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A recent acquisition - a 70s Tissot Seastar quartz:
Popped the Casio Royale on a silicone strap:
I want that. And its only £25!
jamiep
Subscriber
I first posted here asking about Q Timex, decided it was overpriced, bought a Vostok just for something unusual/fun. I actually got an Amphibian and a Komandirskie, both what I thought were the architypal designs. Changed bezel and straps on both. Still don’t know what to do with the Kom strap
Inexpensive watch collection update if anyone is vaguely interested. As you can see, I don't love watches enough to spend big money:
- Parnis Daytona
- Parnis GMT - this is new but Ive not worn it yet - I find the head too large for the jubilee strap
- Loreo Yachtona
- Loreo Diver
- Casio F91W on a nato
- Casio erm gold dress F91W
- Casio Royale
- Casio murdered out World Time
- Two Skmei Casio homages
These Vostoks currently get all of my wrist time:
- Shark mesh strap I had before. Teal bezel is new. I have a teal Scuba Dude on the way that this bezel was for but I love it on the black face so I'll need a rethink when the other on arrives - I have ordered a black bezel and a blue one too.
- Sticking with the black coin edge bezel. After trying a few straps, I am going with the RAF vs Uboat Komandirski.
- A new Komandirski arrived. Swapped bezel and strap for a Q Timex homage (the watch that started all of this)
Love those. I ballsed something up regulating my Komandirskie, adjusted the beat regulator instead of the time and now can't get it anything like accurate. I've got a cheap one with a horrible case coming off eBay to swap the movement out. It'll be the second time I've done it after busting my Seiko a few months ago.
My collection is really befuddling me:
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The Seiko 5 is my daily/office. His & her Tags are wedding presents, The Prospex/Tag are my "Suit" watches. I shouldn't have bought gregarious G Shock - thats going on sale. The SNDA57 is well, a quartz. The Alpha I don't know about, I probably should have bought it. I'm yearning for a Hamilton Intramatic or Yema Speedgraf so the Alpha feels like I went to toyrs-r-us and bought a watch in that everyone would point and look and go lol, cheap.
Hamilton:
Yema:
I like the "manual column wheel chrono" of the Alpha but the others - particularly the Yema have much better movements and more history. The Yema is also column wheel NE86 but an auto. I've decided I don't want chip watches in more, but 2 posh waches with bracelet & strap (Tag, and one of those ^), the 5 and the Instinct as a smart/tough watch.
Sigh.
Panda Intramatic is a lovely thing
PSA!
Spinnaker Tesei Titanium auto diver.... $299 USD with free world wide delivery.
Panda Intramatic is a lovely thing
It is although quite expensive! I like the Yema history, and at the moment anyway the Yema is a limited run of a number per 300 pieces. Then again, I don’t think Yema have appreciated quite the way other watches do?
Then again, I don’t think Yema have appreciated quite the way other watches do?
Outside of Rolex, some Omega and real exotica, do any watches really appreciate these days?
Mine has.
It's neither Rolex, Omega or exotic.
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Huh, odd formatting.
OK, there will always be some exceptions to the rule, and there's no way that was ever purchased with future value in mind! And it is one of the nicest of the genre, the proportions and design are just spot on.
I'm no fan of a panda type dial at the best of times but that Intramatic^ isn't even making a try for legibility as far as telling the time goes. It looks like it would be quite readable if you're just using the stopwatch though.
Any love for the humble CWC G10?
I think they're a handsome well proportioned field watch. They could use a little more humility in their pricing though, £199 for a 5 atm watch with £25 worth of quartz movement and an acrylic crystal doesn't make them much of a value proposition, IMO
Completely agree with you there, pricing is ridiculous for what they are, there’s no way I’d be paying what they’re currently selling for, this one was issued in 1997.
I used to have a Precista PRS18 that I bought new but some of the lume markings fell off after only 9 months of light wear, apparently that wasn’t covered by the guarantee though, unbelievable!
Then again, I don’t think Yema have appreciated quite the way other watches do?
Outside of Rolex, some Omega and real exotica, do any watches really appreciate these days?
Depends on the watch, it’s rarity, and collectibility. This is my Yema Rallygraf Super, it’s an actual Yema, from around 1969-70, when the company was still a family-owned French watchmaker. It has a Valjoux 7736 movement. Mario Andretti wore one when racing in Formula 1. I paid £50 for it new, one like it sold at auction in London two years ago for £3800.
@aphex_2k - that Spinnaker is a lovely thing! It’s beautifully clear and easy to read, and just nicely styled. Very taken with that, nice having a coin-edge bezel as well. Has it got a ceramic bezel insert? Can’t quite tell from the photo.
This is my Yema Rallygraf Super
I absolutely love the way that's worn in CZ, not my favourite style of watch but it looks just great with a bit of life applied to it. It must mean a lot that it's all happened during your ownership.
