good, affordable, mechanical watch?

[Whoey]

I have a Seiko 5. I got it for Christmas 2011, for the price, they have lots of great options.

[ryan1835]

Is there a good, reliable, affordable, purely mechanical watch available?

I'm not planning on rushing out and buying one. I was just curious.

When I say 'mechanical', I mean 'doesn't run on batteries'.

Thanks for any input.

swatch have recently come out with a new thats meant to last a long long time and be service free.

http://www.swatch.com/zz_en/sistem51.html

[Smashie]

I have a Seiko 5. I got it for Christmas 2011, for the price, they have lots of great options.

I have the same in tan, it's been very good and put up with a ton of abuse from me

[Top-Gear-24]

I have a Seiko 5. I got it for Christmas 2011, for the price, they have lots of great options.

I have the same in tan, it's been very good and put up with a ton of abuse from me

And they look great ...






I even find myself shining on the dials with my Led Lenser P3 or P7, just to make them glow ... (they look so sweet in the dark also ...  )

[Smashie]

They do, must get a new strap for mine.

[Santos]

I'm not certain this will ever lead to actually owning a watch at all, but the basic idea is 'time keeping in a world where no one is producing batteries anymore'. So, other time keeping devices (fobs, chain pocket watches, and even small clocks) are all fine to mention, too.

While i realise i'm 5 months late to this party i'd like to weigh in.
I have 2 Citizen EcoDrives (both BM8180 variants) and they are really nice watches, excellent if you hate the idea of a quartz battery and replacing it. The capacitors are rated at min 10 years.

I also own 2 seikos automatics and a citizen automatic (self-winding).  All 3 of them i got for les than $35 including postage on ebay.
 1 of the seiko is a vintage classy silver piece that i occasionaly use as my dress watch, but the other is just a modern seiko 5 and the citizen is a real gaudy gold dress watch that i find absolutely hideous.. but i keep it cause the clock runs flawlessly and its rated 50m+. In the world event that batteries are no longer made and the eco-drives capacitors finally give up the ghost these  will keep time daily (within 30 seconds) I now have a 4th automatic on route from ukraine a vostok amphibia
If you do go down this 'just in case' path i recommend reading up on Seiko and Citizen movements general consensus is the older model movements have a higher standard of finish. Unsuprising as they probably were relatively more expensive to attain.

Another idea is plant some citrus trees. it shouldn't be that difficult to jury-rig a lemon to a humble casio digital quartz. Maybe you can't wear it but it would keep time. Also i've seen first gen eco drives on ebay with dead batteries, in their description sellers claim it still runs when in a source of light so they would still have their uses in a batteryless world 

[Whoey]

interesting article on Seiko 5 mods...

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/seiko-model-5-hacking/

[Grant Lamontagne]

That was a pretty cool read.  Thanks for sharing!

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[HarleyXJGuy]

Always late to the party it seems.

Orient Mako, thread complete. If you are still looking and willing to spend about $100.