Poor man's watch thread - Page 164

Here are my three candidates for this thread.

 

This one I picked up on ebay for 99p and it turned out to be hallmarked silver:

 

 

This one I got free with a credit card many years ago.  I broke the strap's spring pin recently so decided to treat it to a new strap for all of £6.50 from China.

 

 

And this one I was left by my Grandad when he passed away.  I think my Mum and Dad bought it for him when his eyesight was fading about 30 years ago, so they wanted one with large numbers.  It's a hand-wound Longines, but I don't know anything about it apart from that.

Very nice watches! Take care of the silver one as it has the potential to tarnish.

Longines was a highly-respected name before the 70s, so you can be assured that yours is of high quality.

Enjoy!

Looks like a modded Seiko Samurai Ti. The Samurai was discontinued and I no longer think it is a good watch for the price you will get one for. But you are right, that is a great looking watch.

Good luck.

I got this watch. The wristband is a little too big when I fully clasp it to my wrist, should i just clip the extra fabric with scissors or should I take it to a proper watch pace and have them cut it?

 

I've successfully done this to my nylon NATOs/ZULUs (and in fact am wearing one today):

 

1. http://www.hodinkee.com/2012/4/20/video-how-to-shorten-a-nato-strap.html
2. http://forums.watchuseek.com/f222/how-shorten-nato-strap-483879.html

 

This should work assuming it's a nylon strap. Be careful not to burn the edges. I've considered going back with a heated piece of metal instead of an open flame to prevent any charring.

awesome, thanks so much!

 

Be sure to not get the size too short. I mix and match all my 20mm NATOs between 3 different watches. When measuring the correct length, be sure to use the thickest watch. If you measure with the thinnest watch and cut it so it just goes far enough through the last keeper, you may find that it will not reach the keeper when wearing the thickest watch. You can always cut it shorter later, but once it's too short, it's too short.

Gotcha, i only have 1 watch.. first nice watch i've owned

oh i just realized I'm suppose to reloop the band around on the nato wristbands, derp

anyone know where i can get some nice leather nato straps? i've bought a few on ebay but they're too thin and kinda crappy. want something a bit thicker, maybe 1.5-2 mm.

I have one from Crown & Buckle, but it's not the best leather. These ones might be a bit nicer, but I'm not sure. If I were to go all out on a leather NATO, I'd get one mentioned here, either in Chromexcel or Shell Cordovan. But at that point, we're no longer talking about a poor man's watch. ;)

To me with a leather nato is has to be a compromise between price and thickness. The C&B fall right in the perfect range... I've not worn it a whole ton and sweated in it much. I'm sure if you wore it daily it'd die in a year or less, but that's not how I wear it. For wearing it every once in a while, the C&B is holding up fine. Most of the rest of the leather Natos I've seen on the net, they are too thick and too expensive. And a lot of them seem to have Zulu rings. I like Zulu rings on Zulus, but in a Nato pattern I feel the round rings and thick leather just add up to too much material around my wrist. So that's another reason I like the Crown & Buckle ones. Low-profile hardware, and the material is about 1mm thick, not much thicker than a nylon Nato.

To each their own, though. If I needed a leather nato on the daily maybe it'd be wise to invest in a thicker one with a premium material...

Yeah you guys are in left feild! Ask any watch maker, not some dumb!@$$ jewler; Omega movements are better than Rolex, the most knocked offf watch in the world!

 

I finally made my decision.

 

It came down to the SNKE49 and the SNKH47. I ended up picking the SNKH47 because of off-white dial and the red second hand. Found it for $113 shipped here, though I paid $10 to get it sooner. Bought this Crown & Buckle leather strap to put on it. I'll post pictures when I finally get it. Really looking forward to it.

 

Not bad; I have owned seiko 5's in the past; they are affordable, reliable and stylish