Correct Time?

[Pat]

Bird, One of the reasons I am glad it is automatic is because it is complicated. It has barometer, altimeter, thermometer, compass, and a bunch of timers and junk I don't even want to know about. GPS was the only thing it didn't have.

I asked her why she got it since we don't SCUBA, fly, or mountaineer hardly ever anymore. She says she feels more secure with a compass and likes it better than her old watch (also Casio) that had little add on thermometer and compass on the strap (SCUBA left overs.) She said she will never use all the features but didn't see a model with what she wanted without a lot of extra.

Expensive watch? Remember when Bulova Acutron was all the rage. Astronauts used it, divers, and on and on. Well I paid $200 for an Acutron with rotating divers bezel, waterproof to 666 feet. The first time I flooded it I was sailing and I didn't get my wrist more than a foot under water. Got it fixed on warranty. Next time was while strolling down the sidewalk in Hawaii and noticed it was all foggeg up on the inside from the humidity (didn't even imerse it!) Got it fixed under warranty. Wore it diving, flooded it, got it fixed under warranty. Finally it got to when I walked into the jewler's shop doing the warranty work he knew why I was there. The watch went out of warranty but the jewler had replaced practically every component so he said he woiuld fix it for $30 and give me a 1 yr warranty. Boy did he regret that! Eventually it quit. I took it in and told them to put in a new batt. If the batt makes it work then fine. If not then take the batt out and I'll scrap it. I gave it to a kid to experiment on. I bought a $26 Timex that lasted till the metal back corroded away but never leaked or had a problem.

Maybe the problem was depth. It was guaranteed to 666 ft and I never went more than 150 ft down and usually not more than about 75-90 ft. Maybe I didn't do deep enough. Since the Acutron episode I have never paid even as much as $100 for a watch.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

I once had a Casio with what was called an Altimeter included plus some other stuff. The altimeter made for a great barometer to note coming changes in weather and was reasonable close +/- 1000 feet on altitude. I believe it got damaged beyond repair in some incident,

I've also had some inexpensive Timex watches. The ones I liked best were the self winding ones. The newer ones, like the last one, had a bunch of buttons etc. that were too complicated for me. After a few attempts I usually didn't bother changing from daylight saving to standard time. Fortunately most of the top buttons broke off and the strap broke. It made the garbage bin. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

And I also have the Proverbial Gold Watch and even a Mantle clock!

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, My everyday wrist watch is a Timex "Iron Man" with an aftermarket strap called "THE STRAP" simple all black Velcro. The velcro is about ready to fall apart from wear and the big bezel on the watch has been missing in action for a year. Consequently some of the buttons are gone/inop. But, like you, I don't use all the "FEATURES" so I don't need all those buttons. The part that I like is the phone number storage and display. I can scroll through about 50 phone numbers in alphabetic o=rder by the names I entered. The watch came with a computer disk with a database program for organizing phone numbers and selecting all sorts of "features" on the watch. Then when you have everything the way you want it on the computer you transmit the data to the watch. The watch has a photodiode rcvr and the program makes a series of flashing bar code lookinig data representations on the screen. You aim the watch at the screen and it gets the message.

I bought a newer version and wear it when my clunker just looks too shabby. The new one doesn't do optical linkup, it has a cable that grabs onto the watch for a direct connection. I was some dissapointed when I opened the box and found that it was not the same.... oh well... progress. The plus is that you don't have to try to enter data on the watch but instead use the convenience of the computer. Decades ago there were watches that not only held phone numbers but would output the touchtones to dial the numbers. Unfortunately mine doesn't do that.

My first electric Timex was so crude that you could hear it in a quiet room... clicka clicka thunk, clicka clicka thunk, etc. If I took it off and put it on a hard surface it would rock back and forth in reaction to the motioin of the clunky guts. I used to takek it off at night (not my normal routine) because it was so loud. It just ran and ran and ran. Eventually contact with me corroded the cheap cast main piece until there was a leak path opening up around the stainless steel back. I gave it to a guy who epoxied it and wore it for many years.

My current clock "situation" is a grand father clock that likes to stop at 11:23 PM. IF I start it in the morning it runs all day but the next morning it will stopped at 11:23. It has been suggested that the moon dial is dragging but I don't know. It ran perfectly till it was padded and packed away. Then 5-6 yrs later when unpacked it has this problem. The only damage in transit and storage was an itsy bitsy screw fell out of the dial but I found it at the bottom of the pendulum chamber and put it back in. (I don't really know when the screw fell out, just when I noticed it.)

Out favorite clock is one we use against professional psychological advice. It is an "atomic" projector clock that puts the time and temps on the far wall of the bedroom in big "wife doesn't need glasses" size type. The projector uses a red LED so it doesn't disturb the night vision so much. It alternates the indoor and outdoor temp and for some reason we really like knowing what the temps are doing and feel deprived when for some reason don't know. These were available at Walgreens drugstore for $19.95.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Golly, one wonders whatever happened to:

Sunup - sundown

hungry - hungry again - still hungry time! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

My watches seem to have to take too much abuse to last a long time.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

All those times are still much in evidence down here plus several you didn't mention, eating related.

WinterTIME is a time too. 23F tonight but 40's tomorrow. Still lots of show and ice on the north side of roof and in the front yard shaded by the house but it is melting and my worst drought stricken pond is nearing the overflow now.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

I've never had any need or desire for a watch that tells me anything besides the time, date, and day or week. I can see how those things would be important to some people; just not to me. As for the grandfather clock, I would not allow one in my home. I suspect that's because when I was a kid, my great grandmother had one in her home; a house that had heavy drapes never opened, a dark dreary atmosphere to an outdoor type kid, and that tick tock, tick tock sound is just something I would never tolerate for long.

[Pat]

Bird, Too bad you have those negative psychological factors preventing your appreciatioin of a grandfather clock. Our clock doesn't tick very loudly at all but the chime is audible for sure. When we lived on our boat we had a ship strike clock and we soon got used to the bells. I think you hear them subconsciously and know what time it is but don't consciously know it is chiming. You get a bell for every 30 min from 1-8 bells (4 hours) and then it repeats. Likewise we easily got used to the chimes of the clock and they don't interfere with sleep. For some guests who obsess over the chimes, not because they are that loud but because they can hear them at all, we just put it on silent when we go to bed. Not having the chimes in the night doesn't bother us at all. I have known people who lived near noise sources that when turned off made them sleepless. A pump station in one instance and a train in another.

I also know people who look down their noses at a watch that does anything but tell time, claiming they sure don't need to be told what day it is or the date, what dummies people are who need such extravagant things. If my watch didn't have day/date I'd be unlikely to know what day it was all the time and the date would certainly escape me.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Yep, Pat, much depends on what you are accustomed to. I was about 15 when we moved to a place in Marlow about 2 blocks from the railroad tracks, so we heard the trains frequently, but you soon ignore them. Then when we moved to Plano, TX, a couple of months before I turned 17, Dad bought a house that was on a lot adjoining the railroad yard, and facing the highway through town. So we had several trains a day going by within 100 feet of the house and blowing their horns approaching the highway, and in no time at all, the only time we even noticed it was if we were watching TV, because they would drown out the sound. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

My grandma's most prized possession was the loudest and most obnoxious cuckoo bird clock I've ever heard in my life. I never fathomed what life mistake grandpa had made to deserve such a perpetual torture.

[Bird]

It was my paternal great grandmother who had the grandfather clock that I didn't like. And my maternal grandmother used to have a cuckoo clock. Of course as a kid, I thought that was a pretty neat clock. At least the sound it made wasn't continuous. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]