Air Blue Watch Discussions | Drop

May 16, 2016

this watch will be my step into mechanical/automatics. anything crazy i should know about them?

May 16, 2016

TheReflexseems like a good choice for a first mechanical. The power reserve is 40hrs, if you leave it off your wrist for a day, you can hand wind the crown to charge the spring. I don't think there is anything else you need to know about about mechanical watches. Realistically no service should be needed on the movement (it would probably cost more than the watch to fix a problem if it develops), but automatic movements from seiko/citizen can work fine for 20yrs without servicing.

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May 16, 2016

lobstersounds good to me. im just getting so tired of replacing batteries and glanced at my grandfather's watch the other day and realized how much of an idiot i am for relying on a battery. he has a mechanical from 40+ years ago that has no problems. and here i am buying a battery every 8 months to a year for $13

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May 16, 2016

TheReflexAccuracy is not going to be as good with an automatic--but this should not surprise anyone. If the battery was the primary issue with your last watch, you could: 1. go with an automatic. 2. get a watch with a 10 year battery. 3. get a solar powered watch or kinetic watch (kinetic watches are more annoying than mechanical watches in my opinion because it hurts the battery to leave it drained). 4. just buy the tools to change the battery yourself--it would probably cost $15 including the price of the battery on ebay. But in support of option 1, mechanical watches are the most fun of all the options in my opinion.

May 16, 2016

lobsteryeah im going to stick with this watch. i have an active job where im moving constantly, so keeping it wound will never be a problem a few seconds here and there of innacuracy wont bother me either. its not as if my swatch battery powered watch keeps time properly anymore either. the 60 second time is so out of what when its reset it stops its "0" at 2 oclock instead of 12 oclock. and 2 of the 3 chrono dials reset inaccurately aswell. ive had that watch less than 2 years and never hit it hard or done anything over the top with it on so its pretty badly made.

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cdf67

May 17, 2016

lobsterNot servicing a mechanical for 20yrs seems a bit of a stretch? Longest my Rolly 16710 went was 10yrs (first service was at 7, second was at 10yrs). I'm expecting 5yrs from this seiko movement before servicing or just tossing out the watch... A seiko 5 automatic I once had only lasted about 5yrs. Just my thoughts on the subject.

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May 17, 2016

cdf67my first seiko with the 7s26 movement is a decade old now, never serviced and accurate to 3 seconds per day. I remember reading this at the time I purchased the watch, and the last line of the conclusion was what sold me on the seiko monster and the workhorse movement. http://www.thepurists.com/watch/features/8ohms/7s26/

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cdf67

May 17, 2016

lobsterThanks for the link. Very impressive. I will be purchasing the Bravo Automatic to "try it out" and see how long the movement lasts (-: At this price, it is many many times less than my 16710 (for starters, I can buy 4, 5 or more of the bravo for the same price of servicing the 16710...)-: Fact that the Bravo has sapphire crystal is amazing value. I also like the Seiko SARB033, plan on picking one of those up too some day. My 16710 is 26yrs old, still looks like new, wear it almost every day. Just getting the bug to have some other reasonably priced automatics in my collection. Cheers.

May 17, 2016

cdf67I picked up the Seiko SARB033 on massdrop last year. True be told, the seiko is a nicer watch than this airblue bravo--better fit and finish and the quality overall is just better. but legibility on this bravo has the SARB033 beat. This is one of those watches you can glance at for a fraction of a second and figure out what time it is a second or two later while your eyes are back on other tasks because the picture of the face just stays in the mind allowing you to "read it" well after you looked.

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cdf67

May 17, 2016

lobsterGood point. I'm finding these days I'm having to pull back on my GMT cause it's starting to get blurry up close. My intent was to get a watch with bigger numbers so it be easier to read. Other option is to get bifocals... Getting old sucks !

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