Category Archives: Geekologie

Starting out with a fountain pen

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The past few days I’ve spent off the blog have been whiled away reading Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. It’s a long depressing, repetitive book I won’t recommend, but to be fair it was likely a long, depressing and repetitive chapter in Mr. Peart’s life. I’m determined to finish it, but then also start something fun and frivolous immediately after to keep the spark alive for my love of reading. I remember all too well how Neil Gaiman’s American Gods killed my desire to read novels for about a year…

But the other thing I’ve been doing is keeping up with writing my wife a letter a day (mostly) and filling out my journal with stories of the things I’ve seen on this trip. Thanks to Goulet Pens I’ve got a great assortment of ink samples, a few new pens, and three tablets of different stationery and matching envelopes to keep her letters varying and always something new. But it struck me that while I posted about my Lamy 2000 love previously, that’s not what I write to her using. While changing out my ink every three days I use two different pens for a better idea of how good a job I do cleaning them, and avoiding color contamination for each new vial of ink.

So here are the two pens I’ve been using most lately- and they’re much more affordable than a 2000.

Image used without permission from Rick Conner at penspotters. Note the red cap of the Z24 filler.

Image used without permission from Rick Conner at penspotters. Note the red cap of the Z24 filler.

The first is a Lamy Vista, which can usually be had for around thirty bucks. It’s got a triangular section for your fingers to grip toward the nib as you write, and I really like its physical profile. They’ve also got some flat edges to the round profile so they won’t roll off a desk. The Vista, Safari, and Al-Star pens all share the same profile, and are more budget priced to keep them affordable and friendly to students (apparently they find a lot of use in the hands of European kids, opposed to the disposable Bics most American children know and, well, probably loathe). The Safaris are plastic and come in different colors whereas the Vista is clear and the Al-Stars are aluminum bodied. Safaris are Al-Stars also release a limited edition color each year, for those of you who care. They come with a stainless steel nib that I don’t like as much as the 14k gold nib of my 2000, and I’ve heard Lamy nibs can be inconsistent (read a better review here). It’s designed to be used with a replaceable cartridge, which makes inking these clean and easy, but there’s also a Z24 piston converter for using with conventional inkwells. I like the converter in the Vista for a couple of reasons:

  • I love Lamy’s ink bottles, but I’m not really in love with any of their actual ink.
  • The red knob on the Z24 adds internal color to the translucent body.
  • Filling from an inkwell makes it easier to change colors day-to-day.
  • The piston facilitates flushing water in and out of the pen when cleaning.

And it’s this last point that brings me to recommending clear pens for a beginner.

Fountain pens work through a combination of gravity and capillary action, so to really get it clean between different inks you have to flush out the feed (the perpendicular cuts in the internal structure that control the flow). Once I push the remaining ink back into its respective jar, vial, or wherever I got it from it’s time to flush it with water. I just fill a glass (or here, a paper cup) with water, then draw it into the reservoir and flush it back into the cup. Repeat three times, then dump the glass out and refill it with fresh water. I do this for about 3 different clean glasses of water, but between each glass of water I get all the moisture out of the feed that I can. A bunch of nice absorbent toilet paper and a clear body make this part easy.

You can actually watch the feed empty into the absorbent paper.

You can actually watch the feed empty into the absorbent paper.

The other pen I just started using today and now see why people love it is the TWSBI mini. It’s a short barrel, so to write comfortably I have to post the cap on the end, but it was designed to do so and the cap actually screws on both ends of the barrel. How cool is that?!?! Mine is also completely clear, and the huge internal reservoir looks really cool when showing off your ink’s hue. And it’s got a more traditional exposed nib and feed. I haven’t changed out the ink or cleaned it yet, but it writes really nicely (maybe because the stainless steel nib is longer, allowing it to flex more?) and is just plain good-looking. Also a bargain, it can be had for $50-$60 USD and so far appears to be much nicer than its price would suggest. This may be my new favorite pen and warranting another write-up here in the future after more use.

Lamy 2000, my pen of choice.

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The internet has slowed to a crawl here in Afghanistan due to foul weather interfering with our satellite reception. Because of this, the post I had intended to publish yesterday is still being researched and supplemented with photos at a snail’s pace. Maybe tomorrow… So in a desire to publish something, I’m taking the cheater’s way out and linking to some other fantastic reads instead.

I’ve mentioned writing longhand as a lost art and advocated for it recently. But part of what has made my rediscovery of cursive (or script) writing so pleasurable has been my Lamy 2000 fountain pen. I use a fine nib, and typically stick with Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue ink. On truly white paper, it just pops and looks really nice. (I’m also a proponent of using some really nice paper. My folio is stocked with Southworth 25% cotton fiber linen, and I have some A5 stationery tablets from G. Lalo and Original Crown Mill of classic laid and pure cotton. Remember to get matching envelopes for the full effect.) My pen should appear as the featured image above this post, actually.

