Stauer Meisterzeit Watch

I have taken for granted the idea of wearing a watch since being an adult. I remember my father getting me a Caravelle by Bulova when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was or what the occasion was. All I remember was that it was an automatic mechanical watch and it kept great time. Since then I've owned a Seiko with a quartz movement, a Swatch and various LCD Casio watches. The last Casio I owned was too hard to adjust and I gave up wearing a watch.

Recently I've had my eyes looking at automatic mechanical watches again. Money being an issue, keeps me from looking for anything in the Rolex category but I was looking at moderately-priced Hamiltons. Last week I went to Las Vegas with my wife and I saw a watch that intrigued me in the SkyMall catalog on the airplane. It is the Stauer Meisterzeit and it is advertised for only $99.

See the ad from Stauer here.

Okay, some of you will probably question my gullibility after reading the ad, but I actually caught the nonsensical marketing hype and stuck to the things that made me want this watch. I read forums from watch connoisseurs who dogged the quality of "Chinese-made" Stauers to the buyers who likened the watch to the "finest ever made." Here is my review of the watch (so far) and a comparison of the marketing hype to the real thing.

This is part one of my review. I will write part two in a month or so. The watch arrived five days after I ordered it online. It looks like it came directly from Stauer. The box it came in really doesn't remind me of the typical watch box but it is nicer than boxes I've seen. The instructions are presented in a fancy envelope along with a card stating its excellence in reproduction. Supposedly this watch is a reproduction of one made 82 years ago. According to the story one survived and it was meticulously reproduced using 31 million dollar machinery. I cannot verify any of this and I doubt it's true.

The next claim is that the automatic movement is based on a patent from 1923. I did some research and learned that John Harwood patented the automatic movement in 1923 and it was for a "bumper movement" that was used in thousands of Harwood watches and made more famous by Omega watches. Bumper movements have been criticized and have since been replaced by the full 360 degree movements that were made popular by the original Rolex patent in 1930. Fortunately when I received the watch it had a full-360 degree movement. The other thought I had was that if Harwood was the one who made seven of these watches, why didn't he reproduce it when he made thousands of plain-looking watches until his company went out of business?

I have come to the conclusion that the ad is all hype but if one wants a nice looking watch and is careful with it, this watch is rather nice. It is water-resistant down to thirty meters but there is no claim of it being shock-resistant. It only has a thirty-day guarantee, which is something else that bothers me. That's where I did notice reviews. Customers were happy that theirs were still running fine after owning one over a year. I will have to be careful with this watch.

The second hand "sweeps" at five increments-per-second like a Rolex. The face is big but the date window is tiny and the watch is rather thick. None of this bothers me much. The watch face is one of the nicest I've ever seen. The band is genuine leather although I don't think it's fully leather. The band was real stiff when it arrived but it broke in quickly and is comfortable after one day's wear. The side buttons are the right size for my wrist. The watch was running when it arrived but I wound it fully before putting it on. Some have said the wind doesn't last long after the watch is taken off but since it was running when I got it, I don't think it's that bad. I can't rate its accuracy but I will do it at my followup review. It's a mechanical watch so I expect to adjust it on a regular basis.

Overall my first impression of this watch is good. I didn't have high expectations when I bought it so for what it is, it's very nice. I don't like the marketing decision because it's dishonest to call this watch a limited edition and state that it takes six months to make this watch. A $100 watch? Did Stauer get a $500 million loan from the government? It takes six months to make an expensive watch. That's why they're expensive. The intellectual dishonesty of the ad is a turnoff. But don't go by the ad. The watch is very nice and works fine (so far.)

Bitcasa Infinite Storage on your Desktop

A new cloud storage service called Bitcasa is taking registrations for users to have INFINITE storage space! Register HERE. I can get rid of Mozy for backups, Dropbox for file sharing and Ubuntu One for storage and not worry about my computers in the future. It's worth checking out.

Bitcasa

Why I Like Google+

I am on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ regularly. I'm on LinkedIn but I don't go there. I planned on avoiding all social networks until a banjo player friend of mine invited me to join Facebook. When I found a vast community of my banjo friends I realized that there is a good reason to be on Facebook. So at the same time I joined Twitter.

I didn't get Twitter. I didn't find many friends on it and most of them would hardly post anything on it. On the other hand I followed about four people who post regularly. I couldn't ever read everything they posted. I didn't have enough time. And the posts were so short that a lot of it was incomprehensible. The mini-URLs that accompany the posts were a good idea but I didn't have time to view them. I quit Twitter.

I played with Google Buzz and Google Wave. It would have required that I get all of my friends and colleagues on there. I was thinking the same thing with Google+ until I discovered that I could follow Linus Torvalds and Leo Laporte. I started getting regular posts on my stream that were more than just spitting out random, incomprehensible chatter. They were interesting. And they shared other posts from people who interested me. Before I knew it I was following people who write things I want to know. I actually had time to read them and if I had time I could read all the comments. That's what I didn't like about Twitter: every post was like a comment but I could not always get what people were commenting on. I have none of these problems with Google+.

Now that I finally get Twitter I rejoined it. I may never tweet. I only read what others say but I only use Twitter for following my favorite political pundits (and Orianthi.) I will probably follow other musicians too. But now I love posting on Google+. I share other posts for my small following. I use Google+ for technology and photography, not for politics.

I'll keep the other social networks. I like the fact that I can post to circles or publicly in Google+. This means that friends that don't want to be on Google+ can still go to my profile page and read what I share publicly. But if I have a circle of work colleagues and I want to post something that is work-related, I can share with just that circle. Cool!

I recommend that if you get a Google+ invite, take advantage of it. Follow some people on there and you'll discover that there is a lot of great content there. Businesses - Google is rolling out business-related stuff soon. In the meantime check it out.



I have a different point of view:

Fujifilm adds X10 to retro digital compact range

Unless the X100 drops under $1k I want this camera. It doesn't come out until November but I'm putting this on my Christmas List. I've wanted the feel of the old 35mm cameras that I'm not getting with my Nikon D50. Unlike the fixed-focal lens on the X100, this has a zoom lens. I prefer a fixed-focal lens.

Fujifilm adds X10 to retro digital compact range:

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