The Watch Appreciation Thread - Part two (Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre,

[d4nimal]

so the strap qualifies as conspicuous consumption but the watch doesn’t?

Confused

 

[Texasmade]

Confused

Making a joke on the strap name, Veblenist. Watch isn’t a Veblen good but the strap is.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

Oh that’s the strap name? Got it.
I like it.

 

[Texasmade]

Oh that’s the strap name? Got it.
I like it.

Wait, you were asking a real question? I thought you were joking.

 

[harveyrabbit]

I spent the morning mesmerized by the DragonX docking with ISS. I’m admittedly starved for a bit of good news about humanity these days. I couldn’t help but notice that Bob and Doug had matching watches and so trying to id them became my focus. Omega X33? Anyone else get caught up in that mystery?

 

[edinatlanta]

View attachment 1398452
I spent the morning mesmerized by the DragonX docking with ISS. I’m admittedly starved for a bit of good news about humanity these days. I couldn’t help but notice that Bob and Doug had matching watches and so trying to id them became my focus. Omega X33? Anyone else get caught up in that mystery?

Youre correct

 

[Thin White Duke]

View attachment 1398452
I spent the morning mesmerized by the DragonX docking with ISS. I’m admittedly starved for a bit of good news about humanity these days. I couldn’t help but notice that Bob and Doug had matching watches and so trying to id them became my focus. Omega X33? Anyone else get caught up in that mystery?

I used to do some indirect work with NASA back in the nineties. I’d already been to the JSC a couple of times but then I was invited down for a behind the scenes visit. Got to see the astronauts suiting up and practicing for a shuttle mission which was to take the docking apparatus up to the ISS to allow shuttle docking. To emulate weightlessness they practice in a massive swimming pool called the WET-F. (They have built a new one more recently). Very cool to see this and then a few weeks later watching the exact same procedure happening in space.
I also did some medical testing on astronauts and once they brought in Grenady Strekalov, the Russian who had just made landfall after at the time spending the longest time weightless in history. We were all of course curious to see what effect long term weightlessness would have on the cardio respiratory system. For a little chubby bloke he did quite well on his nuclear stress test. He was accompanied by an entourage including a huge Dolph Lundgren-esque bloke with a brief case handcuffed to his wrist. Of course we all reckoned he was KGB. I never did find out why they didn’t do the testing in Russia. Anyway he was wearing an Omega Speedy and this might have been my first awakening to the watch world. (I had a quartz Tag diver at the time!) I was surprised that Omega didn’t then seem to be pushing the fact (again this was mid nineties) that their watch was worn by all the NASA astronauts - as well as the Soviet Cosmonauts! Of course Omega has since made up for that oversight! I have yet to get a moon watch but when I see the right deal I will get one some day!

 

[edinatlanta]

I used to do some indirect work with NASA back in the nineties. I’d already been to the JSC a couple of times but then I was invited down for a behind the scenes visit. Got to see the astronauts suiting up and practicing for a shuttle mission which was to take the docking apparatus up to the ISS to allow shuttle docking. To emulate weightlessness they practice in a massive swimming pool called the WET-F. (They have built a new one more recently). Very cool to see this and then a few weeks later watching the exact same procedure happening in space.
I also did some medical testing on astronauts and once they brought in Grenady Strekalov, the Russian who had just made landfall after at the time spending the longest time weightless in history. We were all of course curious to see what effect long term weightlessness would have on the cardio respiratory system. For a little chubby bloke he did quite well on his nuclear stress test. He was accompanied by an entourage including a huge Dolph Lundgren-esque bloke with a brief case handcuffed to his wrist. Of course we all reckoned he was KGB. I never did find out why they didn’t do the testing in Russia. Anyway he was wearing an Omega Speedy and this might have been my first awakening to the watch world. (I had a quartz Tag diver at the time!) I was surprised that Omega didn’t then seem to be pushing the fact (again this was mid nineties) that their watch was worn by all the NASA astronauts - as well as the Soviet Cosmonauts! Of course Omega has since made up for that oversight! I have yet to get a moon watch but when I see the right deal I will get one some day!

View attachment 1398516 View attachment 1398517 View attachment 1398518 View attachment 1398519 View attachment 1398516 View attachment 1398516 View attachment 1398516 View attachment 1398518

I posted this in the Happy thread yesterday but my grandfather and grandmother worked at IBM in Cape Canaveral during the space race and i saw a ton of takeoffs and landings. Poppop never got an Omega but he gave me a bunch of IBM stock which is now worth as much as the watch...

Eta somewhere at my parents is a framed IBM poster they hung in offices to keep perspective on their work. I forget the exact numbers but it said: if saturn v operated with 99.9995% efficiency there's still 1,156,723 things that can go wrong.

 

[Texasmade]

View attachment 1398452
I spent the morning mesmerized by the DragonX docking with ISS. I’m admittedly starved for a bit of good news about humanity these days. I couldn’t help but notice that Bob and Doug had matching watches and so trying to id them became my focus. Omega X33? Anyone else get caught up in that mystery?

Per the various watch forums, gen 2 X33 Skywalker

 

[Thin White Duke]

I posted this in the Happy thread yesterday but my grandfather and grandmother worked at IBM in Cape Canaveral during the space race and i saw a ton of takeoffs and landings. Poppop never got an Omega but he gave me a bunch of IBM stock which is now worth as much as the watch...

Eta somewhere at my parents is a framed IBM poster they hung in offices to keep perspective on their work. I forget the exact numbers but it said: if saturn v operated with 99.9995% efficiency there's still 1,156,723 things that can go wrong.

Haha yep I had aspirations of getting on a mission at one time and through some connections thought that there was an infinitesimal chance I might have made it until talking to people at JSC. Very few prople there actually work for NASA they are largely subcontractors. I was told by several people that so much work was contracted out to the lowest bidder so for the shuttles they weren’t building a Rolls Royce they were building a Yugo. The Challenger disaster had occurred due to an eroded O-ring. A few years later Columbia exploded on re-entry due to a piece of foam insulation breaking off and damaging the heat shield. That put paid to my space ambitions!

 

[Omega Male]

Good thing Elon has never been known to cut a corner!

 

[Thin White Duke]

Good thing Elon has never been known to cut a corner!

Wasn’t there an issue with Teslas’ dashboards catching fire? That would make for a couple of very nervous passengers sitting on top of that rocket!

 

[Ebitdaddy]

Some switchy switchy gify

 

[Keith T]

That's a neat trick

 

[SonnyUte]

This just arrived from the good folks at Crown and Caliber: Speedmaster Professional, Tokyo 2020 Blue Panda version. I have had good experiences with this seller of gently used watches at reasonable prices.