My own quick thoughts about this pen can be summed up with a love for all the details. For such a simple, modern design, it’s very thoughtful. The 14k gold nib writes smoother and nicer than the cheaper stainless steel nibs I’ve dallied with in other pens. The makrolon barrel has a pleasant texture and appears to age well, but also hides fingerprints and smudges that would appear on glossy black plastic. The aluminum stainless steel section toward the nib allows ink from a bottle to wick right off after filling and clean easier. The pocket clip is inflexible steel, and is hinged and sprung. It’s heavy enough to feel like something of substance and importance without being burdensome. I love the windows built in for viewing the ink level. And it disassembles for cleaning easily.

In short, I began my interest in fountain pens wanting a Montblanc Meisterstuck 149. After being talked into trying the Lamy 2000, I want nothing else. Any other pen I collect is now just for whimsy. I’ve found the only pen I really need.

So without further ado, here are some more in-depth reasons you should try a Lamy 2000 fountain pen and enrich your own writing experience.

And they can be had for a good price from Amazon.com (though I recommend someone like Goulet Pens who specializes in the field). Now get writing!

Steel Frame

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I grew up loving to ride my bike. It’s probably one of my fondest childhood memories. From popping wheelies on my BMX-style bike as a kid in the ’80s to riding from our house in midtown Tucson out to Colossal Caves in the early ’90s in junior high. I loved it. It was freedom. It was speed. I’d ride around dreaming of laser guns and awesome adventures, and anxiously awaiting the day I could get a motorcycle and go even faster.

Somewhere along the way, the bicycle became a piece of exercise equipment instead of a toy or an object of pure fun. Cyclists became very serious, and it all became about training, hill climbs, nutrition, etc. It became work. Something I had to do for fitness instead of something fun I wanted to do. Ugh.

And recently, it all became fun again. Here’s how:

I grew up on a BMX-style and mountain bike almost exclusively. For a brief while I had my grandpa’s cruiser-like velocipede, but the story of that bike’s fate still irks me to this day. The point is this: I grew up on bikes I could ride aggressively. So back around 2010 when I decided to start cycling to work to try and drop some weight, it wasn’t long before I wanted to go faster than the gear ratios and wide tires of my mountain bike would let me travel. And when that bike got stolen, shopping commenced.

I was driven by technology- I read all the reviews about frame materials and had ridden aluminum since I was thirteen years old. Now I wanted a carbon fiber bike, since I wasn’t curb-hopping and riding off road anyway. I test rode some and they were lighter and sooooo much more comfortable than my old aluminum bikes! I got a great deal on a used one and rode it a lot while I lived in Tucson. (Tucson happens to be one of the best cities in America for cycling.)

Then I moved to Las Vegas. My commute took 40 minutes at 80 mph on the highway out of town, and I worked a fair amount of overtime. The bike didn’t get ridden for a year. Then I moved to Fargo, with stop lights every 1/10th of a mile and jarring seams where cement like sections of road meet each other. Skinny tires and clipping in and out of pedals didn’t seem like much fun… So I traded in my full carbon bike, and suddenly discovered how much pure fun bicycling could be again.

RA12_Back-Alley_steel-purpleI rode a Raleigh Back Alley and it was like being a kid again. Seriously! This thing was like a time machine to when riding a bike was fun. The combination of the steel frame (which flexes and softens the ride) and eliminating a gear train and derailleurs for a direct feel to the rear sprocket just made the bike come alive! I haven’t enjoyed riding a bike so much since my childhood. I didn’t test ride the bike and consider how harsh the frame was, or rolling resistance, or if I wanted to change the fit, braking, or anything. I didn’t consider any of the standard comparison aspects for other bikes. This bike was fun. That was it. That was all that mattered. When I ride this bike I’m ten years old again and not allowed to ride up and down the street further than certain houses, but between those houses as I turn out my energetic laps I’m daydreaming that I’m Robocop all over again and completely unstoppable. (I can’t do wheelies because I’m out-of-shape again and bent over too far from the seat to lower handlebars, but this can be fixed and I just might do so.)

The Back Alley has a flip-flop hub, so I experimented with making it a fixed gear (since I also picked up a 2012 Port Townsend when I traded my race bike). I don’t think I care for riding a fixie very much, though. I can’t get the knack of riding backwards, or power-sliding for my stops, etc. I’d rather just have a coaster brake like when I was a kid, just with the addition of a front brake that I never had growing up. I yanked the rear brake off (since it’s a fixie right now and I can just reverse pressure on the pedals), and put the front brake on upside-down on the opposite (right) handlebar so it’s in the “correct” position as if on a motorcycle. Much easier to maintain control and consistency between two modes of transport, that way.

The Port Townsend is okay, but I’ll likely sell it or trade it in on a bike for my wife if she wants one to ride with me during the summer months. I don’t care for the rattling noise of the fenders on harsh Fargo road joints, and while the steel frame is very comfortable I find I miss the direct feel of the Back Alley’s single sprocket when I’m slogging through the gears on the “more advanced” bike.

But both of them are light years more comfortable than aluminum.

