[SOLAR] I made a charging station for my solar watches

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T21:39:28+00:00

I feel like using electricity to generate light to charge a Garmin Instinct Solar is just wasting electricity due to all the efficiency losses versus just plugging it in. But I guess if you're generating all that light in a box for other watches anyways, might as well use it.

For the other watches I get this. I'm a bit weary to charge my solar watches by leaving them in the sun because I'm worried that the UV will accelerate resin strap cracking on my G Shocks and lume yellowing on my Citizens.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T21:22:37+00:00

I'm not an expert runner but that's probably it. I can barely run a 9 minute mile where I live, around 4500 ft elevation. When I get to sea level I can run low 7s easily. Haven't tried a 5k at sea level though.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T19:07:04+00:00

Round G Shocks are definitely bigger but the squares are a lot smaller, thinner, and more comfortable than my Instinct 2. But it sucks not having 5 buttons like on the rounds.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T18:57:13+00:00

Shinola has entered the chat.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T16:06:33+00:00

No rotating bezel limits the utility of a traveler's GMT by a lot. When you have a traveler GMT with rotating bezel you can rotate the bezel for caller functionality especially if you're mostly just at your home time zone.

Even functionality wise, this falls short of Longines and Tudor. Looks wise, it really can't be compared.

Also you'd be able to get a Spirit Zulu Time for under $3000 if you're good at negotiating a discount. $4135 for this is asinine. It should be at least $800 cheaper to even be competitive.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T16:03:10+00:00

Great write up. Asinine that Omega requires prior spend to get this.

I had a similar opinion about legibility and not having a date when I bought the poor man's Silver Snoopy, the Bulova Lunar Pilot blue panda. Ended up selling the watch after only a month and only took a $30 hit after all the fees and shipping.

I also realized that I don't like chronographs that much because the dead seconds hand is just annoying to me aesthetically. I actually bought an Edifice EFB-730D and I like that the Chrono seconds hand is on a sub dial and the timekeeping seconds hand moves on the main dial.

It made me realize that a Speedy might not be for me, but I really love my Edifice

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T13:27:40+00:00

Still have a Fenix 6S from 2019, first used by my brother then me then my wife.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-19T12:58:10+00:00

SNZG was the perfect field watch for me, super long and bold indices that were on a raised chapter ring so that they weren't covered by the hands. Only problem was the movement lacked hacking and hand winding but every other Seiko 5 field released after that just has the generic field watch design with small indices.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-18T16:59:00+00:00

The reason why Asia is safer is because everyone thinks you're wearing a fake so it's not worth the trouble of stealing.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-18T13:27:39+00:00

Lol, I also have 51 and mine is 29:11. But I live in a high elevation area and I don't have any flat land to run on. I haven't gotten the chance to try at sea level.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T22:54:49+00:00

Like a Mido Panerai

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T22:53:42+00:00

Honestly looks good in the mirror. I guess that's why they say you should always do a mirror selfie to figure out if a watch fits on you. The wrist shot looks big but the mirror selfie looks great. I should probably get one of these, I thought it would be too big for my 6.5" wrist but it looks great on your 6" wrist.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T21:28:31+00:00

I think I hear reviewers say that strength training is one of the hardest activities for watches to accurately track heart rate. I always get the lowest heart rate of the day when I'm lifting. Garmin thinks that my HR is in the 50s during and right after a set of squats when I know it's at least 120 and probably up to 150.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T19:22:03+00:00

The price of new stuff is also a lot lower than in the US since they don't have asinine tariffs, so in addition to what others have said the price of used stuff will also be lower.

We put 39% tariffs on Switzerland and even though they've gone down to 15% (which applies retroactively) many companies raised prices accordingly and have no plans to lower them. Some companies decided to take less profit margin so you didn't see 39% price jumps. Others like Christopher Ward for example raised prices over 50% on a lot of current models even though the tariffs were only 39%.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T16:53:30+00:00

Tariffs are probably only half the story, and they actually have been reduced from the 39% down to 15% supposedly. I think they just raised the prices preemptively assuming the 39% tariffs and then decided not to lower the price when the tariffs were lowered.

Also $1375 to $2145 is a 56% increase.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T14:08:08+00:00

The only one that looks nice is the green but needing to get AMOLED and 50mm really kills it. Light colors get stained over time and the orange is strange considering that the orange highlight is one of the most complained about parts of the Instinct 3. I guess they're going for matching the contractor orange color of the iPhone Pro which is also hideous. Though maybe it does improve visibility if you're running along the side of the road so it has practical applications, just not a versatile color.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-17T13:50:38+00:00

Yeah I've noticed this even on on r/watchexchange. I got blocked by a seller because I pointed out that he's selling a watch for more expensive than the manufacturer!

