LANGDON WATCHES

With my days full of professional and parenting responsibilities seems like I'm always peeking at my wrist to keep track of the time and where I'm supposed to be. Yes clocks are now on all our phones but I still have a preference for traditional wrist watches. I've always had an appreciation of watches both as fashion accessories and mechanical tools.

With that in mind, I had my mind set on getting an automatic mechanical watch to wear. These watches don't use batteries but are instead are powered by a series of gears that are energized by the motion of your arm as you move about while wearing it. These are some of the most reliable watches you can get and also tend to be very expensive often with price tags over a thousand dollars. With young children at home, family expenses didn't make spending that much money on a wrist watch practical.

I'd put aside my desire to get one of these automatic mechanical watches until I came across a Kickstarter campaign that caught my attention. A start-up horologist out of Ontario, Canada was selling these watches to raise some capital to help get their business up and running. These watches had the look of more expensive brands that I'd been coveting but were priced at under $200. Liking their pitch and product, I took a chance and invested in my first Kickstarter.

My watch arrived this week and I'm very impressed! It keeps accurate time and the automatic mechanical operations have been working great. I wore the watch for a few hours before setting the time and self-winding mechanism started without a hitch winding up the gears powering it just by being worn during my normal daily activities. And the watch has been ticking steadily ever since!

Called the Parkdale Automatic, this watch has a classic, minimalist appearance complimented by a genuine brown leather strap. Instead of a seconds hand being tied in with the hour and minute hands, there is a separate track for that which makes the dial a bit less cluttered. This also has seconds stand out on their own instead of being looped in with the hours and minutes on the dial. This adds aesthetic detail as well as functionality to the watch. A nice touch in my opinion.

I have smaller sized wrists with my 5'5" frame and large watches can be overpoweringly to big for me to wear. The polished stainless steel case for this watch at 41 mm diameter is a perfect size for me. It fits great yet is large enough to also be comfortable for someone with a larger frame than mine.  I was wowed too by the fact that with all the mechanical operations going on inside the case it is only 11 mm tall. This is not a bulky watch making it look great on your wrist whether it is being worn out to work or play in.

The only thing I regret about this Kickstarter investment was that I didn't also buy their watch with a white dial too. If this watch continues to work as great as it has in the first week I've had it, I'm truly going to be thrilled. So I'm absolutely giving the Parkdale Automatic from Langdon Watches a Geek Daddy nod of approval!

If you would like to get one too, Langdon Watches is now taking orders on their website.

GRAYTON AUTOMATIC WATCHES

** A Geek Daddy received the featured product for free to review **

Grayton Automatic Watches have earned A Geek Daddy nod of approval

As a wedding present, my wife gave me a kinetic wrist watch because she knew I really was craving a really nice timepiece.  Kinetic energy from the natural body motions of your wrist generates electricity for a self-recharging battery that powers these type of watches.  I wore this watch almost everyday for more than a decade and it worked great -- the date and time were always accurate and never had to change the battery.  Then one day the watch just died.

I took it to a jeweler to see what was wrong.  Turns out the life span for the batteries on a kinetic watch aren't indefinite and need to be replaced about every 8 to 10 years.  Oh yeah, and the replacement battery would cost me more than my wife originally bought the watch for.  As I was pondering whether to repair my kinetic watch, Grayton Automatic Watches approached me about trying one of their products instead.  They promised me an excellent watch that I would NEVER have to change a battery to power it ... EVER.

Grayton provided me with a complimentary watch and I can honestly say it has performed impeccably with keeping accurate time.  This is particularly impressive because my new watch isn't powered by a battery but rather through the movement of the gears inside of it.  Just wind up the side switch a few times each morning and you won't lose a tick off the clock's pace.  I occasionally check the time against other electronic clocks during the day and my Grayton Automatic Watch is as accurate as when the date and time were first set on it.

You'd think this type of craftsmanship in today's day and age would cost you thousands of dollars to obtain but these watches for their quality are very affordable priced between $200 - $300 dollars.  Amazingly with all the gears moving about inside these watches are very quiet.  I have to hold mine right up to my ear to hear a subtle tick tock of its clock.  It has a very sturdy casing to it yet is very light to wear.  The watches have a classic vintage look of days gone by to them which I find very appealing.

Because electronics and batteries aren't involved with the inner workings of these watches as long as you take care of and treat them right they can last through a lifetime and possibly even be passed down from generation to generation.  One of these watches could be considered a family heirloom one day.  That makes them an especially great gift idea for an anniversary, birthday, Fathers Day, wedding or other special occasion.  These watches come very nicely packaged which is another advantage to providing one as a gift.  Though I've enjoyed mine so much have to say you may actually want to get one just for yourself.

Grayton Automatic Watches come in Men's, Women's and Unisex sizes.  With my 5' 5" frame I have small wrists and prefer medium-sized wrist watches.  Grayton's Unisex variations are designed for women who want a slightly larger fit and men who want a more moderately sized watch that doesn't look feminine.  The Grayton Unisex watch with a silver case and blue dial is a perfect fit for me!

The one negative I can refer to about my experience is that Grayton has an overabundance of gold colored cases when I was more interested in a silver version.  Of the silver ones they had those tended to come equipped with a fabric wrist strap instead of leather or metal ones.  I find fabric is too casual limiting occasions when you can wear it and inferior quality to leather.  Take a look at my wearing the watch with my suit.  It really doesn't go well for wearing to work or a special occasion where you need to dress up which unfortunately really impacts my opportunities to wear this great watch.  Grayton's website doesn't allow consumers to mix and match a wrist strap with a watch and rather forces you to choose from the pairing they've selected for you which is a shame.  You can purchase an additional strap you like along with your watch but it costs more and you have the pain of switching it out yourself.

All in all though the watches themselves are exceptional and very affordably priced allowing them to be obtainable for the average family.  And while I wasn't particularly happy about the watch I wanted only being available with a fabric strap, I did find the canvas to be more comfortable and durable than ones I've worn in the past.  Plus you never have to buy new batteries for one of these watches from Grayton!  Based upon how much I've enjoy my Grayton Automatic Watch, they've definitely earned A Geek Daddy nod of approval.

For more information or to check out their selection of watches, please visit grayton-watches.com