Fnord.

As you may recall, I’m enjoying my new watch. It arrived running fast, and didn’t settle down in a week or two. After emailing Chris Ward, I followed the directions on the CW forum and actually (gasp!) opened ‘er up. Yep. Sunday, in fact. I’m now two marks turned down on the Etachron, and we’ll see how that does. One notch slowed it from +17 to +11, so I hope this’ll get me closer.

Quite interesting to open up, had to be careful as heck, not gonna be selling this one as “like new” anytime soon. Only a few scratches resulted. I really need to get a decent digital camera so I can shoot pictures of the process; it’s quite interesting.

On a related note, the 316L bezel seems to scuff really easily, but Brillo pad buffs it right out. And you don’t have to worry about marking the crystal while doing it, either, as sapphire is much harder. Cool. I’m sure that soon I won’t care about scuffs, but for now its a nice trick.

Update 1/9/07: I adjusted the CW as per the instructions on this page. It took three tries to get it dialed in, but the watch now gains less than a second per day, roughly three seconds per week. Superb!

I worked for Sandia from 94-99, roughly, and our lab was called the SAXS lab, which can be quite confusing to callers of the other gender.

Ahem. (Small-angle X-ray scattering. The link goes to a nice Wikipedia article on it.)

Anyway, from the link in the picture, looks like it’s still standing, kinda cool to see. Nice to know that some of my work might still be in use.

It was with enormous reluctance that I resisted the urge to write a punny headline based on SAXS. Those of you who dislike wordplay can breathe easier knowing that one more bad pun has been contained.

Update 11/28/06: Diego was trying to understand some old SAXS data and found our paper on the lab.

Annual Ultimate game between Argonne and Fermilab, Aug 2004. Note the farmer tan, white socks and such. It was a good game, as were both that I played. I do miss ultimate here.

Just found the new Blackberry FAQ site. A wiki of all sorts of info, looks useful.

I’ve been a Seiko fan since I discovered mechanical watches. Good, superb value, durable, nicely detailed. Good stuff.

In the continuing course of my madness, I became convinced that I needed something better than the 7S26 movement. My blue Samurai runs +15s/day, even after I spent $65 (ouch!) getting it regulated locally. No fault of the watchmaker; it has lousy isochronism, which makes it hard to correct. I added the money I’d spent on it and decided that embroidered sow’s ear != silk purse, and started looking.

I wanted something that was handwind, hacked, and had good accuracy. Preferably less than 8s/day, so that in the course of the week I’ll be off less than a minute. Call it my personal criterion.

On the Seiko side, it’s a bit sparse. In the 200-and-less region, there’s Seiko 5s and divers, all based on the same 7S26 and variants. (7S25, 7S36, 7S26). If you have the money, a Marine Master is about 1200 used, with the excellent 8L35 movement. I don’t, but they’re reputed to be very nice. Seiko used to make the SUS series, with the 4S15 movement, but those are now going for more than I wanted to pay. Ditto the 4S15-based Alpinists, which are also a touch small. Briefly, there was the Yema Seaspider, an interestingly ugly diver that had a 4S15 in it, but they sold out fast and are now impossible to find. Damn!

Recently introduced at around $300, Seiko now has a new (perhaps based on the 7S26, it’s not clear) 6R15 movement:

Specs, also shamelessly cribbed from Velociphile:

The Spirit comes in several flavors, is a Japan-only model, and is quite nice. Well detailed, gets good reviews on Timezone and (of course) The Seiko and Citizen forum. It’s a dress watch, 37mm, no lume. Here’s one example of the styles available:

Compare that to the Elabore-grade ETA 2824-2 in my Christopher Ward Aviator:

Elaboré (regulated in three positions Dial up, 6H and 9H)
Mean daily rate +/- 7 s/d
Max variation across 5 positions: 20 s
Isochronism: +/- 15 s/d

Also note that the CW is better finished: Rhodium plating, perlage, blued screws, CdG on the rotor and colored engraving:

It’s hard to compare directly, but the Elabore-grade 2824 is a better spec movement. From reviews, most of the Spirit owners are doing as well, but I’ve been burnt three times on Seiko movements and want something with a spec, damn it.

