Not like "Rolex prices" anything dull and often covered, but your tiny peeves that always seem to crop up.
For me, my ideal fit is between holes on EVERY. SINGLE. EFFING. STRAP no matter what the lug length on a watch is.
Drives me round the bend.
Elastic straps are your saviour there!
Mine is that my patience is so low, my attention span so poor, that I rarely wear a leather strap to the point where it's properly curved to my wrist. That's more on me than the hobby, though.
OK... why oh why are there not more HEQ watches with a stepping hour hand, a la 8F GS movement?
I'm between the holes on any Uncle Seiko strap. Really annoying.
Other than that it's too much reflection. Just can't tolerate it.
Saving the 5513 for winter to see if it's a keeper. Definitely not in summer.
- Anything even slightly misaligned. Cannot unsee.
- Why everyone is not using quick release straps these days, especially when the watch itself comes with multiple options, sometimes in the purchase price.
Same - I just don't get it.Originally Posted by Scepticalist
Do you mean like the new quick release systems on modern Cartier, Panerai new AP divers etc or quick release spring bar straps?
Systems - I totally agree with you.
Quick release spring bars - I struggle with them. Ive got this weird brain block that OEM spring bars are safer/better quality than quick release bars fixed into aftermarket straps.
Probably madness I know.
That normal sized straps are on the second last hole for me which means the end keeps popping out of the keeper.
Extra long straps or Natos are all I can use.
Cheers,
Neil.
This exactly!!!
+ "Why do you need all those watches?"
half links instead of micro-adjustment drives me round the bend.
Not easily being able to wear nice leather straps as they do not form quickly to my wrist as it is small at approximately 6.25”! As with others, that’s more an issue with me than the actual hobby itself.
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Why don't all bracelets feature quick adjustment?
Any red on a dial/watch - be that writing, second hand, etc. Just a truly awful colour that should be banned :)
/vince ..
What funny is that some of the mid-range brands sell straps that are better quality than what they supply your watch with and they are often quick-release... (rado for example)
Yes, I can well imagine. Its a stupid mental block to have.
Any bracelet or strap that, somehow, constantly pinches me or catches on wrist hair.
Plus the fact that I like the look of PVD coatings but couldn't buy another one.
It's the small things that grate for me...
A clasp that has a soft close rather than a firm click just makes me feel it's insecure
Deployants - always have preferred a regular buckle
Stiff crocodile leather straps - look and are expensive but not comfortable to wear
Nato straps that just seem stiff and scratchy even after wearing and washing - bought online and stay in the strap box
When a G-shock strap gets a bit "shiny" from wear - I have to replace it
Wobbly quartz second hands, Grand Seiko just don't do this of course!
Rubbish lume - have decent lume or don't bother
Excessively luxurious packaging - it's just going in the cupboard anyway
I could go on!
Ant
Bog eyed date windows, ruin the symmetry. In fact, date windows full stop.
As others said always being between holes on straps
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Quartz movements that don’t hit the markers.
…it can be done - I’ve an OQ that did it in 1979 & a GS that does it from 2019
…so why did my Omega 2264 miss every single marker ???
Did my head in - traded it.
z
Not being wealthy enough to own all the watches I want.
Feeling the need to buy still more watches, this is really an irritation, but, it keeps getting scratched.
Constantly kidding myself that 'the next one' will be the one that completes the collection
(1) Not enough money for all the watches I want to buy at any one time.
(2) Bracelets and straps that are too short for my wrist.
(3) Lack of lubrication on new watches. Mainly Seiko. I mean bracelets, bezels, crowns, etc. I hate to think what the movement is like.
(4) Quartz watches that say "quartz" on the dial. This has not been necessary for a very long time.
(5) Ridiculously quiet alarms on digital watches. Why so quiet? Make them LOUD!
I have a surprisingly deep hole in the lug of my previously-mint Tissot SeaStar chrono due to the failure of a cheap Chinese QR spring bar in an otherwise very nice ebay strap. The damn thing only fell about 30" onto a road surface, but boy is 316L soft compared to a sharp chunk of dolerite embedded into tar...
Now I replace all springbars with nice German made ones from Hirsch.
