Wrist Watches

Discussion in 'Essential Items' started by Dunmaghlas, Sep 15, 2018.

0/5, 0 votes

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Would you have a wrist watch on you at all times during SHTF?

  1. Yes

    9 vote(s)
    69.2%
  2. No

    2 vote(s)
    15.4%
  3. Only sometimes

    2 vote(s)
    15.4%
  1. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    What do y'all think about wrist watches during SHTF?
    Do you think they'll be necessary or even practical?
    What type of watch do you think would be practical? Quartz (battery) movement? Automatic movement? Solar movement? Pilot style vs plain watch dials? Leather, metal, rubber, or nylon bands?
    What type of crystal on top? Sapphire for scratch resistance? Mineral for impact resistance?
    I personally have a watch made from a 42mm Hamilton case with an automatic movement and black pilot face and dark brown leather band with deployment clasp. It also has a thick sapphire crystal to be scratch-proof and being thick, it can take some impact.
     
  2. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
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    I don't wear a watch, I don't need one out bush. In town if I have an appointment I might carry one in my pocket. I have owned some very expensive watches in my time, but they have always malfunctioned at some point & I just don't see the point in using one anymore. IF I had a use for one, it would have to be a wind up pocket watch, no point in having a battery powered watch as the battery has to go flat sooner or later. Any electronic gadget is a waste of space & weight.
    Keith.
     
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  3. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    Time is important in many ways, knowing the time and its uses is an advantage over those who don't!
    I am not one for throwing away advantages:D
     
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  4. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    During the sailing ship days, a sextant and accurate time piece was necessary to knowing where you were.

    During our coming SHTF events, there will still be responsible people and major efforts to maintain order. Repairs will be ongoing. Savage behavior will be met with rapid lethal force both from survivors and those deputized by survivors as policing agents. "Zero tolerance" will take on new meaning; mercy and forgiveness will be in utterly short supply. Civilization will be re-forming and aggressively so. Keeping time will be a part of civilized activities. Restructuring WILL occur. People are people. All libraries will NOT be lost.

    Wind-up clocks and watches of high quality will be in high demand. As Keith said, electronic gadgets will be worthless. Wind-up watches are in high demand even now. Older quality watches are TODAY commanding very high prices indeed. My wife has family who are well versed in such. Me, I'm glad to see this happening. I'm looking at my dad's wind up wrist-watch as I write this. One of my sons has a self-winding wrist-watch. Interest in having a good watch runs in my family also. We've a wind-up mantle clock that we purchased decades ago; I should get that out of storage.
     
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  5. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    Let's say you'd like to preserve a gadget that uses a tiny battery. SHTF and batteries for it are no longer available. You can run a couple of wires into it from a power supply. A voltage regulator can be found or simply use a zener diode to drop a voltage source down to the gadget's requirement. I've got jars of electronic components. Generators are all about. Make a diode bridge to rectify AC to DC ... big capacitors ... no problemo.
     
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  6. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    i'd probably wear a watch until the batteries wore out. I do now.
    in SHTF I don't think i'd worry too much about time, its not like i'd have an appointment or anything, i'd get up when it got light and go to bed when its too dark to do anything.
    tasks will take as long as they take, its not like i'd be punching a time clock or filling in time sheets.
     
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  7. watcherchris

    watcherchris Legendary Survivalist
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    I have a wrist watch and seldom wear it. I often just use the cell phone .

    In certain things I do at work we cannot have on jewelry/watches because of the cleanliness requirements. I do not wear rings and such at work...almost lost a finger thusly and no longer wear rings though I have them. When I dress up I will occasionaly wear a ring..but not usually. I like my digits...thanks.
    I am forced to take such off ..including my security badge and put them into a plastic bag and secure it..until we have finished our clean work.

    I wear a watch which has in it a chronometer, barometer and altimeter and compass..on my belt loop. It is electronic.
    What I do is buy a whole package containing some 10 of the batteries for my watch and also my laser pointer.

    However the point about mechanical watches by some of the posters is true and duly noted. I too believe the olde mechanical watches will command a premium price the future.

    Thanks,
    Watcherchris

    Not an Ishamelite
     
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  8. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    I have invested in a digital solar watch, in theory so long as it gets decent light sometime every month it will run until a breakdown!
    No batteries ever needed!
    Six years and counting.
     
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  9. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    Nice. 6 years is really impressive.
    I was looking at a Citizen Eco-Drive Chandler but decided to make a custom automatic mechanical instead.
     
  10. watcherchris

    watcherchris Legendary Survivalist
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    Now that is interesting...a digital solar watch....

    I'm not so sure that would work with me as I often work from 6pm to 6am in the morning ...I am not a daywalker. I cannot wait to get home after work.

