jimmuller wrote:
You folks made me start thinking about "analog" watches again as an alternative to the Pebble I've been wearing. 27 years ago Harman Specialty Group, which included Lexicon, gave me a 10-year anniversary watch with my name and the date engraved on the back. (Two weeks later I gave them my notice, but that's another story). It's just an electric Bulova Caravelle. I haven't worn it much because it seems like every time I pick it up the battery has run down. It being electric I can't just wind it up and go.
So after a run to the local Hunts to pick up some developed negatives (obligatory camera content) I drove over to Watertown Watch & Clock to have the battery replaced. It's a friendly mom & pop business we've dealt with before. I asked about Waltham watches and they immediately said if I really wanted one it should be one made in Waltham, not Switzerland. Then the guy told me some history.
His grandfather worked at the watch factory. They made watches and other instruments. During WWII they couldn't sell watches for the public because all the work was for military instruments. The Swiss watch industry had no such restrictions and that's how they started dominating the market. There was some labor unrest when the 2000 employees stopped some sort of deal put forward by the owners or stockholders. In 1957 the Waltham owner(s?) sold the Waltham name to the Swiss. After that a Waltham watch was just a Swiss watch with a Waltham faceplate.
One interesting story was that they became Waltham Precision Instrument Company and continued to make other things. At one point they were selling instruments to a company in Chicago who then sold them to Raytheon in Waltham for the aerospace industry. The tooling they were using was over 100 years old!
Anyway, he admitted as to how you could find a genuine Waltham watch on eBay for under $100 but it might or might not run well. Check if returns are accepted! Servicing or repairing would cost $600 or more, at which point you could have just gotten a serviced one from a watchmaker's shop.
(They said a wind-up watch might need servicing every few years anyway, so I might as well keep wearing the Caravelle.)...Show more →
Swiss mechanical watches are now statement or jewelry pieces, Seiko and Citizen have some excellent and inexpensive mechanical watches but my choice are the Eco Drive (light charged) radio controlled watches, I can be sure they are accurate for both time and date at all times. For the same mentality that makes me drive old manual transmission cars and old manual focus lenses I do not want a computer on my wrist (read Apple Watch). Computers are for work, manual stuff is for fun, doing things under my full control, my way!!!
I recently got a Megadap ETZ21 Pro+ adapter and a dumb Nikon F to Sony E adapter. That means I now get the green box focus confirmation on all my MFNG which means I'll be using it more than before. Here's my first shot with the stacked adapters plus the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 AI:
I had productive days off Monday to Wednesday down at the SE part of the island which I need to process. A couple of waterfalls a lighthouse and some milky way shots.
Just to keep things moving in the meantime, a post sunset shot of that rock that I have now forgotten the name of in Western Australia ! Cathedral Rock ?
The GFX Velvia profile is perhaps too colorful sometimes
cadman342001 wrote:
I had productive days off Monday to Wednesday down at the SE part of the island which I need to process. A couple of waterfalls a lighthouse and some milky way shots.
Just to keep things moving in the meantime, a post sunset shot of that rock that I have now forgotten the name of in Western Australia ! Cathedral Rock ?
The GFX Velvia profile is perhaps too colorful sometimes
Jim, great series and colors with the Kodacolor 200. The Nikomat cameras are built like an anvil.
Siphiwe and Andy, great sunset photographs.
These were taken from Ponte Santa Trinita, Florence.
The bridge in the background is Ponte alla Carraia. The 16th century structure was also destroyed by the retreating Nazi army and rebuilt in 1948 as close to the original as possible.
Spring (1608), one of the four statures that decorate the corners of Ponte Santa Trinita.
I love that first one, and I think you took it from a spot that many photographers have been. The difference is I've always seen pictures of it with the buildings and the bridge fully lit. This is nicely different.
Oh, I also only have a good view of sunrises, sunset is obscured by hills or tall trees on the West side of the house. A great shame as sometimes I can tell from the clouds directly overhead that the sunset must've been lovely.
They change the orchids at the San Diego Botanical, so bak I went this time with the 90mm 1:4 Rayfact of redbook fame, and the 55mm 3.5 F lens of no fame.
