Timepieces

[bbattle]

That Tudor looks so nice! Congrats on the bonus and raise, too! You'll be able to afford more watches!

[Drew]

Does anyone here have experience with Glashutte watches? Specifically the “Senator” line. Aesthetically, they fit my taste… just curious if anybody has experience, good bad or otherwise. Thanks!

https://www.glashuette-original.com/...0-14-05-02-04/

[moondog-sparky]

Does anyone here have experience with Glashutte watches? Specifically the “Senator” line. Aesthetically, they fit my taste… just curious if anybody has experience, good bad or otherwise. Thanks!

https://www.glashuette-original.com/...0-14-05-02-04/

i have a GO Sport EVO that my wife gave me for my 40th B-day and it is simply fantastic! (basically a dive watch similar to Submariner style) it has a display back and large-date complication and i personally feel it is every bit as good, if not significantly better, than most of it's competitors in this space. very well made and hefty as heck. i've looked at and held many of their other models and don't think you can go wrong with GO as a choice. i believe the EVO sport has since been discontinued.

i will say, i learned a hard lesson during covid lockdown in 2020 - at the time, my watch was at its 13yr mark without a service and still ran very well. i wore it 4-5 times week prior to lockdown, but once i was WFH for months i let it sit.... and it stopped working. my guess is the oils either shifted away from key points or dried up - again, it was well past its recommended 10yr service, so much of that is on me. i do plan to send it in shortly buy my understanding is that is a $1k process + 6 month wait. one downside to GO is that they do not have many brick and mortar dealers here in the US. the only one in Houston closed a few years ago, so i've been slow to get it sent out for service. not to dissuade you from buying GO - mine ran flawlessly for 13years and still looks great with no major signs of wear and tear, and i wore it a bunch over the years doing all kinds of chores. i did not baby that sucker.

[Drew]

i have a GO Sport EVO that my wife gave me for my 40th B-day and it is simply fantastic! (basically a dive watch similar to Submariner style) it has a display back and large-date complication and i personally feel it is every bit as good, if not significantly better, than most of it's competitors in this space. very well made and hefty as heck. i've looked at and held many of their other models and don't think you can go wrong with GO as a choice. i believe the EVO sport has since been discontinued.

i will say, i learned a hard lesson during covid lockdown in 2020 - at the time, my watch was at its 13yr mark without a service and still ran very well. i wore it 4-5 times week prior to lockdown, but once i was WFH for months i let it sit.... and it stopped working. my guess is the oils either shifted away from key points or dried up - again, it was well past its recommended 10yr service, so much of that is on me. i do plan to send it in shortly buy my understanding is that is a $1k process + 6 month wait. one downside to GO is that they do not have many brick and mortar dealers here in the US. the only one in Houston closed a few years ago, so i've been slow to get it sent out for service. not to dissuade you from buying GO - mine ran flawlessly for 13years and still looks great with no major signs of wear and tear, and i wore it a bunch over the years doing all kinds of chores. i did not baby that sucker.

Appreciate the feedback.

I requested a catalog on the website and they sent a nice, hardbound, well thought out catalog along with a letter. I don't own one... yet... but so far, I am impressed. I just wish there was a dealer closer to me in central NC.

[Mabouya]

I just wish there was a dealer closer to me in central NC.

One random comment that may or may not be an issue for you, but at least for me a 44mm case size is in the "a bit too big for my wrist" range.

I would definitely suggest seeing one in person before pulling the trigger.

Good Luck

[NYCfixie]

Just a heads up that the Citizen Promaster divers are on sale for Prime Day. ~$150 for an ISO rated diver, solar quartz movement. Great deal if you're in the market for one :: https://a.co/d/eWx51yt

For anyone who may have purchased one from Amazon Prime Day or just happens to have one (BN0150 and BN0151), check out these newly released bracelets from Long Island Watch:

Islander 20mm Brushed Solid-Link Watch Bracelet for Citizen Promaster Dive #BRAC-35


Islander 20mm Brushed and Polished Solid-Link Watch Bracelet for Citizen Promaster Dive #BRAC-36

[dgaddis]

New strap. Ordered it without a notch for the pin, and no holes, and my dimensions. I had to thin out the leather where it attaches to the clasp a bit. The Formex clasp has a nice quick adjust feature. I don't usually like leather on divers, but I think it works on the Black Bay.









