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$35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Create and participate in challenges related to the watch hobby.
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Sporkboy
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$35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Sporkboy »

Now that things have settled down from the last challenge and we are getting used to a COVID-19 world, it seems like a good time to start the next watch hunting challenge. This will be a real challenge as a decent mechanical for $35 is a pretty tall order. At any rate, I hope that you will come along for the ride by either watching our antics or joining in on the hunt.

This challenge topic was suggested by AnimalMother, who happens to be crushing it with the challenge ideas. AM has agreed to let me host this challenge, so let's get on with it already.

Rules
For this challenge, the following criteria apply:
-Must be classifiable as a field watch. See below for field watch details.
-Be mechanical in nature (i.e.: hand wind or automatic), so no quartz, digitals, sundials or anything like that.
-Exclusive of shipping/taxes/duties/etc., it should cost no more than US$35, GBP£29, CAD$49, EUR€33, or equivalent (no more than 1 US or CAD$/€/£/ over please).
-When purchasing a lot, the whole lot (minus shipping) counts towards the amount spent regardless of the cost per item within that lot.
-The watch should be for you, a friend or a loved one to actually own and use.
-Should be in a useable condition. Adding a strap, doing service, movement swaps, shoehorning, building up from parts you purchase or whatever you need to do is fine so long as you spend less than $35 in total.
-All contest purchases must be purchased within the contest 'shopping period', which will be between May 11th and June 30th.
-Entries must be presented to the forum on this page between July 1st and July 14th, 2020, along with a description of the watch.
-If you would like to participate, you must state your intent prior to the end of the shopping period.
-One watch per entry and one entry per participant.
-Public voting will be used to determine the winner(s) of this contest, and will take place from July 15th to July 22nd, 2020
-As a curtesy to your fellow challenge entrants, please refrain from posting pictures of your entries here, or on any other MoT thread until after the shopping period has closed. Sharing photos by DM and through other channels is fine.

Field Watch Defined
So, what is a field watch? That's a good question. This has been discussed and argued over for years. This contest is not about rehashing that, so AnimalMother has come up with some guidelines to help us out.
-Automatic or hand wind
-Three hands
-Relatively thin watch
-Arabic numerals on all or most of the hour indexes
-Indexes for seconds in 'train track' or other style
-Lume of some sort (optional as it may be faded due to age)
-Day and/or date complication acceptable
-No rotating bezel
-Traditional(ish) watch shape (see W10 below for variation)
-Wrist mounted

Examples
Here are a few modern versions of some classic field watches to give you an idea of the kinds of watches you are looking for.

A-17
A17_Group_PeskyDonut.jpg
(Seiko, Timex and Hamilton A-17s)
When we think of a field watch, it's probably the A-17 that pops into mind. The prototypical A-17 would be the Hamilton Kahki, though this style has been made by many companies at a variety of price points.
PeskyDonuts has quite a collection of A-17s in a variety of dial colors and manufacturers. Shout out to PeskyDonuts for letting me use this picture.

A-11
MkII_A11_Cruxible.jpg
(MKII Cruxible)
Pre-dating the A-17, we can see the high visability white on black layout with a sparse outer minute track. Less busy than the A-17, with a focus on ease of readability.

W-10
CWC_W10.jpg
(CWC W-10)

This is a British design and the precursor to the well loved quartz G10. Similar to the A-11, the W-10 lacks a 13-24 hour track, but has a more detailed minutes track. It has a slightly non-traditional case, but has all other field watch qualities.

Trench Watch
Rolex_Trench.jpg
(Rolex Trench Watch)

I would be remiss in failing to mention the iconic trench watches of WWI. While they lack the brutal efficiency of more modern watches, they seem more refined with the cathedral hands and beautiful numeral font. In short, a trench watch is an elegant watch for a more civilized age.

The examples above are British and American designs, but I'm sure that there are interesting field watches out there from other countries as well.

Radium Warning

Warning about radioactive lume.

Many of the watches that you may be looking at for this challenge are likely to have radium on their dials and hands that may be flaking off.

This is a very dangerous material.

If you are not setup to work with radioactive materials, please do not open the watches to the point where you can access the radium as the powder can get into the air where it can get into your lungs.

When the watch is protected by a crystal you are generally OK, but when the powdered radium can get into your body then you can get into trouble.

To be safe, you should assume that vintage field watches contain radium and take appropriate precautions. In this case a respirator and gloves would be appropriate.

The first challenge was a really fun experience for all involved and I hope that you will join me as I defend my 2nd place finish in the Leap Year Challenge and try for that top spot.

Edit: added clarification about field watches being wrist mounted.
Edit: added Radium Warning.
Edit: clarified that taxes and duties do not count towards the purchase price of the watch for the purpose of this challenge.
Last edited by Sporkboy on Tue May 26, 2020 8:48 am, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Split-Time »

Welp, looks like I'm getting a new watch :P.