I know speaking in absolutes can be dangerous, but this one I’m comfortable with: I will never ride an aluminum framed bicycle again. It’s horrible, sucks all the joy out of cycling and is what turns fun into work. It may be lighter, but it’s so much more harsh that long rides become unpleasant. Suspensions systems on bicycles didn’t finally appear because we became tech-savvy enough to do it; they became necessitated because aluminum frame bikes destroyed the fun of the experience all in the name of shaving weight. Aluminum frames are the worst thing you can do to your cycling experience.

Hate cycling? Don’t cycle? Think it will all be work, rather than fun? I promise you that can all be fixed by going to a real bicycle shop and buying a steel frame bike, instead of a Chinese-made aluminum torture rack from a big box sporting goods store. Find a local bicycle shop, and stay away from places like Big 5, Target, Scheels, REI, Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart or any other place that sells bikes next to other departments or even other sporting goods. If you’re in a place with a grocery section or basketball shoes, you’re doing it wrong. Trust me. These places only carry aluminum and might be able to get a steel frame or two but they’ll be special order. I imagine you can buy boutique steel frames and pay a lot, but for the most part they’re not really that costly and it’s the most comfortable ride you can get.

Ignore sales talks about aluminum being lighter. Are you a racer? No, or you’d be on carbon fiber frames. So get something you’ll enjoy. Go old school. Buy something “real”. Ride a steel bike.

Here are some options:

http://www.solebicycles.com/

http://gunnarbikes.com/site/

http://surlybikes.com/

http://www.raleighusa.com/  You want a chromoly frame.

And an older list of recommended bikes:

http://urbanvelo.org/steel-road-bikes/

*This post is not a paid endorsement of anybody, I really do believe this. Some hardcore mountain bikers may actually benefit from lighter weight of aluminum and crazy suspensions. If you do, you know who you are and that my post wasn’t directed at you.

Feeling like New Coke*

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PAN03The first time I ever saw a Panerai, I was dumbstruck by it’s beauty. It was a billboard advertisement in the Forum Shoppes at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the simplicity and elegance stopped me cold. Being relatively new to high end watches, I’d never heard of the brand and snapped a photo with my phone for a reminder to Google more information when I got home. When the Panerai Boutique opened a month later, I had small pangs of regret that my expensive wristwatch was a “lowly” TAG Heuer and had so much brand awareness. The appeal of a watch that was lesser-known somehow made it seem that much more exclusive and prestigious.

As did the fact that the model I loved was about 50% more expensive than my TAG.

PAN02The Panerai Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT Automatic (PAM00320) just grabbed my imagination and wouldn’t let go. I love that little clasp over the crown. I always thought that was such a cool touch watching it close during the montage during the opening of Eraser. I wanted a watch like that and at the time had no clue what it was. After becoming obsessed with them and knowing that Sly Stallone is a big fan, spotting a Panerai on the wrist of Terry Crews in a fraction of a second during Expendables 2 was easy. And Hodinkee got me looking at other models like the PAM0233, further fueling my passion.

The little detail over the crown stood out to me even as a teenager.

The little detail over the crown stood out to me even as a teenager, though I though “Luminor Marina” was the brand name back then.

Unfortunately, not everything is rosy in the world of Officine Panerai and in the eyes of several horology aficionados the brand is considered somewhat gauche these days.

  • First are the accusations that the brand has never really contributed all the much in the way of new developments, or has much place of note in the annals of horological history.
  • Second, and perhaps worse, is that hardcore watch folks enjoy being a bit of an esoteric circle and celebrity attention like Stallone’s bring these brands to the public eye. The actual brand may become more valued as more people seek it out, but the feeling of knowing about something special gets taken away. Part of me wonders if Panerai’s acquisition by Richemont in 1997 had the watch otaku declaring Panerai’s best days were past. (Similar to Heuers from the pre-TAG era still being well regarded, and the ads featuring celebrities scorned.)
  • Third. Any Top Gear fan, Jalopnik reader or fan of F1 racing knows that Ferrari is a bit of a whore when it comes to licensing their logo and willing to slather it on anything for sales. General rule for a person of good taste is to run away from anything bearing a Ferrari logo short of a vehicle actually developed by Maranello. And guess who’s logo adorned a Panerai line for five years? Yup. They didn’t sell well and were often found deeply discounted. The license was not renewed.
  • Fourth, and probably worst offense was the 318 scandal. If you type “Panerai 318″ into Google, auto-complete offers “scandal” to finish you up. The one thing you should really be getting if you’re spending this kind of money on a boutique watch is an “in-house movement”. The watchmaker should actually be producing the motor of your timepiece. The 318 shipped with a closed back- no glass window to look through and see the pretty innards. It got even uglier when the truth about that watch’s movement got out into the open.

Reading about Panerai’s bad rap really bummed me out. I mean, there are some Rolex owners saying those guys are elitists! I was suddenly afraid these watches I loved were standard issue to tasteless knuckleheads like the cast of Jersey Shore, or those Russian guys that think velvet track suits and gold jewelry are acceptable formal wear. /shudder

But it's so pretty! How could it be so derided?!?!

