Friday 9/12/16 - Short Post No. 5 & This Week's Wristwatches.

Another short post this week, gang. I find myself getting home from work a little tired as we barrel towards the end of the year. Work is busy, but I can see that the workload is starting to drop off a little as the office winds down.

It would be an understatement for me to say that this job entailed a slight learning curve for me since I started back in March. Still, it's been a great process and I've settled into the job, even though I'm still making a few rookie mistakes here and there. Gimme another six months and I should (hopefully) have it all down pat. I began the week with the Oris Diver Sixty- Five. I think it's been on my wrist nearly every day since I got it a month ago.

It's been a fairly accurate watch, too. I haven't tested it properly, but I think it hovers somewhere around seven or eight seconds fast per day. This is pretty darn good for a non chronometer-rated movement. From memory, it does show some positional variance, which is a good thing. Basically, positional variance is where a watch may run say, six seconds fast when placed down in one position- lying down flat with the dial facing up, for example- and then, it may run four seconds slow when placed on its side, with the winding crown facing up. 

What you do is set the time exactly to the second, using a reliable source like an atomic clock or any number of internet sites for this stuff- timeanddate.com, worldtimeserver.com, etc, and then spend a week or two placing the watch down overnight (while you're asleep) in these different positions (dial-up, dial-down, crown-up, crown-down, crown-right) and note down how much time the watch loses or gains over a 24 hour period. You may find that one position will make the watch gain and another will make it lose. By doing this, you can control the timekeeping to some extent.

Sure, it's not 100%, but it gives you a good indication of how the movement is performing.

I decided to switch to something a little dressier mid-week. Something a little more understated, a little more Cold War, a little more George Smiley-esque.

It's a watch that I hadn't worn much this year. The early '60s Omega Seamaster, with the Calibre 562 movement humming along under the bonnet. This is one of the oldest pieces in my collection, in terms of vintage and also with regard to how long I've owned it. I bought it back in 2001 (or 2002?) from Joe the Hungarian, a watchmaker who runs a little hole in the wall store in the city. Haven't been to see him in some time. Definitely due for a visit. His 'store' is pretty small, though. He sits behind a very small counter-top, working on watches and if there's somebody already in there, I always wait until they leave. That's how small his shop is. Two's a crowd in that place. 

When I bought this watch, I wasn't aware of how rare it was to find one in such clean and unmarked condition.

The dial on this thing is virtually unblemished and the hands are in beautiful original condition. Perhaps the only flaw is a scratch on the case-back where a watchmaker's tool must have slipped at some point in this watch's 54 year lifetime. 

It's probably well due for another service, but I think I'll wait a little longer before getting anything done on this one. 

I ended up switching back to the Oris yesterday. 

I used the Diorama Art Filter setting on the camera and this muted the dial colour a little, which was fine by me. It makes the dial look black. One thing I like about this watch is the fact that, despite the metallic blue edge of the dial, it can look black in subdued lighting. To me, this always feels like I've gotten two watches in one. 

I watched the latest Jason Bourne film. Gotta say that it didn't thrill me. It felt too much like the previous installments. Bourne wants to be left alone and live his life, but he also wants to regain his memories. Somebody in the Agency (who turns out to be dirty) wants to bring him in, dead or alive (preferably dead) , and they dispatch one or more assassins to take him out. There's a fight scene and there's a car chase before Bourne confronts the big bad guy who's been pulling the strings, and then disappears into obscurity. 

Matt Damon (whom I really like) has slagged off Bond on more than one occasion, but, if nothing else, the first four Bond films each offered something different from the previous film. 

I'd have preferred it if the Bourne films had stuck closer to Ludlum's story-lines, despite the fact that the books had Bourne going after a master assassin called Carlos The Jackal.

Anyway, another week down. And in just the last 24 hours, we lost John Glenn and Greg Lake. Twenty-sixteen, you've been an absolute bastard. Three weeks of this year left and I shudder to think who's next.

Glenn was the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, back in 1962, and Lake was one-third of the 1970s prog-rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I remember seeing the film-clip to Fanfare for The Common Man when I was a kid and thinking; Man, do they really need all that equipment?

And, of course, you can't see a profile of some downhill skier or bob-sled team during the Winter Olympics without this iconic music being used on the soundtrack.

Oh, and a Happy 100th(!) birthday to Mr Kirk Douglas! One of the last of the Keepers of The Old Hollywood Flame. Although, he debuted in the 1940s rather than the '30s, but I'll allow it 'cos he co-starred in one of my favourite film noirs, Out Of The Past in 1947.

Here he is, about to give George MacReady what-for in a still from William Wyler's 1951 crime drama Detective Story. I saw this film a couple of decades ago- at least- and it centred on a particularly stressful day in the life of this cop. We see the toll that the job takes on this guy and his marriage as he struggles to hold onto his wife while some loud-mouthed criminal taunts him from his cell in the police station. The loud-mouthed crim was played by Joseph Wiseman, in his film debut. He had a great haircut in this film. 

Wiseman would go on to portray the first cinematic Bond Villain Dr No.

Okay, eight-forty pm. Time to call it a night, gang. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!