Lee's Watch Thread for MM'ers of Impeccable Taste

[davej]

Stepped right off the deep end today and landed in a Seiko Astron SSE011. I fully blame, and thank, Lee for his assistance and willingness to pick up the watch from the outlet.

I had some good conversations with the lady at the store but kept hitting some soft walls in her willingness to bend the rules on discounts and holds, but all that went out the window when Lee's name got dropped. [emoji3]
When it was all said and done, it cost about the same as the GTI I bought Sunday, so it seemed too good of a deal to pass and has way less CEL's

This is about a million times more watch than I've ever had and I certainly don't appreciate it on the right level, yet, but I'm looking forward to learning. I think it uses some combination of sun, GPS and witchcraft to tell you what time it is.

Lee picked it up tonight and sent me a few photos that are better than their product page. You need to get paid by somebody.

[Ken]

Stepped right off the deep end today and landed in a Seiko Astron SSE011. I fully blame, and thank, Lee for his assistance and willingness to pick up the watch from the outlet.

I had some good conversations with the lady at the store but kept hitting some soft walls in her willingness to bend the rules on discounts and holds, but all that went out the window when Lee's name got dropped. [emoji3]
When it was all said and done, it cost about the same as the GTI I bought Sunday, so it seemed too good of a deal to pass and has way less CEL's

This is about a million times more watch than I've ever had and I certainly don't appreciate it on the right level, yet, but I'm looking forward to learning. I think it uses some combination of sun, GPS and witchcraft to tell you what time it is.

Lee picked it up tonight and sent me a few photos that are better than their product page. You need to get paid by somebody.

   

That looks awesome!

[WRXtranceformed]

Stepped right off the deep end today and landed in a Seiko Astron SSE011. I fully blame, and thank, Lee for his assistance and willingness to pick up the watch from the outlet.

I had some good conversations with the lady at the store but kept hitting some soft walls in her willingness to bend the rules on discounts and holds, but all that went out the window when Lee's name got dropped. [emoji3]
When it was all said and done, it cost about the same as the GTI I bought Sunday, so it seemed too good of a deal to pass and has way less CEL's

This is about a million times more watch than I've ever had and I certainly don't appreciate it on the right level, yet, but I'm looking forward to learning. I think it uses some combination of sun, GPS and witchcraft to tell you what time it is.

Lee picked it up tonight and sent me a few photos that are better than their product page. You need to get paid by somebody.

   

Glad to be an enabler buddy!!!  This is a seriously beautiful piece...much nicer in person even than in the pictures.  Sapphire crystal, build quality feels all of four figures and the technology is world class in a watch like that.  Being able to have a watch that adjusts automatically no matter where you step foot in the world is incredible, especially when you're traveling and bouncing between time zones.  Ellie definitely hooked it up on the discount!!!  I couldn't see paying MSRP for this but at the price you got that is an absolute no brainer.  You could flip it tomorrow and probably make a few hundred bucks on it.  I'll be shipping it up there on Saturday 

---

Oh yeah, they told me the power reserve is something crazy on it like 12 months haha...you will probably never have to touch this watch once you get it set up

[G.Irish]

Lee you see anything from Baselworld that strikes your fancy? I'm kinda digging some of the new colors of the Omega Seamaster and that new Apollo 8 Dark Side of the Moon.

[Apoc]

I thought we'd talked about Baselword, but they remembered that watch nuts blew up my Messenger with pics instead of posting here.

Not sure which side is cooler on that Apollo 8 Speedmaster....

[G.Irish]

I wanna see that Apollo 8 in person to see how that moon texture looks. I feel like it could look too busy, or it could look totally boss. Either way, quite a bit more than I'd wanna spend anytime soon.

[WRXtranceformed]

Lee you see anything from Baselworld that strikes your fancy?  I'm kinda digging some of the new colors of the Omega Seamaster and that new Apollo 8 Dark Side of the Moon.

