You know what?!?  I have to confess that while I get the general ways women differ from men, I really don’t understand their kinds of general mindset.  It was like that with my wife and every woman I’ve ever known with me life.  They make perilous sacrifices in the name of beauty and what they buy baffles me.

No finer case has exemplified this for me than in my wife’s taste in watches.  She doesn’t care about water resistance, nor anti-magnetism, nor any of the stuff that a normal human being cares about with their watch.  All she cares about is how a watch looks.  A year ago I got her a Movado Esperanza and she never wore it.  Soon after that i got her an Omega ladies diver and it sits in a cabinet collecting dust.  What seems to float her boat with watches is how good it looks with what kind of outfit.  She has more watches than me even…

Who cares about how small the hands are or the fact that you can’t see it at night.  As long as it looks good right?

To be honest with you though, I think that her latest pick is quite nice:

Citizen’s Eco Drive – EW9215-01E Ladies Watch

Unlike her spangly shiny watches that look as though they were made from pieces of a shattered disco ball, this one is clean and functional.  I like how there are vertical lines on the dial look and the fact that it’s an eco-drive means that I will never have to change a battery for this ever.

What can I say, I’m completely sold!

By far the most intricate quartz watch from Switzerland that I am aware of is the Tissot T-Touch:

Tissot T-Tactile T-Touch Screen Men’s Watch Stainless Steel Black Dial T33158851

…and that’s just a gimmicky gadget more for computer nerds rather than those serious about quality watches.

The further you go up in the price spectrum, the worse it becomes I’m afraid.

Take for example the Breitling Aerospace Advantage (which is Swiss for all you watch idiots out there):

Breitling Aerospace Avantage Digital Mens Watch E7936210/M513

This watch is pretty expensive, but on the plus side it is a quartz watch that can track a second time zone, has a countdown timer, has an alarm, and also has a a chronograph.

That’s all good stuff, but wait!!!

This Citizen watch (which is of course Japanese), has got pretty much all that same stuff too:

Citizen Jy0010-50e Eco Drive Mens Watch

On top of that it can track the time in 43 world cities, is solar powered, syncs up with an atomic clock for infinitely precise time, and it’s got a perpetual calendar to boot.  Zounds!

Did I also mention that this, even factoring in any discounts likely to be had with the Breitling, costs $2,000 less as well?

Well if you’ve ever compared Japanese cars against European cars, I’m sure this won’t come as any surprise, but this is yet another arena in which the Japanese have got the Europeans finger licked.

The Japanese quartz watches being offered by companies like Citizen, Seiko, and Casio, offer much better value than anything the Swiss could hope for, and besides that, whereas the Swiss still struggle with basic multifunction quartz watches, the Japanese offer quartz watches that operate with solar power (or kinetic power), sync up with atomic clocks, and offer complex functions such as a perpetual calendar and minute repeater.

In other words, they are light years ahead, and when it comes to mechanical movements they have not only made mechanical watches with better value, but they have meshed old mechanical watch technology with all the benefits of quartz-watch accuracy as well.

Sure there are many good Swiss quartz movements out there in the entry-level watches you’d find out of Tag Heuer, Omega, and Rolex (made by ETA no less), but besides keeping just the basic functionality of time and date, and maybe  a chronograph, they don’t do squat.

And for me, it is seriously difficult to find a single Swiss, quartz-powered watch that goes beyond the same boring functionality that I had in my digital watches 20 years ago.

Quite frankly, when it comes to the quartz watch, I can’t entirely blame them.  I mean the Japanese did invent the quartz watch so they must be better with the stuff, and with so many people eating up the old school mechanical incarnations of the Swiss, why even bother?

I say let the Japanese do what they do best, and let the Swiss do what they do best!

Did you ever like something you never thought you should. Whether it be that homely librarian you are strangely attracted to or the impractical and overpriced car you can’t stop thinking about, I am just completely enamored with this:

Citizen Eco-Drive Calibre 8700 – BL8000-54L Gents Watch

I think that most people would find this watch to be attractive, but it really contrasts with the watches I have owned in the past. For starters I have always liked simple and clean watches that don’t draw so much attention to itself. This dial is quite busy, the bracelet is far too shiny and ostentatious, and even though this looks like a pure analog watch, none of the buttons and controls are actually connected to something real. It is as though you are punching buttons into some sort of computer.

It seems a little short on passion. Owning and coveting something, furthermore, are very different things. The question is, will I actually like this watch if I choose to buy it?

