My friend has a Timex Q – it’s really cool. If I was after a new quartz I’d probably grab one myself.

Only downside is the bracelet does pull your hair something special. If you’re a hairy boi on the arms maybe see if you can try on one for a bit first.

—

Rolex really is in a shit position right now. Every steel sport watch is just beyond hard to get as a regular punter. Thing is even the AD’s don’t know when a certain watch will come in (and some have reported years between certain popular pieces) so the list is functionally useless as they always go to those who will buy a Datejust or something at the same time.

I was lucky to get my Exp1 6 months ago. I saw 2 in one day that day. But now even the low flying Exp1 is a rare-as-hens-teeth steel sports model just like the rest.

I’m happy with my collection so far – I’d love to add a GMT to it one day but I’m happy to wait another 5 years for all of this to calm down (or another brand to fill the gap)

I agree Rolex is quite odd. I think they know what they are doing and are happy but I’m not quite sure where the brand is going. There is I’m sure a lot of desire fuelled by the lack of supply and ability to flip for a profit.

They are quite savvy in that they are avoiding over exposure and maintaining some degree of exclusivity. I remember chatting to a watch dealer who said one of the issues with brietling and the like was the watches were everywhere (And changing design regularly) so they lost cachet and residual value quickly – how long has it taken Burberry to regain their image?
Rolex keep their brand exclusive, people may not like that but in a way even that plays into Rolex’s hand.

Success with my SKX!

Before. Broken.

After. Fixed!

Difficult bits. Well when you watch the instruction video’s on YouTube they are filming with a huge zoom lens. When you get the movement in front of you and realise quite how small the day wheel circlip is, and the hands you think, I’m bound to cock this up, but was OK with a sharpened screwdriver to tease it off. On the subject of the hands, I didn’t buy a hand press but used the refill end out of a Biro which worked fine for the hour and minute hand, (albeit I had to have two goes because I didn’t seat the hour properly the first time) and the tiny second pin is really hard to locate. But repaired! I’m really pleased with myself. 😁

After. Fixed!

Looks just the same…

Seriously though, good effort. That crown on the new movement (top pic) looks kind of odd*. Did you just drop the new movement in as is or have to swap the winder over?
Let us know what the timekeeping’s like.

Edit – D’oh, that’s just the plastic dummy isn’t it?

That’s a temporary crown. Got a new one and stem from eBay but they are way too long, had to clip about 7.5mm off it, that little silver pin near the clippers is the excess.

Also have to swap the day wheel and plastic shock absorber thing. Date is just now starting to click over to the 5th.

@tthew – good work! I was sort of considering doing that myself, but tbh I chickened out, I didn’t have enough confidence in doing it correctly.
Plus I don’t have a dedicated work surface with good lighting where I could just leave everything where it was if I had to break off for any reason.
Replacing the hands on my Tuna is something I’d like to do, I have the MM300 hands already, just like those on my most recent acquisition, but I think I’ll leave it for a while, until I have a space to work on.
Really pleased it’s worked out ok, it’s a nice looking watch. 😁

I’ve joined the Seiko club…wanted a diver but have 6.5″ wrists. SKX013 to the rescue!

Nice. Like the way you’ve got it in the foreign day indication too. 😁
Don’t you find that the Nato strap add a lot of bulk on a small wrist? Double height strap under and all that folded excess at the side, I’m not keen, I prefer the French knicker parachute elastic ones.

seems ok! I did try the ‘alternative’ method thats in a youtube video somwhere in this thread, but it didnt seem to quite work for the strap length / wrist size combo.

Held off on the SARB and in the interim fell for the SPB121J1 2020 Alpinist.

&0hr power reserve, exhibition back and cyclops. Better strap as well.

Is now next on my list to buy.

Clock help, (a bit OT, but I reckon one of you might know).
TLDR – what is this bit called, and where do I get one?

It’s the top most bit of the pendulum which hangs from a pinned bracket on the front of the movement. The hole in the piece of thin spring steel has worn through so it’s fallen down. I might just try hanging it from the slot for now to see if that works, but I think that will make the clock very, (even more 😁) inaccurate due to the different length of pendulum. I would probably have to take a lump of the calibrated blu-tack of the back of the weight to regulate it.

