New Minuteman Automatics

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tempusmaximus
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New Minuteman Automatics

Post by tempusmaximus »

A preview of the new Minuteman automatics .

http://www.thetimebum.com/2017/10/previ ... atics.html

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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by hughesyn »

Two sets of seconds markers and subseconds?

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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by itsreallydarren »

I like the grey dial, but at 42mm they are too large for my preference.
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by missF »

prefer pink kitty to pink panther.....
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by asqwerth »

missF wrote:prefer pink kitty to pink panther.....
Yep. They aren't very good-looking, are they?
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Thegreyman »

Not really feeling it with this one.
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by nigelb001 »

If these were in a watch shop window my eyes would skim over them very rapidly. Meh...
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by jmarchitect »

They are all rather meh inducing but at least they didn’t put silver hands on the white dialled version. Top marks for aiming for legibility across the range.
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Thomas Carey »

Actually shocked to see my brand mentioned here.

The design was actually revised on multiple fb watch groups. Sadly I did not see some of the good points mentioned here when we were working on this. My brand was created because I like watches and wanted to raise funds for charity. We don't try to reinvent the wheel in design just go with what works well.

The Pink Panther name was suggested by several people in different places. I did not have a better idea for a name so I went with that. I honestly was not going to offer the Pink Panther or the Sky but when I first rolled out what we going to offer I caught hell for not having those in a few others. Fact is we show potential designs mostly on the watch fb groups and act on the suggestions of the collectors in those groups. Same thing with model names. We like to involve members in the watch community and people that just like our brand by doing that.

The Jedburgh and the Fury have been the most popular so far. The idea was to have applied markers so we get better lume performance that matched the hands. I don't think there is much you much you can do with applied markers that has not already been done. Frankly most everything on the market has been done somewhere along the way before.

I am going to look at taking out a set of the seconds markers. Basically they are there now as we thought the outer ring would look odd without it.
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by problem son »

Thanks for your input Thomas, about your Minuteman watches. You are evidently taking note of sensible criticisms, and I must admit that I too do not like the second set of markers; I also am not sure about the hands. One thing I do like very much is your production of a pink dial model. I am a bit of a "pinkie" myself and have been looking for a decent pink-dial watch to wear - my solution was eventually found, when a really nice polished steel pre-owned Swatch quartz model with a subtle pink dial colour turned up. :)
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Thomas Carey »

problem son wrote:Thanks for your input Thomas, about your Minuteman watches. You are evidently taking note of sensible criticisms, and I must admit that I too do not like the second set of markers; I also am not sure about the hands. One thing I do like very much is your production of a pink dial model. I am a bit of a "pinkie" myself and have been looking for a decent pink-dial watch to wear - my solution was eventually found, when a really nice polished steel pre-owned Swatch quartz model with a subtle pink dial colour turned up. :)
First up the pink and light blue versions. Here is some context as to where those came from. Originally this design was might to be a lower price 38mm with Swiss quartz that would work well for both men and women. I been getting asked for that for about 3 years now.

But I already had the 42mm platform that I just came out with for my Minuteman RWB and Darby models. So its easier to do a smaller batch of this design by simply having dials, hands, and metal straps made and using the other parts we already have. So we decided to switch to the 42mm platform which in all honestly is a size and I feel movement type that is really geared more toward men. When I did that I thought there was no market for the pink and the light blue. Well I caught hell for wimping out and not offering those from some women and men. Some of my fellow brand owners were disappointed with the fact I decided to drop those as well. So I decided to let the market be the judge as to whether or not we make the pink and the light blue or not. So far the answer is we most likely are not making those. But I do have a lady that is having me do a one of version of the pink in a bolder shade of pink. Basically I am making up a sample in it that I will then sell to the customer. So a one of. Except now my wife wants one so I will make two of those...

I personally like The hands more than most of the features. So here is some insight on those. My brand has been for the most part offering military style field type watches. Which these are a departure of that. However the hour and minute are meant to represent swords while the applied markers are meant to represent shields. Having said that I did not want the same sword hand styles most tend to use. I wanted something a bit different and I think these are a bit different from what you would normally see.


We also have worked hard to get that date function to fall into line with the other applied markers. Which to do that we had to keep the outer ring in. As if we took it out the date ends up being offset which I did not want. We do have the same markers on that ring as we do below it. We tried without those markers in both places and it just looked odd to me without them in either spot. So we went back to where it is now. I am once again looking at taking those out of that outer ring and folks it just looks odd to me. At least on the render.

So here is a render I just did. My question is this better than it looked before?

Image


or is this version which is what we currently have now the better looking of the two?

Image
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Dancematt »

It is a shame that you dropped the 38mm. In Europe that's basically becoming the size men want to wear now the big watch boom is over (of course there's still room for all sizes) but 42mm is very American so I can understand. I've looked at all minuteman designs since they came to market but never bought because field watches should be smaller than 40mm and the size has always put me off.

The redesign posted above is much nicer. No need for two minute tracks. Now the dial looks better balanced. Another idea could be to put 24 hour markers on the outer ring and the minute numbers on the inner ring behind the indices.

Sword hands are great, one of the best styles there but if I may say you should take the dual tone look off of them as it looks like they may be less legible in real life and seeing the whole hand in one colour would advertise the design better.
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by tempusmaximus »

Thomas Carey wrote:So here is a render I just did. My question is this better than it looked before?
That does look better :thumbup:
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Thomas Carey »

Dancematt wrote:It is a shame that you dropped the 38mm. In Europe that's basically becoming the size men want to wear now the big watch boom is over (of course there's still room for all sizes) but 42mm is very American so I can understand. I've looked at all minuteman designs since they came to market but never bought because field watches should be smaller than 40mm and the size has always put me off.

The redesign posted above is much nicer. No need for two minute tracks. Now the dial looks better balanced. Another idea could be to put 24 hour markers on the outer ring and the minute numbers on the inner ring behind the indices.

Sword hands are great, one of the best styles there but if I may say you should take the dual tone look off of them as it looks like they may be less legible in real life and seeing the whole hand in one colour would advertise the design better.
We may still try the 38mm version in 2018. I have so many people say that 42mm is too small. That or too big. It makes me dizzy. =)
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Re: New Minuteman Automatics

Post by Lego »

tempusmaximus wrote:
Thomas Carey wrote:So here is a render I just did. My question is this better than it looked before?
That does look better :thumbup:
I agree, I think that's a pretty good looking watch.

I have seen these on FB too and the feedback seems quite positive.