Watches N+1...

I'll bet the dial looks great in bright sunlight

Green watches are the best watches.

My Erebus Ascent has made my Bulova Accutron redundant as my dress watch, particularly as it's a lot easier to read in low light. Before I put it up for sale locally I thought I would check on here as I think someone many pages ago was after one?

https://flic.kr/p/2qyGVNh

https://flic.kr/p/2qyFwmm

Does anyone have a Cestrian field watch?

I was thinking of getting one for my Dad

That might have been me beanum a while back.  Terrible timing though as I've got two arriving this week so no watch budget.

re-bought a Save the Ocean Turtle as I always regretted selling my Manta.  Also coming is Tudor Ranger

El Shalimo:

Thanks @Kryton57

I have a 9-10 yr old EcoDrive with a mineral glass. Sadly it has quite a lot of minor surface scratches and a couple of slightly deeper ones which really stand out in bright light.

Can anyone recommend a glass renovator/scratch remover product?

With mineral glass you'll need to use something like cerium oxide glass polish. I wouldn't bother, source a new crystal and fit it yourself (not too hard to do, lots of videos online) or send it to a repairer. For instance Watch Doctors in Tring charge about £30 for a new crystal

https://watchdoctors.co.uk/watch-repair/citizen-eco-drive-watch-repair/

Thanks @Murray

New arrival #1

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And the postman’s 2nd visit of the day!  A Turtle I regretted selling is back

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Nice.

was Mrs Kato conveniently out for the day?

Luckily for me she's pretty understanding of my addiction ?

Thanks for confirming @Kato. Enjoy the new watches!

I’d keep hold of it if I were you.  They are quite sought after and rarely come up for sale.  I’ve have it as a saved search on eBay and I’ve only seen one come up for sale in years

Calibre not replying to me, any other repairs to try?

Fudd - off here. Serviced and fixed my vintage Omega for a very reasonable rate. And said I could recommend him. There's examples of his work on various pages in this thread, though I couldn't tell you which ones.

How about a Swatch Neon to brighten those leaden-skied winter days?

How about a Swatch Neon to brighten those leaden-skied winter

Doofy wants his watch back...

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What do you think of the Ranger Kato? I'm undecided... is it great and a proper Explorer whereas the rolex is now just  blinged and neither tool nor special, or is the dial basic and poor for the watch given the price?

Currently tempted by one of these Boderry field watches. If you show an interest, they then pester you with additional discount vouchers, so currently I could have one for about £86. Titanium case, seems like stonking value.

I'd actually be even more inclined if it had a Quartz, set and forget movement because I'd probably use it in place of my G-Shock

Yeah, I talked myself into it. 🙂

@neilnevill  I love it, a perfect size at 39mm and t-fit bracelet is amazing.   As soon as I put it on it was a keeper.   I felt the complete opposite about the Explorer 40 which is a watch I always wanted.  Put it on and was meh, and at 6650 retail almost 4 times what I paid for the Ranger and it's not 4 times the watch.

Yes you could argue that the printed dial shouldn't be on a watch at this price point, but I feel it suits the tool watch style more than applied indices as does the fully brushed case.  They are good value preowned too.  Mine is a late 22 which the dealer had up for 2k, they said yes to 1700 and it's unmarked and a full set.

Is this worth any consideration?

https://www.debenhams.com/product/st-hrling-original-swiss-automatic-astral-1005-45mm-watch_p-c7ec1b35-048b-448a-8917-9000cecea8ba?colour=Black&sv_campaign_id=78888&sv_tax1=affiliate&sv_tax2=&sv_tax3=Skimlinks&sv_tax4=mirror.co.uk&sv_affiliate_id=78888&awc=22735_1734784323_b93d7818803979fa308ddda8e72c57e6&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=awin&utm_campaign=UK_78888&utm_content=Sub+Networks

Retail price looks made up and IMO is ugly, but each to their own.

Kinda what I thought, just curious.

Can't see what the "premium Swiss automatic movement" is - I'm curious at that price.

Yeah, you'd think if it was a Selita SW200 or ETA2824 they would shout about it.