Not to worry, I found it. It’s called a Suspension and I managed to buy one. Without the T piece, but I reckon I can transfer that. 👍

SKX013 to the rescue!

Nice, I much prefer the SKX013 over the 007 and 009. I’m not a fan of NATOs worn conventionally, but that looks fine, I’ve more issues with the thicker variants where the doubling up under the watch and the bunching at the side of the wrist look really clumsy, IMO of course.

Held off on the SARB and in the interim fell for the SPB121J1 2020 Alpinist

I don’t mind the cyclops but I’m not a fan of the white date wheel, the black one on the SARB017 works better with the green dial. Other than that it looks pretty much the same. The strap doesn’t look to be any better, same old stiff faux croc as far as I can tell from all the pictures I’ve seen anyway. Of course it may be buttery soft to wear but being Seiko I very much doubt it! And it’s still an unconscionable price hike over the older model for what’s not a lot more watch.

I’m not a fan of NATOs worn conventionally, but that looks fine, I’ve more issues with the thicker variants where the doubling up under the watch and the bunching at the side of the wrist look really clumsy, IMO of course.

Yeah this is a cheapo nylon one from geckowatch or whatever they are called. I tried the ‘alt’ method again and i must have been a numpty before – it’s certainly cleaner, with the excess gathered under the wrist. Also seems bit pointless to use a nato strap for this, you might as well use a regualr nylon strap thats the correct length for your wrist and not have all the excess and the double bit. I might use the alt method for days where im wearing a shirt.

Also seems bit pointless to use a nato strap for this, you might as well use a regualr nylon strap thats the correct length for your wrist and not have all the excess and the double bit.

I agree the extra bit on NATOs is pointless but I’m OK with buying them and using scissors as required- you just don’t get the same availability, variety and affordability with single-pass straps.

New Timex mechanical watch: Already sold out…:-(

Esquire Magazine

Timex Site

New Timex mechanical watch: Already sold out…:-(

I’m not surprised, that’s worth a hundred quid of anyone’s money. I mean, obviously they can’t have been asking more than that for plastic “crystal”, 50m WR and a kitsch bracelet.

It looks really cool – and as I said earlier, my mates Timex Q is really nice, so this only adds to that.

Though I do wish they didnt bother with the transparent caseback – the movement looks rather… unrefined. A nicely brushed caseback that matches the rest of the watch would have been better imho.

Cool watch though, if the hype dies down I’ll probably grab one for shits.

Anyone seen this on Kickstarter? If be interested to know people’s views before I state mine. The simplest watch in the world apparently.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cwandt/solid-state-watch

That “simple” watch will appeal to the sort of people (if the marketing bullshit is to be believed) that I’d most likely tell to **** off within 10 seconds of meeting them.

that’s my view, does it resemble yours? 😉

a simpler watch would be a stick stuck in the ground and used as a sundial….hang on….that’s a trendy Kickstarter project to part gullible dicks from their cash

‘Each watch comes with it’s own unique imperfections.’

So they can’t even be bothered to do a decent job with the encapsulation.

One born every minute.

What a load of shite.

No need to change that 10yr battery or adjust that time hahaha so it goes out of time every summer, and is bucket fodder when the battery runs out.

Total shite

That “simple” watch will appeal to the sort of people (if the marketing bullshit is to be believed) that I’d most likely tell to **** off within 10 seconds of meeting them.

that’s my view, does it resemble yours? 😉

Yep, mine and others it seems.
They are charging £125 for about £30 quids worth of materials and 5 minutes of effort. Home print the plastic cases and buy a cheap strap, there’s not even any expensive tools to purchase. **** me, I wish I’d thought of it, they are up to nearly £30k with 7 days to go.

When you receive the watch, it is set to your desired time and cannot be adjusted.