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My pet peeve is indirectly related to this - I can buy a £200 Citizen or Traska, a £900 Dekla or Archimede, a £1,600 Sinn or Damasko - and they will have cases made of super-hard, highly scratch-resistant specially-treated steel.
But the only big-name maker that uses such hardening on some of its 5-figure watches, is Seiko - no Omega, Rolex, Blancpain, AP, PP, GO, Cartier, JLC, Chopard, Breguet, &c &c &c... that I've ever encountered, ever uses this technology. The only alternatives some offer in a few models are ceramic or carbon cases, and both have their own issues.
Why? How is it a premium watch when it's using the exact same materials as a £50 Chinese 'homage' of itself? This really vexes me...
Contrasting date wheels. Just no.
The pretentiousness of it all.
Bracelet adjustment. Annoyingly some of the nicest watches I have are the hardest to get a good fit, to the point of almost giving up, or having to get the screwdrivers out for summer and winter. Here’s an idea, don’t just make a ‘half link’, make a full set of fine adjustment links in 1 mm increments.
Also that it’s almost impossible to find a good dress watch without breaking the bank. The nice ones seem so simple - but apparently getting simple right costs a fortune.
Then the way the watch industry has forgotten how to make thin watches, when they knew how to do it perfectly well fifty years ago (again, exceptions cost a fortune but were standard in the past).
That almost every time you see a stunning vintage piece it turns out to be 34mm (or maybe 35mm), and that sellers of said watches always ‘forget’ to include the measurement in the very long and detailed listing.
And then that watch sizing always seems to jump from 36mm to 40mm, when 38mm is my magic number. But I’ve given up being frustrated that watches don’t fit me, apparently it’s my wrist that doesn’t fit watches.
21mm straps.
Bracelets with an on the fly micro adjust system but long links and no half links: to get the right fit I always end up having to use the extension open at 2/3rd at all times and don’t really have the option anymore to have it as a commodity for comfort when it gets warmer during the summer…
I read your post...classic, 38 mm, simple design, affordable, thin, vintage design and one watch screamed out at me.
Hamilton Intra-Matic.
Think I picked mine up here for £250. Arguably my favourite watch.
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Watch collectors' forums which are now more like Twitter with members being gratuitously rude and beating each other up over totally trivial issues.
This ^^^That normal sized straps are on the second last hole for me which means the end keeps popping out of the keeper.
Extra long straps or Natos are all I can use.
Non drilled lugs, why oh why?
Watches with inappropriate lug widths, 'Smiths Expedition' I'm looking at you, 36mm case with 20mm lugs, how can 2mm be so bloo*y awful.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
For me it's the trend to whinge about movements/the wider 'in-house' obsession.
'Oh, its £xxxx and 'only' has an ETA movement'.
Ok, for some manufacturers having an ETA or Sellita or whatever would be unacceptable (Rolex, Patek, etc.) but for companies like IWC, Bremont, Tudor, Oris it wouldn't make me think twice.
'Oh dear, I only have the accurate and reliable ETA2824/SW200 which will be able to be serviced at an independent watchmaker until Kingdom come'.
Would you really rather have the Tudor GMT movement or the Oris 5 day movement with all their problems, and an OEM monopoly on parts? Not to mention the 'in house' term is usually shady anyway.
Related is the 'only X of power reserve'... just wear the watch then, or wind it if you haven't in a while -- hardly the end of the world, is it... get a quartz if it's such a problem.
Rant over
Last edited by Dark Side of The Loon; 1st September 2022 at 10:15.
Ha ha!
And 22mm lug width on relatively small (sub 42mm) watches. Grrrr
And bracelets that do not taper down to the clasp.
I have had to sell on every Omega SMP and Breitling as a result of this.
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A good shout, there is the odd one out there, the Habring Felix being another example. What I'm really after though is something that feels like a Calatrava or Patrimony, but without remortgaging. Problem solved for the moment with a 38mm vintage Seiko Skyliner. The quest for an affordable dress watch that doesn't scream 'affordable' is one of watch collecting's harder challenges though!
Last edited by Itsguy; 1st September 2022 at 12:53.
