What Watch do you wear when you hunt?

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What is that gentleman's knife on the right side of the picture?
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Columbia River CRKT 7097 Richard Rogers CEO Gentleman's Flipper Knife 3.352" Satin Plain Blade, Black GRN Handles, Liner Lock​

 
Sounds like I made the right choice then.

It’s baffling. The cheap seikos have sapphire but everything from there is harldex. I was considering a cocktail time dress watch but couldn’t bring myself to buy one with the inferior crystal. I’ve even seen aftermarket sapphire crystals for about $100 or less but I can’t justify having to mod a watch that already costs as much as they do. It’s infuriating.
I agree. Sadly Seiko is behind the curve on a lot of features. Amazing they can make what they do (and as many of them) in house and at their price points but they do often leave a lot to be desired. It might be worth your time looking into some micro brands that use seikos (and others) movements. Generally they are a bit closer to the heart and ran by enthusiasts so you’re more likely to see things like sapphire crystals, screw bracelets, ceramic bezels, screw down crowns etc if you can stand it not being a mainstream brand.

Sadly as well the high end Chinese fake market shouldn’t be overlooked either at relevant price points especially if you can service yourself or have a good relationship with a watch maker. Something like a VSF sub is 90%+ there case/build wise, movements being a bit spotty and traditional Swiss lever (same as Seiko/other mid/low range autos). A cheap entry to the features most would like. I think a decent analogy would comparing say a midrange vortex to a pair of swaros, it’s most (not all) the performance at a fraction of the price (diminishing returns when reaching the highest echelons). The Swiss can kind of thank themselves for this (ETA outsourcing the tooling and know how to China) and the Chinese doing what they do (steal intellectual property). Anyway I’m rambling again cheers everyone.
 
My local watchmaker will refuse to service counterfeits, threaten to report it, and call you a fraud to your face if you show up with one. I watched him tell someone “this is no different than you walking around with fake $100 bills, and I wouldn’t let anyone pay me with fake bills”.

Better to wear an authentic Timex, G-Shock, or Seiko 5 than a fake Chinese ripoff/violation of intellectual property. How long is the world going to enable this?
have a good relationship with a watch maker
 
My local watchmaker will refuse to service counterfeits, threaten to report it, and call you a fraud to your face if you show up with one. I watched him tell someone “this is no different than you walking around with fake $100 bills, and I wouldn’t let anyone pay me with fake bills”.

Better to wear an authentic Timex, G-Shock, or Seiko 5 than a fake Chinese ripoff/violation of intellectual property. How long is the world going to enable this?
Wholeheartedly agree. As much as I’d love to be wearing a Rolex right now I’ll just have to do without.
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My local watchmaker will refuse to service counterfeits, threaten to report it, and call you a fraud to your face if you show up with one. I watched him tell someone “this is no different than you walking around with fake $100 bills, and I wouldn’t let anyone pay me with fake bills”.

Better to wear an authentic Timex, G-Shock, or Seiko 5 than a fake Chinese ripoff/violation of intellectual property. How long is the world going to enable this?
Yes, some won’t. Others won’t because movements can be all over the place. Higher end fakes are mostly dressed up ETA 2824 clones (very common movement). Sadly there are probably 50 fake Rolex’s for every genuine one in the wild and all with varying degrees of quality from absolute lower than $10 walmart tier trash to pretty decent. Let’s not forget Rolex makes around 1 million watches a year, they’re not exactly rare despite what the AD would like you to believe. IMO at a similar ~$400 price point vs a Seiko some of the fakes are arguably better watches, at least construction wise if unable to do your own mechanical work (no guarantees or support). I have a clone 2824 I did a full service on that runs +1s/day worn, and another that I only regulated that runs +4s/day. My Rolex runs +1.5s/day and my Omega runs less than 1s a day. So sadly with a bit of elbow grease and time I have a $300 Chinese watch with a $30 movement that is running more accurately than my $9000 Rolex. Granted it will not keep this up like a Rolex will over years of use, and my Rolex could be tuned to run better. A Seiko NH35 ($200-500 range watches) out the door is -20/+40s per Seiko spec and has a mineral crystal, soft bezel, and junky bracelet.

Here are a couple screencaps because I can’t post videos, this is the one that runs +4, I only regulated it dial up. But you can see it’s the same video/movement. It’s a dressed up ETA easiest tell is the regulating lever and stud carrier on the balance rather than free sprung. Please excuse my dusty table lol, my mat was clean.