Absolutely, it was the first watch that I bought with my own earnings, bearing in mind I earned around £9.50/week back then, and that watch was £50! I wore it continuously until around 1985, when I bought my TAG Heuer Series 1000, and that became my main watch. The Yema developed a bit of a problem that was supposedly fixed, but it was never quite right, then someone in a local jewellers gave it to a retired watchmaker he knew, who sorted it out. A couple of years later, the mainspring went. Fortunately, I found a shop in Marlborough, Deacons & Son, who have in-house watchmakers, and they fixed it, serviced it and replaced the crystal, which had seen better days. That cost me £460!
A lot of money, but it’s part of my personal history, and I considered it worth the money.
Now that I’ve seen how much a similar example has fetched at auction, I feel it was a worthwhile investment, but that’s after the fact, I really like the way the watch looks, there are other variations, none of which I like, but it just appealed to me at the time, and it hasn’t really aged. The fact that it’s become collectible and worth money is just the icing on the top, which is really how it should be.
My TAG seems to be going the same way now, because of the James Bond Timothy Dalton connection, which is again just luck, I bought it ‘cos it’s an all-black diver with a luminous face, which was unique at the time. Still is, I think.
Looks like G -Shock are soon to release a Garmin Instinct competitor, yet despite being Solar the battery doesn't last as long unless you use it at a £15 G Shock for telling the time...
https://g-shock.co.uk/g-shock-sports
Seems like a fail?
Looks like G -Shock are soon to release a Garmin Instinct competitor, yet despite being Solar the battery doesn’t last as long unless you use it at a £15 G Shock for telling the time…
> https://g-shock.co.uk/g-shock-sports < Seems like a fail?
Funnily enough RC Rainmaker described the Instinct as "casio like" when it came out...
TBF if you use a garmin as a day to day watch with a GPS option you'll be lucky to get a week out of it, the Instinct will do longer so long as you don't use it for its intended purpose, gps spanks batteries...
I think you're right though and casio are trying to break into Garmin markets, but more by adding GPS and optical HR to the existing features already found on their G-shock and protrek lines.
TBH if it lives on your wrist all day soaking up charge and gets the odd couple of hours gps use, it will probably do quite well on battery life... Of course if you're doing 10 hour workouts every other day that spank the battery on existing GPS watches I wouldn't expect the H1000 to do much better.
As for £15 casio solar watches? They're not quite that cheap, but if you do want a basic solar powered casio they can be had from about £30 and up.
Will the H1000 be a "fail"? I doubt it, its got a lot of features for the price, I'd still not buy one before DC rainmaker reviews it though.
But the G-Shock fanbois will probably already have covered all the tooling costs with their pre-orders there's a reason they launched it under the G-Shock brand and not Protrek...
I want a Vostok. Has anyone bought one direct from Russia? Good prices and choice.
https://meranom.com/en/amphibian-classic/
Thinking of one without the date as I read there is no quick date change on them. So the date can only be changed by winding the time forwards. On flicking it back and forwards between 9 and 12.
I had a Komandirski from Russia via ebay it was sent promptly and was cheap, the Date change is annoying, the easiest way to change date its to roll the watch just past midnight, then back to about 21:00 and then over to midnight as this fools the movement into changing date.
But yep I have looked at at no-date Vostoks on and off.
Two of my three are from Komandirskie.com, one from eBay from Russia, but Meranom is fine too use too. Russian postage takes at least a month whichever seller one buys from.
There's an active forum at: https://forums.watchuseek.com/f10/#/forums/10?page=1
The 9pm / midnight date set isn't really any hassle for me.
NB,a no date face will still have the date in the workings
A no date version it will be. Just because OCD about date being correct
I put my Alkin (no date) on this morning after not wearing it for a week and it took about 30 seconds to give it a few winds to start it and set the time. Don't fancy winding a date manually a fortnight forward as well. No huge deal but no need to have a date with a Vostok if there is the option to avoid.
TBH if it lives on your wrist all day soaking up charge and gets the odd couple of hours gps use, it will probably do quite well on battery life… Of course if you’re doing 10 hour workouts every other day that spank the battery on existing GPS watches I wouldn’t expect the H1000 to do much better.
Sure, maybe the mistake is on the pre release web text, which doesn't really make clearly what "time only" constitutes. If that really is 12 months of sitting on my wrist with a single charge + average solar input, then great but its also measuring Barommetric pressure, pulse etc in the background - or does "Time only" switch all that off? what I'd like to know is:
a) Is Time only actually time only there for = 12months
b) Is "normal" with time & other stats and whats the average charge plus solar - which in my mind must equal the Instincts 2 weeks at least
c) GPS mode granted a few hours use is acceptable as commented.
Either I missed it or b) is missing and thats the vital metric for most people. b) to me must be an Instinct beater by way of using the solar to extend beyond a standard 2 week battery life.