Bracelets where you can’t take lots of links out the 6 o’clock side. I prefer a comically short length on that side, since, for me anyway, it stops the watch head rolling off the outside of my wrist. The bracelets on new Omegas work for me now, whereas the old ones were a pain. Literally!
Slab sided Tudors
Lovely dial and then you see the side of it(realise the BB58s aren’t like that)
Always thought I’d like a big block and saw a cracker in Bucherer in Geneva
Hadn’t realised the clue was in the name and it’s sides were way too deep-real pity
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I'm another that often struggles with strap holes that aren't spaced conveniently, but my persistent irritation is my inability to foresee the watches I'm not going to bond with & end up taking a bath on.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
That there is no such thing as a perfect watch. Once purchased and honeymoon period is over, you've only got to catch the watch in the wrong light and angle and it looks nowhere near as good as it did in the shop....and then SC beckons
There is for me. The 16600 SD
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Right! I actually find I enjoy the warmth of my 5513 much more indoors, and my Speedy Pro outdoors - in the alternative environments they seem to look so different as to try to change my opinion of them!
Quite often I find the shop lighting much too harsh and not the best indication of whether I will like the watch - Google images wrist shots in natural light helps me out though :-)
Ant
Feeling your pain right now - gratuitous, and obviously designed to try to crowbar you into purchasing desperately overpriced OEM versions.
Yes! Good point, well made.
-------------------------------
Bracelets though... I don't like them because they are almost never comfortable, and every example I've encountered incorporates one or more design flaw:
Awkward to remove from the watch head = scratches to lugs.
It just feels like the industry's had 120 years to get this right, and yet still flails-about cluelessly with each and every new watch it issues, as though every day is 'Bracelet Groundhog Day', and nothing has ever been learned!
My wife has a cheap(ish) Michael Kors watch that has a stepping quartz movement. Ticks 3 x per second. Why can't others use this technology? Would make SO MANY more watches nicer to own.
I had a Citizen Excalibur (£100 watch) that had: solid end links; milled clasp; quick adjustment. Why can't others do this??
Mineral glass. Scratches quite easily, and a nightmare to polish.
That nobody makes my perfect watch. Every watch in existence has at least 1 thing that subtracts from the perfect requirements.
Bezels, ye gods it can't be so difficult, a diving watch needs an easy to read diving bezel, PRS-3LE and Smiths Caribbean?
Last edited by number2; 1st September 2022 at 21:32.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Agreed on movements, I have one watch that I dearly wish contained a Sellita rather than the in-house movement.For me it's the trend to whinge about movements/the wider 'in-house' obsession.
'Oh, its £xxxx and 'only' has an ETA movement'.
Ok, for some manufacturers having an ETA or Sellita or whatever would be unacceptable (Rolex, Patek, etc.) but for companies like IWC, Bremont, Tudor, Oris it wouldn't make me think twice.
'Oh dear, I only have the accurate and reliable ETA2824/SW200 which will be able to be serviced at an independent watchmaker until Kingdom come'.
Would you really rather have the Tudor GMT movement or the Oris 5 day movement with all their problems, and an OEM monopoly on parts? Not to mention the 'in house' term is usually shady anyway.
Related is the 'only X of power reserve'... just wear the watch then, or wind it if you haven't in a while -- hardly the end of the world, is it... get a quartz if it's such a problem.
Rant over
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My peeve is reflective crystals
Possibly because I am so bad at taking pictures for the Friday thread
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Panerai oem screwdrivers.
There have been crisps that don't snap as easily.
For me, it's got to be poorly designed bracelets that lack fine adjustment. Either fit a clasp that allows fine adjustment or include one or two short links to allow all permutations of size to be accommodated, and don't make the 6-side of the bracelet too bloody long!
Currently wearing a lovely 38mm Zenith El Primero that's about 20 yrs old, but with a bracelet that only allows adjustment in 5mm increments by removing or adding a link. Bracelet lives in the box, can`t get it sized to fit me, so the watch gets worn on a generic deployant strap and buckle.
They get the hard bits right but fall short on the easy bit...........absolutely crazy!
Snap. Makes me feel like a freak when I consider myself regular sized!That normal sized straps are on the second last hole for me which means the end keeps popping out of the keeper.
Extra long straps or Natos are all I can use.
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