That One Day When I Got Bored and Just Started Ordering Watches off Amazon

This is a true story.

The Contenders

Suunto Core All Black ($129.99)

Pros

• It’s all black!
• Supposedly if you calibrate either the altimeter or the barometer, the other one sorts itself out automatically.
• Has a cool “second hand” that cruises around the circumference of the dial.
• Very cool band.

Cons

• Kind of hard to read. It has a “negative display” so the numbers appear lighter than the black watch dial — but they’re not lighter enough for easy reading.
• Looked pretty big on (compared to the similar, non-Suunto Core watch that came on that fateful Wednesday).
• I couldn’t figure out how to get the interface to show me much.

Timex Ironman Classic 30 ($35.75)

Pros

• Cheap enough that we can almost call it disposable.
• Indiglo!
• Made in Philippines.

Cons

• No altimeter.

Casio Pro Trek 600 ($230.40)

Pros

• The hands get out of the way when you select a display setting that kind of requires you to see the digital display located above the 6.
• Seriously, that was really cool. Almost emotional for me.
• Despite having the largest case of any of that Wednesday’s watches, it didn’t look that bizarre on my wrist.
• Normal hands made it seem like it could be a reasonable every-day, business casual watch. Plus I like normal hands.
• Has full set of ABC features, but still kind of looks like a normal watch.

Cons

• Its ABC features are all kind of stowed away in that little rectangle above the 6.
• Not cheap.

Suunto Core Regular Black ($146.41)

This one was basically the same as the first watch, only the display was black-on-gray rather than gray-on-black. Here, I’ll show you.

Pros

• Maybe a little easier to read than the all black?

Cons

• Still looked huge. I think for as cool as the band is, having it so wide where it connects up with the case kind of gives the impression of long lugs. No one wants long lugs.
• Oh also: the battery supposedly only lasts for a year, at which point you have to replace it. Which I know’s not the end of the world, just that the Casios were solar-powered and supposedly will still be running long after you’re sick of the watch (a decade or two?).

Casio G-Shock M100 ($91.99)

Pros

• Has hands.
• Doesn’t try to do too much.
• It’s “good down to 200 meters”, which I think translates out to I can get away with wearing it in the shower — probably.

Cons

• Looks like a lot of bezel without much face.
• Those small porthole digital displays are really too small to be of much use.
• I know it doesn’t look so bad in the photo, but IRL it just looked like all bezel.
• No barometer.

Casio Pro Trek 3000 ($205.13)

Pros

• It’s an ABC watch (altimeter, barometer, compass). Have I mentioned ABC in this post somewhere yet? Weird.
• Eminently readable.
• Could find stuff just by messing around with the buttons.
• Pretty reasonable-sized case for an ABC watch.
• Periodically syncs over-the-air with an atomic clock transponder in Colorado for some reason.

Cons

• Also seems like a ton of bezel, especially when compared to the Suuntos.
• Came preset with an alarm that went off at midnight (or 0:00 as it was called).

The Outcome

I don’t know why I started buying the watches. Yes I do: I was bored at work and unable to motivate myself to do “academic research” and somehow this killed time (ha!) in an appealing way.

At some point I was cognizant of feeling like I needed another quartz watch besides my CWC and I wanted it to be decent, like $100-200 somewhere, and then everyone on The One Watch-Enthusiast Website was all about the Casio G-Shocks, which then took me into the world of ABC watches somehow, which then meant I ordered these six watches, four of which were ABC watches.

Anyway: I kept the 3000 and the Ironman.

I really wanted to like the Suuntos (they’re from Finland! — that should’ve been listed as a pro), but I kind of didn’t. I think, mostly, the case just looked huge and felt heavy or something, plus pushing the buttons wasn’t immediately gratifying. Loved the wide band though.

I regret not keeping the 600. When I made the decision to keep only the 3000 and the Ironman, I did so while cognizant of the fact that I would always regret not keeping the 600. It’s hard to describe how exciting it was watching the hands scramble out of the way when I pushed the button to see the barometer reading the first time. Maybe some day.

The 3000 seemed like it did its job correctly, looked fine on, and it was easy to justify it to myself (it really would be nice to be aware of elevation status while hiking). The 600 had all the same features, but they were always going to be less prominent.

And then the Ironman was cheap enough that if the dog buries it in the backyard, hey, who cares?

What I Learned

• Watch cases over 40mm look okay on me. Whole new worlds opened up.
• I can spend $1,000 in one day on watches.
• Fine, I can spend $800 in one day on watches.
• Apparently I have no shame about using Amazon’s return policy just to satisfy my consumerist curiosity.
• I like the shirt I was wearing that day.

