It's Saturday Afternoon. I'm ordering watches on Amazon. Also trying to decide which ONE camera and ONE lens to take to Chicago next week.

  Portrait of B. from the past. Original camera: Pentax 67. Lens: 150mm Pentax. 

This is a throw back edition to Swiss Watchmaker's 1955, 50 Fathom Dive Watch series. Hand made by Blancpain in Switzerland. It's a company that has been making very, very limited edition dive watches for a small but extremely affluent market of watch lovers. Established in the 1700s. The cost of this watch is $19,500. With a black nylon watch band. It's a very pretty watch; I only wish they made a version without a date window...

I still doubt I'll ever spend anywhere near that amount on a watch...

But, kind and generous readers...I do have a birthday coming up....

But...

Maybe the watch below makes more sense >

This is a Watchdives dive watch currently being made and marketed as an homage to the line of Blancpain watches represented up above. This watch is available with a glass crystal or with a sapphire crystal. Available in stainless steel case for the glass variant and in titanium for 

the sapphire crystal variant. 

It uses a popular and proven Seiko automatic movement, has a screw down crown and is waterproof to 300 meters. It also features a black, nylon wrist strap. It sells for between $119 - $139 on Amazon.com.

At the end of July this year I ordered one of the models with the stainless steel case and the glass crystal. I've worn it every day since. In the pool for an hour workout per day and, after letting the strap dry, for the rest of the day. I take it off at night. Otherwise the lume would keep me awake. While it keeps accurate time and hasn't needed to be rewound it is hand-wind-able. Not all modern automatic movements are hand-wind-able. It's a feature I value. 

Today I was ordering another couple sets of swim goggles, an extra (Panasonic) battery for the Leica DLUX8 and a few other odds and ends and in the shopping process the Amazon algorithms sent me a glance of the sister watch; the one with the titanium case and sapphire crystal. And coupled the ad presentation with a sale price. I immediately added the watch to my shopping cart. It's too good a value to pass up --- that is, if you like the look and feel of this watch. 

And the idea of waterproof to 300 meters.

And, bonus, no date window. Just utter face simplicity. $119. 

The watches are made in China but feature a Japanese, Seiko NH38 movement. 

It's a bargain. Sure beats the $19,500 price of the original model.

On to more important things. Which goggles did I get this time?

That's easy. Speedo mirrored Vanquisher 2.0 goggles. This will be my sixth or seventh pair. If you use them everyday they don't last much longer than about six months. The lenses, in fact all parts, are made of plastic which eventually fogs from prolonged contact with pool chemicals. And since they are plastic if you abuse them you can break the parts that hold the elastic head straps. If you break the strap lugs and don't have a back-up pair of goggles in your swim bag then workout is over until you can replace the broken goggles. I'm rotating an existing pair from their packaging in my bag to be my new daily users and adding the newly arriving goggles to be next in rotation. I have a bunch of flawed and foggy goggles in the trunk of the car. Just in case. For $25 per it's easy to "Be Prepared." 

I guess that's about it. Watches. Swimming. Am I forgetting something? Was it something about kale???

Oh yeah....the camera quandary. Which camera and lens to take along with me on my upcoming long weekend vacation with B. After much deliberation I've narrowed down the choices to either the Leica Q2 or the Leica DLUX8. Leaning toward the DLUX8 right now for its smaller size, lighter weight and an actual zoom range of 24-75mm (equivalent). It's a brilliant little camera and I just got a back-up, back-up battery for it. 

If I were out to do serious photography on the trip I'd lean toward the Q2. But I'm pretty much set on my role as a "tourist on a family vacation" instead of being a "dedicated and driven" photographer. I figure if the city seems really, really great, visually, I can always go back alone and dive into making photos. After all: "Lonely hunter, Better hunt." 

I am certain though about which watch I'll be taking.... 

Lots of posts. Don't read more than you can handle at one time.