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[CFR]

Noon switch.

This watch was the one responsible for all my craziness for chronographs. Got it new in the mid-70s, from a brand that was almost exclusively an "encaser"and has already disappeared.



Fortunately, they chose a movement (at the time) found everywhere: the Valjoux 7733. As you can see, this highly reliable movement is not decorated and was kept in its more basic presentation. Still, it's quite well finished in an industrial kind of way. And truth be told, I'm not very fond of the almost baroque (hyper) ornamentation chosen by a certain number of brands; but I also prefer solid case backs, so…



I had the watch serviced recently; the case was cleaned but not polished – not even lightly. Over the years, the watch collected its fair share of scratches…but they're all mine.

While in college, I was a member of the fencing team and the watch was always on my wrist. It even experienced a brutal shock with a sword blade and the crystal had to be replaced a few years later. The watch never stopped running. Yes, maybe I was acting a bit foolish. But then again, mechanical watches are (or were?!) quite resistant, despite our constant fears - mine included.



The dial has a detail not very common. The seconds scale is replaced by a decimal scale.It may be useful for industrial timing or statistical analysis, but it did bother me at first. How does it work? Imagine you're timing the duration of some procedure and the chrono's hand points to where we generally expect to see the 15s mark; here, you read 25 and it means 0.25 minutes. Not so cool when you only need to read the seconds, though…



Well, guess all these little idiosyncrasies become acceptable after +40 years living together.

[popoki nui]

This post is what watches are all about for me. The journey together. It's why I treasure the watches I own 40+ years later over any "famous" brand newly-purchased. True that I'm making memories with watches I've had for much shorter times, but nothing replaces the wonderful wabi I've added to watches that have travelled the decades with me.

, C.

Noon switch.

This watch was the one responsible for all my craziness for chronographs. Got it new in the mid-70s, from a brand that was almost exclusively an "encaser"and has already disappeared.



Fortunately, they chose a movement (at the time) found everywhere: the Valjoux 7733. As you can see, this highly reliable movement is not decorated and was kept in its more basic presentation. Still, it's quite well finished in an industrial kind of way. And truth be told, I'm not very fond of the almost baroque (hyper) ornamentation chosen by a certain number of brands; but I also prefer solid case backs, so…



I had the watch serviced recently; the case was cleaned but not polished – not even lightly. Over the years, the watch collected its fair share of scratches…but they're all mine.

While in college, I was a member of the fencing team and the watch was always on my wrist. It even experienced a brutal shock with a sword blade and the crystal had to be replaced a few years later. The watch never stopped running. Yes, maybe I was acting a bit foolish. But then again, mechanical watches are (or were?!) quite resistant, despite our constant fears - mine included.



The dial has a detail not very common. The seconds scale is replaced by a decimal scale.It may be useful for industrial timing or statistical analysis, but it did bother me at first. How does it work? Imagine you're timing the duration of some procedure and the chrono's hand points to where we generally expect to see the 15s mark; here, you read 25 and it means 0.25 minutes. Not so cool when you only need to read the seconds, though…



Well, guess all these little idiosyncrasies become acceptable after +40 years living together.

[CFR]

, C.

Thank you, Sherry.