Community Stories

How often do you see ANY nice watch in the wild?

mydeafcat
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Today in the cafeteria of our college, I saw a fashionably dressed fellow (I knew straight away he was, like me, a marketing guy) with a newer green dial, white gold, 41mm Rolex DJ.

I work at a local college so in-the-wild sightings are rare. Anyway, I commented on the Rollie, and once he noticed my BB Burgundy it was the beginning of a great watch nerd-out. He works for a local tech firm, has a thing for green watch dials, and while ‘not a typical Rolex guy’ he had to pull the trigger when the AD called so quickly after his initial inquiry. A really fine fellow with whom I hope to have more chats.
 
Jakeys
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Spotted a Tudor Black Bay at the office recently, not exactly sure of the reference, maybe 79220N, but it was definitely gilt dial, black bezel on bracelet. The dial actually really stood out, looked amazing. I think that's the first time I've seen one other than in an AD.
 
bsowers34
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So haven't seen any recently, but a customer noticed my hesalite 3861 today. He knew what it was.
 
FurryWristAbroad
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Here, within the core of Toronto, it is quite common to see people with luxury timepieces, which is always a welcomed change of pace from seeing the same blank black rectangular squares of an Apple Watch.

Today, I saw a couple of smaller Cartier Tanks on the wrists of a couple of ladies, a vintage steel DateJust, and some Bell & Ross, which I could not identify due to distance... and of course a sea of Apple Watches and Samsung smart watches with an odd Garmin thrown in here and there.
 
Porteroso
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Saw my first nice watch, since getting into watches and paying attention. Dunno what it was, some skeleton watch with no large brand. I was a row across from the guy, on a plane out of NYC, so figures.
 
bsowers34
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Yesterday I had a customer ask about my FOISv2. He had a gorgeous 36mm steel Rolex Explorer on.
 
chichi
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rather common on the subway in this Asian city

young guy in his 20s wearing a smaller ballon bleu

IMG_0660 exp.webp
 
DoctorEvil
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chichi chichi
rather common on the subway in this Asian city

young guy in his 20s wearing a smaller ballon bleu

IMG_0660 exp.webp
Tokyo? I was there on a holiday recently and spotted a young man in casual clothes with a black dial Explorer 2 and a middle aged man in a suit with an early 2000s black Sub date. Both on the subway.
 
hen
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We have an analog wall clock in the shop and some of the young ones keep asking for the time, I always just point to the clock forgetting that many of them can`t tell the time an an analog clock. When I have the time I give them a chrash course in analog time telling. So get your kids and grand kids watches people and theach them how to read analog time.

Anyways, a new batch of youngsters passed thru the wokshop recently and I noticed that about 10 % had wrist watches, some Fossil but mostly Seikos, good parenting! (The once with watches was also the brightest)
 
pkaye6
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My retirement job is part time at a local high school as their IT manager. I concur with above about kids and analog clocks. They can't read them and half are unwilling to learn. So sad to see where we are headed. 😱
 
Jakeys
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I've been able to read analog clocks since I was a kid, but they never feel as natural to me as digital clocks. Even to this day, reading my watches requires a second of brain power to process the position of the hands and convert them to a time, whereas the numbers on a digital clock I'll perceive as time instantantaneously.

I assumed that was obvious for all, but recently learned some people have the opposite experience, where they perceive time as being represented via the hands on the clock acting like progress bars, and so the numbers on the digital clock require a layer of extrapolation to convert raw numbers to progress through the day. I thought that was super interesting.
 
Pastorbottle
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Jakeys Jakeys
I've been able to read analog clocks since I was a kid, but they never feel as natural to me as digital clocks. Even to this day, reading my watches requires a second of brain power to process the position of the hands and convert them to a time, whereas the numbers on a digital clock I'll perceive as time instantantaneously.

I assumed that was obvious for all, but recently learned some people have the opposite experience, where they perceive time as being represented via the hands on the clock acting like progress bars, and so the numbers on the digital clock require a layer of extrapolation to convert raw numbers to progress through the day. I thought that was super interesting.
I can look at the hands of an analogue clock, watch, or gauge and take in it the information without thought, but when I look at a digital display I have to stop and think what do those numbers mean…good, bad or don’t worry about it? I can take in the information provided by a whole panel of analog gages at a glance, because I’m not interested in the in actual indicated numbers I’m looking for any abnormal or unexpected behaviour. Then if I see something that warrants further consideration I pay further attention.
I think it all depends what was normal when you were a little tackler, back then we hadn’t seen digital displays.
Having said that I much prefer to use digital micrometers, height gauges, vernier callipers etc. But that is more of a product of my aging eyes, and the bonus of being able to switch from metric to imperial measurements if required at the flick of a switch. This means I don’t have to have separate instruments for the different measurement systems.
Because here in Oz we changed to metric when I was a kid I can think in either system, but
I prefer metric. Sometimes though the specifications I need are either from old pre metric manuals or are from the US.
Edited:
 
Tekashi_145.022
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Jakeys Jakeys
I've been able to read analog clocks since I was a kid, but they never feel as natural to me as digital clocks. Even to this day, reading my watches requires a second of brain power to process the position of the hands and convert them to a time, whereas the numbers on a digital clock I'll perceive as time instantantaneously.