    But ...I suppose I could put one near a source of steady light while I was sleeping.

    But it is interesting. Thanks for bringing up that type of watch. It would never have occurred to me.

    What brand of watch is it??? Who makes it???


    Watcherchris
    Not an Ishmaelite
     
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  11. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    i buy cheap analogue watches off ebay, currently I use Casio watches which go for about £6.99 then throw them away when the batteries wear out-their guaranteed for 2 years and usually last longer.
     
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  12. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    Even a Rolex needs cleaning and servicing, compared to a quartz analogue/digital watch a mechanical automatic watch' accuracy sucks. Changing a lithium watch battery takes minutes and spare batteries have up to a ten year shelf life, probably longer.
    In certain situations an expensive watch or jewellery can mark you out as a target. In the past when travelling abroad I would dress down and wear a £20 Casio.
     
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  13. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I have an Elgin 18 jewels self-winding watch, a wind up pocket watch and several wind up clocks. I know how to clean watches. I did it for money when I was a kid. Most of the time I wear a digital with all sorts of stuff on it like moon phases sun rise and sun set and such. I have spare batteries for it but know it won't last forever. I also have a sundial in my yard and a small one that also has a perpetual calendar on it. Time is always important. The stars will always be an annual calendar but very few people know how to read it. A calendar tells you when to plant and when to harvest. It lets you know when the migratory species will be coming through and when the different animals breed. Learning to accurately tell time is one of the very first signs of an ascending ancient civilization.
     
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  14. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    Casio 5208 Aq-s810w
     
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  15. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    In the event of TEOTWAWKI if you plan on farming or gardening one of the things that you can easily do is make your own version of Stonehenge. There are 4 times a year that you can easily mark for future reference while you still have accurate calendars and such. Put a pole or stack of rocks in an open area. Then on the two equinoxes and the two solstices you mark the point where the sun rises by placing a rock or post a little away from the axis point on those days. They are on or about March 20 equinox , June 21 solstice, September 23 equinox, and December 21 solstice. With this and an easily made sundial you can always have an accurate date and time to work with.
     
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  16. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    I'm already marking these down now lol. Never payed any attention to farming but it would probably be best to start
     
  17. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    generally speaking around here nothing is sown or planted in the ground until the last frosts have been and gone, nothing will germinate in cold ground, so its got more to do with temperature and daylight hours than time or a calendar.
     
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  18. arctic bill

    arctic bill Master Survivalist
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    actually i reset my sun dial in my porch last weekend. that being said they are only roughly accurate. for example the sun rises in the east in june however in november the sun rises 30 degrees further south so 9:00 9n the morning can be off by an hour.
    also it is very important to know when it is 12:00 noon . the reason for this is that most emergency broad will occur at noon. I have a solar power (also hand crank ) am, fm, broadband, shortwave radio , when shtf i will monitor at noon the radio for announcements that will be extremely important .
    Also i use the old indian trick to determine when the sun will go down. you put you hand out and turn your fingers sideways at the horizon and count how many hands from the sun to the horizon. for every hand it is an hour and every finger is 15 minutes , there for 2 hands 2 fingers is 2 1/2 hours until sunset , try it and see if it works for you
     
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  19. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    the sun in our location has to rise up over the moors before we see it, this can be much later in the wintertime, our house faces east so the car windscreen gets the first sunlight, we are usually up quite early 0530-0600 in the summer, we don't need an alarm clock as we have been doing this for over 20 years-my wife a lot longer than that, so we are up before most people around here-unless their a farmer!
     
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  20. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    I'm in a similar situation LW, due to the low path of the winter sun some of the north facing land in river valleys near to me receives no direct sunlight during winter. Of course it's light enough to see but the actual surface of the ground stays frozen.
     
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  21. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I'm more likely to see sunrise on the other end of my day than you Lonewolf. I often am still awake when it rises and then sleep for a few hours. I am a lot lower down towards the equator than you are in Britton.

    One way of getting a sort of general location of the sun when it isn't visible due to cloud cover or even trees is to stand with your hand in front of you and watch the reflection on your thumbnail. As you slowly turn you will see a slightly brighter reflection of your nail and at that point the sun will be directly behind you. I don't know exactly why but you can detect the reflection more accurately than just looking for the brightest spot directly.

    There is also the Viking stone. It is a piece of optical calcite that you put a dot on. When you look into it there are two dots. As you move the stone around the two dots will come together and that will indicate the direction of the sun.
     
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  22. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    A sunstone? I've heard a bit about those being in churches and monasteries in Iceland. Used for finding the sun during full overcast right? Some theory was going around that some Vikings used them as navigation instruments on the sea.
     
