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Seamaster is now on leather. Verdict?
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I am a little disappointed at the OP going up in size. It was something I was giving serious consideration to at 39mm as it was like an old Air King before they ruined the dial
I’d thought the point was not to identify ourselves to our recipients, leave a bit of mystery.
Yeah, sorry about that but I tried to remedy the situation of the disliked G Shock.
Seems that most are pleased with their winnings though, which is good news, and there's been some great bargains by the looks of it.
Seamaster on leather looks good!
Well then, my watch swap has now arrived and I have to say that I rather like it, mainly as I have nothing else like it.
It's pretty small, maybe 35mm I guess, much smaller than anything else I own, and also much dressier. It's also got a fresh leather strap on that works really well.
It's clearly been worn, and there's are a few scratches on it, but overall it's very nice indeed.
Thanks to whoever sent it over.
That's pretty cool that, Lunge, I do like a vintage watch.
Been on the hunt for one of these for a while. Not sure why I'm so taken with these old Hamilton Khaki watches. I'm obsessed with them.
Finally got lucky. Was waiting for the new Tudors in April but then but my name down for a black bay 58 when it everthing got cancelled. Waited a while then the blue one got announced, asked to get on the list for one but was laughed at mostly! Turned down two Black 58's, passing them on to other internet WIS and it looks like the karma counted for something. Got called saturday from a place in Suffolk to say they had one. The had phoned 10 other people before getting to me!
I need a new g-shock. My youngest got his "adventurous" hands on mine and I'm convinced its buried in the garden. Digi only, does anyone know of any deals around by any chance?
Oh yes I also commissioned a pretty special Tudor; they did 59 of them for a group of us. I have issue 1, it'll never be worn.
I think a brown leather strap will really finish it off and bring out the red of the second hand (and the existing strap is actually the wrong size, I don’t know if you noticed, it’s a 22 and should be a 20).
When I put a new leather strap with a deployment clasp onto my Yema, I went for black leather with red stitching which matched the face colours, (the original was brown leather with squarish tapered holes, sort of 60’s rallying-style), but I deliberately bought one slightly bigger, and cut notches in the shoulders so the strap butted up to the outside edge of the the watch pillars. It wasn’t that great a job, because the strap was thin leather with padding down the centre, so when I made up a new one, it worked much better because the leather was about 4mm thick, with a very thin goatskin liner on the back. If you can modify a leather strap this way, it haves the watch a rather more ‘solid’ appearance, to my mind. You do need a very sharp blade, a new Stanley blade, or a scalpel.
This is the first one, that I modified...
You can see how the thin leather sort of ‘flared’ out at the edges, this one I skived the leather down then trimmed it to the right size, then when I folded the end over, I enclosed a plastic tube, part of a ballpoint refill, inside and glued it, then did the stitching to make sure it all held together.
This photo shows the new strap in place, and just how grotty the old one had become, the thin soft lining had gone hard and cracked, no matter how much leather treatment I put on it; I don’t think my new one will go the same way, the goatskin is quite a hard surface, and seems to be a lot more sweat-resistant...
I also commissioned a pretty special Tudor; they did 59 of them for a group of us. I have issue 1, it’ll never be worn.
Regiment engraving on the back which immediately gets sent to a dealer and sold to a walt for a huge mark-up perchance?
I need a new g-shock. My youngest got his “adventurous” hands on mine and I’m convinced its buried in the garden. Digi only, does anyone know of any deals around by any chance?
@wrecker Scroll up towards the top of page 70. IHN might do you a good deal on a like new second hand one.
Well, I would if the PMs were working...
I asked on here a month or so ago about "what watch for £500" as my inlaws want to buy me something for a rather significant birthday.
After far to much time trawling the web and trying stuff on I think I've settled for this, the Seiko Presage SRPD37J1.
The dial is stunning, albeit not as bright green as some pics make you think. I suspect it'll have a new strap fairly soon after I receive it, something a little lighter, but overall, I'm not sure there's much better at that price point.
Regiment engraving on the back which immediately gets sent to a dealer and sold to a walt for a huge mark-up perchance?
Sort of, it has a custom dial so a bit more than just the engraving.
Who knows where it will end up? Could be sold to a collector (more likely) or a walt (I'm dubious that a walt will spend that much personally but you never know!).
I don't know of any of these which have been sold. To my knowledge all are still with the rightful owners.
Mine is for my boys, with a bit of luck they get a few quid for it when I'm gone. I care more about that than I do who it ends up with!
On the G-shock; sorted! Thanks @IHN, much appreciated!
Bought this as a complete gamble from eBay - crappy pics, listed as "In need of attention" and importantly, cheap. Been owned from new (apparently) and supposedly on a Rolex bracelet. Arrived with the seconds hand loose, plexi and bezel falling off and movement not working (couldn't even get the back open). From a cursory once-over, it seemed genuine, ditto the bracelet so all good...
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Then went to try to find someone decent to get it serviced and repaired. Which was a challenge! It's from 1967 and turns out most places won't touch 'vintage' Rolex / Tudor due to scarcity of parts. Had a quote from SHWR in London - starting at £400 odd, more if I needed it back in under six months (!) and repairs would be on top of that. It'd be two weeks and £90 before they would even look at it and even then no guarantee they'd want to do the work. In end, I discovered someone about 15 miles from home - he works out of his house and does a lot outsourced from workshops who are limited to servicing or the more straight-forward repairs. He even makes parts where availability is limited - old Rolex balance shafts being an example.
Anyway. 2 weeks (!) and not-very-much money later, back on the wrist. The movement was soaked in oil and someone had attempted a bad repair but otherwise all good. Got a full service and now ticking away fine.
