• SeaGull/Tianjin: Amongst the elite few that have developed in-house double and orbital tourbillon movements. Also engineered a prototypical microrotor movement. Manufacturer behind the legendarily good ST5, ST19 and ST25 mechanicals.
• Shanghai Watch Factory: Developed the 3L chronograph, China's first auto movement ready for spaceflight. Also engineering their own tourbillon movements with a wide array of complications.
• Dixmont-Guangzhou: Pioneer of an auto-winder in a tourbillon with their DG80 and DG81 movements.
• Liaoning Watch Factory: Engineer of unbeatable value-for-money tourbillon and mechanical chronograph movements, the latter of which appeared in the British Horological Institute's 150th anniversary watch.

1. Timex Weekender T2N650: Not made in America, but nevertheless an esteemed American-owned watch company, the Weekender is a utilitarian and ultra-durable quartz model that looks great with casual wear. Most snobs will lift their nose at the audible movement, but I find the ticking strangely reassuring in a quiet room--reminds me of the old clocks in elementary school.
2. Akribos XXIV Saturnos AK410WT: Make no mistake, this is not a high-end watch, but I got a stupidly good deal on it. It features a skeletonized variant of the Hangzhou Watch Company's 2000 Series calibre, itself an excellent "clone" (I use that term very loosely) of the venerable Seiko 7s26. In truth, the HWC's 2000 offers more complications and equal timekeeping consistency, making it an arguably better movement than the one it's alleged to copy. It keeps time very well (+/-5 seconds over 24 hours), and the auto-wind rotor seems to work well. Again, my gamble paid off.
3. Orient Esteem FDB08005W: This is the watch that set me off on the path of Asian mechanical watches. I fell in love with it at first sight, but was forced to wait on pulling the trigger because it was out of stock. When it returned, I told myself to wait for a sale and I'm glad I did, as I purchased it recently for less than half of the MSRP. Orient is subsidiary of Seiko, and the Esteem is fully manufactured and assembled in Japan with the Seiko 46A automatic movement. Reliable and beautiful, this is probably my favorite watch.

1. Jaragar PMW017: I liked the calendar (though it's not a perpetual calendar) and the dial, and was particularly enamored with the open heart balance wheel. I'm almost positive that this is the Shanghai Watch Factory 2L27 movement.
2. And an AK Homme Whothefuckknows: AK Homme is widely reported to be of above-average quality amongst mushroom brands (much like Jaragar), and again I was smitten with the open heart. The listing also describes the watch as moonphase, but in truth it's really a day/night indicator that embellishes the dial. The 24-hour dial is legit, though, and that's pretty cool. It uses the Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Factory ML-7101 that's been rotated to place the open heart at the 10 o'clock position.

https://www.montegrappa.com/en/collections/moonlandingle/50anniversariosbarcosullalunalestilograficaargentoacrilico-1158.html?id_product=27869&utm_source=Montegrappa&utm_campaign=fc63aabbde-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_03_08_47&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9fd7e665cd-fc63aabbde-62372439

Rules:

• Ends after 10 requests or 48 hours from now, whichever comes first.
• Limit 1 per person.
• Claim here only, don't message me please.
• PICK UP ONLY no later than EXPO 2018.
• You must name a valid type / size combo from the options below.

Options:

• Blue unisex with white hollow logo (XS - XXL).
• Blue women's v-neck with white hollow logo (S - L). One coworker suggested these run a little small.
• Red unisex with yellow logo made of tiny smiley faces (L or XL only).

Images:

Closeup of the tiny smiley logo:

To get the perfect color, I sampled the Jacket color of the Jokers from The Dark Knight and the 1989 Batman movies, and picked a refined version that blended the two together, whilst pairing well with the red I picked for the Hearts and Diamonds.

If you went "wtf get out of here", you don't want this. If your eyes widened a little, this post is for you.

I backed a 2014 Kickerstarter for Atelier Playing Cards, a minimalist deck of cards partially inspired by Casino Royale. The leftovers are only on sale for 1 more week at $19 a deck, until June 5. I've bought a few extra decks for myself so hopefully these are the cards I use forever.

Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Ivan’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Spudz by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Sooo... a logo change, eh? This is fine.

It seemed appropriate to announce this on May 24, the day Icrontic was wiped from the Internet back in 2003 before starting anew a week later on June 2. In its first few years of existence, old Icrontic had no fewer than 6 logos. Our current logo has had a really remarkable stretch by comparison - a full decade exactly!

The 2007 Icrontic logo debuted as the splintered communities of Short-Media and Icrontic were merged together exactly 4 years later, and it has a lot going for it. As its creator, I've obviously always been very (the most?) partial to it. But it also has several serious issues - some original sins, some accrued baggage:

1. Lopsided: It fits into many spaces awkwardly.
2. Tricolor: The hat adds two colors (white, orange) making it challenging to use in many contexts.
3. The Fedora: Meme-ified in 2012 to be synonymous with neckbeards & mysogyny. Oof.
4. Scaling: The hat becomes fuzzy at small size, and gets weird at jumbo size.
5. Wordmark: It has no good abbreviation (e.g. for a favicon). "IC" is common shorthand with no logo equivalent. The fedora alone looks all wrong.
6. Mascot conflict: By hatting the first 'i', full-illustration Ivan (a more recent innovation) and the logo cannot appear in the same graphic without it being weird.

What it does well is convey a tone and nice throwbacks to earlier eras of the site. The attitude & voice of Icrontic was conveyed in the past in many ways: irreverence, snappy (and nonsensical) catch phrases, Spudz' shades & panama hat, and the color scheme were all contributors. Even that little curve in the bottom of the 'T' has always stayed consistent over the years.