  23. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    They have found one on an old viking wreck site now I think.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21693140

    I saw a show on it not too long ago and they actually used one to navigate with. It works on those perpetual cloudy days that they evidently have in the North Seas. Light comes straight from only one direction on even a cloudy day. From what I understand the calcite crystal splits that light up and you see two reflections of the light in the crystal. When you have it pointed straight at the sun the two reflected dots merge until they are the same size and shade adjoined.

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...037C64FABCCD7DB7947E037C64FABCCD&&FORM=VRDGAR
     
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  24. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    Interesting. I'm going to have to do more research on that.
     
  25. Robin Caudle

    Robin Caudle Expert Member
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    I have used a G-Shock for the past 32 years so why change.
     
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  26. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    Yeah those are really good digital watches. I personally never cared for digi's but G-Shocks are very reliable so I get that.
     
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  27. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I've worn a Casio for about ten years that has the moon stages, sunrise, sun set and the tides on it along with the usual things. It is accurate down to the second and is tough as nails and water proof down to farther than I ever dive. I wear digital because my magnetic personality seems to mess up wind up watches. Before digital watches I used a pocket watch for daily use and only wore watches for dress or fishing and swimming. If I wore it more than three months it would just stop. I could throw it in a drawer for 6 months and it would work again. ??????????????????
     
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  28. Dunmaghlas

    Dunmaghlas Expert Member
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    xD xD xD xD xD xD
     
  29. F22 Simpilot

    F22 Simpilot Master Survivalist
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  30. Crys B.

    Crys B. Active Member
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    It can be used to tell north, south, east, and west if you know how to use it properly.
     
  31. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    I guess I am just ignorant but having a watch during an apocalyptic is about like getting all dressed up with no where to go . If you need to navigate in unknown terrain simply do as people have done for thousands of years "look at the sun " . Ponce DE Leon "probably misspelled " walked from Texas to florida looking for the fountain of youth then turned around and walked back to his ship . I doubt he had a fancy watch .
     
  32. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    A watch does a lot of things for you. Without a watch sometimes the night can be forever long. You wake up in the night and don't know whether sunrise is an hour or eight hours away. On a cloudy day it can be much the same. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you can just somehow inherently sense the passage of time. It has been tested and proven that without any way to measure time people will become sort of disoriented and their guess at how long has passed is more dependent on what is happening around them than any real sense of the true passage of time.

    If two people want to meet or coordinate in any way without a time piece they are mostly limited to a nebulous "in the morning, evening, around noon etc. I guess if you are by yourself it mostly doesn't matter but when others are involved you need a common reference. In more primitive times villages had people that called out the hours or rang a bell on the hours as measured by a sun dial or early clocks that were not portable. At night they used hour glasses and called out the hour and let people know that all was well.

    Clocks were necessary for navigation of ships and until they had them the ability to navigate by the stars was severely limited. The De Leon Family settled in Texas and with huge Spanish land grants they became rather well to do and still live her. A close friend is a De Leon and recently inherited 250 acres out of that still huge ranch in the south Texas prairies. At ten grand an acre that is still a pretty nice chunk of cash plus they own the mineral rights to all their lands.
     
  33. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    i don't think we will need watches or clocks in the apocalypse, we will get up when it gets light and go to bed when it gets too dark to see, I naturally wake up at 6am without an alarm clock, your stomach will tell you when its time to eat.
    any chores will take as long as they take, time will mean very little.
     
  34. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    What will you do in the winter months when it is dark 16 hours a day if you live in Scotland or Canada? Even here in East Texas it is dark for about 12 hours out of 24 in the dead of winter. I can't sleep more than about 6 or 7 hours at a time. Without a way to tell the time the nights will be endless. I have some experience with this and to say that it isn't pleasant is a massive understatement.

    People in the past in general slept on a sort of split shift scheduled and had a period in the night when they got up in the dark and were active. They indeed went to sleep at dark but after about 6 hours they got up and then went down for a nap for a couple hours before sun up. In a lot of more tropical places people stay up a lot later and eat at night, then sleep for a while. They then sleep during the heat of the day. In south Texas the Spanish siesta is very popular. It is an adaptation that people make to cope with the heat of our summers.

    You can tell a lot about the level of a civilization by how it manages the concept of time.
     
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  35. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    probably go to bed and make babies!:pno wonder the world is overpopulated.
    even here in the south right now it is dark by 6pm and not even dawn before 7.30am, not 16 hours i'll admit but still dark, we go to bed at 9pm and get up at 6am.
    you can have light even without electricity dosent mean you have to blunder about in the dark like a pathetic sheeple.
    having a wrist watch isn't going to suddenly make it light outside, you'll just know what time it is, in the dark, big deal!!
     
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