Watch Update

Alas, I have called off my watch hunt due to the fact that there are no suitable watches on the market for me. I feel like the watch market is one area in consumer shopping where the choices men are vastly greater than the choices for women.

To be fair, I thought I did find the right watch for a brief period, but upon further research, realized that that particular kind was not the kind I was looking for.

Again, my main requirement is that it doesn't require a change of battery. There are 3 kinds of watches that satisfy this requirement--automatic mechanical, automatic quartz, and light powered. The automatic mechanical is a mechanical watch (no electronic parts) that winds itself via a pendulum that swings back and forth as you move. The automatic quartz is like a hybrid--it has a battery, but also a pendulum like that of a mechanical watch. The motion of the pendulum powers the battery, so you never have to change the battery. And lastly, light powered watches use light (any light -- sunlight, fluorescent, incandescent) to store energy that powers the watch.

The disadvantage about the automatic mechanical is that it's not very accurate, from what I read. Once you take it off your wrist, the watch slows down over a period of time. For example, it can lose as much as 10-20 seconds in one night. While this does not seem very significant, over time, it will accumulate. Thus, these kinds of watches are primary for watch collectors, who actually enjoy adjusting the time manually once in awhile. (They enjoy this "interaction".)

There are no major disadvantages in the automatic quartz and the light powered except that Seiko is the only company to make the automatic quartz (their Kinetic line) and they don't make it for women and Citizen is the only company to make light powered watches (their Eco-Drive line) and I didn't like any of the available styles.

Thus, I've come to a dead end. I would rather just change the battery on my old watch than get a watch whose style I don't like or a watch that requires me to change the battery.

Tick but no Tock

I'm searching for a new watch. I've had a few very reliable watches, but they all have one problem---having to change the battery. Call me lazy, but watches use button batteries, and every time they die, you have to bring it to a department store like Macy's to get it changed. Even though it doesn't happen often, whenever it does happen, it's very annoying.

Thus, I want a watch that doesn't require me to open it up from time to time to change the battery. There are a few options on the market:

• kinetic -- where the watch is powered by movement--movement of your wrist as you move about throughout the day.
• light -- powered by natural sunlight or artificial indoor light.
• automatic -- "self-winding". The mechanism is similar to the mechanism of a kinetic watch.

Excited about the prospect of buying a new watch, I jumped onto the soonest BART to Macy's. However, after spending a good hour there and having the sales rep show me their collection of watches, I was very disappointed.

It turns out, the automatic watches are very high-end (>$1000), way out of my price range. There are a lot of kinetic watches, but most are only available for men. So, basically, my only option left is the light-powered watches, which Citizen's Eco-Drive line is known for. Sadly, I didn't really like any of the Eco-Drives.

On the other hand, there are a ton of regular, quartz/Japanese/Swiss movement watches, some of which are very high quality. But again we encounter the problem of battery replacement. In looking at these, I was particularly biased towards one of Juicy Couture's watches (the one that had a pink alligator leather strap--it was very unique). In general, I also have a soft spot for watches with a tan/brown leather strap.

Like many things in life, it seems like I can't have the best of both worlds--style and functionality. I really feel limited in the number of choices I have--like a man in an evening wear store. The sales rep suggested I try online stores. Hopefully, I'll have better luck there...