Something Different

Toys

Even though I’ve pretty much decided that the Tissot Classic is my watch for life (background here), that doesn’t stop me looking around at other watches.  And if I’m doing the Lottery Dream stuff, I look even more.

Here’s my problem (stop me if you’ve heard this before):  my criteria are firm, and immutable.  They are:

  • manual wind only
  • as plain as possible (no silly moon phases, tourbouillons, etc.)
  • no “diver” watches
  • no steel straps
  • no gold case:  rose, yellow, white, whatever;  steel only
  • no “trendy” brands (which would include Rolex, Omega, Tudor etc.)
  • cost:  no higher than $6,000 (in the Lottery Dream category)

Then in my wanderings, I discovered Schaumburg watches, and I got excited.  From the blurb:

Schaumburg watches have been produced since 1998 in a small factory in the idyllic town of Rinteln, in the Schaumburg region of Germany. This exceptional watch brand specializes in producing mechanical watches of high quality and attractive design. Every Schaumburg watch is handmade, which is why the company’s watches are true works of art. Schaumburg watches are exceptional in every detail.

So, to recap:

  • New company (!)
  • German
  • hand-made
  • reasonably priced (for a hand-made watch)
  • high quality
  • interesting designs — different, even eccentric, but not self-consciously so)
  • hand-wound (also automatics, but no interest in those, of course).

Try these two.  First, the Unique 30:

…and the Unique 33:

I like that Industrial Revolution look, very much.  Had they been around back then, I feel that Isambard Brunel would have worn one, without question.  (They make IWC’s Engineer line look quite fussy, even effeminate.)

And each Unique is under the magic $6,000 mark.

Now… where did I put that lottery ticket?

11 comments

  1. Vortec is an American company. They started by taking train watches (pocket watches) from the 1800s and putting it into a wristwatch case. They still do this. They’re big on the wrist, but they do check every box.
    They recently spun off the Colorado Watch Company to make new watches in the USA. They have two models. The Field model checks all the boxes.

  2. My dream watch actually IS a Rolex; I’ve always wanted the Submariner in the version without the date window. Insanely accurate for a mechanical watch and with the Oyster Perpetual movement in an “automatic” (I always called them self-winding) you never have to remember to wind it. Totally waterproof for as far as I’m ever going to snorkel so that the occasional dipping into the water to land a fish in my kayak won’t be a problem. Only problem is that even used ones aren’t affordable.

    My wife once gave me a “civilianized” version of a LumiNox watch. Instead of being big and clunky it was thin and svelte, a very clear dark face with the indicator marks, hour, minute and second hand all picked out in self-illuminating tritium. It was so bright when she bought it that I could read a book in the dark with it. It broke after a few years, and when I called them up to ask about repairs they said that they no longer made or stocked parts for it. I still have it, non-functioning, and the tritium on the dial and hands has pretty much been exhausted. But I loved that watch for the few years that it ran. So I bought the cheapest watch I could find, which I’m still wearing.

    You’d laugh if you saw my current watch. I’ve had it for over 20 years, the case is scratched and bashed, the crystal is also scratched, and it’s now started losing about 30 seconds a month. It’s an old Timex that I paid $12 for back then; the last time I had the battery replaced at the local jeweler’s it cost me that much again. Heck, the band is just a nylon strap that is finally starting to fail after all of this time. I’m afraid that replacing it with a new nylon strap will cost more than the watch originally did.

    But the face of the watch is black, and the time-marks (whatever you call those on a watch) and hands are white and luminous for a while after being in daylight. It’s got the back-lighting on the face also, but I rarely use that since it chews up the battery pretty fast.

    I personally wouldn’t like either of the watches you’re looking at here…it’s just too hard to instantly see what time it is since the hands and marks don’t clearly stand out visually from the face. I flick at glance at my cheapo-Timex and I can immediately know what time it is. Just my preference.

    1. I have a good friend who was a Navy Diver. He went and bought a nice watch for Dive School and when he got there said all the instructors and old timers were wearing Timex QShocks.

  3. I love watches. Its my one & only jewelry conceit.

    But I came of age in the in-between times, my first cheapo kids watch was a wind up, which I promptly overwound, and we had wind up alarm clocks.

    Then Quartz and Digital timepieces came out, and we were just flabbergasted with all the magic and doodads that these little wrist-computers could do, and dial watches were so……..frumpy.

    Then 20 years later I fell hopelessly in love with mechanical watches again, the precision and craftmanship of even the cheapo type “Mickey Mouse” watches of yesteryear. I went to a pawn shop to buy a self-winding “real” watch, it stopped working, I still have it in a box somewhere.

    I don’t know all the players except the luxury brands, and I’m out of that financial loop, and I guess I don’t really have a point to the above, beyond an old man’s ramblings.

    But I love watches.

  4. As a certified Aude Phartte© I should love these…but I don’t. I had stopped wearing a watch about 25 years ago because on those rare occasions that I actually needed to know the time, my cellphone was accurate to the millisecond. Fast forward to a few years ago, both my cardiologist and pulmonologist strongly suggested I look into a smart watch to monitor my health sleep, and when Verizon offered a promotion I couldn’t refuse I pulled the proverbial trigger.

    I’m still amazed at this little technological marvel, and when I convert my mobile setup to iFruit next year I shall buy another. It still feels like I’m living in the future when I can pay for something just by tapping my watch. I’m one of these folks who usually reviles technology for technology’s sake, but when it serves a demonstrably useful and important purpose, and a person without an IT degree can use it out of the box, sign me up.

  6. If German is how you roll, then take a look at the NOMOS lineup. I have reference 383 and got it for well under $3K last spring. I used to be involved more with watches when I was in-between the Late Wife and the Last Wife, but I’m down to the last couple of keepers. I’ve got a mid-60’s JLC in 18KT (classic dress watch) and a Vacheron Constatin Patrimony in platinum, a Seiko Cocktail Time Presage (original JMO issue) and a Mido Ocean Star GMT. Somewhere in my Navy kit is a Luminox watch that I got off an EOD tech in trade for getting him an appointment at Landstuhl (to see his wife, who was a nurse there).

    There is almost nothing left in a value proposition for a steel mechanical watch at that price point. If you wanted to spend that much, get a vintage classic Swiss watch or one of the Tier 1 Glashütte makers. Those are suitable heirloom watches.

    1. At this stage, I’m not interested in value proposition, investment or heirloom watches (Son&Heir doesn’t use a watch because He Has An iPhone).

      Any watch I were to buy #Lottery would be for my own enjoyment and pleasure only.

      Ditto cars, by the way. BMW Z8 for everyday use, plus some kind of restored/restomodded Land Rover 110 for guns, groceries and golf clubs.

  7. Beautiful watches, but seeing as how, in half a century of wearing watches, I’ve never spent (and have no intention of spending) more than $60 on one, I think these will have to stay on someone else’s dream list.

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