Has anyone imported/bought a watch from Europe or even Japan in recent years?

How much customs and VAT do you pay?

I've seen some nice watches from Nezumi and Knot but not sure how much extra they will cost with HMRC etc...

After much deliberation I've just ordered this.

I originally wanted the "Pogue", but after seeing it side by side with the black I changed my mind.

I've got the smaller white face version of that. Very good and the larger one has a much nicer hand set. Lime is nothing to write home about is about the only criticism.

This one is the 41mm.

Some deals on them, £660 down to £472 at a couple of places.

Has anyone imported/bought a watch from Europe or even Japan in recent years?

How much customs and VAT do you pay?

I’ve seen some nice watches from Nezumi and Knot but not sure how much extra they will cost with HMRC etc…

Anyone done this??

The Boderry I posted at the bottom of the previous page is coming from Hong Kong, I'll try and remember to post up about charges when it arrives. I've had one through eBay from Japan in the past, but honestly can't remember if there were any additional charges, so obviously they weren't significant enough to put me off future purchases!

No direct experience but I’d work on 25% extra over purchase price. 20% VAT on total plus 4% import duty and handling charge.

This was interesting

https://www.esquire.com/uk/watches/g63259304/the-best-fictional-watches-of-all-time/

Well that's my dad's watch back just in time for Christmas.

Steven at Calibre was a great recommendation. Here's some pics post-service.

Came across this on YouTube which I think is the same mechanism.

The mind boggles.

Got a new strap for my Lunar Pilot.

Not cheap but bloody lovely.

The premium swiss movement is a Claro Semang Cl-888, which is a chinese made Tianjin ST16 that has been finished with enough value added swiss labor content (read the cost of paying swiss wages for someone to add finishing touches to the movement), to qualify for the minimum value requirements of swiss labeling law to use the Swiss Made label.

Debenhams giving shitty false RRP pricing there which surprised me, they are a Chinese brand pumping out cheap homages of much better watches.

Mr Christmas watch. Note - no need for 6 lines of text on dial. I know what it is and no-one else is the slightest interested. 24 mins to Megasack!

[img] [/img]

Is that date hiding or just a little shy?

The premium swiss movement is a Claro Semang Cl-888, which is a chinese made Tianjin ST16 that has been finished with enough value added swiss labor content (read the cost of paying swiss wages for someone to add finishing touches to the movement), to qualify for the minimum value requirements of swiss labeling law to use the Swiss Made label.

Thanks, I thought there'd be something slippery going on with the definition of "Swiss"!

I guess it's no worse than Elliot Brown dropping a £20 Ronda 715 into a case, slapping "Swiss" on the dial and charging £395 for it though.

@Wally - the winking emoji disappeared

That's a lovely watch. Enjoy!

I do like the Tudor Ranger - proper field watch, clear and uncomplicated dial with an excellent movement, what’s not to like?

Fudd – off here.

I’ll second (!) Fudd, he’s done some work for me in the past, butI’ve held off recommending him because I didn’t want to think I was going to have him inundated with requests for repairs, but he did an excellent job on my watch in the past, and if I needed anything sorted in the future then I’d be thrilled if he could help me out again.

I do like the Sinn, proper pilots watch, and what my Seiko SPORK is directly based on as regards the face, even down to the location of the date window.

Just watched the video of the Breitling service - makes me twitchy as hell, I don’t have the patience, or the fine motor control to even think about doing something like that! I’m not certain, but I think that movement is based on the Valjoux 77xx movement, which I know Breitling used in the 60’s, it’s the same movement as the Yema RallyGraf and a lot of similar makes used then, and continue to use, it’s a well tried and tested movement. Mine’s the three register Super model, which, after a complete overhaul with a new mainspring works just fine after 50 years.

Did Santa bringing anyone a nice watch?

I left many hints but alas...

You’ve just not been a good boy El S

Unfortunately not. Santa did bring me a drum kit though, so it’s nearly as good. Only taken 44 years to get one!

A new watch box oddly enough with 2 extra spaces. The old one is in perfect condition too...

You’ve just not been a good boy El S

That explains the lump of coal