Epilogue

bkd

Safety Razor vs. Normal Razor: A Comparison (and Review Sort Of)

A few months ago I went to Target to buy blades for my Gilette Fusion electro-manual razor only to realize that an 8-pack cost $32. Holy carp: that’s ridiculous. I came home bladeless yet determined to find some way to get over on the man. Going to Amazon showed that blades could be had somewhat cheaper, but also reminded that there’s this whole other thing called “safety razors”.

It turns out there’s a whole online community dedicated to safety razors. On the one hand of course there is, but on the other hand, it’s kind of odd just how active a community dedicated to safety razors can possibly be. This degree of interest was worrying, but the site (badgerandblade.com) also provided a lot of info about the advantages of safety razor shaving and how to get started in acquiring the rare skill of using one without inadvertently slitting your own throat. (Some of the posters there make it out to be much harder than it actually is.)

It turns out that using a safety razor is considerably more economical than using a “normal” one. The table below sort of shows that (it assumes that the average man uses two blades a month; using more blades speeds up the break-even, using fewer slows it down).

(Prices taken from Amazon on July 24, 2011; lowest price for each product taken. Blade packs were chosen by lowest price per blade regardless of quantity (safety razor blade price applies to 7 AM or Shark blades sold in packs of 100).)

That table’s a little deceptive in that I, like most people, already owned another razor. In that sense, you kind of should deduct the initial cost of the razor for the normal razor comparison subject since it’s a sunk cost. But still — even with that, the break-even versus the Gillette Fusion (which I owned) takes less than a year. Also, unlike a “normal razor”, you could conceivably get reasonable value back for a used safety razor via E-Bay. A good safety razor is built to stand the test of time (I’ve read); a normal razor might last you a decade or more, but even then you’re not likely to hand it down to your grandkids. I’m not saying you’d hand down your safety razor (that seems weird), just that the likelihood would be higher.

The table comparison is also a little deceptive in that, if you follow the advice of the Blade & Badger community, you can’t just use normal shaving cream in a can; you have to use a badger-hair brush and some sort of soap or tub-based cream. Also according to them, you have to buy some sort of after shave, specifically some sort of European after shave. As such, and in order to give the safety razor an ideal test, I followed the entusiasts’ advice and bought:

• The afore-referenced Merkur Classic razor ($31.50 — there are less-expensive safety razors available).
• A badger hair brush (Parker, I think; no longer available on Amazon, but $20 iirc).
• A 2.25-oz. tub of Col. Conk’s bay rum shaving soap ($4.75)
• A 25-pack of Shark blades ($9).
• Proraso aftershave ($9 on sale).

All total, then, the start-up cost for this experiment was $74.25. (As it turns out, I don’t think anything other than the razor and blades were required.) I’ve been using the set-up for a couple months now. Here, then, are my findings:

• Performance-wise, I get a closer shave with the safety razor. The difference is large.
• I don’t think there’s any greater propensity to cut oneself using the safety razor than with an normal razor.
• In fact, in daily practice, I don’t see any reason to necessarily do anything different with a safety razor than you do with a normal razor: it can go just as fast (or slow) and I don’t believe there’s any real functional benefit to using the brush and special soap/cream.
• That said, using the brush and shaving soap sort of gives one the feeling of connecting with past generations. Depending on how sentimental you are toward bygone eras, that might be a plus. (The old-school Proraso aftershave is also a potential plus on the same grounds.)
• Plus figuring out how to get the soap to lather offers a slight challenge that, once conquered, lets you know that you’re a better man than most.
• Finding “the right angle” at which to hold the safety razor is intuitive.
• The safety razor handles longer stubble with no problem, i.e., nothing gets jammed between the blades. Ergo, it’s a much better solution for someone who doesn’t want to shave every day.
• I haven’t had to change blades any more frequently than with a normal razor; as with normal razor blades, I usually fare better with a blade after one sometimes bloody go-round.
• I can shave with the safety razor sans soap, just like I often did with the normal razor. Back then. When I still used one.
• The recommended Merkur razor is a solid instrument. The handle seems short at first (much shorter than the normal razor), but you get used to it quickly. The heft and build quality make it seem more like a serious tool and less like a toothbrush.

In summary, then, I highly recommend the safety razor approach. It shaves closer, does not appear to be any more difficult than using a normal blade, and costs significantly less than using a normal razor system. If any of the esoteric benefits are a plus for you, then so much the better. I’m guessing that if the tide ever turned and a majority of guys started using safety razors then the Gillettes and Schicks of the world would be left no alternative but to lobby congress into making them illegal. Until then, though, this seems like a market inefficiency that everyone might want to exploit.

bkd

PS, Plus I’m guessing that about 75% of what you’re paying for with the Gillette/Schick systems is marketing costs. Merkur and Col. Conk don’t really have that kind of overhead with which they need to saddle customers.