analog is real

Something I started last week is wearing an analog watch, but not just any analog. It's the sole 100% mechanical watch I own, an Orient Crystal (a.k.a. "3 Star" or "Tristar") that was gifted to me close to ten years ago. It still works. More on that in a bit.

I've said before that I hate analog watches because sometimes it's difficult for me to tell the time depending on where the hands are. Even so, I needed to get over that and get used to it.

I have both legitimate and kooky reasons for why I'm wearing it, so let's get into that.

Due to the fact I have skinny bony wrists, very few mechanical watches fit me properly. Generally speaking, only two types fit the bill.

The first type is what I'm wearing now. The Orient I have is an old school traditional 37mm case size Japanese automatic movement watch, which works very well for smaller wrists. Fortunately, Seiko still makes these. If you are of the skinny wrist persuasion like I am, that's the watch to get.

For traditional case shapes, it is only the Japanese 37mm that has a design with short lugs. Go anywhere smaller or larger, like 35mm-36mm or 38mm-39mm, and the lugs go way too long. On a 37mm, the lug-to-lug will be somewhere between 43 to 45mm, which for smaller wrists is fine. Go even 1mm outside that, and the lug-to-lug increases to 46 to 48mm.

Why I am not saying to go Orient Tristar? At the time I got mine almost ten years ago, the watch was 50 to 60 bucks, and now it's $250 to $300+. Worth it? NO. It's the same watch it was a decade ago and is absolutely not worth the price it sells for new today. I could see it selling for $85 or even $90 now, but over $250? Totally not worth it. A Seiko 37mm is the better option now.

The second type that's big but actually fits skinny wrists very well is what's known as the "tuna" diver, and is called as such because it resembles the shape of a can of tuna. If you look up tuna divers, they are all 44mm or greater in size. But you'll notice something else. Very short stubby lugs, spotted easily in the listings. From a top view, the watch almost looks lug-less, but they're there. This means a 45mm tuna diver has a very short 45mm or 45.5mm lug-to-lug. And that means yes, it will fit a small wrist with no overhang. Nice.

If I do go all-in with 100% mechanical watches, I will buy another. If it's the traditional 37mm Japanese automatic, I would very specifically seek out a Seiko. For a tuna diver, brand doesn't matter so much, especially considering a whole bunch of them already use Seiko movements anyway.

With sizing out of the way, these are the reasons for going with a mechanical analog:

316L stainless steel

As far as I know, nearly all automatic watches use 316L for case material, a.k.a. surgical stainless steel. This is decidedly better than the cheap stamped stainless steel Casio uses on their low-end digitals.

The deal with the cheap stamped stainless steel is how much nickel is released when sweat gets on it. Sweat on stainless steel can act as a corrosive. With cheaper steels, more nickel is released. With the better 316L, less nickel is released and considered to be much safer when in contact with human skin. The official numbers state that 316L ordinarily does not release more than 0.03 mcg of nickel per square centimeter when sweat upon. Safe territory is 0.05 mcg or less for things like earrings and other jewelry, so 316L passes that test easily.

I do not have a nickel allergy as far as I'm aware. However, what I don't know is if nickel released on my skin slowly over time is causing harm or not.

There is the bund strap option where the watch sits on top of leather, and the metal has no direct contact with my skin. But since I already had a watch with a 316L material case on hand, that's what I'm using.

PUR strap avoidance

With cheap Casios, the watch comes with a strap or bracelet. If a bracelet, it's obviously not made of 316L. If it's a strap, it will either be a low grade fabric that wears out quick, or polyurethane resin a.k.a. PUR.

Any PUR strap I wear always leaves a mark behind whether I've been sweating or not, so it's probably better to just avoid all of them.

I don't like steel bracelets because of the weight, and I've never found a leather strap I truly liked. My go-to is the nylon strap, and I have one for my Orient. It's okay, but I'll be replacing it. The good stuff is the sailcloth strap, which is ordinarily a combination of woven nylon and other materials. Some are a leather-nylon hybrid, some use neoprene padding, some have rubber, and so on. Generally speaking, these are tough straps that last and are absolutely better than 100% PUR. They wear like fabric should, breathe properly, and don't wear out fast like most NATO straps do.

On my wrist, nylon is a-okay. Skin irritation doesn't happen, and marks are never left behind. Sailcloth should work for me.

EMF avoidance

A poor man's method of checking a watch for EMF is using a portable AM/FM radio on the AM band tuned to a frequency with no radio station present. You turn the volume up, then place the watch directly over the tuning dial. Any time you hear a pulse or some other oddball frequency noise, that's EMF. The pulses or noises will be very obvious.

The worst offender for EMF is a quartz analog watch. Every time that second hand ticks, you will hear TICK... TICK... TICK... TICK... when using the AM radio test.

