My Watch Collection

	This watch has the honour of being my first Russian, and my first manual wind watch. Vostok makes watches in two lines of watches, the Military, and the Amphibian. The Military watches are water resistant to only 20 metres (forget diving, or even swimming), whilst the Amphibian has a depth rating of 200m. So this Military Paratrooper is also available as an Amphibian Paratrooper. The bezel is bi-directional, the diameter is 38mm, and the distance between lugs is 18mm. The strap is probably as cheap as money can buy, but is very supple. This watch has a stated power reserve of about 30 hours, so need to be wound every day. It takes me about 35(sometimes as high as 50) winds of the crown to fully wind it up when it is completely unwound. On average, it takes about 25 winds of the crown every morning to fully wind it up. These watches are in the low-end price range, so you shouldn't expect spectacular accuracy. The manufacturer gurantees the accuracy at -20 to +60 seconds/day. Mine gains about 10 seconds/day, which is not too bad at all. Of course, I can always regulate it myself to get better accuracy. The design and colours are beautiful, reminiscent of the Soviet Era from which they were made.
Vostok Military Paratrooper

	Ok ok, I admit it. I am a nerd. Are you happy now? I have an interest in cheap, functional Casio watches dating back to my teens. I am particularly interested in watches that can store important data, such as phone numbers. To me, that is the best combination of horology and technology. Probably the most obvious function to most people is the 8 digit calculator. Very handy for when you need to do some quick number crunching. The most useful function of this watch is the phone database function. It can store 30 sets of data: a name and a phone number, or a name and a fax number. The name can be up to 8 characters long, and the phone number can be up to 12 digits long. A great feature of this watch is the EL(electroluminescent) light, used for seeing the time in the dark. Some of Casio's other calculator databank watches do not have this feature, which reduces their usability. You can set five independent alarms, and you can set the alarm to go off daily, or at a specific date and time, or for only the days of a specific month, or for every month at a specific date and time. There is the standard stopwatch function, which exists in virtually all Casio digital watches. However, this watch lacks the countdown timer function, which is something I tend to use alot of.
Casio DBC-30	Casio G-Shock Watch Index

	Introducing the poor man's Rolex Submariner. The original band was a light, thin, folded link bracelet, which I quickly replaced. The strap in the picture is from my Swiss Army Renegade, which you might see in a later review. What really annoyed me about this watch is that it has a non-standard distance of 19mm between lugs. This makes it very difficult to find a replacement strap or bracelet. This watch is an amazingly accurate quartz, with an accuracy of about 2 seconds a month. And with a battery life of 10 years, chances are, you will either lose or destroy it before it stops working. It's not a large watch, with a bezel diameter of 37mm, which is unidirectional. The depth rating is 100m, and it's only the second diver that I've owned with a crown that doesn't screw down, the other being a Gull Workwatch. I've read of some Seiko 100m dive watches with crowns that also don't screw down. I think it is safe to assume that Casio and Seiko have pressure tested these watches accurately, so it is safe to dive with them. However, personally, I wouldn't take any watch with a crown that doesn't screw down below 1 meter of water. This is an inexpensive watch, with good accuracy and battery life. And it even looks like a Rolex.
Casio MTD-1043	All images and content © DMP 2007