We did a roll call a page or 3 back, you, me, boblo, now blazin, and… sorry I forget, my excuse is a stinking cough thing has brain in a fug. I seem to think at least one more white and someone with a blue. We need a gtg.
Igm no that’s common. Wavy dial, skeleton hands, hev. These three features are classic smp but are marmite, loved and hated in equal measure.
Have any of you lot got, had or experienced a CWC RN or SF300? The Royal Navy or SBS issue diver? A quartz with fixed lug and day-date may keep me off the FXD list!
I wasn’t particularly drawn to the SMP until it got the wavy dial and the 8800 movement. My PO has the same hev and I’ve never given it a second thought. The skeleton hands are a slight disappointment, but not a dealbreaker. Oh, and I love the blue more…..!
I agree ‘goat, I don’t notice the hev… although I do remember to check it’s screwed in before getting in the pool or shower.
I looked at the blue but decided it was a little too dark and got the blue pelagos instead. I then had a good excuse to get the white 😁. Yours looks good on the bracelet, maybe I ought to try it on mine.
I offered it up a few pages back, but if anyone wants one of them GBD 200’s second hand, I’d let my blue one go for a fair price. It’s complicated in use and the companion app/smart functions are absolutely shite. Sorry ElShalimo, I hope you like it more than I do!
Fair enough – those 2 functions are OK and just a button press away from each other. The GPS time function synch’s with the app, but being digital it’s accurate enough to not need to correct often so I don’t even have the app loaded on my phone any longer.
Pic of my 1976 Seiko Bullhead whilst I await delivery of a 1973 Seiko!
That owes an awful lot to the Yema RallyGraf! The two companies were closely linked for a time, and then Seiko took over Yema which became little more than a fashion brand. Yema use Seiko movements in some of their current models, notably a re-issue of the RallyGraf.
There’s enough photos of my Yema here already, I won’t bother putting another up.
This one I haven’t worn in ages, I dug it out of my box of watches and other items of male jewellery, and the battery was practically dead, the second hand was moving once every ten seconds or so. My goldsmith mate has just put a new battery in, and re-lubed the O-ring, but he didn’t bother doing a pressure test; it isn’t going in the water. That cost me nothing, would have cost £20 if he’d done a pressure test. I went into the TAG Heuer shop in Bath and asked them what it would cost; £150…
I have to say it feels and looks tiny compared to the Seiko I’ve been wearing for the last five, going on six months, I barely notice I’ve got it on.
The James Bond strap is appropriate, Timothy Dalton wore one in his first 007 film, and a stainless steel version later in the same film, at a swanky do with a suit.
I had the battery replaced in my old TAG this week. I think it’s about thirty-five years old now and worth more than I paid for it, it was £180 new. It was my first decent watch but seldom worn these days.
Right, looking at alternatives to the BB FF as a daily, how about this Glashutte Original Senator Perp Cal?
Photo is swiped from t’internet. It has some of the Pequignet charm (or rather Pequignet inspired by GO/ALS), but for less money I can get a perpetual calendar in a discreet package. 42 mm case, don’t know the wrist size in the piccy.
Why not to daily? Surely a perpetual is exactly the watch to daily! Point in hand, I forgot to advance the date on my Oris ProHarbourPilot this morning!
Did anyone see antiques roadshow last night? My other half was watching and at the end there was a bloke with a Rolex that was worth £35 k : she was amazed and I wasn’t because I’ve seen the amounts spent on stuff on this thread
Firstly, I am not trying to get one watch to do everything. I have reduced my collection to about eight pieces, and I can cut a few more such that each gets regular, if unequal use. I am looking for a daily watch, with a (at a minimum) day-date function, that is adapted to my needs. Specifically, I am not in a suit and cycle to work etc but want something with a bit of horological interest, dial AND movement side. My Oris serves my practical needs but that red-rotor’d SW200 makes me grimace. I want a ‘nicer’ watch but it is extremely difficult to fulfil my criteria (I have been looking for well over a year!). There are no end of day-date, or more, complications, but typically in dress watches and/or from extremely expensive houses. The obvious alternative is a chronograph with a 7750 derived movement but… I don’t like the feeling of those chronos, as in the actuation sensation. All things being equal, I’d rather have the calendar without the chrono, hence doubts on the BP FF (even if that chrono is very nice but we’re talking €2k service costs!). Now, as to dial spacing….
I like a pointer date but I have a very very very strong preference for aperture day and date. For apertures, remember that the read outs typically line up horizontally (there are exceptions, like BP annual calendars). To do that, they either have to match outer edge, like the VC dark dial, or inner edge, like the VC salmon dial. Apertures can be very easily anthropomorphised into eyes, and one wants balanced spacing. As it happens, I find the GO more balanced that the VC dark dial, but also, I cannot afford a €50k white gold trinity dress watch, and wouldn’t fancy cycling to work with it in the rain!
Asymmetry… Breguet are the kings of this, and while in most watches my brain naturally searches for symmetry, hence not favouring date-only complications, that 3673 is a symphony of organised chaos (although less keen on pointer day and leap year, obvs). A Lange & Söhne (re)built their name with Lange 1, to near universal acclaim. The double date disk (panoramodatum) is an added complication, especially if the two discs rotate at the same level. I cannot afford an ALS, I do I not like their lugs tbh, nor want precious metals. However, the GO is in steel, shares that same design heritage (being the actual legal successor to the historical ALS), is in a masculine, tough and water resistant package. Is it perfect? Probably not, and I haven’t even tried one on (next week for replacement model as this reference is discontinued), but there are not many options for what I am trying to achieve. And I would get to look at this movement, 100-02, during the frequent periods I am bored at work!
The bevels are still mostly machined but there is double-solarisation and crisp Glashütte stripes. I could probably live with that, for a while!
The BP FF is stunning dial side but the movement is a little undersized and dated (mid80s base calibre). The 1315 series from BP are much sexier but they don’t have the complications I want. Decisions decisions!!! 🤣