But it’s so pretty! How could it be so derided?!?!

And then, what was probably said in jest or mocking of Panerai over the 318 made all the sense in the world to me (paraphrased):

If they’re not even going to do an in-house movement, why buy the real thing? What makes it any better than a replica?

My jaw hit the floor. For the past year I’ve been doing research on various brands, learning where to get the real deal and how to avoid knock offs and forgeries while still saving money. I learned about grey market dealers, and warranty support, and how to get a bargain but ensure the purchase is the genuine article. Never had it occurred to me, this wild and silly idea, to intentionally seek out a knock-off!

And why shouldn’t I? Aside from being one of Van Damme’s more eyebrow raising career choices (I really hope he doesn’t wonder how his career went straight-to-video), some of these knock offs are really close in their approximation. To the point that we call them “replicas” now. (Insert my bemused laughter here.) But it’s a really good point. Why pay $9,000 for a watch from a brand that isn’t thought of particularly well? I already have my genuine TAG for an heirloom watch, and these Chinese replicas are just as handsome and still a mechanical movement.

And then the deciding factor hit me. I’m going to buy a replica Panerai on purpose. I don’t care about owning the genuine article because really, I just want it as a fashion piece. And I’m going to buy this knock off PAM 320 (Heehee! Spaces instead of the double zeroes!) with the same confidence and for the same reasons I select my cigars, motorcycles, pens… or even write this blog. I’m going to buy it because I like it, and don’t care about anybody else’s opinion on the subject. I know what’s real and what’s not, and I’ve decided that this suits my taste and the price is appropriate for what it actually is.

It’s funny, because I loathe Japanese V-twin motorcycles as a false representation of what the bike is. I love the CB750 because it’s genuine. It’s not an American V-twin and doesn’t pretend to be. It’s true to the culture that created it**, and wonderful because it’s different. And now I want to buy the Honda Shadow of wristwatches. It’s an odd feeling, but then I tell myself: what if Harley had been busted using somebody else’s engine? Obviously Harley never pulled that kind of garbage. But Panerai did. And suddenly my guilt and fretting over wearing a copy simply melts away.

*Coca-Cola Classic advertised “Can’t Beat the Real Thing” from 1991-1993 in the US.

** I suppose my counter argument could be that the far east has a rich and storied culture of creating counterfeits and rip-offs. Haha!

Holeshot Horror Story

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Boarding the plane from Atlanta to Dubai was a bit like living an Oakley product placement. The average military contractor hasn’t a clue what “low profile” means, and the gate was awash in desert tan cargo pants, coyote brown backpacks, and ballcaps that were carefully selected to look as if they’d just been grabbed at the last minute. Most contractors perform support functions like janitorial, fire fighters, chow hall management, or communication but apparently we all want to look like bad-asses and Delta operators. That means wearing Oakley sunglasses. And Oakley backpacks. And Oakley ballcaps, boots, and beanies.

I was in a Land’s End green hoodie and Guess jeans hoping to look like a dude-bro that hadn’t quite been able to leave his frat behind. Oakley backpack, Oakley beanie… Okay so far. But wearing my Oakley “assault” boots gave me a sudden urge to look even more like an Oregon hiker next deployment and less like a Spec-Ops wannabe.*

Mental Note: Change up my gear next time. Also, maybe call it “stuff” instead of “gear”.

So why do contractors festoon themselves with so much Oakley product? Because Oakley makes good stuff and gives a 50% discount to military, cops, firefighters, EMTs, etc. through US Standard Issue. And they generously extend that offer to contractors with a military ID.

Which leads me (finally) to the point of my story: a review of the Oakley Holeshot watch. Spoilers: it’s not going to be a great review. But despite that, I still want to commend Oakley up front for the generous discounts they provide to men and women in uniform. Oakley makes quality products and it’s a very honorable thing for them to slice profit margins so significantly for folks willing to risk their own lives to protect ours without much pay in return.

My story begins over a year ago, back in October of 2011. I was headed out for my first deployment as a civilian field tech for satellite equipment. I hadn’t done much research about my destination and really didn’t know what to expect, but I knew I didn’t want to take the Seiko Kenetic my dad bought me into anything described as “field conditions”. So I finally ponied up the cash and ordered the lust-worthy Oakley Holeshot 10th Mountain Division I mentioned last blog entry. (A quick aside: I’m pretty sure this is the first watch I ever bought for myself.) It was backordered, so I had it sent to my parents to forward on to me once I was “in country”. I was so anxious to get it! I couldn’t believe I’d spent $325 on a quartz watch, but it was a Swiss movement! Surely that carried some cachet.

Being my first “serious” watch, I was a little taken aback when it arrived and I tried to start using it. For one, the 10th Mountain Division looked like this on their website:

This is what’s advertised as the 10th Mountain Division.

But the case (actual body of the watch that houses the movement) I received was the same standard black any Joe Schmo could order through Oakley Custom on the civilian side. Disappointment #1.

