Guilty pleasure admission here. I like stopwatches.

[Darrell KSR]

I don't know why. I like to time things, I guess. i'm not talking about the electronic digital ones, although I have a few of those that I kept in coaching bags when I was coaching--extremely cheap, very accurate, disposable--sometimes cheaper than a battery to replace them.

But with no character. I like mechanical stopwatches. Even better, vintage mechanical stopwatches. Chrome, heavy, clear crystal (although some may be yellowed with age, if it is old enough). Nice "ticking" sound. Satisfaction of winding. No batteries needed.

I recently picked up a vintage Russian Agat Stopwatch that is just beautiful. 60 minute register (most are 30-minutes, some are 15-minutes, and then you can get the esoteric ones that are 5-minutes, or something odd like that). 1/5th second increments, which is fine for my use.

The reason I like the 60-minute register is that soccer games are 90 minutes long (80 minutes in high school--but they stop the clock for things like scores, which "regular" soccer doesn't do), so I like being able to time 45-minutes to know when the half will end. Almost all high school soccer is played with a scoreboard clock, but club ball and tournaments are often played at venues without it, so I always bring my stopwatch.

Here's the one I have. The crystal is clear, but the face is ivory, rather than white, which I really like.



Very accurate, very well-made. Have tested it in short timing, and relatively long timing, and seems to be dead on the money. The crown starts and stops the timer, and winds it, the smaller button offset to the side resets it to zero. I love two-button stopwatches, because you can start timing something, then stop it temporarily (like high school soccer, goal/injury/card timeout), and then restart it. Can't do that with a one-button stopwatch, because the one button starts, stops, and resets.

Last year I used a 30-minute register "ADANAC" stopwatch one-button stopwatch for club ball (which doesn't stop the clock, just adds time at the end if you need it). If you notice, ADANAC is "Canada" spelled backwards. It is a Canadian company, affiliated (or the same as) the Marathon watch company, and it also has ties to Russia somehow. Some day I'll check out the history better. But stupidly, I was carrying it on top of a file walking to my car in the parking lot last fall, it slipped, hit the ground, and the crown broke off.

I took it to a local jeweler who does repairs and he told me he couldn't repair it. It was wound, and by placing the crown on top and pressing it, it works perfectly fine, but the crown isn't just off, it apparently broke from the stem. I decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try to get it repaired--you can pick these things up off eBay for really good prices if you hunt--so it is retired. What I thought was really cool about this one was it was made for the U.S. Government, and has that stamped on it. So a U.S. Government watch made by a Canadian company with ties to Russia. Here's a pic of it:



To console myself, I bought another one-button ADANAC stopwatch to replace it. Hasn't been delivered yet, but it's a 15-jewel ADANAC very similar in looks, but without the U.S. Government stamp. My old one was a 7-jewel, and this one is a 15-jewel. Here it is.



It's another 30-minute register, 1/5th second timer. What I like about this one over my last one is that the minute register is set up in groups of 5-minutes, rather than 3. So when I'm watching a soccer game that is 40 or 45-minutes to a half, I look for it to go to exactly 10 minutes (for high school) or 15 minutes (for club) and it will be dead on. My other ADANAC stopwatch was in 3-minute increments--not a big deal, but for high school, you had to look for the watch to go one mark past the 9-minute mark (30 + 9 + 1 = 40). Of course, for club, both had a 15-minute mark so you could see it easily enough, which is what i used it for all last year.

The one "digital" stopwatch I like for my small collection is this one. It's a vintage Cronus Single Event Stop Watch. It's about 50-years old, and uses the LED common in the 1970's. Very accurate to 1/100ths of a second, and it runs forever on a battery. Very satisfying set of switches and buttons. You "switch" it with a standard on-off switch on the face, and on the top is a large rectangular button to start and stop the stopwatch. There is a button on the face that is used to reset to zero. Really cool. I have used it, but alas, it's digital, and even though it's 50-years old, it doesn't have the allure to me of the mechanical stopwatches.



Just FWIW, the most I've spent on any of these beautiful--and i think they are all beautiful--stopwatches is $20, including shipping.