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Please don’t shoot the messenger, I wish things were different too, return of domestic manufacturing in all sectors etc. We could nuke China for all I really care. It’s the way it is and it’s my opinion. A little tangent I was recently in Vietnam and the exact same North Face Goretex jacket they’ll sell to you for $150 costs $18, same factory it just went out the back door. Same as other luxury clothing/bag brands manufacturing in China and selling to consumers at insane markups. Same as De Beers controlling the diamond supply creating false scarcity and a jeweler selling you a ring that melts for $200 for $2000.

It is what it is. Trying to pass something fake off as real is scummy behavior, but if you’re just into watches or don’t care they’re an option (most people really don’t care what kind of watch you’re wearing). I’ve probably rambled enough for today and pissed enough people off, I’ll go crawl back into my hole now.
 
Well now that I’ve chimed in here I might as well show and tell. The watch I wear while I’m hunting is the…

Casio G-Shock Mudman 9500-1

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At the end of the day, I’m a 90’s kid, and a big digital rubberized watch just makes me happy. I like that it is solar powered yet only kinda smart. So a compass, barometer, and altimeter are always ready to go without needing a charge. I can check sunrise and sunset times. I can set an alarm to go off at whatever insane time I think will result in me having a successful hunt (the alarm always works, the hunting rarely does). It’s as comfortable as other watches in my humble collection that are much smaller. Lastly, when I’m in the backcountry and trying to conserve battery on my phone, even checking the time on a watch instead of my phone helps quite a bit.

What watch do I want most? This Rolex Datejust 41 I tried on. Picture below. The blue, the fit, the cyclops date…it’s just me. And a million other people apparently.

But it came down to that or my first safari as a 2026 finish-paying-off-student-loans present. And I’m going on safari. And the Mudman and one of my Seikos will go with me.

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Well now that I’ve chimed in here I might as well show and tell. The watch I wear while I’m hunting is the…

Casio G-Shock Mudman 9500-1

View attachment 691155


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At the end of the day, I’m a 90’s kid, and a big digital rubberized watch just makes me happy. I like that it is solar powered yet only kinda smart. So a compass, barometer, and altimeter are always ready to go without needing a charge. I can check sunrise and sunset times. I can set an alarm to go off at whatever insane time I think will result in me having a successful hunt (the alarm always works, the hunting rarely does). It’s as comfortable as other watches in my humble collection that are much smaller. Lastly, when I’m in the backcountry and trying to conserve battery on my phone, even checking the time on a watch instead of my phone helps quite a bit.

What watch do I want most? This Rolex Datejust 41 I tried on. Picture below. The blue, the fit, the cyclops date…it’s just me. And a million other people apparently.

But it came down to that or my first safari as a 2026 finish-paying-off-student-loans present. And I’m going on safari. And the Mudman and one of my Seikos will go with me.

View attachment 691157
Wise choice. If it’s between a hunt and a watch the hunt wins, hands down. My favorite watch at the moment is my radio solar g shock. I love how they’re kinda smart as well
 
Wise choice. If it’s between a hunt and a watch the hunt wins, hands down. My favorite watch at the moment is my radio solar g shock. I love how they’re kinda smart as well
I handed my square 5610 down to my little brother when I got the Mudman. It was unique in that I melted the finish off the band with some zealous DEET application before a hike once. So be careful with that! Before that I had a non-radio 5600 that I had to take off and lay at a work station on my way to deliver a baby (I’m a family doc). When we wrapped up it was gone forever. It was a gift from my mom so that was a bummer. Anyway, I love the square radio-controlled G-shocks. I’ll probably buy another before too long.
 
Well now that I’ve chimed in here I might as well show and tell. The watch I wear while I’m hunting is the…

Casio G-Shock Mudman 9500-1

View attachment 691155


View attachment 691156

At the end of the day, I’m a 90’s kid, and a big digital rubberized watch just makes me happy. I like that it is solar powered yet only kinda smart. So a compass, barometer, and altimeter are always ready to go without needing a charge. I can check sunrise and sunset times. I can set an alarm to go off at whatever insane time I think will result in me having a successful hunt (the alarm always works, the hunting rarely does). It’s as comfortable as other watches in my humble collection that are much smaller. Lastly, when I’m in the backcountry and trying to conserve battery on my phone, even checking the time on a watch instead of my phone helps quite a bit.

What watch do I want most? This Rolex Datejust 41 I tried on. Picture below. The blue, the fit, the cyclops date…it’s just me. And a million other people apparently.

But it came down to that or my first safari as a 2026 finish-paying-off-student-loans present. And I’m going on safari. And the Mudman and one of my Seikos will go with me.