Actual Holeshot

This is what you actually receive.

I’m not going to lie, that was a pretty big let-down. But then I actually had to read the manual, because the chronograph function really threw me for a loop! See in the above images how the large second hand would appear to be moving, while all the sub-dials are fixed at 12 o’clock? In reality, that’s not even a little bit close to the truth. The large second hand in the main dial stays resolutely as 12 o’clock and the small sub-dial at the 6 o’clock position is the functioning second hand for the clock. It took me twenty minutes of pushing buttons on the watch trying to make it function as I thought it should before I finally caved in and read the instructions.

Once I got this all figured out however, the watch was GREAT. It took me some getting used to the rubber strap, but I really enjoyed the weight of the watch. It felt like something of substance on my wrist. And since men’s watches had been getting larger and larger since my last new one in 1997, I liked the larger case. It looks good aside from the color misrepresentation and the 47.5 mm case isn’t so large as to be gaudy (opposed to most of Oakley’s offerings). I find tachymeter scales to be a bit silly since they require known distance points in order to function (and if I had those, I’d probably have a speedometer or GPS already), but it’s unobtrusive. And since my deployment was in the Seychelles I got to put the 10 bar water resistance to the test and took the watch scuba diving. It holds up. More than that, the hands are so wide and luminous material so effective that was extremely readable whether at night or 30 meters underwater. The sub-dials for the chronograph don’t move while it’s timing, but once you hit “stop” or “lap” they quickly spin into place for an accurate reading, and rotate back to “0″ when you reset. And once reset, the main second hand and top two sub-dials point straight at their respective zeros, looking like some kind of awesome trident.

I liked this watch. I get buyer’s remorse before even buying things: I walk around with clearance priced BluRays for 10 minutes and put them back on the shelf. So to have had no regrets spending $325 on a quartz watch is really saying something for me. Sure, I was bummed enough about the case color that I’m mentioning it for a third time already, but aside from that I enjoyed the watch so much I planned on buying more from Oakley and even contemplated buying them as gifts for friends and family.

Then the start/stop button for the chronograph feature quit working. I couldn’t really understand why, since I’d carefully rinsed the watch with fresh water after every dive along with the rest of my equipment. And it didn’t quit working until six months after I’d returned to the states! For lack of a better term, there simply no action in the button press. No distinctive click. It was just dead. The lap/reset button still operated properly, but without a functioning start button, what good does that do? So I looked up the warranty information, contacted Oakley, and here’s where the story gets really bad…

Oakley’s customer service people are great. I’ve harassed them at least three times now (keep reading) and they’ve been responsive each and every time. It’s wherever these things are getting “repaired” that’s inexcusable. When you contact Oakley, they send you a form to fill out describing the problem. They request you return this form, a picture of the problem, and proof of purchase. Once they have this (to determine if it’s actually a warranty issue rather than abuse, I imagine), they send you a UPS packing slip. If there is a warranty issue, Oakley pays for shipping both ways. Writing this review is almost painful in some ways, because I really do think they want to take care of their USSI customers.

Obviously, if Oakley is paying shipping as a courtesy to their customers they’re not spending extravagantly for overnight service. Between that, their backlog of work orders, and actual repair time my watch was gone for almost a month. That’s a small price to pay for a free repair, except my watch came back looking like this:

The first time my watch came back from "repair".

The first time my watch came back from “repair”.

The 1/10th second sub-dial now zeroed or reset to something like eight and four fifths! Aside from the hand being off by 1/10th, and aside from the hand never actually aligning with an actual digit, this is something that should have been obvious at even a cursory visual inspection! This isn’t some hidden, internal issue or a fault that only appears “when you do this”. This was careless workmanship on a watch I’d paid good money for, with the understanding it would be a working product. I was ticked. I emailed Oakley again about this issue and sent them a photo within five minutes of unpacking the watch they’d sent me. (I also mentioned the case color being wrong on my first RMA slip, but I guess that didn’t warrant correction). So they sent me a new UPS packing label, I sent my watch back to be repaired from the first repair, I waited another few weeks and they sent it back like this:

Second time back from warranty just means a third time out for a claim...

Second time back from warranty just means a third time out for a claim…

Now the sub-dials functioned correctly (remember, the one at 6 o’clock is always moving as it counts seconds for the clock), but the second hand on the main face that works for the chronograph zeroed on :59 rather than :00! Argh!!! Again, the watch had been sent back to me with an obvious flaw that would have been caught if there was even a cursory inspection before sending it back out! What gives here?!?! Maybe I heard the phrase “Attention to detail, Airman!” shouted too often when I was active duty, but this just sent me over the edge. Twice now, all it would have taken was for somebody to have looked at the face of the watch and seen the three hands weren’t zeroed before they called it good-to-go. I don’t know if I’m willing to call it shoddy workmanship (the mechanisms at least functioned like they should), but the attention to detail was appalling. This obviously isn’t a place where the jeweler is going to be signing their name to validate their work. Of course for only $325 I don’t really expect that kind of treatment. But for a company with the audacity to sell a quartz watch (Minute Machine) for $1,500 and $3,500 for a special edition?!?! A little pride in workmanship wouldn’t be out of line.