I think so, and here’s why…

This watch is clean in it’s own regard, the dial features are sharp and functional. It has useful complications like an alarm and a second time zone. The fact that it is a perpetual calendar watch (accounts for leap years) and is solar powered means that you never have to worry about it. The bracelet, furthermore, seems sturdy and has a push-button clasp.

The downfalls I think come with its complicatedness. This is true especially when dealing with a perpetual calendar, but the thing is you only really have to deal with that once, and then forget about it. On top of that the water resistance is quite sparse at “only” 100 meters. But who’s kidding who. I’ve owned my Seiko Black Monster, which is a serious diving watch, and have barely taken it below 2 meters of depth.

In conclusion, when I go to a mall, or any of the many places that sell this watch, I have to handle it, I have to look at it, I really f***ing want this watch. It looks great on my wrist and I’m fairly certain that within the next few months you’ll see a shot of this on my wrist with a glowing review.

Thanks, and have a nice holiday.

I am a huge fan of the TV series “Lost.” It is so unique in the fact that unlike most series, which are scripted from episode to episode, or in the case of shows like “24,” season by season, “Lost” has its entire series charted out so it plays out like a very very long miniseries. The twists have you going, “WHHHUUUAAATTT?!?” and the cliffhangers have you begging for the summer to pass so that you can sit down in front of your TV and get your next fix.

Well yesterday’s episode was business as usual, and there was actually a scene where one of the main characters trades a white dial Rolex Daytona for a gun. I think it was the stainless steel Rolex Daytona, but it could’ve just as well been a two-toned (Gold and Steel) model.

Either way, what a beauty:

Rolex Daytona Oyster Perpetual Men’s Watch White 116520

If you are unfamiliar with the premise behind the show “Lost” I won’t spoil anything for you but just to say that it is largely about a group of people stuck on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. In the show a Rolex Daytona was actually kind of significant in that it was a peace offering between two characters, but I’m here to tell you why a Rolex Daytona, while beautiful, is just as “Lost” on a remote island as the characters are.

First of all, the Daytona has a chronograph, which is good. You can use it to race sea turtles or maybe time how long it takes for the sun to get from one point of the sky to another. All good stuff, but I would imagine that having a date function would be even better so you can at least keep track of the days?

It’s pretty easy to tell that a day has passed by a big noticeable thing called day and night, but the Rolex Daytona has no date function to speak of so I guess you are just left carving tallies on a tree stump.

Another thing about the Daytona is that it is an automatic watch. That means that as the days go by the watch will become more and more inaccurate. The fact that it’s an automatic also means that after five years or so the gears inside will be so crammed full of gunk that it will be inoperable, and should you die or leave it alone for more than a couple days, the watch will stop and you will have no idea how to set it right again.

Well, all this talk has got me thinking as to what watch constitutes the perfect watch for such a desert island, stranded in the middle of nowhere scenario, and I concluded that it must have these characteristics:

1. Solar Powered – Even though I’m a watch purist and only have mechanical watches, a desert island watch would have to be a solar-powered quartz watch. Batteries die and automatics fail, so the obvious choice is a Citizen Eco-Drive because they are the best solar-powered quartz watches that I know of.

2. Metal or Rubber Strap – Leather is a big no no in this case. I need a steel or rubber strap that can take the knocks of desert island life.

3. Good Water Resistance – A watch with good water resistance means that it’ll keep out all the dirt and stuff that might get in the way. You ain’t going scuba diving so it doesn’t have to be that high.

4. Perpetual Calendar – Basically a function that can keep track of your months and days and also account for leap years is a good thing to have. Let’s you know what date it is at all times.

5. Attractive – You are going to have lots of time to be bored so you might as well have something nice to look at, just in case there aren’t any volleyballs around.

So what watch is the perfect desert island watch?

THIS:

Citizen Eco-Drive Calibre 8700 – BL8000-54L Gents Watch

As far as desert island living goes this watch has got it all. As long as there is a sun this thing should last longer than you. You can keep track of the date, and while quartz watches of course lose and/or gain time, it won’t be as bad as a mechanical watch. And as I said it before, what’s the use of time in the middle of nowhere?

It’s also got an alarm. What possible use it could have is beyond me, but it’s nice to no it’s there, and what’s more is that it’s really really attractive. Looks kind of like a Breitling.

I must’ve tried this watch on at least 20 times. You will find this in malls EVERYWHERE I guarantee. I love this watch, but because it’s not mechanical I just can’t pull the trigger on it, but if you plan on being stuck in the middle of nowhere, go for it!