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2018 has been my year of quartz ... started a grab & go hunt in Jan-Feb, trying to get off my addiction to Timex ... FWIW, I purposely avoided Seiko, Citizen, and Casio. They obviously make great watches, but I wanted to discover some new brands that I didn't know before ...

The winner is the Gavox Aurora w/a Soprod-A SOP 716 twin-motion quartz 'mecatronic' movement ... perpetual date, chrono, timer, UTC, moon phase, spreadsheet program.

Sampled everything from Bertucci and their unnamed "all metal Japanese" quartz (Miyota?) to the Techne Hummingbird's Seiko VH31 ...

Was looking for some chronos for the start of my kids' track season ... they run the 400m and 800m races and I really wanted to find a stopwatch timer like the 6138/39 or the Chronostop ... and discovered DH. What a fabulous brand!

Also discovered the HAQ forum and found myself a Certina DS-2 Precidrive. It had a bit too much wrist presence and went into the box and hasn't moved much, except to check its accuracy. I ended up getting a Certina DS First (can't find a pic!), a somewhat simpler sports chrono. So I'm gonna flip the HAQ and keeping the First ... but the HAQ is amazing and after nearly 3 months, is -4 seconds.

Didn't realize Gavox and Techne were sister companies. Love this Harrier w/a Miyota quartz. Not a keeper, but I got the automatic version for my brother for his birthday later this month, but I really like it so I might have to get another one for my brother ...

I'm keeping the Gavox Aurora, the Certina DS First, and a Bertucci. I've licked the Timex addiction, and I'm selling off most of them, but will always be a fan, especially the IQ Yacht Racer which will always be my favorite.

 

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As a fan of the Lemania 5100, I couldn't pass up this quartz chronograph with central seconds/minutes counter.

Central minutes is my favorite chronograph complication. As far as I know, only Sinn and Damasko currently make auto versions, though Montblanc had one a few years ago (Twinfly) but it's discontinued. In quartz, I was only aware of the Certina DS First and the Gavox Aurora using central minutes, so it's great to know about the Revue Thommen. I am mystified why this function isn't more popular ... it's by far the easiest way to read a chrono, and it's just plain cool. On the Sales Corner right now are at least two Sinn's with Lemanias, and a TAG Aquagraph. Last week I also saw a Sinn EZM 1.1 listed for sale, and considered selling a kidney to get it, but I think it already got snagged.
Thanks for posting this!

 

[Vioviv]

IMO, one of the coolest quartz watches available: A-13A Pilot Watch from Italy. The second hand hits the indices perfectly, the jump minute hand is legible and fun to watch, gives this quartz 1 Hz watch the feeling of a precision instrument.

Spend your Saturday reading the world's longest review of this fantastic watch!
https://www.watchuseek.com/f67/review-13a-pilot-watch-4706961.html

 

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Would you ever guess that this is a quartz watch? The blue dial is gorgeous, the markers and handsets are (decently) lumed, but it also has Timex's greatest horological contribution (well, since 1957 when they cloned Laco's 0-jewel excenter-rotor single gear automatic movement) ... Indiglo!

View attachment 13530941

The Q Quartz was released under the Timex "Originals" label, which were made in 2011. Timex builds 98% of their watches using chromed brass or resin cases, but the Originals are stainless steel and extremely well built. No loud ticking. The first three down below are pictured with their vintage twins. I owned the vintage pieces first, and spent a lot of time hunting the Originals down, and found the first two on German eBay.

VVV This one was sold under the Originals label, and I found it of all places from a JDM Amazon seller, but I was never able to determine the vintage piece it was based on. It vaguely resembles a Red Ball diver, but is conspicuously lacking the lollipop second hand, and has a countdown scale on the bezel (which is otherwise perfectly replicated). I never wore it, and wound up selling it to a member here who bought it for his 10-year-son. It had decent lume + Indiglo, and an excellent rubber strap.

VVV This "coke bezel" diver reissue was probably the best Original value: 100M water resistance, stainless steel, w/lume & Indiglo. The second hand actually hit the indices! I paid $40 for a NOS model. Not a bad deal for those specs.

This post makes me sad, because with only one exception, I sold all of them last year, both the Originals and their vintage twins. I'm a lifelong Timex consumer, starting buying vintage pieces in the 1990s, and will always have a few in my collection, but I needed desperately needed to cull the herd. I went from this ...

... to this ...

With the release of the new automatic Marlin, I hope Timex builds some new Originals models w/mechanical movements.

 

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Bulova Hack. ... my favorite watch I bought in 2018 ... been stealing a lot of wrist time from my mechanicals ...

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Splendid watch! Is this a current model?

Yes! It's a special edition watch that Bulova created for Macy's. Still available!

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/...searchPass=allMultiMatchWithSpelling&slotId=1

Here are some more gratuitous pics:

 

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Do you know if this watch has Bulova's UHF movement? Does the seconds hand tick or move smoothly?

It looks very cool.

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It's a ticking quartz ... it's not the 262 kHz UHF movement.
Recommend however at a big discount- it's a fun watch.

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[Vioviv]

Fun watch, kinda goofy, but legible and light-weight, 100M water resistant, very good for the gym and jogging, w/a smooth-sweep chrono second hand ...
The 24-hr sub-dial is kind of useless ... I guess it would come in handy for spelunking or solitary confinement in the SHU, but not sure why Seiko and Miyota (especially Miyota) have this feature on some many of their movements.

 

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Both of these are new to me, but both have been around for years & don't get much attention on WUS.
The Morgenwerk is a HAQ rated to +/- 0.75 SPY, while the Mondaine Stop2Go is basically a fashion watch with a funky second hand. However, they both share one cool thing in common, a jump minute hand, meaning the minute hand jumps from marker to marker as the second hand passes the 12:00 position. It's mesmerizing to watch ... but also for eyesight challenged guys like me, it makes it a lot easier to read the time at a glance.

PS - there is actually a very technical thread on Morgenwerk in the HAQ forum, dating back to 2012. But I don't think I've seen any references to Morgenwerk outside that thread.

 

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Maybe the best $125 I've ever spent on a watch ...

 

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Working from home, and distracted having my watches in the same room. Will probably do at least 3 more swaps today. This one is a Seiko SBTE003 6M26 Auto-Calendar, c. 1990s, time/date, chronograph, timer, and alarm ... modes are selected using the crown.

Here's a little YT video showing how it works ...

I wish Seiko would do a reissue ... it's a really fun & affordable watch.

 

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Good morning! I'm starting the day with a Roue HDS One ... it has a beautifully brushed cushion case, sapphire w/AR, screw-in caseback, stepped two-tone dial, lumed numerals, beautiful handset, and yes, the second hand hits the hashmarks dead-on. The Miyota 2315 inside is a cheap workhorse movement, rated at ±20 seconds per month, yet it is keeping nearly perfect time. I received the watch in early January, set the time, and it has gained ±0.15 seconds since, which is better than my Certina DS-2 PreciDrive. It's keeping such good time that I didn't change it for DST ... I'm curious to see how long this level of accuracy will continue.
Watch comes with 2 excellent OEM straps w/quick release springbars ...
Gotta say, between the total lack of interest in this brand at WUS, and the modest $150 price, I didn't expect to like this watch as much as I do ... it's kind of like your first Dan Henry ... low expectations b/c it's quartz & affordable, but a very pleasant surprise when you get it on your wrist.

 

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Wearing this chunky little beauty today.

Nice ... One of my all time favorite Timex Originals ...

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