zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Thanks for the above two posts...

: As far as specific activities go, I cycle a
: LOT, and while I tend to do lots of
: hiking/rock climbing, I don't wear a watch
: during such activities. While not ideal, I
: would consider a quartz watch from Omega...
: is Seamaster the way to go with respect to
: quartz?

The Seamaster quartz would be your most rugged and versatile quartz watch from Omega. It has 300 meters of water resistance, so you could swim with it without worry. The DeVille and Constellation quartz models are dressier and are not suited for water use. Neither is the Speedmaster X-33 used by NASA. It's a rugged watch but it lacks the water resistance found in the Seamaster.

: I am also amenable to the suggestion of the
: second poster (I currently have a g-shock
: that has taken the abuse in stride). I think
: that the only other concern that I have is
: that I live in a part of Canada that has
: VERY cold winters, so thermal shock is a bit
: of a concern even if I am not doling out
: physical blows to the watch.

If you do plan to wear the watch outside in severe cold for extended periods of time each day, you will need to have special lubricants put into your automatic watch to keep it running.

: One of my concerns with having an Omega watch
: to wear during 'relaxing' time is that, as I
: understand it, many Omegas require wrist
: movement for proper function; if I only wear
: it for a few hours (8-9) each day, would
: that be enough movement? Granted this isn't
: the case for a quartz...

That would be sufficient to keep the watch wound. You would wind the watch fully when you first get it so that its power reserve is at its maximum. From here, 8-9 hours a day of wrist motion will keep it wound (as long as you aren't sitting comatose with the watch just resting on your wrist for those 8-9 hours).