A watch is a personal and emotional purchase, much like a motorcycle or a rifle. By definition, whatever you choose is perfect and the best; what anyone else chooses is not and is somehow indicative of a deep-seated character flaw. I get that.
Having said that, I never got the attraction of an Omega wristwatch. I know some folks love them and if you wear an Omega, more power to you. It’s just not me, which is why I found the attractive young lady pushing the latest Omega at me amusing.
Omega, you see, never misses a marketing opportunity, and their latest product placement achievement is the new Bond movie, No Time To Die. In it, 007 wears a titanium Omega Seamaster. The high end watch store in Palo Alto had a couple of the titanium Bond Omegas in stock, and the young sales lady was attempting what could only be described as a hard sell. She was new to these shores, I think, and evidently convinced that if James Bond wore a titanium Omega, every man in America would want one as well.
“Bond wears,” she kept repeating, as if that was all it would take to get me to plunk down $9800 for an Omega (it would actually take a lot more, like maybe a $9700 discount). Before I realized it, she had unbuckled my Casio Marlin (the best deal in a dive watch ever and one I wear frequently), and she had the titanium Bond on my wrist. She would have made a good pickpocket.
“Bond wears,” she said again.
I wondered if she realized Bond is a fictional character.
The titanium Seamaster was light, almost like a plastic watch. I could barely detect its presence. I didn’t care for the look of the mesh bracelet, but damn, that thing was a feather.
“NATO Bond,” she said, pushing another titanium Bond Seamaster at me, this one with a cloth NATO band. NATO watchbands…that’s another fad I never fell for. They look cheap. I was in the US Army and the only special watchbands I ever saw were the velcro bands paratroopers wear (they tear away if your watch gets caught on the door when exiting an aircraft…you lose your watch but you get to keep your arm, which isn’t a bad deal if you think about it). I’m pretty sure guys in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization don’t actually wear NATO bands, but what do I know?
I like the look of a dive watch and I own a couple of them. My tastes run toward high quality and low cost, so my personal favorites are the Casio Marlin (a watch I’ve written about before) and a Seiko Batman I bought at Costco a few years ago. The Marlin was $39, it keeps superb time, it looks good, and it works well (it’s the watch I wore when I rode through Colombia). The Marlin did just fine in the Andes’ torrential rains. I’ve never tried the Marlin in the deep blue sea, though. I’m not a diver and I really don’t know how well it would work as a dive watch. But I’m not a fictional British secret agent, either, so unlike Daniel Craig I don’t need the titanium Bond watch. If I need external inspiration, I’ll take it elsewhere. Bill Gates wears a Casio Marlin and even though he doesn’t have a blog or a motorcycle, he’s real and he seems to have done okay. But I don’t need to emulate other people. I just wear watches I find appealing.
I asked the young sales lady where she was from and she said Cupertino. No, originally, I asked. “China,” she said. I asked where and she told me (it was a city in Hebei Province), I told her I had been there, and we chatted about the ride Gresh and I did across China. She told me I had been to more places in China than she had. I wore a Timex on that ride, I told her, like Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (the Chinese guys called me Dàshū, which means “big uncle,” so it sort of fit). She laughed, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t know what I was talking about. Sometimes that makes for the best conversations.
More product reviews? You bet!
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I have a Rolex Submariner. It has a cloth face and glass, not crystal, no day/date. My uncle bought it overseas and I always admired it when I was a kid. I received it when he died.
I also have a Seiko 6105-8009 dive watch that he sent me from the PX in Vietnam. I wore it diving. Nowadays, the only time I wear either are for dress-up events, usually weddings or funerals. Both are collectible and in mint condition.
But the watch I’ve used most is my Casio F-91W digital. It can’t be killed.
All fine watches, Mark. Casios are tough to improve upon. I like the Marlin and I have three G-Shocks; love them all. Wearing my Casio Marlin as I type this.
Mark, not being sure what a Seiko 6105-8009 was, I just checked. Wow. You could buy a used Sportster for what those are bringing.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s I was a very active dive instructor with a large retail scuba company. I would tell my students/customers to either buy a Rolex or a Casio. Anything else would eventually disapoint. Either would serve well in the underwater world. We were a large Casio dealer. I went through several multi-hundred dollar dive watches during my diving days. All would eventually get a mist of water inside and go down. But I was a sucker for a “good” dive watch. my Casio sales pitch was very effective and sensible. A $39 Casio would handle anything a sport diver would throw at it (as would a Rolex). Yes i seriously wanted that elusive/expensive Rolex. Now am proud to say i got over that envy. Still a Casio man. Kinda like my BMW envy, am ever more looking at that Enfield.
Great inputs; thanks very much. Yep, that Casio is a great watch, and it’s good to hear from someone who actually uses it as a dive watch.
I have a Rolex GMT II that I bought maybe 35 years ago in my yuppying days; the watch is great but I seldom wear it. I feel like I have to carry my .45 every time I have that watch on my wrist, and the Casio is way more accurate.
The Enfield is great value, too. I had a fleeting desire to own a BMW GS only once, and then I realized I don’t even like Starbuck’s coffee.
Again, thanks for the inputs, Dave.