Watches.

[The Meromorph]

I've had a lot of different watches in my life. Some of my favorites were a little strange. For about 10 years as a teenager I had a simple stainless steel one I loved, and that quite a few people had said 'nice watch' when they saw it (I had no idea why, but I agreed!). When it eventually stopped working, I took it to a local (small town) jeweller to get it repaired. His eyes kinda lit up when I said, "I need this fixed", and he immediately opened the back and then gave me a funny look and said "this isn't worth repairing'. I was a bit puzzled, and said, "Well, have you got a new one just like it?"
He gave me an even funnier look and said "Certainly. It's about 800 pounds." I must have looked even more puzzled, and he explained (quite politely) that mine was 'just a cheap pin-pallette copy of 'one of these', and showed me an apparently identical one called a 'Rolex Oyster'. He was greatly amused that I'd never heard of them, but glad I hadn't paid a lot of money (at all) for mine...

In the early '70s, I was quite annoyed that I couldn't buy a 'digital watch' that showed the time on the 24hr clock - I had to keep a 'shift log' at work and needed the 'military format' time twenty or so times a night - 'digital watches' at the time had little mechanical rotating dials with the numbers on them!

Way back in 1982, I bought one of the first Casio 5000 models. It was incredibly accurate, easy to use, had a countdown timer (which I used a lot) and seemed set to last for ever. In 1988 I crashed my motorcycle, and smashed the crystal on my watch.  I threw it in a drawer, bought a new cheap casio (with less functions) and carried on. 3 years later I found the smashed one in the back of the drawer. It was still working and only wrong by 15 seconds!
I've had various other watches since then, (really missed the countdown timer), but Casio switched to the G-Shock models which were all way too thick to suit me (wouldn't fit under a shirt-cuff).
I really fancied the new Solar Powered and Atomic-Clock synched Casios, but they were still too thick (and didn't have a countdown timer).
Then I found the GW5600J. Based on the old 5000 series, Atomic, Solar Powered, 5 alarms and a countdown timer, full backlight. And the same style and thickness as my old 5000! Not thin, but not ridiculously thick either. So I asked my ever-loving for one as a B'day present, and got it earlier (Got to love a woman like that!)
I've had it a week now, I love it, I expect it to last the rest of my life (this sucker is tough), and neat, clear, easy to use and accurate!
I need a digital, to tell me what the date and day of the week is - I can't read those little windows on analog watches, anymore! And I have a countdown timer again!

[Griffin NoName]

I am glad you are watch-happy again after all this time

I find wrist watches quite useful for telling me if I have lost or gained weight by their postion on my arm.

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

I'm glad you're satisfied with your watch.

Personally, I don't like digital watches, I prefer the old-school hour hands. I used to like digitals, when I was a kid, but that's probably because it was easier to read the time and it was somehow fashionable with the kids at the moment.

Now I have a Festina Chronograph 8925-3:



I got it for my 18th birthday from my father four years ago and am satisfied with my choice. Unfortunately it stopped a few weeks back (probably the battery), for the first time in all that time, and I haven't repaired it yet (need to do it one of these days, probably when I get my pay next week).

[goat starer]

bl*ody spammers advertising watches! it is like a flea market in here

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

I generally like analogue watches myself as well... though for competitive purposes I use digital.

I actually own two pocket watches, but I only very rarely wear them.

[Aggie]

I'd really like a pocket watch one day.

My watch still runs I think, but the pins on the band have broken (several times; something is warped I think) and I've stopped wearing it for at least 6 months now.

Reputedly, I'll be getting a new one in September as it's a traditional wedding gift in Korea.

[Sibling Chatty]

I used to wear a very narrow, square faced watch, when I wore one. Most of the time I didn't wear one, because florist=buckets of water=drowned watch.

I took my good watch to be cleaned and have the crystal replaced at a small watch shop next door where I was working about 20-22 years ago. The building was firebombed the next day--about the time I was leaving work, and my watch was lost in the fire, along with my job, my car, part of my hair and the ability to use my left arm for about four months.

Since then, I can't wear a watch on my left wrist. And, since I would rather do without that wear something I don't like---and I was STILL drowning watches if I tried to wear them, I gave up. Now, if I need to know the time, I look at my cellphone.

[goat starer]

great 

the watch salesmen have now been joined by the cellphone brigade. Will the spam never cease??



PS. time is an artificial construct invented by the globilising industrial military complex to subjugate the proletariat under the yoke of oppressive working practices.

PPS. but i would like one of these....

[beagle]

What's it for comrade? Timing the standing ovations at party conferences? Looks a tad bourgeois to me.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

He, I've been a Casio user for the most part also. I had a cheap digital and after a simple electronic analog to which  I had the chance to change the band twice before it stopped working. I have a gap after that (I don't remember what was I using) up to a Guess my wife gave me about a year after we marry. I stopped working 2 months after and luckily we bought it in a store that honored the warranty. I still have that one but it shows wear in its housing and I stopped using it. After that I had a mixed digital-analog Casio (still working) and my wife gave me a nice multisensor digital Casio (pity it doesn't have an analog display) with compass, barometer, thermometer and depth meter. It is big but the compass alone has proven quite useful specially reading maps.
----
Hey goat, what's that, the polit bureau's watch?

[Sibling Chatty]

I want a Movado. Museum Safiro, stainless, black strap. Classic.

I also want the ability to afford one. And wings, and a fairy princess dress and a pony and a unicorn...

[beagle]

Sounds like you need to be very good and write to Santa, or very bad and cultivate a billionaire gene entrepreneur.

I'd like a clock that actually looks like a time machine

but generally I stick with a Seiko for formal-ware and a radio-controlled Casio for anorak/geek-ware.

[Griffin NoName]

Ah Beagle. I assume you have done the tour of Anglesey Abbey?

[beagle]

I went to Wales but it was away on tour.

[Griffin NoName]

Where's the smiley for laughing at bad jokes?

For those who may be puzzling AA is a house in Cambridgeshire

Every room at Anglesey has at least one clock - in fact there are 37 clocks on display. Far be it for them just to tell the time, the real interest lies in the wonderful decoration and surprises each one has in store for you.

Here's one:

In the Living Room the richly decorated Pagoda Clock dating from 1790, quietly ticks away the minutes. At three o'clock precisely each afternoon it erupts into music and life. As a tune is played out on 12 bells, the jewelled flowers revolve in their pots.

My favourite is the roller ball clock in the library.