In the valley of the blind the one eyed man is king, and in a world gone mad I am the only sane one left. So my reasoning goes that if something is important or pertinent to me, all lesser beings must have a faint glimmering of recognition in their barely functional brain pan of the same. Which is why I know I can’t be the only one worried about so many and varied issues post-apocalypse wise. One of which is telling the time. No, it isn’t the most important issue you’ll have to face. Probably it ranks right down there with whether or not you’ll have enough electricity to continue watching “Airplane” ( “and don’t call me Shirley” “I like my coffee like my men“ “I picked a hell of a day to give up cocaine“ “tell me, Johnny, have you ever been in a Turkish bath?” ). Time pieces definitely have their uses, such as overseeing guard shifts or domesticated animal feeding schedules or needing a uniform process in a chemical manufacture, but it is also a Comfort Item. We are so trained in living by a clock ( ie, we need X amount of sleep gauged in hours rather than allowing our bodies to guide us by need ) that it is actually disorientating to be without them. Oh, you can live without a watch or clock for a short time, perhaps roughing it in the wild, getting away from civilization. But you’ll crave it again soon enough as you return to routine. I’ve recommended the digital travel clocks before. They are under $10 and one AA battery will last you three of four months or longer, depending on if you are using the alarm daily. But if you want a timepiece to take with you, I’d stay away from digital.
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An auto-wind watch is nothing new. They were invented in the 1920’s and perfected in the 30’s. The movement of your wrist winds the watch. No batteries are needed. To me, this is the best thing since sliced bread because while I’m just getting over being rectally violated by Obammy, when others dog pile on top of me and try to get in on the action it really cheeses me off. Wal-Mart once again sells me a crappy piece of overpriced crap ( yes, I shop there as little as possible. Sometimes they are the only one in town with the item [bike tire when mine developed a massive tumor] or shipping on an item doubles the price as in heavy and bulky items ), those foul crap suckling bastards. The watch battery my Timex came with lasted over five years- I changed it before it ran out, even. The $5 replacement from the Hillbilly Mafia lasted half that long. I wasn’t going to give them another chunk of change for a watch battery if I could help it, so I ordered an auto watch. What it cost me would have kept me in Timex batteries the rest of my life, but the principle is the point. And, I now have a nifty post-apocalypse timepiece. The neat part about these watches is, you can’t over-wind them. When you receive one, you manually wind it a couple dozen times to get it going. If you take it off and it stays stationary for about two full days, you again manually wind it to get it started. The bad part is, they are NOT as accurate as we are used to today. No Quartz movement or atomic clock resets ( which I‘m sure sends out its signal using grid juice ). You need to reset to the correct time now and again. This does present a slight issue if you don’t have a master accurate clock to reference. Perhaps this is here the travel clock helps. If you change those batteries before the clock dies you keep the same time without fail. Again, not life and death. But a really nice piece of equipment to have.
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I'm one of those people who can go days on end without looking at a clock and it doesn't bother me at all. It's a small freedom, but I take what I can get. There are times when I don't know the day of the week, like when living on the road or on a boat.
ReplyDeleteI envy you that freedom.
DeleteI must moderate-trust me. You don't want to see what happens otherwise. Sometimes it takes awhile as I have a real job. And nothing happens on weekends as I'm off grid. No N-Bombs, nothing to get me libeled. Otherwise, have at it. If you criticize me, make sure to praise my hair first.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a threat. .So, do I have to say about your grease hair being the cost hair in Nevada. ? You're a mine of black gold. soooooo much grease. My diesel car should run for months on one days of your unwashed grease from your hair.
Lord Bison, you have addressed a topic that has recently left me feeling torn. I've always loved watches, and have had deep admiration for some that cost between $1000 - $3000, but have never ever spent that much on a watch. Call it my love of wearing the equivalent of a real battle rifle (.308, .303, etc) on your wrist!
ReplyDeleteThe most I ever spent was $600 (an old Omega from the 70s) back when I tossed money out the window. Sure enough, within a year it started keeping really horrible time, and I still have not wanted to spend the money to get it fixed (I'll likely sell it on flea-bay and just cut my losses). Like many slugs of the 21st century I then started to use my phone to tell time.