Ahem.

So here’s what it came down to: The CW has a better movement, an IMHO more attractive dial, cost the same, is readable at night and is more legible. I’m a bit disappointed that Seiko has less value at this price point, and for a new movement it has pretty wide error specs.

As a style note, I also greatly prefer that CW puts much less text on the dial. I really dislike superfluous bloviage (I’m looking at you, Rolex) and CW has a lot less.

It was a surprise to me, given the amazing value of the Seiko divers, but I’m delighted that they have competition.

Yep, as previously noted, it took a bit of effort for my Aviator to fall into my sweaty palms, but I managed. Amazingly, someone actually read my blog and wanted to know what I thought of it.

Will wonders never cease.

I’m in the first phase, infatuation, so consider accordingly.

I found a nice set of close-ups on the unofficial Christopher Ward site, that’s where the above picture is from. I currently don’t have a camera with macro capability, so I’m gonna borrow like the famous quote says. (I always thought that was Picasso, but the page says Michael Berens.)

Some quick notes: It’s only been a few days, so it may just be the postal abuse, but mine is running ~20s/day fast. I’ve exchanged email with Chris, and he suggested I adjust it myself; all you have to do is open the back and turn the screw on the Etachron. I’ll give it a week or two and see if it still needs doing. Been meaning to learn more, anyway, so as long as I don’t screw it up it should be interesting.

It’s as pretty in person as the pictures suggest. Very legible, very classy. I’d call it more of a aviator-styled dress watch than an aviator, but that’s just me. It’s a bit smaller than the behemoths I’ve been wearing of late, but at 38mm by 10.8mm its a nice size and shape.

The luminosity at night is a mixed bag. The superluminova used is first-rate, but there’s a lot less f it than the lighthouse-inspired Seiko divers that I’m used to. Readable all night, which is my primary figure of merit.

The movement is 28,800 vph, or 8 movements per second. The Seiko 7S26 I’m used to is 21,600 or 6Hz, so the movement is smoother and prettier. Same as the Rolex, at least modern ones like the 3130 and 3150.

The band is very dressy, and the deployant clasp works well. I will find something that I can get wet, and save this one for dressing up.

Overall value is amazing. I still can’t find anything even close, even Seiko. Highly recommended.

A very nice set of pages about making your own watch, from Donald Corson. He took the guts of an ETA 2824, and went somewhere totally new with it. Machined base plate, rearranged the drive train, experimented with new plating, designed his own hands, and learned a great deal on the way. Fascinating, wish I had his resources to experiment with.

I’ve been meaning to post about the Aeropress, but had forgotten until the last post about espresso. Briefly, it rocks. No significant negatives after several months of usage.Want more detail? Check out Dan’s review for images, critique, humor and lots and lots of detail. The picture is one I swiped from his review.

Cheap, effective, easy to clean, excellent coffee in single-user quantities. Excellent for camping, too.
Almost forgot - Amazon has them for $25.

There’s a nice article in the times about good espresso making it from Seattle to New York. Annoying registration required, but that’s fixable. I was pleased to see references to Espresso Vivace Roasteria, my personal all-time favorite. Wish we had something that good locally.

Ahh, Vivace. It’s of note that the owner, David Schomer, wrote a book called Professional Espresso Techniques that’s really good. Though you risk ending up with the conviction that you really need to spend a lot of money on espresso hardware.

Now I need a shot. Time to fire up the becoming-trusty Aeropress and make me some flavor.

Got home at five to six to find that the post office had tried to deliver it today. On the one hand, I am delighted as I’ve resembled a dog waiting for its owner to return. On the other hand, I hafta wait, ’cause they closed at six. Damn!

Guess I’ll be getting up early.