The fedora was trying to convey a bit of film noir; perhaps some comic book hero flavor. Unfortunately, every year since 2012 (the debut of the "m'lady" meme) has put another nail in that coffin. That dog don't hunt no more.

So what next?

If I've learned one thing, it's to never start fresh. You can iterate away the problems, but a clean slate also loses everything you've learned. Like well-seasoned cast iron, the flavor of Icrontic cannot be applied in one layer.

SOUND AUTOPLAYS: Every Icrontic logo & the big 2017 reveal!

You can thank @keto for the audio.

In this case, I chose to keep the logo font (Myriad Pro), down to the derpy dot over the lowercase 'i' that I artificially elongated just a smidge back in 2007. I went down a bunch of dead ends with the first 'i' until I conceded I was no typographer and it needed to mirror the other one. I pulled the 'c' in close, and knew I was onto something because we had the beginnings of an 'ic' wordmark.

Are the letters hugging? Are they leaning on their neighbors? Have they formed cliques? Why don't 'c' and 'r' like each other, anyway? It's like the letters are some kind of weird community...

That a new wordmark is mirrored on both ends of the logo was the cherry that made it too good to ignore: Icrontic had a new logo.

Throwbacks? Check. Tone? Check. Known problems solved? Check x6! While the 2007 logo will forever be remembered as the progenitor of Ivan (who is most assuredly sticking around), it's time to set it out to pasture.

Here's to another decade with the new logo. It's gonna look fresh as hell on new swag.

My first zippo was a plain satin finish steel(may have been nickel) zippo. I noticed people really got a kick out of this old school accessory, so I upgraded to a polished steel with Venetian pattern with the word HERO engraved on it. (My last name means hero in German.) Suddenly it became about what I thought was cool, as opposed to what other people thought was cool.

So with a classy fashion accessory, (one that I felt good about carrying in my fancy suit) I started playing with it. I found youtube videos of some pretty neat but simple tricks(or as I call them, flourishes) and started learning them. Now when I have an opportunity to bust out my beautiful sterling silver Venetian pattern custom engraved zippo, I do so with some style.

So let's talk about your zippo lighters...

PS: my current favorite is a silver version of my second zippo.

I work from home and have never really taken advantage of that in my daily wardrobe selection over the last five-plus years. Every day, I put on a pair of jeans. Every day, as a martial artist, I want to stretch or throw a few kicks in the kitchen while I wait for my tea. And my god, you just can't do much in a pair of jeans. Range of motion is just abysmal and I'm sick of needing to change just to stretch my legs.

On the other hand, I truly hate sweat pants. And yoga pants. And I cannot wear my pajama pants to work; it just isn't a good mental exercise (nor are they as flexible as you'd think). Is there nothing that looks half-acceptable but will let me kick someone in the head? Is that too much to ask for?

Turns out, these are a thing:

They're call Thai Fisherman pants. They are very loose fitting but still made of reasonable material. They tie with a draw string, not elastic, and it's required - the drawstring is the only way they stay up at all. Then extra fabric above the drawstring folds back down over the string to hide it.

So I bought the two pairs pictured (except mine don't have those white fish - they are darker like the rest of the pattern) and so far am in love with them. I definitely wouldn't wear them out of the house to do more than walk the dog, but they are quality pants that feel like you're wearing nothing without looking like you're wearing nothing. And I look like I'm fixin' to kick someone in the head, not take a nap.

Some sweaters were worn once and then never again, like the neon blue cardigan Rogers wore in episode 1497. Others, like his harvest gold sweaters, were part of Rogers’ regular rotation and then disappeared. And then there were the unusual batch of black and olive green sweaters Rogers wore exclusively while filming the “Dress-Up” episodes in 1991. To this day, members of the Neighborhood Archive message board claim those are the only sweaters Rogers wore that were store bought. The rest were hand knit by his mother.

I was on the fence about how much I liked this article until the author said Zuckerberg dressed "like a fuckmook" which really sealed the deal for me.

Here is a picture

The only difference was the band but that is not an issue since I can get a band. Please IC watch Guru's Help me deliver an epic watch to my wife that will make her melt

PS: If I could wear my Sambas with it i would be soo happy

I just ordered a Pilot Metropolitan and can't wait to try it. Another entry-level pen I considered was the Lamy AL-star. Both have solid reviews for being affordable and reliable.

The Pilot

The Lamy

My current grail, the Kaweco Brass Sport

Rather than let it waste away in my bathroom cabinet, I've decided to try something novel, and pass it around to my fellow Icrontians.

My expectations are as follows:

1. Shave with it for a while and remember your impressions.
2. Sanitize it.
3. Pass it on to the next Icrontian.
4. Whoever has it in June make sure it appears at Expo, preferably with you.
5. Everyone who used it and is at Expo meets up to share impressions.

I call this the 'Brotherhood of the traveling razor.'

Post "in" if you're interested in participating. Whoever is in first will receive it from me, freshly cleaned and sanitized with barbicide.

This is The Runwell Chrono 47mm. I am particularly fond of this one because this has one of our first 100% in-house straps. American leather, baby!

Makes me want to spend entire days in a tailor shop.

https://www.freelancer.com/contest/poll-MTQwNzM5OjE=

I apologize if this is blatant business-whoring, and my post gets deleted and I should feel bad. I figured this was the best forum to put it in.

Thank you for looking!

maybe ICHQ could use one too?

Church warden 9"
Traditional English Blend, heavy smoke. Mildly spicey with an oak flavour.