Please help me choose a watch

[ausrandoman]

I'm looking for (in no special order)

Titanium case and bracelet
Seconds hand, day and date
Sufficiently water resistant for swimming, dive capability OK but not necessary
Dressy rather than sporty style
Diameter 40 mm maximum
Accuracy 60 seconds per year or better - I can live with setting it once or twice per year :-)

Quick set hour for different time zones would be nice to have.

Let's hear your ideas :thanks

[Bruce Reding]

Only one watch fits that description that I'm aware of. A Citizen "The Citizen". Here's a link to a model that fits all your criteria:

The Citizen silver dial (http://watch.citizen.co.jp/pop/the-citizen/images/570953_l01.jpg)

(Hopefully someone can chip in and post a better pic. It's a nice looking watch.) Titanium. Dressy. (Putting it on a nice croc strap makes it particularly dressy, but then it wouldn't be "swimmable".) 38mm. Perpetual calendar. Hour hand independently adjustable. Rated to 100M water resistance. Most tightly spec'ed watch in the world today at 5 seconds per year. Also has a Duratec finish (virtually scratchproof) and is antimagnetic to boot. This is Citizen's top-of-the-line watch.

I have the '04 model and love it. Wear mine to the gym, in the shower, etc. Drifted one second last year. It's a Japan only model, so Higuchi is the best source that I'm aware of.

[baristaman]

Not sure if this is too sporty for you, but the Japan-market Seiko Alpinist also fits the bill.

http://www.higuchi-inc.com/sbcj019.html

There are many watches with this movement or similar Seiko perpetual calendar movements, but this one has Ti case and bracelet, sapphire crystal, perpetual calendar, 100M, 38mm, accuracy to 20 sec a year. Also has independently settable 24h hand and quickset hour hand. I bought mine from Higuchi and it was an absolutely painless tranaction to North America.

I think that there are likely too many watches that fit your criteria, not too few. Is there a price and quality range you're looking at? For instance, the Alpinist costs less than a quarter of the 'The Citizen' that Bruce suggested (but is nowhere near the quality).

[Stroop]

Hello Bruce,

I gotta say, that citizen looks fantastic! Love the quality of the movement and case. My Omega seamaster quartz at 11 years old still looks great and has kept amazing time. So I recommend something like the omega constellation perpetual calendar. Thermo-compensated perpetual calendar movement. Took a little time recently to get over my beloved watch being a quartz ( all the wis's loving mechanical movements got to me!) but in many cases there is absolutely no shame in a quartz movement! Now loving old faithful again. It hasn't left my wrist for more than 24hrs in 11years.

Oh! ooops! forgot you wanted titanium! sorry.

Cheers Stroop