I have looked at some others, like a really cool Seiko black face watch, but they all go for significantly more than I'm willing to spend. The next purchase I'll make will probably be a very inexpensive Westclox or Ingraham "Stop Watch" that is also vintage. I like those--they look and act more like pocket watches. They have a slide switch to start on the side, and no reset pin. Instead, you pull out the crown, and reset the minute hand--which is big on those watches--picture a standard pocket watch, just with no hour hand--and then reset the crown. To reset the seconds, you have to wait until it is on 0 at the top, then very quickly stop it. So this isn't for super-accuracy, but it works fine for, well, timing things like soccer games I'm watching...plus it has the benefit of being very large hands to see.

Here's a pic of one of them.

[KSRBEvans]

Very cool! I like the top one the most, I think. I agree, the ivory face is sharp.

[catmanjack]

Yes very cool!

[Darrell KSR]

Yes, the USSR Agat one is my favorite as well. Love the look on it and it feels great.

I am looking forward to having the ADANAC one delivered to me so I can play with it and leave the USSR one with my "soccer bag."

[CitizenBBN]

Thank goodness. Couldn't figure out what to get you for Christmas this year.

[Darrell KSR]

Lol. They are cool, aren't they. I don't have a collection, but I do enjoy the few I have.

[catmanjack]

Your few is a collection, mini collection.

[Darrell KSR]

I have picked up a few more recently, although I probably won't keep them all.

I did get a Westclox one, which is pretty cool. It has a sliding switch to start and stop it, and only one hand for minutes. You have to wait until the second hand is on the "60" and then slide the switch off. Then you pull out the knob, and reset the minute hand.

Westclox.jpg

It'll never be used for precise timing, but will work fine for roughly timing 45-minute halves of soccer matches in the Fall.

I also picked up an Aristo one. I've also seen this called a Pastor watch. What makes this so cool is that it is based on the same principle, a sliding switch and pulling out the knob to reset it, but it has a small 60 second timer at the bottom, as opposed to the big second hand, and it has a dial that is fixed so you can set the hand to time certain sporting events. For example, basketball it is set for 20 minute halves.

It's basically a 50-minute stopwatch. What I'll do is set it at the lower "15" mark for soccer--that way it will go into the red when there is 5-minutes remaining in a half. Or if is a tournament with 35- or 40-minute halves, I'll adjust accordingly.

Aristo.jpg

I picked up two others that the seller told me to keep and not pay for, as they didn't work properly. One of them was missing a reset button; the other does not reset to "0," and is pretty useless for timing something measured where seconds are important. I bought both to time 1/10th second kind of things, like a 5-10-5 pro agility shuttle or a 40-yard dash, although I do have an electronic 1/100th stopwatch that is better suited for that.

I may keep these and have them fixed or mess around and see if I can fix them one day.

Here's one of them. It's a Wakmann.

Wakmann.jpg

I like it because of the history of the company. The Founder--Mr. Wakmann--was born in Russia with Jewish origins. During WWII, he started his watch business in Portugal, and when the Swiss Watch Import Act was passed and custom duties imposed on Swiss imports as the U.S. supported U.S. watch companies, he moved to NYC. His company was the official producer and deliverer for the U.S. Military in WWII.

He subsequently formed a joint venture with Breitling Watch Corporation, which you may be familiar with, and made very high-end timepieces for aviation and other industries.

Best I can tell, this watch is 40 to 45 years old. It has a chip in the crystal at the bottom that isn't that noticeable unless you tilt it up, and doesn't affect timing.

The other one is a Marcel & Cie, shown below.

Marcel & Cie.jpg

I really like the look of this one. The problem on it is that it is missing the reset button. You can take something and press down on the "pin" where the button should be pressing, and it snaps back directly to 0, so I just need to get a button for it.

I took a quick look and didn't find any good history on the company, but didn't look hard. I'll look later.

[Darrell KSR]

Sorry, those last two pictures are bad.

Marcel & Cie.

Marcel & Cie bigger.JPG

Wakmann.

Wakmann bigger.JPG