02 Oct 2011, 20:15
When my old Casio finally died, I decided to get something nicer and ended up buying a very nice Seiko Kinetic on ebay. I'm not a watch person, so I didn't know anything about these, but the little research I did, made these seem intriguing.
The watch I bought is a Seiko Kinetic 5M42-OA20 (or is that 5M42-0A20?) It looks nice and the seller did the upgrade from the original ultra capacitor to the rechargable Li-ion cell. For storing energy, that seemed like a much better choice.
Now, however, I'm starting to wonder if I've made a stupid choice. It seems like the rechargable Li-ion battery will have to be replaced at some point, so I can't help wondering if a straight battery operated quartz watch would have been a better choice. It could have the same battery lifetime, perhaps longer, and have fewer moving parts. It should end up being considerably smaller.
So, while the Kinetics may well be mechanical/electrical engineering marvels, I'm now wondering if a straight quartz analog would have been a more reliable/practical watch.
So, given this, what's your opinion on the Seiko Kinetic series of watches?
And, BTW, the serial number on my new Seiko is 940xxx. I gather that means it was made in April of '89, '99, or '09. Anyone know when this 5M42 watch dates from?
The watch I bought is a Seiko Kinetic 5M42-OA20 (or is that 5M42-0A20?) It looks nice and the seller did the upgrade from the original ultra capacitor to the rechargable Li-ion cell. For storing energy, that seemed like a much better choice.
Now, however, I'm starting to wonder if I've made a stupid choice. It seems like the rechargable Li-ion battery will have to be replaced at some point, so I can't help wondering if a straight battery operated quartz watch would have been a better choice. It could have the same battery lifetime, perhaps longer, and have fewer moving parts. It should end up being considerably smaller.
So, while the Kinetics may well be mechanical/electrical engineering marvels, I'm now wondering if a straight quartz analog would have been a more reliable/practical watch.
So, given this, what's your opinion on the Seiko Kinetic series of watches?
And, BTW, the serial number on my new Seiko is 940xxx. I gather that means it was made in April of '89, '99, or '09. Anyone know when this 5M42 watch dates from?
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Jim Adney
Madison, WI
Jim Adney
Madison, WI