Real colors show best in this video :: https://imgur.com/n4UrRpn

[dashDustin]

I finally sucked it up and dipped my toes into modding these GA2100s.

1) only swapped out the indices. wifey got this one.

2) swapped dial, chapter ring, and indices. gave this one to the oldest son.

3) swapped dial, chapter ring, indices, hands, and 'case'. kept this one to myself.

4) our cat being all cat-like.

Was a decently amusing experiment. Parts from Aliexpress took a bit to get here...not sure I have the patience for that. Kinda bugs me that the new dials don't have "CASIO", but not enough to be overly concerned. End of the day, I'm happy with how they turned out, and the oldest is pretty stoked. Especially that he and I have a pseudo-matching pair, and that wifey's got one, too.

[dgaddis]

Very cool. I've yet to swap dials or hands on anything....

I'm wearing mine today because the little one asked "Daddy can you wear yours yellow watch today?"

Just a month or two ago it was a lellow watch.

[j44ke]

A friend translates copy for Czech companies with English language websites. Every once in a while, he sends me a word or passage just to check his sense of the two languages. Right now he's working with a watch company and was wondering about the English translation for a type of watch dials. I thought maybe someone here could help.

Some dials are flat with everything printed directly on the surface of the dial. Other dials are not flat. He says these dials "may have raised indices (the most common form of "non-flat"), raised or sunken subdials, it may be concentrically stepped as if composed of rings of varying thickness, or decorated by many techniques such as guilloche, Geneva stripes etc."

The direct translation from Czech to English of that second type of dial is "relief dial" with relief used as a sculptural term, like bas relief carving. Is that the correct term for this type of dial - a relief dial? Sometimes the literal translation is the accurate one, but often in mechanical language there could be a completely different term - for example, a part named after a person instead of a feature.

Thanks for the help!

[fmbp]

A friend translates copy for Czech companies with English language websites. Every once in a while, he sends me a word or passage just to check his sense of the two languages. Right now he's working with a watch company and was wondering about the English translation for a type of watch dials. I thought maybe someone here could help.

Some dials are flat with everything printed directly on the surface of the dial. Other dials are not flat. He says these dials "may have raised indices (the most common form of "non-flat"), raised or sunken subdials, it may be concentrically stepped as if composed of rings of varying thickness, or decorated by many techniques such as guilloche, Geneva stripes etc."

The direct translation from Czech to English of that second type of dial is "relief dial" with relief used as a sculptural term, like bas relief carving. Is that the correct term for this type of dial - a relief dial? Sometimes the literal translation is the accurate one, but often in mechanical language there could be a completely different term - for example, a part named after a person instead of a feature.

Thanks for the help!

I think the term for this is sandwich dial.

https://oakandoscar.com/blogs/the-di...standing-dials

[j44ke]

Thanks for the link!

[NYCfixie]

While the Oak and Oscar blog post is helpful, one cannot really use the term "sandwich dial" for all Jorn (and his friend) described in the second part of the original post. Also, without seeing a picture of the actual dial, it is somewhat of a guessing game.

A sandwich dial is often two plates with the upper one having cutouts and the lower one having painted indices and/or lume:


A flat dial with numbers, indices, and/or lume printed directly on the dial (example - Seiko SKX007):


A flat dial with raised indices applied to the dial (example - seiko snm033):


A dial with sunken sub dials (example - Omega Speedmaster):
* technically this could be considered a "pan dial" with "sunken sub dials" because the outer portion of the dial slopes downward towards the metal case.




