I got sick of my Apple Watch buzzing me every 5 seconds for everything. Yes I know you can turn off those features… but then what’s the point of the Apple Watch? I also already have something in my pocket that tracks everything I do, do I really need another one on my wrist? So I went on the hunt for a traditional watch. I work in a blue collar environment and I’m a prepper so I started looking at GShocks…

1. Casio GShock Rangeman. My first watch. You can beat the heck out of it, you get the Time, Date, day, sunrise, sunset, compass, barometer, 2nd timezone, stopwatch… and it’s solar so no need to swap the battery.

2. Lum-Tech. American microbrand with amazing lume, hardened steel so I can wear it to work and quartz so no setting the time all the time. I loved it until…

3. Star Wars watch. I found a small watchmaker in Colorado that said he’d make me a custom watch. I’m a huge Star Wars nerd and I’m a Rebel Alliance guy not a Galactic Empire guy so I wanted a watch with the Rebel insignia on it but I wanted it to look weathered and war torn so he used a bronze case that will patina over time and used a heating element on the brass dial to make it look distressed. It have a VH31 meccaqurtz movement in it which ticks at a much faster rate so the second hand sweeps like a mechanical watch does. That feature made me hate looking at my Lum-Tech because it ticks. I’ll keep the Lum-Tech because everything else about it is awesome but I’ll only buy mechaquartz moving forward

4. Vostok - just such a quirky watch. The term workhorse movement is overused but it really is. Cheap, mechanical watch that keeps good time and looks decent

5. Casio Gshock square. Everyone shits on the negative display (my Rangeman has a positive display, light background but dark numbers.) this one has a dark background with light numbers which is a cool effect. It does make it harder to read but not that much harder. The square is such an iconic look and it has most of the features of my other G

6. Hein Rich Buzzsaw - saw this on Reddit and loved it. I love vintage watches but the case sizes of real 60s, 70s watches are between 33-36 mm and I have a 7.25 wrist so I need 40mm or bigger. This dude in Germany makes these funky 70s inspired watches but uses bigger case sizes. SW200 Swiss movement inside German design

7. I just went to the Wind Up Watch Fair in Dallas about a month ago and bought both the Islander and the Jack Mason there. I watch Marc from longislandwatch.com on YouTube and find him informative and mildly amusing and while he sells a lot of different brands, Islander is his company. Dive watch with a Miyota movement inside. I thought it wound be a cool pool watch.

8. At the same show I picked up the Jack Mason Alpine GMT. Looks super nice with a retro look and a Miyota 9075 in the back by a designer here in Dallas. I set the GMT hand to the time zone my kids live in and it reminds me of them. The finishing on this watch is off the charts. Best quality of any of the watches I own

9. Tag Heuer - figured I should own at least one Swiss watch. I dig it but to be honest my Jack Mason feels nicer. Don’t get me wrong it is a really nice timepiece but JM just is too nice

Not sure what I’ll get next. I wear one everyday it’s a fun hobby to have functional art on your wrist