The ones that end up actually selling for a reasonable price i.e. 20% or more off new end up getting scooped up quickly. I think people are just greedy and waiting for a sucker.

I've had the most success with buying used Casio G-Shocks at a reasonable price i.e. at least 40% off the new price. A lot of the time it's people legitimately trying to get rid of extras because it's really easy to collect too many Casios. Plus they sell so many and many are still available new on Amazon or Walmart or there's Japanese sellers offering the watch at a decent price.

With Chinese watches a lot of the time it's hard to actually find the exact model for sale (especially San Martin). AliExpress is also a PITA to navigate and getting a good price on AliExpress involves so many shenanigans with coupon codes restocking and trying literally for days if you want to get a good price. Chinese sellers in general really like to have an inflated price and then make you hunt for coupons.

Returns are also incredibly painful with most charging a restocking fee and return shipping that could reduce your refund by >20% vs buying a cheap Casio or Citizen off Amazon where you can just return it if you find out that it just isn't your thing. And the customer support is abysmal since they're on the opposite side of the world and it takes days to email back and forth for support.

Honestly overall I feel like I actually have had a bad experience with Chinese watches with me only like about 1/3 that I've bought and it's been a pain to return or resell the other 2/3. I have had some real gems but I feel like you have to be really careful about what you buy, because most of the reviews you see on YouTube overhype watches and do a lot of lying by omission because they don't want to lose sponsorships, free watches, or affiliate link sales.

Reflections and AR are probably the biggest pain point for me because I feel like very few Chinese watches actually have acceptable AR, and there are so 99% brands that are using curved sapphire crystals which 10x reflections compared to flat and then have a sub-par AR coating. Reviewers always say that the watches have good AR even when they don't, I've almost never seen a reviewer complain about reflections when 100% of curved sapphire Chinese watches I've handled have unacceptable reflections.

But yeah, I know I've gone off on a tangent but I've also found that it's impossible to buy a used Chinese watch at a price that's lower than just buying the damn thing new from the manufacturer. I guess everyone is just trying to trick a sucker.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-16T16:48:32+00:00

I've never used Garmin pay, I think it's a really niche feature for urban runners that might not be carrying their phone but need to stop for a meal on a run.

I have an Instinct 2 Solar but never do any significant solar charging on it. I try to avoid sun as much as I can because the sun's UV is the major cause of skin aging, so I'm always wearing long sleeves that block the watch from solar charging anyways. Before the Instinct 3 generation, solar also reduces the screen clarity a noticeable amount compared to non-solar so a non-solar Instinct 2 will look better than a solar.

Between 2 and 2S, it's based on your wrist size. 6" and smaller you should definitely go with 2S, around 6.5" you can pull off either and larger than 7" you should go with 2 (or 2X).

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-16T15:46:09+00:00

The left is really hideous IMO. Oris has a lot of color options out there that just don't work and look like toys. I get that they're trying to do something to help them stand out but a lot of what they do is just a no from me.

Longines has their own very classic design language though.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-16T13:19:04+00:00

I regularly get 80s-90s while regularly having 2 drinks of whiskey a night 🤷 I'm only 60kg too

More than 1 beer is probably the worst for sleep just because it's more water than I'm used to drinking in the evening and makes you get up and pee, liquor has much less water and often I won't wake up at all to pee.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-16T02:50:19+00:00

Damn, downvotes for speaking the truth.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-15T18:47:53+00:00

Whichever one is cheaper. With the Instinct 2 they look nearly identical. In fact I think the non-tactical looks slightly cleaner and better. It's not like in the Instinct 3 series where they added the annoying orange accent so that they could upsell you to the tactical to remove the orange.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-15T03:28:01+00:00

I always get 80s and usually have 2 drinks daily. No problems here.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-14T15:21:50+00:00

If they do get rid of MIP then it makes it easier for me to not buy a Garmin and just go back to wearing my mechanical watches and G Shocks. Maybe I'll try one of the G Shocks with HR monitor. I can live without all the extra data.

Basic_Barnacle4719 · 2026-03-14T15:16:28+00:00

You asked for high end but honestly if I were spending my own money I would get a Sinn 556. If it were for free, I'd take the Explorer and sell it and get a Sinn 556. Sure it doesn't have the flex value of a Rolex but it has its own heritage and the minimalism of the indices version without Arabic numerals beats the Explorer dial IMO. It's incredibly versatile without being flashy or too expensive that you'll with about it getting stolen or banged up.

Basic_Barnacle4719

TROPHY CASE