So every six months it’s an hour out. That’s handy. They talk about accuracy, I’ve got a G-Shock that gains at least a minute a week, but can’t be wound back, (it’s an analogue), only forwards, v e r y s l o w l y.
But it only cost £70, and I could get inside it and regulate it, if I could be arsed.
That Kickstarter jobbie would drive me nuts, and at £125 cost more than my recent Heimdallr acquisition, which is currently losing roughly two minutes a month, and is relatively easy to adjust.
And will certainly outlast me, not just run for ten years, or whatever.

Heimdallr acquisition,

Which reminds me, a friend of mind ordered the SkX homage and showed it to me yesterday.  Looks very good for the money.

I’ve had an F-91W before, they aren’t accurate. but they are surprisingly waterproof, I went in the sea with one (surface not scuba) and it didn’t leak. What a load of old pony

That kickstarter is bonkers!

In other news, I put the SKX on a strapcode bracelet, not that fussed tbh, have put it back on the NATO already.

that kickstarter is crazy. The FW-91 is notoriously robust anyway (and cheap) so why do that to it? Still, they hit their target so who am i to question?

I might have accidently bought a Stowa Flieger watch yesterday. If my missus asks, I’ve had it ages and she’s seen me wear it loads of times already…

Lol! very nice though. I’d love a stowa, or Laco

oh yes, big fan of those Stowas! There’s a space in the collection for one for sure

Been a fan of these Seiko SQ divers for a while. One popped up cheapish – in better condition than the photo looks:

Beauty! Really annoys me that the SKX doesnt have applied dial thingies

@Kryton57 – yeah, the standard of finish is very good, and it has a better movement than the standard SKX, being hackable ‘n’all. Really pleased with both of mine.
I happened across a sub forum on a watch forum specifically for the Heimdallr watches, and it seems that their popularity is now, bizarrely, seeing ebay sellers selling fakes!
Their Fb page had some photos of a new prototype a while back, looks like the top-end MarineMaster Professional 1000m Emperor Tuna, with a monocoque case and shroud, where the movement can only be accessed via the crystal. The MarineMaster MM300 homage has a monocoque case, but not the shroud. It also looks like they’re replicating the 1000 metre water-resistance as well.
I wonder how much it’ll be…

Certainly cheaper than the £5-6000 that a Seiko would cost.

Beauty! Really annoys me that the SKX doesnt have applied dial thingies

Do you mean the minute markers? They’re on a separate chapter-ring, which quite a lot of watches have. One advantage is that when customising an SKX, you have a choice of different dials, hands and chapter-rings; I’ve got one that I might put onto my Sharkey SKX007/MM300, which has lumed indices, and I have a ceramic bezel insert with the same, which should look quite interesting in the dark, but there are other options out there, colours, indices, etc.

I assumed he meant the hour indices, which I agree look nicer than the flat printed SKX ones. The SQ ones above his comment look like applied markers.

@countzero thanks for that.  I quite like the mm3000 that’s on the site but by default it comes with a seagull movement and whilst you can choose and ETA the price goes up to £330, which puts it in Stienhart territory (although the Stienhart has a Seiko movement at that price).

I’ve gone a bit “meh” with watches currently, in that I’m not looking at something that stirs my emotions so don’t want to buy for the sake of it.  My mate did say to me, “you want the Submariner homage, after seeing the Heimdallr quality, get that”. Yet, it doesn’t spark an emotion and my Sea Urchin on a bracelet is a close second visually.

I am being drawn to Panda’s currently.   I quite Hamilton Panda -£1500 though – and almost considered a Parnis Panda for a few minutes….

I’ve bought a vintage Russian watch on ebay (on a whim) but need a simple but “nice” leather strap for it.

Im thinking brown, calfskin. Not interested in a brand cos the watch is not worth much. Any recommendations?

I assumed he meant the hour indices, which I agree look nicer than the flat printed SKX ones. The SQ ones above his comment look like applied markers.

Correct!

So wish that Seiko would make a high quality medium sized diver…ie -> modern movement with hacking and winding, applied dial markers, proper fit and finish (ie no gaps around the bezel insert).

Like the SLA035J1 here:

https://www.seikowatches.com/uk-en/products/prospex/special/blackseries_limited/