Conclusion-

If you want to spend the money on an Oakley watch, knock yourself out. It’s your money and fashion sense. My plans to buying another have been derailed and I suggest the following, instead.

  • If you want a fashion watch try a Fossil, Michael Kors, or even a Swatch. Don’t exceed $500 when spending under $200 is easy.
  • If you want a tough watch buy a Casio G-Shock or similar.
  • If you want an inexpensive Swiss Mechanical, buy a Xetum.

Sorry, Oakley. I’ll still buy your sunglasses as long as I’m a contractor and want to fit in with the cool kids. I still love my gray knit beanie (perhaps the most tasteful one you’ve ever made) and my tan SI Assault gloves will stay next to my AR-15 because they make me look all tacticool. But our little wristwatch experiment is over.

*To be fair, The North Face is the second most, if not the most spotted brand name at the Afghanistan camp I’m writing this. But it still doesn’t scream, “Guess what I do!” to the entire Arab community while in transit.

watchuseek

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My love of wristwatches can be traced back to 8th grade. Dad bought me a watch for my junior high graduation, and though I’m sure it was nothing special I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time. It was likely just a Timex but it had a stainless steel case, a brown leather band, and was instantly a thing of masculinity that was mine. I developed the philosophy that the only jewelry a man should wear is his wedding ring and a nice watch, and I’ve pretty much stuck to that with exceptions granted to ’80s hair metal bands. And when Dad bought me my first nice watch (a Seiko Kinetic with a two-tone bracelet) for my high school graduation, the seeds for horological love were firmly set.

Gotta love the 80s! Swatch guards and big wheels on skateboards!

Gotta love the 80s! Swatch guards and big wheels on skateboards!

As a kid in the 1980s, watches were cheap quartz, and the cool ones had LCD screens with a stopwatch and alarm. The really cool one was the calculator watch advertised in comic books if you signed up for some program and sold enough crap door-to-door. As if elementary school kids are just itching to do more math, right? Heck no! It was a nifty gizmo, and one that my fantasies said would enable me to cheat on my math tests! And of course there were Swatches and the Swatch guard… But as a ten year old boy I was convinced those colorful things were for girls. (Who knew all these years later I would love them for their sense of whimsy?)

dashtronicBut the watch that finally got me hooked was a little thing too beautiful to ignore: the Stauer 1930 Dashtronic. Seriously, just look at it! What soulless monster wouldn’t love that piece of art deco beauty? I saw this thing advertised in Popular Mechanics all the time, but the ads also sounded too good to be true (they sell Stauer items in Sky Mall, so there’s an indication of the level of quality we’re talking about here). So I did a little bit of Google searching for owner reports and before I knew it, my eyes had been opened to a whole new world.

watchuseek.com has now become one of my more frequently lurked websites, and the knowledge there is simply amazing. And while that Dashtronic beauty turned out to be a Chinese made knock-off trying to pass as high-end goods (that’s what Stauer does), the guys on watchuseek actually seem very fair about them. I’ve been able to learn a little bit about everything from $5,000 and up TAG Heuers to the “lowliest” of the Casio G-Shock line. These guys simply love watches, and once you understand the caveats of whatever watch you’re currently eyeing, it’s just a matter of enjoying it for what it is.

I think I find this so refreshing because, really, a wristwatch is almost 100% personal adornment and extraneous. Coming from doing the Handgun Podcast almost full time, with a focus on personal defense and concealed carry instruction, everything was much more critical in my eye. I was constantly looking for faults or hangups that could become potentially lethal pitfalls in a life-or-death situation, and trying to explain to a budget-only minded person that Uncle Mike’s holsters and a Hi Point C9 are unacceptable compromises just got old. It became very tiring, and constant research was like slamming my head against a wall. But this? Wristwatches (and pens, which I’m sure I’ll write more about later) are something I can simply enjoy. Cheap, accurate quartz watches and the ubiquity of cell phones have made fretting over a time piece irrelevant. Now it’s purely something to enjoy.

I bought one later as field watch for first deployment as a gov't contractor.

I bought one later as field watch for first deployment as a gov’t contractor.

While I was still doing the podcast, I began to lust after an Oakley Holeshot 10th Mountain Edition. I think it was $300 or $325 at the time. It was still pretty recent that I’d discovered watchuseek and the truth about Stauers, when one of my friends and I were talking about the Holeshot. “I mean, I’m a watch guy,” he said, “But $300 on a watch is just outrageous!” I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit, then told him about Stauer, this crazy watch forum I’d discovered, etc. And the price of a Rolex, or a Tag Heuer. I told him not to take offense, but that I knew just enough to think that he and I weren’t really “watch guys”.