If anyone wants the details of an ace watch repair and restoration chap in Kent, let me know!
On the G-shock; sorted! Thanks @IHN, much appreciated!
No probs, I'm already looking at a few potential replacements on eBay 🙂
@woffle I really like that. Nice patina! The only thing i'd do is replace the lume pip (suitably patina'd). I'm looking for something similar from around '77.
@woffle I really like that. Nice patina! The only thing i’d do is replace the lume pip (suitably patina’d). I’m looking for something similar from around ’77.
Cheers - I'll be back to the watch chap to have that done in a month or so when the bank balance allows and when I've found an OEM replacement.
That's the only issue with these watches - there's no way I could afford one 'usually' - so it's a gamble that's paid off - I'm a smidge over £1.5K into it after servicing etc - that's a lot for any watch, but I couldn't replace it for that. If you want it serviced or repaired by the only approved workshop for watches of that age (SHWR in London SW1), you'll be looking at really hefty bills and astronomical waiting times. There's also the inherent danger that any original pieces then get swopped out (service bezels, replacement dials etc). Until I found the local repair shop I was looking at either selling it or breaking it for parts as the bill (and timescale) was going to be prohibitive.
This just popped into my phone newsfeed. How cool is that? A digital watch controlled by a rotating bezel!
Problem is the value will rise hugely now, I might set up an eBay alert nonetheless.
I don't like digital watches, and I like that
Can anyone recommend a good value Oris repair specialist? Just go direct or is there an independent that would di a good job for less?
is there an independent that would di a good job for less?
Undoubtedly, and probably one near you. Where are you based?
Mrs kilo bought me a pressie today, completely unexpected (birthday and Christmas I think)!
Quick update on the Instinct Solar - just wore it on the Badger Divide setting off with it at full charge and showing 17 days of battery life remaining.
After 5 days of use as a smar****ch with notifications etc but not for navigation or tracking I ended up with it showing... 17 days of battery life remaining. So the changeable Scottish weather was sufficient to keep the watch fully charged for everything but tracking/nav despite it spending a decent amount of time under sleeves etc which I reckon is pretty good going.
Lovely that Kilo. What a grand surprise.
That Tudor is lovely woffle. Wish I'd seen it!
Love that Kilo, lovely piece.
wow kilo, wow
What a lovely watch to have Kilo, lucky you!
@woffle - lucky find, that Tudor, and luckier still finding someone local who could fix it. Similar situation with my Yema a page or so back, similar age watch, nowhere near the poor condition, but the mainspring broke, and it needed a full service, as one might expect with a 40-odd year old watch, but finding somewhere was a nightmare! I eventually tracked down Deacon and Sons in Marlborough, who have two other branches, and who have in-house watchmakers. They are a Rolex, Tudor and Seiko dealer, among others, and they were able to fix my watch, but it cost me £460, for a watch I paid £50 for fifty years ago! Absolutely worth every penny, though.
It's only bloody new watch day!
Oddly I could get this on next day delivery from amazon rather than the usual palaver of dealing with companies on the other side of the world and waiting for it to clear customs etc.
The rubber dive strap is nicer than I thought, I'd imagined it being a bit plasticy but it's quite supple.
There is a NATO enroute for it from Watchgecko which will either look great or shit so that should arrive tomorrow.
Got myself a new G Shock the other day - my first. Nice Japanese 90s retro model 🙂
Going to clear out one I’ve never really got on with, any interest?
will be cheap.
@IvanDobski, I’ve been debating one of those for a while, be interesting to hear what you think of it.
@kilo, DM me. And don’t tell my wife!
Message sent.
So far so good. As mentioned above, the strap is better than expected with a contour pattern texture to the underside, logo'ed tip, decent suppleness and signed buckle. It's quite long so would fit over a wet suit if ever worn for actual diving.
The bezel insert is really nice, a sort of ceramicy satin finish, the edge is very easy to grip and the bezel action is very "clicky" in a good way. No misaligned bezels from the Orient dept of Seiko Epson at least!
Crown feels precise, no looseness to it and again, nicely signed.
The dial looks "flat" for want of a better word which gives it a modern, crisp look - a bit like when Apple went to flat icons on ios. The lines above the day/date add a certain something as well.
It's 44mm so not a small watch but I'm not a fan of the fashion for smaller watches so tend not to go much below 42mm anyway.
All told, I'm pretty pleased with it!
IvanDobski
Free Member
Quick update on the Instinct Solar – just wore it on the Badger Divide setting off with it at full charge and showing 17 days of battery life remaining.
Ivan, thinking of an Instinct Solar but have heard it doesn't do Connect IQ so I'd not be able to easily transfer routes from Wikiloc via my phone,is this correct? I do Bikepacking as well, what features do you like about it?
Kilo, I could be interested in that if lunge is not. DM me with more details if available
I've only just got it so not had much chance to drive into the inner-workings yet but I believe you'd just use the Garmin Explore app as the bridge between the wikiloc app and the device.
I'm not sure I'd use it as my main navigation device but as a back-up it would be worthwhile, or even as a way of just getting a grid reference to navigate from an actual map.
Things I liked? Legibility, battery life, having a light you need to click off so you can use it as a torch, general smar****ch features.
It's actually a really good outdoors smar****ch, given the ability to keep it topped up via solar I'd say it's probably the best outdoors smar****ch for people doing more than a couple of days without access to a charger.
Thanks, same here, I use an Edge Explore for navigation but fancy a wrist device for backup and other stuff but limited battery life has put me off. I'll do some research.
The JLC is lovely Kilo
Can we swap wives?
Can we swap wives?
Surely thats a whole new thread....
Some nice pieces in here, I really like the Presage and the Orient.