Dumbed It Down

So I finally pulled the trigger and got a new dumb watch.  I settled on the Vestal Digital Doppler watch.  I had several others in contention, but like many dumb watches out there, they just aren't worth talking about.

I like watches.  I think they are a good combination of style and functionality, and seeing what someone has on their wrist can say a lot about them.  For example at work I see many of the officers have a simple leather/leatherette/rubber banded digital watch.  It's easy to look at, it can generally display in 24 hour time, and it can take a beating.

Most of the nurses have standard 'clock style' watches with metal bands.  The metal bands are far better when you have to get them wet (washing hands) many times a day.  And the clock style is great because they almost all have an easy to read seconds hand.

Style wise... well there are some people at work who care about the style of their watch, but most don't.   At least the ones that I've talked to about it.  Obviously I feel that the perfect combination of style/functionality is the Pebble Steel.  It just looks classically good, and with the faces I have for it, has GREAT functionality.  But we all know how that's going down.  I still don't see a future where they allow it.


So while I had several large faced digital watches that might work, they were all a major sacrifice on style.  They just looked awful.  So on this past Sunday I made a final push.  I looked at watches that went for style first and tried to find one with the functionality I wanted.... and this one watch met all of my criteria.

Functionality wise... well it's digital, it has a large face (it's a 50mm watch), it displays the day of the week, the date, the time (in 24 hour format), and has a large seconds display.  It does have a stop watch, but it doesn't have a countdown timer.  It does have an alarm... but it's a pain to set.  It does not have a calendar.

Style wise... well it's quite a looker.  It has the big chunky look that was quite popular a few years back.  As I said above it's a 50mm face. It's 15mm thick.  It's case is all black, has a crown that's dark grey with black text (it says Vestal many times around the face), and instead of the standard black numbers over grey background, it's reversed to grey numbers over a black background.  The band is a nice thick rubber that's surprisingly comfortable.

A word about size... 50mm is rather large, although there ARE larger watches out there.  My brother commented that it's like the clock that Flavor Flab used to wear around his neck.  I.e. huge.  While there are no 'standard' sizes, most gentleman's watches are between 32 and 42mm.  As you can see in the grpahic, going up to 50mm is significant.  It's also looks heavy... and IS heavier than it looks.

The size obviously adds to it's functionality.  I can take a quick glance and immediately see and comprehend the time.

But with great style comes great responsibility... or at least money.  Most of the dull watches I was looking at cost between $20 and $60.  This one went for $200.  That's a hell of a lot of money to pay for a watch that I'll only be wearing at work... but fuck it.  It fits my needs.  As I mentioned earlier though, this USED to be in style.  The Vestal Digital Doppler also USED to be sold.  It's not any longer.  At least not by Vestal directly.  There are several sites that have it, but there were also dozens of combinations.  Rubber bands, leather bands, red bands, brown bands, white bands, black on white faces, white on black faces, block cases, brushed aluminium cases, brushed brass cases.  With all of the places selling it, I still only found two that had the version that I wanted.

Amazon had it for $210.  It pissed me off that they were asking $10 MORE than what this watch sold for when it was brand new.  So I went with the other option.  A motorcycle company out of vermont that had it for $120.  Their listting (ironically through Amazon) had it as their last one.  So I bought it and was happy to see that it would be here in a couple days.

Yeah... dream on.

They didn't have the watch in stock and took a day to let me know that.  As I had already gone through the arduous process of deciding upon the watch, I just went with my gut.  Now that Amazon was the only place with what I wanted, I went ahead and paid the $10 premium.  I added on another $20 for overnight shipping hoping I could wear it to work the next day.... it did arrive in less than 24 hours, but that was 2 hours after I left for work.  So the next morning I opened it up and put it on.  It was significantly heavier than my Pebble Steel (Pebble; 1.97oz, Vestal Digital Doppler: 4.6oz), and I was initially curious if it would be TOO heavy.  So while I went about my day I kept it on.

Honestly it's easy to get used to the weight.  Yes it's over twice the weight of my every day watch, but it's not like a weight making it hard to lift my arm.  It's just a... presence.  It's THERE.

I did wear it to work yesterday and happily received some oohs and aahs.  So far I'm happy with it.  My only real consern is the thickness... I am banging it on several things that I normally don't hit.  But I'll have to see if I grow to accomodate it's thickness or just tear up it's case.

Here are some beauty shots of it I found online:

And a video: