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It was a basic watch, nothing fancy, issued when I started UPT, with a non-descript nylon band. Kept decent time but had to be wound every other day. Pulling out the adjustment knob stopped the second hand, so for the morning time hack we would stop it at zero until the WWV time would be zero or "hack". It looked something like this:
I got a Bulova Accutron Astronaut back in '68. It was a gift from my (then) wife, as I was taking flying lessons. (It would display two time-zones, so I had the second one set to zulu time.) I wore it for several years with it never skipping a beat (err... hum). I think they were guaranteed accurate to within 60 seconds per month or something like that -- very accurate compared to other watches of the time.
But then I got one of the earlier quartz watches in '80, a Seiko with a calculator on it. The first couple times the battery went bad I just wore the Bulova for a day or two, but eventually when I tried the Bulova it wouldn't run. New battery? Still wouldn't run. I finally sold it on eBay a few years ago, as a non-functioning Astronaut from '68, and got more for than it cost new. ($175 or $200 new, $300 broken.)
Am I the only guy here with a GMT? And not even a pilot.
Graduation present in 1979 (first kid in extended family to graduate college, Physics and with honors if I do say so myself)
Cost about $950 new back then, now used they are worth about $4500. Does require a fairly expensive service about every 4 to 5 years, but I have found a great shop in Seattle, where I can hand it across the counter to the guy who owns the business founded by his grand-dad, they do a great job, frequently it stays within 2 or 3 minutes a month (depends on what positions it is in while I sleep, mostly).
I stopped wearing a watch back in 1976. Could not wear them when working on aircraft (electrical and hanging hazard) same time I stopped wearing a wedding ring (Electrical and finger removal hazard) I tried to wear a watch when I got off the flightline but it didn't feel right. I carried it in my pocket. Then when I got a pager for work I just used the clock on that. I almost always had a pager for the next 30 years (even after getting a cell phone) Now I use my phone if I need the time My last watch was a moderately priced Casio with solar cell. Before that it was a wind up Timex. If I wanted one now I would get a cheap one at Walmart or Target. All modern digital watches are accurate so why spend more than $10-20?
Am I the only guy here with a GMT? And not even a pilot.
Graduation present in 1979 (first kid in extended family to graduate college, Physics and with honors if I do say so myself)
Cost about $950 new back then, now used they are worth about $4500. Does require a fairly expensive service about every 4 to 5 years, but I have found a great shop in Seattle, where I can hand it across the counter to the guy who owns the business founded by his grand-dad, they do a great job, frequently it stays within 2 or 3 minutes a month (depends on what positions it is in while I sleep, mostly).
$4.5k? Nice... Which watch is that? Is it the Rolex?
I use a Dive Watch for flying. It is rugged, waterproof, and easy to read with good lume. I don't fly transatlantic, so changing time zones is rare, and when I do, I can do the math in my head from Zulu time.
There are so many clocks in so many places I just have to look around to find out the time. I have not carried a watch in decades.
Last time I used a watch was during a cross country motorcycle trip in the days of the 55 mph speed limit. I used a really cheap pocket watch hung on the fairing and kept track of my speed by checking if a mile marker went by every 65 seconds of so. The speedometer on the bike was broken and the needle just spun around so it was useless but fun to look at.
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