Sure enough, I grew to hate my phone (and other people's phones) with an unreasonable amount of vitriol, and so I ended up getting the cheapest most featureless phone possible, and today only turn it on or check it when I'm feeling particularly curious or chatty. In parallel, I went into the junk drawer and dug out an old Timex digital piece of junk with broken band and a long-dead battery. I bought a replacement rubber band on flea bay, went to the drug-store and bought a battery, and this el-cheapo has been my watch for the last 2 years.
Not content to wear the equivalent of a flattened gumball on my arm for the rest of my life, I started looking at watches again the other night. Everything that I would want is $100 - $300. Gah!
And now you tell me that maybeeeee, just maybeeeee, I should buy an automatic even if it is more expensive than a watch where I have to replace the batteries every few years? I cant believe this. One of the sole remaining reasons that I have clung so dearly to this chipped up digital piece-of-crap on my wrist is because Lord Bison would be proud.
Are you telling me to go spend money? Hell, I felt guilty when I actually bought a sling for my rifle, because I remember your lesson where you instructed us to go to the Salvation Army and to just buy an old duffel bag for $1 and take the strap off of it to use for a sling.
If I buy this watch, I may have just have to take it out of your annual subscription fee.
Granted, this is an extra amount. It might actually be cheaper to just keep buying batteries. As long as they are available. In effect, you spend more just to eliminate one worry. It may or may not be worth it to you personally. I'll forgive your sling purchase if you forgive me this possible suggesstion. I COULD have put in the battery I already had for my watch ( I had bought a two-pack ), but instead spent $25 on the cheapest auto wind I could find. It was just out of spite, hating Wal-Mart for humping me again. Still, whatever my motivations, it isn't a terrible idea to eliminate one more consumer need IF telling time after the collapse is important to you.
DeleteHow about a solar powered watch so you never need a replacement battery? Probably more reliable and certainly more accurate than a self-wind mechanical. Casio makes good ones for between $30 and $40. Quartz accuracy, digital or analog, and water resistant to 300 ft. Check Amazon. You can get knockoffs direct from China for about $10 with free shipping (try MiniInTheBox dot com). The knockoffs probably aren't as good, but one might pick up a couple for backup. As for getting the correct time... solar atomic reset clocks cost $20-$25 and I'm betting that things won't get so bad that WWVB will stop transmitting. If it does, an atomic reset clock can still be set manually.
ReplyDeleteSolar does use a battery, and they have a finite life. Go wind-up or self-wind, NOT solar.
DeleteWhen I was a kid, my fathers friend had purchased a few of the Seiko Automatic watches while stationed in Vietnam. They were actually pretty nice watches, and well made for the time. I see that the auto watches are starting to come back into style. You stopped seeing them for a while.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that the automatic watches are the best choice for a long term collapse. But if you are willing to stock up on a few extra batteries, there are some pretty nice watches that offer some really useful features, such as the one below:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KK63UC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2P9H5MHEI5D99&coliid=IOCWO6QY86TNI&psc=1
This one features an altimeter, barometer, and a thermometer, as well as both digital and analog readouts. This was the one that I was seriously considering, but I went for the coolness factor of the MQ998 cell phone watch. Poor battery life on the cell phone watch btw.
In either event, I highly recommend getting a watch that has an analog readout. Many have both analog and digital, and it's alright to get one that has both, but with an analog dial, it is possible to perform crude orienteering functions.
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-an-Analog-Watch-as-a-Compass
Mainly I'm just trying to deny Wal-Mart another sale. All else was just a bonus.
DeleteJim,i had just bought a G SHOCK it is solar powered, tossed into jail(see Reese family Fast and Fabulous scapegoat? Aug 2011) after 527 days the fed judge allowed bond for my son and me, got watch w/personal items and when put into light it took off like new,its a casio about $33. Sure missed your wit, and my redhead, 33 months and still fightin Holder and crew, God bless the republic..........Rick
ReplyDeleteNow thats a watch! Best to you and yours.
Delete