With LCD digital, the most EMF is generated whenever the watch beeps. With the watch over the tuning dial on the radio, you'll hear that BEEP blare right through to the radio speaker.

On the low end, some LCD digital watches sputter out some frequency crap that the AM band can pick up, but I don't think it's anything to get in a twist over since the EMF present there is so low.

It is easy enough to acquire a cheap Casio where you can shut up the beeps via "mute" feature, such as the WS1600H or AE1000W.

Alternatively, any Casio digital can be made to never beep again by removing the case back and removing one tiny spring from the quartz movement. Remove the case back, and a spring will be seen sticking straight up that touches the case back when screwed down. The spring's connection to that case back plate is what allows it to beep. Remove the spring, and the watch can't beep at all, but will still work fine otherwise. This means for something like a W218H that doesn't have a mute feature, taking out the spring will stop it from beeping.

What I wanted to do was remove electricity entirely with my watch, and the only way to do that was to go 100% mechanical.

Better for the eyes(?)

Some say that reading the time from a small LCD panel on a digital watch is bad for the eyes. I don't know if I buy that claim since the panel is almost always read in an unlighted state, meaning without the night light in use. If the panel were lighted all the time, then the claim would have some validity to it, but the LCD is unlighted the vast majority of the time.

What I can say is that there is less eye strain reading an analog dial, but only if the dial is legible. And by that I mean a dial with proper contrast. The dial on mine is a "clean" (as in "not busy") black with thin fence post style gold hands, so it works. In the past, I did own an analog with white dial and wide arrow-ish silver hands, and it was basically illegible. The reflection that came off those hands turned them almost the same color as the dial, so it was awful.

If proper legibility is there, then yes, analog is easier to read, if for no other reason it can be read at any angle.

Getting over my annoyance with reading time on an analog dial

I've said before I don't like analog dials, and I still don't.

A countdown timer on my wrist I can live without, but I don't like using one on my phone since authenticating myself past a lock screen just to run that is ridiculous. Fortunately, I have a cheap kitchen timer, so that works. Also, if I decide later to get a tuna diver, I would use the dive timer as that is quite handy.

I can also live without having an alarm on my wrist. If I absolutely need an alarm, I'd still use the Casio, just not on wrist. I also have the option of using one of my old phones that I can run without a lock screen.

Reading the time from an analog dial is the biggest challenge, but only because I'm not used to it. I am up to the challenge. Right now I don't like analog dials, but I'm hoping I get used to it.

Less accurate, but no battery crapola

Typical to most automatic mechanical watches, mine goes off by 15 to 40 seconds in a 24-hour period. Does this bother me? No, because all I do each day is adjust it once, if necessary, and I'm good.

I do have a small pile of quartz analog watches, and every single one of them has a dead battery. Briefly, I considered replacing the batteries. Nope, not doing it. I'm not going to wear them anyway. With a mechanical, a battery is a nonissue since it doesn't use one.

I'm starting to adopt a 1-minute rule

For a while, I felt I had to have a watch that was accurate TO THE SECOND, hence the reason I own a WV58 that has atomic timekeeping. I also could have went with a Bulova Precisionist, because that "262kHz" on the dial isn't just lip service. Not only does a Precisionist have a buttery smooth second sweep, it's ridiculously accurate without the need for atomic sync. But, like so many other watches, the Precisionist doesn't fit my small wrist. Same goes for the WV58 as it doesn't agree with my wrist either, so that's been relegated to being a bathroom clock. I have that watch sitting in its box (it makes for a good watch stand) at the bathroom window, and it successfully syncs the time every night. Good enough. At least I'm getting some actual use out of it.

My Orient automatic doesn't have hacking seconds, so it isn't even possible to have TO THE SECOND accuracy on it.

However, setting the time, day and date (it is a day-date watch) is a bit of a process.

Setting the Orient from a dead stop with no charge:

Shake the watch first to give it charge so the seconds hand starts sweeping.

Pull crown, spin the hands around until the date changes, keep spinning until the day changes at 4am (which is normal), continue spinning the hands all the way to 2pm. Having the watch at 2pm is the safest place to set day and date as it puts the least stress on the movement.

Set the day and date to yesterday.

Spin the hands until the date clicks over to today, set the time, push crown in, done.

After that, the watch holds charge with daily wear and only minor time adjustments are needed.

The minor time adjustments is where I started adopting the 1-minute rule. Again, I can't hack the seconds, so I just set to whatever the current minute is, and that's it. As long as I'm within 1 minute of the actual time, I'm good.

I'm coming to find I actually like the non-hacking seconds, because it's one less thing to worry about.

In the end, it is worrying about less that's the biggest draw to seeing if I get along with mechanical automatic. No bargain bin cheap steel, no PUR strap, no batteries. The setting of the day-date and time is the only complicated part, and I can live with that.

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Published 2025 Dec 17