View attachment 691157
Nice pieces. If you could stomach a used one and 36mm you could get into one for maybe around 5k and under for one that’s not rebuilt/redialed (avoid those) 41mm is going to cost you though. Could always sell it down the road too to upgrade to a 41 and shouldn’t lose any value.

Wise choice. If it’s between a hunt and a watch the hunt wins, hands down. My favorite watch at the moment is my radio solar g shock. I love how they’re kinda smart as well
Oddly my Rolex purchase is kind of what spurred my Safari ha. Kind of a stupid story but I had bought a lower end milgauss fake and kind of got burned on it, it showed up in the mail and I sized it etc and it was a Friday night and I was wearing it and drinking etc, and every little (major) imperfection in it started to bother me more and more every time I looked at it until I began to hate it. Well the booze flowed and I got so pissed off with it I charged all $9999 of a real one that night on a credit card (my grail watch I’d wanted since I was a teenager). Wake up the next morning and it’s already fedex’d to me lol. Anyway I ended up selling some things I wasn’t using and scraping the cash together to pay it off that billing cycle. That was in August and after that ordeal I decided if I can do that stupid s&$/ and make it I can afford a safari so I booked that October. I was in my mid 30s and spent my entire adult life investing all the left over income i could and decided to live a little.
 
Nice pieces. If you could stomach a used one and 36mm you could get into one for maybe around 5k and under for one that’s not rebuilt/redialed (avoid those) 41mm is going to cost you though. Could always sell it down the road too to upgrade to a 41 and shouldn’t lose any value.


Oddly my Rolex purchase is kind of what spurred my Safari ha. Kind of a stupid story but I had bought a lower end milgauss fake and kind of got burned on it, it showed up in the mail and I sized it etc and it was a Friday night and I was wearing it and drinking etc, and every little (major) imperfection in it started to bother me more and more every time I looked at it until I began to hate it. Well the booze flowed and I got so pissed off with it I charged all $9999 of a real one that night on a credit card (my grail watch I’d wanted since I was a teenager). Wake up the next morning and it’s already fedex’d to me lol. Anyway I ended up selling some things I wasn’t using and scraping the cash together to pay it off that billing cycle. That was in August and after that ordeal I decided if I can do that stupid s&$/ and make it I can afford a safari so I booked that October. I was in my mid 30s and spent my entire adult life investing all the left over income i could and decided to live a little.
Nice lol
 
Nice pieces. If you could stomach a used one and 36mm you could get into one for maybe around 5k and under for one that’s not rebuilt/redialed (avoid those) 41mm is going to cost you though. Could always sell it down the road too to upgrade to a 41 and shouldn’t lose any value.


Oddly my Rolex purchase is kind of what spurred my Safari ha. Kind of a stupid story but I had bought a lower end milgauss fake and kind of got burned on it, it showed up in the mail and I sized it etc and it was a Friday night and I was wearing it and drinking etc, and every little (major) imperfection in it started to bother me more and more every time I looked at it until I began to hate it. Well the booze flowed and I got so pissed off with it I charged all $9999 of a real one that night on a credit card (my grail watch I’d wanted since I was a teenager). Wake up the next morning and it’s already fedex’d to me lol. Anyway I ended up selling some things I wasn’t using and scraping the cash together to pay it off that billing cycle. That was in August and after that ordeal I decided if I can do that stupid s&$/ and make it I can afford a safari so I booked that October. I was in my mid 30s and spent my entire adult life investing all the left over income i could and decided to live a little.
Funny how often watch and hunting stories start with “kind of a stupid story” ha ha. I don’t drink, but from experience my inhibitions on rifle and optics buying seem to be lowest at about 2 AM…I think that’s when my last rifle, scope, and binos were ordered online.

Congrats on being finally responsible enough to be in a good place, and congrats on letting loose a little too!
 

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buckstix wrote on teklanika_ray's profile.
HERE IS WHAT I AM SENDING TO YOU TOMORROW - SEE TRACKING


SOME OF THESE ARE NEVER FOUND FOR SALE "ANYWHERE" BECAUSE THEY ARE SO RARE :)
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Hunted:
USA:
AK, CO, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NE, NM, SD, UT, WI, WY
Canada: Manitoba, Saskatchewan
International: Scotland, Limpopo South Africa
Franco wrote on rnovi's profile.
Here's the target for the NorthForks - 25yds off a bag, iron sights. Hunting leopards over dogs the range won't be more than that.

Flew in an airshow in Smyrna years ago, beautiful country.

Best regards,

Franco

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