Bites: Talking watch red flags and winning WC swag!

Hello Crunchers!

For me, this week has mostly been about lusting over gorgeous watches that I will never buy, which is what I’ll talk about in this weeks 3-6-9, but first some quick updates…

Weekly new member welcome!

A quick welcome to some of our new members who I have seen posting this week! @astolfiwatches, @Basisti, @TShock, @wireheart, @Stroud_Green, @piloot, @Shihan, @Gwatches, @watchfinder.general, @Noodle, @DJMYTYM, @TheSempster, @Frontlinev8, @fajaramry, @DukeMo

Meetup reminder

The WatchCrunch Admin team are working on a way to make meetup posts more visible, but for now I will continue to give them a shout out here so people can see what’s going on and go check the details in the Meetups section on WC.

Omaha Groundhog Day Meetup – 2nd Feb

Meetup Exploring the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned Scheme with Bucherer - London - 21st Feb

SoCal WatchCrunch Meetup – Ventura, California – 25th Feb

Weekly Photography Theme Winner!

Thank you to @Fiatjeepdriver for helping with last weeks contest, choosing the theme of ‘Water’. He chose 4 beautiful pictures as his favourites from those posted in the thread but simply couldn’t choose an overall winner, so I decided to use @Chunghauphotos wonderful photograph to include in this weeks newsletter. @Chunghauphoto has also kindly agreed to set the theme from this weeks ‘Weekly Photo Thread’ so come find out what he has chosen in the comments on there. He has also very kindly agreed to provide a critiquing service for photos, either on the thread or privately via DM (see the weekly photo thread from more details). This will be a really great way for us to up our photography skills so I’m definitely joining in and posting some pictures this week.

WC Hot Post Alert!

@HotWatchChick69 has another charity auction this week, this time for a Wolf Heritage 2 slot watch winder! Go check it out here and get bidding for a great cause.

@Uhrologe has shared the second part of his 'Affordable German watch brands' series this week. Check out part 1 here.

@timegeek started an interesting discussion on 'What is vintage?

The 3-6-9 : Watch red flags

3 ideas from me, 6 links to interesting posts and 9 photographs from the WC sprinkled throughout.

Let me start by sharing with you some lovely watches that have been released this week… First was the new Omega Speedmaster Super Racing (see Hodinkee’s pic below). This is a brand new movement and addition to the Speedmaster range and I LOVE the look of it. I’m a massive fan of black and yellow watches and Omega always seems to do them well. Being someone who does not know a great deal about watch mechanics, I had no idea what was so exciting about this new calibre movement, so needed to do a bit of googling.

From Caliber Corner:

"Spirate System is a new technology that makes it possible for Omega calibers equipped with the system to be more finely regulated for accuracy. The system includes a new balance spring (hairspring aka spiral) design, balance wheel, balance bridge, and ultra-fine tuning device. Because of this new spring design, the movement can achieve ultra-fine regulating via the graduated tuner device attached to the balance bridge. This fine tuning allows watchmakers to regulate the timing of a Spirate System watch to 0/+2 seconds per day – a 3 seconds improvement over Omega’s non-Spirate caliber 9900 which already performs within the average rate of 0/+5 sec/day."

From what I’ve read people are excited to see how this system develops in the future, so one to keep an eye on.

Another exciting new watch out this week is the Hamilton Jazzmaster Face-2-Face III. This cool chronograph can pivot its whole inner case along the 9-3 o’clock axis to view its crystal case back (see picture from ablogtowatch above). I love a watch that is more toy than timepiece and the Hamilton pulls the trick off well.

Lastly, and most painfully, has been the introduction of ‘The Collection’ section to the JLC website. A beautiful collection of vintage pieces curated and sold direct by JLC. Vintage watches have a special place in my heart and the pieces JLC have chosen are just wonderful. I would highly recommend a look through their site, even if just to appreciate the photographs. I did try looking for prices but all of them seem to say ‘Available on request’, which we all know means…

So despite loving the Bulova Lunar Pilot, the Hamilton fidget-spinner and pretty much every JLC ever made, I will not be buying any of them as they all have big red flags. Now, although there are surely some universal red flags that are going to apply across the board, I think each of us also have our own personal warning signs that we look out for in watch buying. Here are three of mine:

1. A price that makes me pull ‘the face’.

I’m sure you all know the feeling. You’re scrolling through the specs and photos of a watch, trying not to get too excited, but this new gem of a watch you’ve found could be ‘the one’… You fall in love with the indices… that hand set is just perfect!... a great movement!... And then you see the price and pull ‘the face’….

For me that face means the price is out of my comfort zone and I should probably be wiping away my tears and moving on. All of the JLCs in ‘The Collectables’ undoubtedly come into this category for me.

2. If I feel the pull of the dark force of FOMO

I know you know what I mean. New release. Limited edition. Yes, even a bit of hype. Lots of love for the watch on the forums. Previous watches from the maker have sold out in double time and fetch a premium used. The FOMO can be strong, and when I feel it it’s a red flag that I need to take a step back and think hard about my reasons for wanting the watch.

3. A watch that is actually going to cause damage

I’m not talking about radioactive lume or an Ali Express special with edges so sharp they draw blood. I’m talking pure brute size. Lug to lug and thickness mainly. The Bulova above has a lug to lug of 52mm, the Super Racing is 44mm in diameter and the Hamilton has a thickness of 17.2mm. Wearing any of these I’m going to be taking chunks out of doorframes and probably getting a wrist injury. It’s not about the looks at that size. It’s about being practical. I just know I would have a bad time with them.

If you are interested to read other peoples takes on this kind of thing then check out this post by @Porthole, where he talks about some of his own red flags and when he’s chosen to ignore them.

Also have a look at @andytjrs great thread about unwritten watch collecting rules.

Don't forget, the 'The Daily Crunch' news section on WatchCrunch is an AMAZING resource for watch news and is being constantly updated. Its where I first found out about the watches I've been talking about today, so its definitely worth a look. It's now also the home of all the back issues of 'Bites', so you can catch up on any you've missed.

That's me done for this week. Time for you to share your watch red flags in the comments!

But what’s all this about winning swag this week???

Well I’ve decided that the first person to DM me the correct answers to all 3 questions in the Quiz section this week (the anagram, the cryptic and the watch ID challenge) will win a WC T-shirt! I have a few left over from when the WC powers kindly sent me some for the last UK meetup, so there are sizes medium or large up for grabs.

Good luck!

(I may post extra clues and pictures for the watch ID in the comments in the newsletter thread if people are struggling.)

The lovely photographs included in the newsletter this week are from @LBRobert (the banner picture), @chunghauphoto, @folalde, @watchesandsneakers, @batemanswatches and @AllTheWatches