Reflections on Mechanicals and Automatics

Orient Mechanical Automatic movement (pic from OrientWatchsite.com)

Following up on my reflections on Quartz watches, now I move on to my reflections on automatics and mechanicals.

For whatever reason, and like a lot of people, my interest in watches was kickstarted by a quartz watch - and like many people out there. it is a Casio. That particular Casio, an Edifice EF-125, is still ticking on its original battery today, and aside from having to skip every 31st every once in a while, is a pretty solid and reliable watch. That watch got me thinking about other watches - namely, other even MORE reliable watches that require almost zero maintenance. Which was why I got the Edifice Solar EQS-500DB. And that watch alone should be enough, as it is virtually maintenance free - never needing battery changes for *AT LEAST* 10 years, never needing to set the time for at least the same amount of period, etc. The fact that it has a world time and chronograph is a bonus. But there was something unsatisfying about it. Yes, it was a good watch - and one of my first post I compared Casio Edifices to the Nissan GTR watches. But it was lacking some 'soul' for the lack of description - in automatics, and especially winding automatics - it having to have some attention to it made it so much more likeable.

So that in essence kicked off my search for automatics - one of my first, is the Ray Raven. I wore that watch and toyed with the bezel so often that the bezel had loosen up and was unidirectional by now.. and it developed a hunger for moar. Moar, like my Orient Wingman. Maoar, like my Orient Flight. Moar, like my Seiko 5s. Moar, leading up to my soon to be (budget allowing) choice for a new Bambino v4.

For another reason, its the thought of a micro-precision mechanical engine on your wrist ticking away. Or the sweep movement of an automatic/mechanical. On a quartz, the seconds hand always almost never aligns itself with the markers except for higher end watches. The EQS-500 does this well, but I could spot one or two places where it has gone off the slightest bits. Perhaps the ultimate for this is a SpringDrive by Seiko, but I probably won't be able to afford that comfortably.

And why Orient? Well I find that Orient sits very well in my budget bracket and fulfills 90% of my wants at the price I am able to afford. Like many, I like Seiko as well, but there something about Orient that ticks my checklists. So I foresee myself owning Japanese watches (and cars, for that matter) for the foreseeable future. Plus, I like that Orient logo.

So why do I like automatics and mechnicals so much now when its actually more practical (financially, and functionally) to have a cheap quartz? It's irrational.