How much would you/have you paid for a watch?

Famerman my understanding was we were talking about everyday watches not a timepiece used in a lab. Those kinds of a time pieces are only worthwhile in a lab setting as first a watch with a .00001 sec or whatever accurate rate is worthless in everyday use as the reaction time of a human is a great deal less. A timer/stopwatch of that nature would need to be control by a machine trigger and would not be on someone wrist. A very fast trigger as most non-electronic relays can only react in a millisecond or so period of time with bounce ETC thrown in.

Most people need a watch to tell them when Judge Judy is coming on TV not to time a physic experiment.

A cheap electronic watch of today could be used to navigate around the planet in a sail boat so they are way more accurate then need be for everyday use’s.

This is interesting.

I didn't realize so many people besides me didn't wear watches.

I work with nurses and techs, and they all must wear watches with a second hand (taking a pulse, measure breathing)

A couple of them expressd disbelief I got along without a watch...so I'll say "If I want to know what the time is, I'll ask you"

Im not defending how my watch is used in experiments. You are only partially correct about close order time sequences. All equipment comes with clocks and timers built in and these(like any computer clocks) are usually the least quality item in any piece of equipment.

Seismic returns are timed by clocks with USBS connections, but the field sciemtists must record accurate times for many earth events and we always report em to 0.00 min. AND, this is done with accurate chronometry (The most expensic=ve watches arent always the best)

So dismissing an accurate watch in many sciences (I work mostly in the field) is to dismiss an important independent variable, and we dont think that way by reliance on our equipments clocks , we always re check and use redundancy. A typical seismic test or pumping test may run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions. If something screwed up, Id be redoing the test on my own nickle, I dont think Id be too smug about how clocks "work" in a lab.

Ive had a chronmetr save my bacon twice in my career and both times we were in a foreign country and we had to collect time data the "old fasioned way" using accurately synchronized watches.

We always try to control every eventuality that we can and dont normally just dismiss time measurement by stating that "the machines 'will take care of it all) CAuse the first rule of any engineering or field experiment is "**** HAPPENS, and IT HAPPENS OFTEN"

I love watches and I used to have a wardrobe of them, mostly cheap, funky things.

Then one day I saw this watch that was just the perfect size - not man size, not woman size - and had the easiest fact to read, very simple, graphic. I paid, I think, $125.00 for it and I have worn it for the last 10 years.

I tend to be a little iffy about time; the clocks in my house all read slightly different times, I'm a little daydreamy and lose track of time. The watch is set to school time so I'm never late to reclaim my prize.

I like Fossil too, Osso. I have one that I do really like -- that I've kept going for over 10 years with new wristbands and new batteries -- but I stopped wearing it about a year ago when the battery went kaput most recently. I replaced the battery and it works but I keep it in my purse -- just got used to not wearing it.

E.G. works at a university and he says no young people seem to wear watches -- they all just check their cellphone if they need to know the time.

If I'm home, I have computer/ clocks.

There's a clock in my car.

I have my purse-watch if I really need it -- the main time I refer to it is if I'm doing errands and need to get back in time to pick up sozlet from school. Stores sometimes have clocks but often don't.

Farmerman in my younger day working for the CNJ railroad we needed to carry calibrated mechanic watches that we also needed to set daily against a master clock however we still are no talking about keeping things closer then a few seconds or so at best.

Now you are talking about .01 minutes units or parts a second and human reaction times would seem to likely interfere with accurately recording anything shorter then a second would it not, no matter how accurate a watch might be?

In any case we are still now not talking about the normal use of a personal time piece and most electronic watches no matter how cheap can now compare to Harrison’s H3.

Side note I would love to get to England again and go see Harrison’s H1, H2 AND H3 marine timepieces on display

I’d pay hundreds as a gift for someone else or at least I did, once, a long time ago. Now, I’m not sure I’d do that again.

For myself I wouldn't spend more than ten or twenty bucks probably. I've never bought one for me that I remember, so I'm not certain, though *me mum* would show up with her flea market deals from time to time and I liked getting them. Maybe I’d go $50, $60…$100…if I really loved one for some reason.

Occasionally I sport one now…a gift from my son. Seems like I go years without bothering and then have stints, of a few months or two, when I do.

I have inherited a couple of antique gold ones from my grandmothers, which I wear rarely, as jewellery, and I received one other (not gold but not flea market either) as an honorarium - I replaced the band and the battery on that one eventually. Wonder where that went…

Joeblow, are the watches that you wear as "just jewelry" working timepieces or decorative only? I have my mothers' dress watches and thought about wearing one of them but my practical side insists that since the watch doesn't work, it makes no sense to wear it. Should that matter?

My dad was the Trainmaster for The reading Company. A very accurate clock (or "wrist chronometer") isnt about timing the start of an experiment. Its about the duration.
For example, we run mine pumping tests for roughly 6 months and thats (1440 x 180). or about 260000 minutes or 15 million seconds. A "6- 9'6" of accuracy would be down to the nearest 30 seconds for the test duration. That is certainly within the accuracy and reflex of ahuman/watch team. It may seem like a small thing but an error in time is in the denominator of the equation and would thus have a major effect on the data..