At the time, I didn’t even know about brands like Patek Phillipe or Panerai. No matter how much more I learn, the one thing I just keep trying to remember is that there’s still so much I don’t know. But even though I’ve since bought a several thousand dollar wristwatch (a TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 17, CAV511B.FC6225), one thing I have come to believe is that you don’t have to spend that kind of money to be a “watch guy”. All that moniker really requires is a little bit of knowledge, and loving what’s on your wrist. I love the Fossil watch my wife bought me that was only just over $110, and as I type this I’m wearing a Timex Expedition purchased from Amazon for $46. You don’t have to spend megabucks, just love what you have.

So what kind of knowledge have I picked up and think a jeans and t-shirt watch fan should share? Really, just the basics of quartz vs. mechanical watches and how to recognize them.

Quartz watches are cheaper and more accurate than mechanical and since that’s a win/win situation the conversation is over, right? Not so much. For everyday use, I can’t really think of a valid argument against a quartz, but because they’re so cheap to buy they also don’t have much in the way of heirloom quality or repair support. They’re disposable. When they break you chuck ‘em out and get a new one, and many times CAN’T be repaired because there simply aren’t parts made for them anymore. But they’re also hardy and will last for years. If it’s electric, it’s a quartz watch and derives its timing from the oscillator that’s regulated to a very precise frequency by the quartz crystal. You can recognize these at a glance in even analog watch faces because the second hand will jump very distinctly from one second to the next. One, pause, two, pause, three, etc. Even in more expensive watches like a Bulova or an Oakley. So you’re paying for the name, fashion, and maybe materials but not a “fine timepiece”. There’s nothing wrong with that, just be aware.

Mechanical watches on the other hand are driven purely by, well, the mechanical force of a wound spring. They’re not as accurate and more costly (and from what I’ve read, it’s recommended they be serviced about every two years), but a good jeweler should be able to keep them running forever. If you have an automatic watch, it’s typically a self-winding mechanical and the tell-tale sign is a second hand with a much smoother sweeping movement of several very tiny ticks between each second. Don’t be fooled by thinking that more “jewels” means it’s a nicer watch- the jewel is just the bearing that parts pivot in for the complications (added features like a chronograph or day/date window). A six jewel Swiss watch could easily out-price a 17 jewel Chinese watch. And the term chronometer is supposed to be reserved for watches of a certain precision standard, but outside of Switzerland (where they’re certified by the COSC) it’s really up to the scruples of the watchmaker.

The last two paragraphs are nothing new to the die-hard watch aficionado, and odds are if you found this blog by Google you already know all that or even have suggestions to improve, correct, or clarify the info. But I felt like I should at least put the basics out there.

So from there, what’s the point? Well, while it broke my heart to discover that Stauer were mostly just Chinese movements (the motor, if you will, that powers the watch), it set me on a few years’ journey of discovery that led right back where I started. I’m just accepting of it now. My Fossil is an automatic and almost certainly a Chinese movement (Fossil started life importing and re-branding inexpensive watches from the far east) but I don’t care; I simply love it. My Oakley Holeshot that touts a Swiss 4-jewel movement is quartz. These may just be “fashion watches”, but who cares? My TAG is something I’ll pass down to my kids, even if the cognoscenti tease that it’s more a marketing firm than a watch company these days. But in the meantime I’ll enjoy it, and anything else in my collection just for being the marvelous little works of art that they are.

Confession: I do find myself eschewing quartz watches these days except for necessity (like now, while I’m deployed in Afghanistan). I really like the detail and complexity of all those little gears and after growing up with jumping second hands, the smooth sweeping of a mechanical just fascinates me. My Holeshot has been plagued with problems for a future blog post, so spending serious cash on a quartz watch is nothing I’m inclined to do again. I think a mechanical watch appeals to any guy who likes tinkering under the hood of a car or on a motorcycle, so I’m pleased there are actually affordable options out there. Check out Xetum, for example. I highly encourage any gearhead to go mechanical if they can (an old Omega was dependable enough for a zero-G trip to the moon, after all). And if you get up some serious scratch to spend on a watch, check out Panerai before plunking your bank down on a Rolex (edited after more learning a bit more) you’ll never go wrong with a Rolex Daytona.

The Selvedge Yard

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I’m not really a fan of the ’70s. Or the late ’60s. I tend to write off anything from the time Haight-Ashbury entered the nation’s consciousness until the Reagan era. Music (psychedelia and disco), to movies (the vast majority of the New Hollywood era), to fashion, to cars… Pop culture from that era just strikes me as… ugly.

Which is why I have to point out how cool I think The Selvedge Yard is. Here’s a blog focused on a bunch of stuff I tend to dismiss out of hand, but it grabs me with each and every post. Mostly it’s the pretty pictures. But one of the comments I read on the About page sums it up perfectly.

Retro but not old fashioned. Modern but not trendy. Style with substance. Great blog.

Any blog, heck anything, that can make me reconsider some of my preconceptions is worth talking about. I highly recommend checking it out.