I assumed that was obvious for all, but recently learned some people have the opposite experience, where they perceive time as being represented via the hands on the clock acting like progress bars, and so the numbers on the digital clock require a layer of extrapolation to convert raw numbers to progress through the day. I thought that was super interesting.

I find that reading the time on an analog clock is an opportunity to slow down. If someone asks me the time and I check an analog watch, it’s not “1:43,” it’s “about a quarter til 2.” It is a brief but welcome reprieve from the precise and digital world we are submerged in. I think it’s why I find mechanical watches a hobby - even if modern ones are digitally designed and engineered.
 
Pastorbottle
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About 9 months ago I gifted some analog watches to a mate’s two young kids, so they would learn how to understand analog time.
 
Jakeys
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Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
I can look at the hands of an analogue clock, watch, or gauge and take in it the information without thought, but when I look at a digital display I have to stop and think what do those numbers mean…good, bad or don’t worry about it? I can take in the information provided by a whole panel of analog gages at a glance, because I’m not interested in the in actual indicated numbers I’m looking for any abnormal or unexpected behaviour. Then if I see something that warrants further consideration I pay further attention.

There you go! This is alien to me. I'm the opposite, I see 3:37 PM on a digital clock and just instantly identify that as the time (and what that time means to me) with no thought required. Analog requires a mental conversion to digital. The thought process is: "Hour hand is between 3 and 4, minute hand is between 37 and 38, the time is 3:37" - obviously this only takes a second but it is how my brain reads time. I understand (now) that's not the case for analog first brains as you described.

Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
I think it all depends what was normal when you were a little tackler, back then we hadn’t seen digital displays.

Agreed. I grew up in the 90s with computers with digital clocks in the menu bar, and my brain is still conceptualising time that way to this day. It's not a habit I could break or even want to break, as I work in tech and still see digital time more than analog. Despite wearing analog watches.
 
ErichPryde
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Jakeys Jakeys
where they perceive time as being represented via the hands on the clock acting like progress bars, and so the numbers on the digital clock require a layer of extrapolation to convert raw numbers to progress through the day. I thought that was super interesting.

Huh.
I guess I hadn't really thought about this, but when I read a clock face the time is where the hands are pointing. I'm not sure I'd ever realized this, but if it's 10:30 then the hour hand is two hours before 12 and the minutes hand is halfway around. It being 10:30 is somewhat secondary to the hand positions communicating the information. Not sure if this is natural or learned, my grandad always measured time in quarters and sometimes didn't even mention the hour (as if it was obvious. I can hear him saying "quarter til, half past" right now) and he was pretty influential to some of my early learning.

I don't think reading a digital clock takes any more or less time, but I definitely do not process the information the same way.
Edited:
 
Jakeys
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
Huh.
I guess I hadn't really thought about this, but when I read a clock face the time is where the hands are pointing. I'm not sure I'd ever realized this, but if it's 10:30 then the hour hand is two hours before 12 and the minutes hand is halfway around. It being 10:30 is somewhat secondary to the hand positions communicating the information. Not sure if this is natural or learned, my grandad always measured time in quarters and sometimes didn't even mention the hour (as if it was obvious) and he was pretty influential to some of my early learning.

I don't think reading a digital clock takes any more or less time, but I definitely do not process the information the same way.

I had never thought about it either. I have to give credit to Technology Connections on YouTube, this was in one of his videos and he is an analog first guy like you. His description of not liking how digital clocks display time because he wants to see a clock face with hands representing progress really opened my eyes up to this. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about at first, it was an eye opener. I don't recall the specific video it was in, or I'd link it.

Pastorbottle said it really well I think, I'm gonna quote him again cause it really captures the discussion:

Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
I can look at the hands of an analogue clock, watch, or gauge and take in it the information without thought, but when I look at a digital display I have to stop and think what do those numbers mean

I can look at a digital display and take in the information without thought, but when I look at an analog display, I have to stop and think what do those positions mean.

It reminds me a bit of the discussion about some people thinking in pictures and other people thinking in words. But that's another entire can of worms and this is already technically pretty off topic. 😁
 
theluckyluke
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The bestseller book “Thinking slow and fast” covers this exact brain process.

We have two brains - one that can take simple information instantly without processing it. And another that can process more complex information, but acts slower and requires some more energy.

We go by default to the first brain, because it’s more gratifying and requires no effort.

Analog clocks (for most I suppose) require the second brain layer to be activated to properly read the time.

Digital clocks probably feel more like instant information, due to our familiarity with numbers, so they feel easier to read for many. And many of these are now also connected to instant gratification with notifications from our phones etc.
 
UncleBuck
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Jakeys Jakeys
I've been able to read analog clocks since I was a kid, but they never feel as natural to me as digital clocks. Even to this day, reading my watches requires a second of brain power to process the position of the hands and convert them to a time, whereas the numbers on a digital clock I'll perceive as time instantantaneously.

I assumed that was obvious for all, but recently learned some people have the opposite experience, where they perceive time as being represented via the hands on the clock acting like progress bars, and so the numbers on the digital clock require a layer of extrapolation to convert raw numbers to progress through the day. I thought that was super interesting.
I know I had issues when we switched from sands in the hourglass to analogue.
 
texasmade
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Took my gf to see stem cell doctor to potentially do PRP treatments. The PA had the current stainless steel Rolex Daytona white panda dial on. First time I ever saw Daytona out in the wild.
 
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