Go dateless. I've seen the rolling it back and forward past midnight trick mentioned a couple of times online. Now I'm no watchmaker, but as an Engineer I think forcing a delicate little mechanism the wrong way past a jump change like that is a really bad idea and liable to damage something. Mine has a date, I just put up with it being wrong. I'd prefer it to be correct, but it's the lesser of two evils in my book.
Now I’m no watchmaker, but as an Engineer I think forcing a delicate little mechanism the wrong way past a jump change like that is a really bad idea and liable to damage something
As an Engineer how do you feel about turning the delicate little mechanism the correct way but really quickly by using an electric screwdriver secured to the crown by a blob of blutack?
TBH Kryton I think you might be expecting a bit much from tough solar as a power source for all of those features.
From what I can see essentially you have a pretty good outdoorsy watch more or less like the Protrek PRG-240; a triple sensor 'ABC' (Altimeter/Barometer/Compass) watch with the full compliment of digital watch features you would want, world time, chromo, timer, multiple alarms that runs happily off of sunshine. And then they've gone and stuck some power hungry GPS and HR bits on too which if you want to use them frequently, yes you will almost certainly have to plug it into a USB charger every few days.
That's pretty much the same deal as Garmins existing products... So it's no worse, but it might be slightly better, partly because its not a Garmin, partly because that tough solar module will at least keep it telling time when you're nowhere near a plug socket...
As an Engineer how do you feel about turning the delicate little mechanism the correct way but really quickly by using an electric screwdriver secured to the crown by a blob of blutack?
I feel that's very inventive. 😁 (and I'd not do that either).
edit - I've just re-read my post and the 'as an engineer' bit was a bit preposterous eh? Should have said somthing about displaying a bit of mechanical sympathy or something.
Garmin do solar too on the Fenix range, but it's a top up rather than sole power source.
My Fenix 6x Pro (non solar) does 21 days between charges if I don't use the GPS or HR function.
Date changing vostoks?
As an engineer myself (but not a watchmaker) It's fine, all you're doing is cycling a mechanism whichever way you do it, one method takes 4 times longer and if I'm trying to adjust 30 odd days, I'll take the shorter route thanks.
We're not talking about the finest Swiss movement here, it's an agricultural bit of soviet era clunkiness, a new movement is about £20ish. In a pinch you can cannibalise it to fix your AK47 probably... It'll be fine...
Just got hold of an original Seiko SKX031/33, 3 o'clock crown as opposed to the SKX007/9 and slightly smaller case.
Already been looking at some mods, bezel, insert and hands.
https://flic.kr/p/2iNgSKs
Doesn't need modding! Looks the biz as is.
I feel that’s very inventive. 😁 (and I’d not do that either)
Well, I did say a screwdriver rather than a drill, I'm not a complete animal. Though TBH (and in spite of their affordability) a komandirskie is one of the last watches I'd try that out on, mine has the wobbliest crown ever and needs a constant gentle outward pressure when winding to stop it screwing back in.
I’ve just re-read my post and the ‘as an engineer’ bit was a bit preposterous eh?
Preposterous is a bit strong, I enjoyed the way you capitalised "Engineer" though!
Looking forward to getting this next week. Was sent to a professional after I mangled two second hands and also to be pressure tested once complete.
Custom or franken dependent on your point of view. Only the movement is Seiko (NH36), all other parts are aftermarket, mainly One Second Closer and Namoki. Ceramic bezel insert, coin edge bezel, red AR domed crystal, engraved crown, SKX style case with drilled lugs. It isn't the dial I initially planned as that's still in Hong Kong, but I quite like this one too.
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Bit chintzy and zero brand/history behind them, but I guiltily quite like the design. A lot of watch for the money. Sapphire crystal, Seagull movement, original design...
Very Richard Mille
Definite whiff isn't there.
Fortunately not reflected in the price. £175 at the moment.
Following on from my bargain £100 white Alkin. I liked it so much I’ve bought another. SS case, limited edition green dial with an orange second hand. Which is the one I was going to get before my whim eBay purchase. Will report when it arrives
Question is do I keep both?
Question is do I keep both?
Why not? Though if there can only be one - green dial all day every day. But then I'm a sucker for a green dial.
This looks like a bargain . NH35 movement, stainless steel case. £70 on
Amazon. Though the fact the brand - Lyle and Scott - is better known for golfwear puts me off for some reason.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lyle-Scott-Stealth-Automatic-LS-6006-03/dp/B07JGRY3MS
Anyway I've ordered a Vostok K43 from Russia so I can't justify another watch buy right now.
G-SHOCK Sport GBD-H1000 with Heart Rate Monitor and GPS. Can't wait to see one of these in the flesh. Could be a good rival to the Garmin Instinct.
Green Alkin Model One has arrived. Darker face wears smaller than the white one which is nice. Will probably keep both!
Might swap straps though. Think maybe the black would be better on the white face and the brown on the green face. What do you think?
I'd swap those straps, seems an obvious thing to do to me. Maybe someone will come along if you're lucky and photoshop it just to show you.