What Captain America (2011 film) got wrong

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Captain America has been my favorite superhero for a long time. I had a brief dalliance with The Flash, and every kid likes Batman. But I always kept coming back to Cap. I still remember re-reading Captain America #370 over and over again as a kid sitting in the chair at the local barber shop. The Mark Waid issues (v.1 #444-454, v.3 #1-23) are likely the best ever written. Marvel has made some serious missteps in the past 10 years, imho, but at least we finally got a great Captain America movie. And leave it to Joe Johnson, director of the also fantastic Rocketeer, to get it right! But there was one niggling problem. Here’s the email I sent my Dad.

I’m guessing part of what you didn’t like (that you mentioned toward the end, direction it went, etc.) was that Bucky died, falling off the train. I just wanted to let you know I agree with you, and here’s why.

In the original comics (WWII era), Captain America had a kid sidekick, as so many superheros did. Robin, Superboy, etc. The Green Arrow had a kid sidekick called Speedy. Kids running around in costume and violent encounters were all over the place! Bucky was a pre-teen kid that hung out around the Army post and kind of their “mascot”, that discovered Steve Rogers changing uniforms one day, so they did the whole “Well now that you know my secret, the only option is to drag you with me into harm’s way, young fellow!” Kind of ridiculous when you look back on it, and I imagine it was kind of silly when they decided to “thaw out” Captain America again in 1964.

In the WWII era, Cap never had a resolution story. It was just kind of cancelled after languishing sales (and even became a suspense/horror comic with I believe some cowboy stories that didn’t feature Cap at all). So when they brought Cap back, they had to “retcon” his story to explain what happened. Retcon is “retroactive continuity”, where they go back and say “what REALLY happened was THIS”. So the story was that Cap and Bucky were trying to stop a super missile or nuke from launching from Germany to New York, they actually hop onto the rocket, and detonate it in the air over the polar ice caps. Cap gets cryogenically fozen, and Bucky is apparently killed. This way there is no silly teen sidekick, and Cap has his critical flaw (grief) that made Marvel characters so much more human and real than DC/Superman who were perfect in every way.

The writing and art was simpler then, and not as nuanced as today. To make a character identifiable and human, the flaw/weakness was often overstated.

The downside of this, was that for 40 years Cap was occasionally written as a moody, self-pitying character by writers that were a little ham-fisted. “Woe is me, I got the young lad killed. It’s been forever ago now and I still haven’t learned to move on and instead will torture the reading audience with my diatribe.”

What should have been a poignant human touch became farcical.

About 2001, Marvel starts re-booting all their comics without 40 (or in Cap’s case, 60) years of backstory. It’s a fresh start, and good way to get new readers. They call it Ultimate Marvel, and it’s way better than it should be. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, they simply focus on Cap being the “man out of time”, write him smarter… And Bucky lived. Best thing they ever did! Cap meets Bucky who’s now an old man, married, and had a good life, kids etc. Now the writers can focus on Steve Rogers’ character, rather than him being all depressed.

The problem is the movie didn’t do either of these. It kind of came off as them just killing Bucky for no good reason. You have one scene of Steve all depressed and trying to get drunk, and then he’s all honky-dorey afterward. There’s no “and this is for Bucky!” big dramatic scene. There’s no catharsis or grand gesture to show how Bucky’s sacrifice was ultimately worth it. Cap downs the plane to save a city (or more), but Bucky just dies for no reason- and you can’t do that in a mythic tale because it cheapens the heroism. He becomes just a cast-off character, when he was clearly built up to be more than that. That’s the critical flaw in the movie.

I just thought of something, and I’m going to take this one step further although this may be a leap (I hope this whole email hasn’t bored you to tears already so I’ll try to be brief). Right now we’re coming up on 10 years since the 9/11 attacks. We’ve been involved in military engagements for a looooong time as a nation, and I fear with political correctness cutting our own throats and constant media coverage we’re not going to be finished any time soon. Our family has been blessed to be have been relatively unaffected by this, but there are lots of families who’ve lost loved ones, or had them come back mangled, disabled, etc. While Captain America may have been a fantasy product, it was also an escape from those who use words like “jingoists” to describe patriots. It was a great two hours of clearly defined good vs. evil, and it was perfectly ok to cheer for America without some liberal griping about “equality”. I can’t help but feel somehow that having Bucky die like he did, somehow a great opportunity was missed to thank all the “regular” troops who have given so much to protect our nation and all those in it. They’re not super soldiers, or a product of some great experiment. They’re regular guys who are truly heroic because of the danger they expose themselves to for the sake of others. They’re Bucky.

I don’t think anyone involved in the movie really considered that, intended to dismiss the contributions or the regular troop, etc. I think they just killed Bucky because he died in the comic. I get that, and I can forgive/overlook it. But the fact remains that it was a misstep in the storytelling, and possibly the only thing that prevents me giving Captain America an A+ as a film. I’ll still buy it when it comes out on DVD. I love Cap, and this was the best he’s ever been on film. I’ll just always wish they’d remembered the heroism of the “average” American serviceman as well.