It may or may not meet all the criteria but my #1 goal is to not end up with a POS that looks like a record player (like last time :? ).
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by PetWatch »

I'll see what I can find. Not going to be easy, not supposed to be.

One point to clarify, one entry p/post, p/entrant, unlimited?...



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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Animal Mother »

I'm in!
(Well, it would be rude not to!)
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by watchpalooza »

PetWatch wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 2:18 pm I'll see what I can find. Not going to be easy, not supposed to be.

One point to clarify, one entry p/post, p/entrant, unlimited?...



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As I understand it, One entry per participant.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Stretch44 »

I'm in. Let's do this!!
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Sporkboy »

watchpalooza wrote:
PetWatch wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 2:18 pm I'll see what I can find. Not going to be easy, not supposed to be.

One point to clarify, one entry p/post, p/entrant, unlimited?...



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
As I understand it, One entry per participant.
I totally forgot about this. I will update the original post.

One watch per entry and one entry per participant.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

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Split-Time wrote:Welp, looks like I'm getting a new watch :P.

It may or may not meet all the criteria but my #1 goal is to not end up with a POS that looks like a record player (like last time :? ).
Well, I think that that is a very reasonable goal this time around, and it should t be too much of a problem.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by watchpalooza »

This looks great! Any reason the shopping period is so far in the future? I believe a number of people have already started looking now. Any chance to begin sooner, perhaps backdate to May 10, the date of the MoT Social Distancing Summit?
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$35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Sporkboy »

watchpalooza wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 10:56 pm This looks great! Any reason the shopping period is so far in the future? I believe a number of people have already started looking now. Any chance to begin sooner, perhaps backdate to May 10, the date of the MoT Social Distancing Summit?
With the first challenge, there was a registration period of 2 weeks, which was the pre-shopping period so people could look around and decide if they wanted to participate. Two weeks from yesterday takes us to the 25th, which is the announced start date.

Was the challenge discussed at the MoT SDS?

Since I have done away with the registration, we could theoretically start the shopping period now and have that be 6 weeks. I am open to be convinced.

Please check out the discord channel for a discussion of this.

P.S.: I am wondering what it is that you found recently that you want to include.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by watchpalooza »

Sporkboy wrote: Tue May 12, 2020 5:42 am
watchpalooza wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 10:56 pm This looks great! Any reason the shopping period is so far in the future? I believe a number of people have already started looking now. Any chance to begin sooner, perhaps backdate to May 10, the date of the MoT Social Distancing Summit?
With the first challenge, there was a registration period of 2 weeks, which was the pre-shopping period so people could look around and decide if they wanted to participate. Two weeks from yesterday takes us to the 25th, which is the announced start date.

Was the challenge discussed at the MoT SDS?

Since I have done away with the registration, we could theoretically start the shopping period now and have that be 6 weeks. I am open to be convinced.

Please check out the discord channel for a discussion of this.

P.S.: I am wondering what it is that you found recently that you want to include.
The first challenge required preregistration, whereas with this one you are permitting joiners until the end...so what is the purpose of these two weeks?
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by PetWatch »

I've tried several times to download the discord app for Android but it gets stuck on waiting for download. Anyone else have this problem?

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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Sporkboy »

watchpalooza wrote:
Sporkboy wrote: Tue May 12, 2020 5:42 am
watchpalooza wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 10:56 pm This looks great! Any reason the shopping period is so far in the future? I believe a number of people have already started looking now. Any chance to begin sooner, perhaps backdate to May 10, the date of the MoT Social Distancing Summit?
With the first challenge, there was a registration period of 2 weeks, which was the pre-shopping period so people could look around and decide if they wanted to participate. Two weeks from yesterday takes us to the 25th, which is the announced start date.

Was the challenge discussed at the MoT SDS?

Since I have done away with the registration, we could theoretically start the shopping period now and have that be 6 weeks. I am open to be convinced.

Please check out the discord channel for a discussion of this.

P.S.: I am wondering what it is that you found recently that you want to include.
The first challenge required preregistration, whereas with this one you are permitting joiners until the end...so what is the purpose of these two weeks?
No real reason aside to give people a chance to be aware of the challenge and then to get started at the same time. Since you don’t gain much, if anything by having one week or six weeks to accomplish the objective, I am now seeing that there is no real need to not start right away. The rule was grandfathered in, but since I made it redundant let’s go ahead and open up the shopping period to 6 weeks starting on the 11th. Fudging a day either way in the shopping period is fine by me (May 10th to July 1st).

I will update the rules.

This is the second challenge, so there is still a learning process going on.
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Re: $35 Mechanical Field Watch Challenge

Post by Animal Mother »

Sporkboy, you're doing a champion job, thank you very much for your efforts.
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