As for Guilloche, it is a design element most often implemented by a person using a very old machine that can create an intricate pattern on a dial or movement:

On a dial (RGM model 25):


On a movement seen through a cutout dial (RGM model PS-801-EE):



Geneva stripes are most often found on the back of a movement and not the dial (example - Vacheron):





The point is that there is no one term for what Jorn's friend is describing. He mentions several design elements that can be used on dials and/or movements all at the same time.

Thanks for the link!

I think the term for this is sandwich dial.

https://oakandoscar.com/blogs/the-di...standing-dials

A friend translates copy for Czech companies with English language websites. Every once in a while, he sends me a word or passage just to check his sense of the two languages. Right now he's working with a watch company and was wondering about the English translation for a type of watch dials. I thought maybe someone here could help.

Some dials are flat with everything printed directly on the surface of the dial. Other dials are not flat. He says these dials "may have raised indices (the most common form of "non-flat"), raised or sunken subdials, it may be concentrically stepped as if composed of rings of varying thickness, or decorated by many techniques such as guilloche, Geneva stripes etc."

The direct translation from Czech to English of that second type of dial is "relief dial" with relief used as a sculptural term, like bas relief carving. Is that the correct term for this type of dial - a relief dial? Sometimes the literal translation is the accurate one, but often in mechanical language there could be a completely different term - for example, a part named after a person instead of a feature.

Thanks for the help!

[j44ke]

Excellent. Yeah, there is a lot going on in some of these watches. Almost an all-of-the-above situation.

[NYCfixie]

Excellent. Yeah, there is a lot going on in some of these watches. Almost an all-of-the-above situation.

I'll PM you later but know the second one could almost be considered a skeleton dial.

[TTX1]

Random fly-by...

Given the context, why not craft or adopt some language to convey the combination of design and function? i.e., "strata dial" where strata implies layers of assembly as well as information, and also invokes the sky for audiences in the US and much of the EU?

<drops mic>

NYFixie will be along to provide an example of a watch that already uses this term, I bet...

[NYCfixie]

Random fly-by...

Given the context, why not craft or adopt some language to convey the combination of design and function? i.e., "strata dial" where strata implies layers of assembly as well as information, and also invokes the sky for audiences in the US and much of the EU?

<drops mic>

NYFixie will be along to provide an example of a watch that already uses this term, I bet...

Becasue the watch industry is more set in their ways than the bike industry. Paging @Matthew Strongin

[j44ke]

Matt's weighed in on vocabulary, and his reply and these helpful posts here have dislodged my friend's translation block. As I told Matt, these translation puzzles are often just a case of getting feedback on what's possible, and then solutions start to unlock themselves. I think both using the more orthodox terminology and then coining new descriptive terms is where he's headed now. I certainly didn't know there were all these descriptive terms that correspond to actual processes - "Hey look at that watch with the wavy dial pattern" is about as deep as I've gotten. Now, however, I know what Piguet's "tapisserie" is.

[dgaddis]

A flat dial with raised indices applied to the dial (example - seiko snm033):

Not to nitpick (but that's what we do here, right, get into the weeds?) but that Seiko dial, and most Seiko diver dials (with some exceptions on the high end) the indices are indeed raised, but they are not applied. They're actually pressed from the backside of the dial - it's not a separate piece that's been applied to the surface of the dial.

Agree that the watches in question are not sandwhich dials, I'd call them skeleton or semi-skeleton dials. The Zelos Swordfish I used to own is a sandwhich dial:

[NYCfixie]

Not to nitpick (but that's what we do here, right, get into the weeds?) but that Seiko dial, and most Seiko diver dials (with some exceptions on the high end) the indices are indeed raised, but they are not applied. They're actually pressed from the backside of the dial - it's not a separate piece that's been applied to the surface of the dial.

Agreed which is why I chose that older and more expensive dial to use an example (in my original response) because the indices are "applied".

An example of what you are stating, indices that get pressed in from the back and "appear" applied but in fact are not, would be any of the current turtle or samurai watches and the ones below. Not always easy to tell unless you have handled the actual dial and/or know the specific model.

SKX171


SBDY015 (Japan-only Turtle model/dial)