraphs

by

Can you tell the difference between these two watch straps? Visually there isn’t much of a difference. Holding them they feel pretty similar however there is a noticeable difference between the two. What distinguishes one from the other? If you look closely enough can see that one of them has the word Omega etched into it. That little etching equates to a vast difference in price.

Is the Omega strap better? After wearing  both for a while I would say yes. Is the Omega strap much better even slightly more comfortable than the other one? I would say yes. Is it worth many times more money than the generic one? Probably not.

This is a situation where I’m reminded of the Steve Jobs biography where the author discusses Jobs theory on best versus average of something. I think the used knives for the analogy. The point was do you buy a cheap $10 knife. Do you by a $75 knife or do you buy the top-of-the-line $400 knife? If your chef you might need that extra bit of “better” you get from the $400 knife. In most other cases you’re probably best served with the $75. I think the argument was average were really good to the best ever is only about 10 to 15% in a lot of cases. I know that any number like that is suspect however the sentiment I think holds true.

With these NATO watch straps I think the sentiment also holds true. The Omega one is better. At least in my opinion. It is a much more flexible and comfortable my lawn. It feels more sturdy.The clasp is a bit easier to get on and off. Overall I think it’s a better band.  Using the analogy from the jobs biography however it’s only probably better 10 to 15%. In my opinion it’s not worth the massive price premium I paid for it. I still don’t regret the purchase. I am even considering possibly another one.

Why am I talking about watch straps anyway? For starters I’ve spent a bunch of time in recent months researching and buying a few NATO straps for my watches. Since this is my blog and all I felt like writing about it.

I wore a NATO strap 2 summers ago. I wore one for a few months on my X-33. I liked it however at the time I missed the metal band and switched back to it after a while. In recent months I’ve liked the idea of switching out my watch bands more often. It’s a little bit of extra style and I thought it was cool to be able to do that without having to go to someone to swap out a leather or metal band.

In June I took my X-33 in to have its metal band removed so I can use a NATO strap. At the same time I splurged and picked up the black and green Omega NATO strap. After getting the Omega strap I bought two more straps that were significantly cheaper online so I had a variety. Who cares if you can swap out straps to watch when you only have one of them or in my case two of them that are identical. I purchased a thick nylon band in a gray green. I also picked up a black leather one. After wearing all them I ended up liking the Omega one the best however the leather one is still pretty good. The gray green nylon one is a bit too stiff and I won’t be buying that brand nylon strap again.

After a few weeks of wearing a variety of bands on my X-33 I took in my speed master to also have its leather straps removed so I could use interchangeable NATO straps. I was very tempted to buy the leather NATO strap from the Omega store. The leather strap seemed more reasonably priced in comparison to other nice leather bands however I wasn’t sure if I liked the color so I passed on it for now.

Since swapping out the bands on both watches I have bought another nylon band in a different color pattern. I plan on getting a few more however i have enough of a variety now to keep things interesting for a little while. I am still not 100% sold if I will keep using the NATO straps on all my watches however for now I am pretty happy.

If you are a James Bond fan then yes another cool thing about these gray and black NATO strap is that it looks like the classic James Bond Goldfinger strap. I was surprised when I previously researched that many people pull off nylon straps on my fancy watches in fancy dress clothes such as suits or tuxedos. For me that was the final deciding factor on they will work with any style clothing. Of course that same research yielded me wearing Chuck Taylor’s with khakis and dress pants. The Internet is a wonderful thing.

Apples Perception Problem

by

Apple has a perception problem if when I am out to dinner our waiter is arguing with me that he bought an Android Wear watch because Android is more “open” than Apple.  I am cool if you want to live Android over iOS however liking Android because it is more open means that Google is successful at spinning how their OS is perceived and Apple hasn’t been.

I smartly dropped the topic and two other friends of mine agreed it was not worth the conversation.  MC and my friends wife just rolled their eyes at us (literally or figuratively).  It did all start because MC asked him if he was wearing an Apple Watch this whole thing would never have started.  I thought the whole conversation was pretty funny.

Apple Watch First Impressions

by

I know that it is a huge step down from either of my daily wear watches however that isn’t stopping me from trying the Apple Warch.  I am a geek for cool technology after all.  So far first thoughts in the few hours I have worn it are nifty and did I really put down an Onega for this?

Going to see how a few days of use changed my opinion for better or worse.

My Speedmaster Returns

by

In early January I was distressed when one night I went to wind my watch one night and felt something give when I started to wind it.  After that there was no resistance when winding it and i knew something was wrong.  I was very concerned because my Speedmaster Professional is over 40 years old and I just had work done on it almost two years ago.  Servicing that watch is not cheap so I was not pleased that it could be expensive to fix.  I took it to the Omega store the next day and thankfully the watch was still under warranty.  That was a huge relief.  On the down side they said it would take up to six weeks to get fixed.  At that point I didn’t care because it was a free fix.

Today I went to pick up my newly fixed watch.  It seems to be working perfectly so I am happy.  it always has a tenancy to run fast so I am wondering if this work has addressed that, but I am not holding my breath on it.