I never saw Harrisons clocks but read about them in "Longitude"

Eoe - one works - I had it repaired, but the other doesn't. I have and will continue to wear them both. They're pretty delicate looking and I usually add a single strand pearl braclet and sometimes a third pearl gold mix. It's what I own, so it's what I do. Not working never stopped me!

I suppose I might feel differntly if they weren't so pretty, but they are...and they have enormous sentimental value.

I wear a man's Timex that cost me less than $40. I don't always wear a watch unless I'm working. It's set to the time clock so I'm never late back from lunch or a break. (I am a wage slave -- I will be docked pay if late.) Normally I don't need a watch as I am always early for everything. My employer's attitude pisses me off so I am never early when at work -- hence the watch.

Farmerman I was an agent-operator for a short time and my father started his career after WW2 as a fireman when you needed to feed the beast with shovels full of coal and then work his way to engineer and then after a layoff he became a trainman and then ended this career as a conductor.

I had never lay eyes on Harrison’s masterpieces myself but I surely do wish to do so during a future visit to England.

My point however is that a very cheap electronic watch will keep time to a degree that for 99.999 percent of the population there is no reason or need to pay more then a few tens of dollars for a timepiece except for a status symbol

That's what counts, isn't it? Next dress-up affair, I'm wearing Mama's rhinestone watch.

we agree to disagree. We have our watches restandardized every 3 months or so.
Im a RR brat and spent my early life travelling on trains for free. I could travel to Philly, HArrisburgh, Atlantic City, etc etc. It was great to travel with your GF on a train .

All these rails are Conrail now and they still dont get it. With the price of gas creating opportunities for RR's , the Conrail and AMtrak geniuses have been cutting trains to the interior of the state.

Go figger

I spent $30 about 20 years ago on a good Casio watch. I still have it and it works fine.

I did replace the strap on it and I have lithium batteries in it that last 5 years.

Generally, I don't use it, except for work, and then most of the time, I don't wear it on my wrist, but put it in my pocket.

I wrote to a cellphone mfr about an on board stopwatch and cumulative time function for cellphones. Nokia was interested and Motorola wasnt. They seem to be only interested in Teeny bopper crap on their phones . Having one or two or more time functions that are addressable and are ties to the atomic clocks (as cell phones already do) would probably put all watch companies OOB for any reason except as personal jewelry.


OH WELL, there are a lot of functions that I would like on a cell phone, does anybody ask me?

Hey, you won't get an argument from me about the need for an accurate timekeeper. I used to wear a diver's watch - now, that is one vital piece of equipment. Tho - sad to say - I never took to diving as a sport or career.

The funny twisty thing is called a beezel and has a very important function. As you ascend from the depths filled with sharks, giant octopi and those monster squid you need to stop at regular intervals to allow the nitrogen that has accumulated in your blood under pressure to disappate. You stop at spot X for a set amount of time - so you twist the beezel to let you know when the time has elapsed. That's also why the numbers on diving watches are so huge and flouro - one screw up and you'll risk death.

Here's a link to one of those lists (Most Expensive Wrist Watches):
http://www.bornrich.org/entry/worlds-most-expensive-wrist-watches/

Some of them are proper timepieces, some are just diamond-encrusted bling. Absolute rubbish. I did find another link to the world's most expensive watch - I am also going to check out the validity of this - the 'price' is too ridiculous for words. Suffice to say that it is the combined GDPs of two of the world's smallest nations.

I used to wear Casios, they were around 25.00 and lasted exactly one year, I think I still have around 7 of them, all identical, in a box somewhere, dead as dead can be...I am rough on watches. When they quit making that particular watch, the closest thing I could find was a Timex but it was 55.00...after some debating, I bought the thing...figuring I could get at least two, and perhaps three years out of it. It was a Timex SR 927 {Chronograph, black stainless, but the black is mostly gone now} I bought in 96', and it has served me quite well for a bit over 12 years now...about once a fortnight, it will decided to stop for an hour or so, but after resetting the time, it ticks away perfectly until the next occurrence.

It looks like hell, all of the buttons are gone, and it is usually covered in some sort of mortar. If I happen to be wearing it during a long boring meeting, I will clean the watch to keep myself awake. About five years ago, I decided to get another, but had waited too long to get an exact copy, so I ended up with a similar Timex {can't see the model #, but it's an Expedition chronograph} that simply has the stainless finish...I wear this one as a dress watch, when I actually have time to change into nice cloths....I paid around 65.00 for that one.

These are both very large, heavy, durable watches, if I accidentally whack one against something, I get everyone's attention, and usually the loud report results in having to pass the watch around so everyone can see how much they weigh. I never go anywhere without one of them on, if I leave for work without my watch, I feel lost all day long, even though I have my cell phone with me...it's just not the same. They are so much a part of me that they were incorporated into a story I wrote several years ago...the watch/s became a character in the story.

I have worn a watch since Kindergarden, and have always worn them upside down...the face of the watch rests on my underside of my wrist, not on the top as most people seem to wear them. I took a lot of ribbing for this as a kid, because "I didn't know how to wear a watch" or whatever, and often I would slide it around so it would look normal. I still have two watches from when I was a little boy, they both still work, just that they are quite tiny.

2Packs, when I wore a watch it was with the face towards the backside of my wrist as well. I think I saw someone wear it like that when I was a kid and thought it was cool because it was different.