The Sci Fi Collection

It had to be done. A review of my scifi watch collection. Most of these are discontinued, some were bought back when they were first released. Others were very hard to find. The Stark, for example, I've only seen a couple in decent shape. Others are still in active production, such as the GShock and the Nixons. If you are into scifi, hopefully, you will find it entertaining.

http://horologous.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-love-nope-not-bit.html?m=1

My Favorite Ignored Divers

I spend a decent amount of time perusing watch forums, doing image searches for watches, scrolling through Pinterest watch feeds, and talking about watches. It is safe to say I have a passing interest in them. If you follow my articles at all you know I enjoy all kinds of watches. I have a cllection of cool looking 'space age' watches. Sadly some of them only LOOK cool. cool half of them are sitting dead due to insanely rapid battery depletion, or dead dead - apparently due to rusted contacts. But they look like they came out of yesterday's future.

Ultimately, however, dive watches are my one true watch love. There are other styles I like, but nothing like dive watches. I have a couple Citizen dive watches, and they are beautiful. Nearly every Citizen I've ever seen is really good looking. But my current taste is classic and minimal. I am constantly looking around for great minimal classic dive watches.

I love the look of some of the older Submariners.
Minimal face, dot indicators, minimal hands (I prefer sword hands to the Mercedes hands), clean bezel, flat sapphire  crystal (A nice bevelled edge is cool), date optional, no cyclops.

This love of traditional divers started with the first topic of this article. While it isn't entirely ignored, plenty of articles mention it, but I think it coupd always use more exposure:

Seiko SKX007

The 007. This was is classic. Sure it's no Submariner, but it's just as traditional. It is affordable, mine was less than $200. It's tough and handsome. The face is properly minimal, the lume is decent, the second hand is beautiful. It is reasonably accorate. The movement is a workhorse. And it's ISO certified! The only gripes I have with the 007:

I prefer minimal hands. The arrows bother me a bit.
I also prefer watches on the larger end of the standard sizes spectrum, and the 007 is a bit small for me.

My issue with the 007's size is what brought me to the last topic of this article. This watch truly is ignored. I have seen numerous, articles mentioning Orients, Steinharts, even Invictas, when discussing traditional and homage divers. I've only seen this next watch in a couple places. It was compared to the Steinhart Ocean, and it got a mention in a Watchuseek thread...

Armida A2

The Armida I own is their lower end model. 200m resistance, NH35 movement, no drilled lugs. But it holds its own, in fact I have a difficult time choosing between the Armida and my Marathon GSAR (Which is at a much higher price point). It is everything I was looking for in a minimalist traditional diver. Armida's really deserve more mention. I love the way my Armida looks, and feels. The only gripes I have with the Armida is:

I would prefer 300m resistance.
I wish it had drilled lugs like its higher end relatives.
While I do like Seiko movements - they have reputations of being tough workhorses - the higher end movements ARE more accurate.

I'm Too Picky

Well apparently I am a very picky person. I have an upcoming trip and decided - even though I WILL fail - I'm trying to scrape up a few thousand dollars for a really nice dive watch.  Not that I don't love my low end Armida. On the contrary, I like my Armida so much I just might end up blowing my money on a high end Armida. Even though - case wise - it would be identical to what I have. However it would have an ETA movement and 500m water resistance. So this is kind of like job searching when you love your job.

Every day I sit around for a bit looking at what's out there. I like super minimal classic dive watches. I like black faces and bezels. I like minimal hands - or very vintage style ones. So right there something like 80+% of my options are gone. No complications, or date bubbles, or overly large cases, or big huge buttons / crown cerings (whatever they would be called).

I like the IDEA of Omegas, but I don't love most of their watches. I like their black military watches, but very few military watches are worth the quad digit price to me. Steinharts are pretty cool - but lower end and they have domed crystals. So I'd rather just get a higher end Armida.

As much as I try to.not like them, I must say I do love the non-date bubble Rolex Submariners (I believe these are actually the originals, the bubble was added later). They are minimal and absolutely classic. But at five digits there is NO way. And again, I actually kind of like the look of Armidas more.

I also like the Tudor Pelagos. It's different, so it is nothing like my Armida. It's not a classic diver but it's very minimal and has all the characteristics of a classic. And while it's beyond my paygrade - if I were to REALLY hump and git it - I might be able to pull it off. I've tried one on before and it was amazing.

So that's it. After weeks of looking, I've found TWO possibilities. I am apparently VERY picky.

RIP Space Watch

I'm sad. My 01TheOne X watch is dead. It was one of the most scifi looking watches I own. Such amazing design! ... Wasted.

When I found the watch online I had to have it. It looked like Space Mountain. It had so many visual elements I was looking for. In fact it would have made a killer smart watch. It was large, square, and had cool transparent blue elements. It even ticked like a Swatch.

When it arrived it looked even cooler in person! It was well built, had a tough rubber strap, solid body, it was great!

But I found that I rarely wore it. The biggest problem was readability. It doesn't have a light in it and unless you are in decent light good luck seeing the time. But when it's on your wrist you feel like the pilot of a sweet 1980's spaceship.

After maybe half a year it went blank. The battery was already dead? Considering how small the digital display was, this seemed odd. I opened it to remove the batteries until I was ready to buy more. At that point I learned that it requires not one, not even two, but THREE batteries. Ugh. I just took it in to get two of the three replaced. I didn't really need it to tick at this point.

But when the batteries were replaced it still didn't work. It turns out the circuit board points were corroded. What? After less than a year? And I took amazingly good care of the watch. I was very sad. It has now become a neat looking bracelet.

The whole ordeal has soured me on novelty watches. So now when I'm hunting for scifi looking watches I look for surf watches. And my options are very limited. Diesel no longer makes any of their killer square scifi watches. The Stark lines are all discontinued and Tokyo Flash makes me nervous - they are novelty watches.

Rip Curl makes some cool watches, but I already have their green crystal Rifles watch (Now my fav scifi watch), and the others are either not quite as cool, or they're $100s of dollars. Nixon's clear Comp watches are cool, but I have one of those also. The FitBit Ionic is very 01TheOne X looking, but it is muktiple $100s also. Everything else is round, or VERY cheap.

The hunt continues. RIP Space Watch.

See the watch here:
https://www.watches.com/01-the-one-an09g04