@FaheemMitha I've have own and used several Eco-drive (from Citizen), but solar is also available from Seiko, Casio (excellent in the pro-tek series) and others

@FaheemMitha But there are also watches that convert movement to electricity.

@FaheemMitha But that have been so for many many years already, nothing really new. Yes, I guess you have been "out of the loop".

@Isaac Several? What happened to them? What's the average life?

Any opinions about which brands are better? You're in Europe somewhere, right?

@Isaac I'm quite ignorant about wrist watches. I do know the difference between quartz and mechanical movements.

@FaheemMitha Yes, several. I like watches. I keep some of them, others got sold. The battery should work for 25 years (if you do not leave the watch inside a dark drawer) , the watch itself about 50 years in normal wear and tear unless you are really aggressive on watches.

@FaheemMitha Both Casio and Citizen are excellent brands. I like Citizen more, but that is a personal bias.

@FaheemMitha If that is so, why do you need to know about Eco-drive or Kinetic ?

@Isaac Well, I need to know something to make a buying decision.

@Isaac What about Seiko?

@FaheemMitha I've been wearing multiple copies of this swatch watch for around 18 years. It's not much to look at, but it's really resilient. There was one or two that stopped after the umpteenth drop onto tiles from waist height, and one or two whose strap holder eventually broke off (I don't look after my belongings very well).

I also have a pretty metal "proper watch" but I only wear that for special occasions and I'm very careful with it, so I don't know how resilient that is. But all swatch watches are water resistant I think, and I've been very happy with the brand.

@AndrasDeak Thanks, that's interesting. Perhaps I should mention that I'm looking for a watch for my cook. Something sturdy but yet good looking. I have a watch, so I'm not looking for one. One is just fine for me. I'm not a collector. I've had my current one since 2008. It's a Seiko.

@AndrasDeak Why "multiple copies"? Did they die on you?

Yes, as I said, due to broken strap holders and drops onto hard surfaces. The age bracket in which I've worn these includes a large portion of my teens.

On Anazon India, anything reasonable starts around USD 100, So something between USD 100 and 200 is the price range I'm shooting for. Durable is a desirable feature. Low maintenance would also be nice.

@AndrasDeak Ah. So an active time. How many of these have you gone through?

Hard to say... 4 or 5 I think

but I drop them every month or so :D

I quite like the idea of solar powered watches, but I've never owned one. Nor do I know of anyone who has. Though wrist watches aren't exactly a conversation piece, so people around me could have been wearing all sorts of things, and I wouldn't know about it.

@AndrasDeak That's a lot. My current one is my second watch. Growing up I had a Rolex my mother bought me. It looked nice, but it kept terrible time. Mechanical movements suck. I think I still have it somewhere. It didn't actually stop working, but I think I just got fed up with it.

Also, Rolexes are really expensive to repair, and they don't keep any better time after they are repaired.

Oh yeah, one important thing: both swatch watches I have tick pretty loudly. I don't mind at all but my wife complains sometimes.

And in any case, I'm not really much of a things owning person. I think having stuff is overrated. OTOH, having money is really useful. Mostly as a defense, of course.

@AndrasDeak Noted.

Something with an adjustable strap would be nice, too.

The trend these days is for metal bracelets where you have to take out links. Which is a bit nutty.

Or put them in, I suppose.

@FaheemMitha well there's a lot of variation between people. There are hoarder types who love stuff, just to own them and have it put away somewhere. Others such as yourself (and myself, mostly) are not interested in that. I do like a new gadget, but only ones I need (new laptop, new phone, things like that. Not new pointless kinds of gadgets.)

@FaheemMitha you can usually adjust part of the clasp, removing or adding links is for large-scale adjustments

@StephenKitt Oh. Thank you.

@AndrasDeak No criticism intended towards collectors. Whatever floats your boat.

@AndrasDeak Personally, when it comes to buying stuff, I wait to feel the pain. An approach I recommend to everyone. Humans are really good at buying stuff they don't need. I think the world economy runs on it.

@AndrasDeak I feel the same way about gadgets. However, when I'm being honest, I have to admit that I have been known to stretch the definition of the word "need" a little ;)

@terdon hehe :)

For instance, we don't have a tablet. We don't want one. If we bought one I wouldn't be too excited and I'd be bored with it after a week. But when I got a kindle from my brother I was really happy, and it felt great when years later we bought a new fancy kindle for my grandma, even though I wasn't going to use it :D

@FaheemMitha False and false.

@Isaac True and true.

@AndrasDeak Swatch watches are the lowest quality crap Swiss could produce. They are meant to break as soon as possible. They can not be repaired or maintained, they are sealed and to open them the front plastic has to be broken. In my opinion: never buy them.

@Isaac That's interesting.

@FaheemMitha Rolex are expensive to maintain? Yes, once every 20 years. And they could be set to have the same precision as new (2-3 seconds per day) if the technician is competent. Cheap technitians do cheap jobs. But yes 2-3 seconds times 30 days is 1 minute -1.5 minutes per month, not better than a quartz watch.

@Isaac My watch used to lose (or gain) more than 2 or 3 seconds a day (I think). But it's been so long I can't really remember.

I just remember that I found its lack of accuracy irritating. Which is ironical, because punctual, I am not. And as a student, the cost to repair it seemed like a lot of money. Perhaps it wasn't.

@FaheemMitha If you are buying a watch for your cook then think of Casio, There are Casios that are very tough, the g-shock group, and there are some models with a 10 years battery life. A very resistant watch that has no need for ANY maintenance for ten years seems to be a good goal.

Citizen and Seiko are both excellent brands but tend to be more expensive than Casio in my experience. In today markets almost any watch with a Miyota 2030 movement (and there are many of them) will perform quite well for 3-5 years.

@FaheemMitha If you don't like the rolex, sell it. It should go for thousands of dollars.(depending on the model)