Oh man, lots of stuff came out of Basel this year that is exciting.  I'll post up later tonight after I get some productive stuff done today

In the meantime, Project "Perfect Samurai" is finally complete.  While it was in for a follow up service, I had NEWW swap out the white date window for a black one.  It was the perfect finishing touch on the project, it really gave the dial that "Oris TT1" vibe.  Here it is on the fitted-end Crafter Blue rubber strap:

[WRXtranceformed]

Whew okay! What a weekend. I, like Dave, also took the plunge on another incredible piece but we'll get to that in a second.

Baselworld: I really want to go someday. I think it's kind of like SEMA though where you have to be in the industry or have press creds. This is the age of social media news though and I follow a bunch of guys on Instagram who pretty much live blogged the whole thing. In a way, it was kind of like being there...except I wasn't in Switzerland, or actually there handling each piece, or smoozing with industry powerhouses...eh I'll take what I can get

There was some cool stuff that dropped, I'm definitely missing a few here but the ones that really stood out to me:

Rolex released the new Pepsi GMT Master II, bringing back the jubilee bracelet and giving it a new movement:


I think it looks great and I am a fan of jubilees but I prefer my oyster bracelet on this case. This also apparently annoyed a lot of people, because previously the only way to get a Pepsi GMT was to get the white gold version, which is way more expensive than the stainless. That pretty much devalued the GMTs of anyone who bought the WG versions. I am happy, because they bumped up the base price of the stainless GMT to almost $10k, probably instantly adding a grand or two to the value of mine

They also released this monstrosity, but as long as there are oil sheikhs there will be watches like this:

Being a full blown Seiko geek at this point, I was excited to see what Seiko brought to the table. They have been releasing newer premium versions of the original divers, throwbacks to their heritage pieces. This year they introduced a modern version of the 1968 Professional diver, the SLA025:

The original 1968:

I really liked it but it is absurdly expensive, something like $9,000. No thanks

They also released an updated Marinemaster (SLA019) and I love the green color scheme. The removal of "Marinemaster" on the dial and the addition of the Prospex "X" is going to be really polarizing, and frankly I can see why because most people don't really like the X. I have always thought that the Marinemaster needed that extra verbage on the dial to set itself apart.



A few more cheaper recreation variants and homages were released as well, but those are the ones that wowed me. It was also nice to see companies like Tudor recognizing the demand for smaller watches and releasing 39mm and smaller dials on some of their most popular models (the new Black Bay has Joey all hot and bothered).

So all of this talk of modern interpretations....but I went out and sourced the real deal this morning. Yes it is a disease at this point, but I had been in the market for an investment grade vintage watch for a while. It's really just moving money around at this point. These are not only as good as money in the bank, they have been appreciating at an exponential rate.

I bought this all original July 1969 Seiko 6105-8000 from a fellow collector who had it up for trade. This was the earliest version of the second generation of Seiko diver. These were popular among soldiers during the Vietnam war and the later version of this model (the 8110 "Captain Willard") was made popular by the movie Apocalypse Now. You can read more about it here if you have a few minutes and are bored: https://gearpatrol.com/2012/06/12/timeke...eiko-6105/

This one was fully restored with NOS parts and relumed by Jack at IWW, who ironically is refurbishing my vintage 6309 diver right now. This was not an inexpensive purchase but because this one has been masterfully restored and because this earlier variant hasn't completely gone through the roof in terms of pricing, I think it will be a great long term buy! I was talking to another guy that had one for sale, I passed because it was in rougher original shape and he sold it half an hour later on the forums for more than what I paid for this one.

On to the pics! I'll take more when it gets here!







I'm putting the Sportura solar I just bought up on the block because I'm at the one-in-one-out point again in my collection

[Apoc]

Mind picking up a Navitimer and then unloading it a few weeks later?

[WRXtranceformed]

Mind picking up a Navitimer and then unloading it a few weeks later?

If i can buy one for $2k I'd totally sell it to you for $3k 

[WRXtranceformed]

So the 6105 arrived and it was better than expected!! I am smitten. And I flipped that Sportura for more than I bought it for, so the cycle continues

The details:

- Original July 1969 6105-8000 on tropic strap (after some light research I believe this to possibly be NOS '60s vintage)
- Restored by Jack at IWW:
NOS bezel
NOS bezel insert
Crystal replaced
Original hands cleaned up and relumed
Original dial cleaned up and relumed
Case lightly refinished

When I was evaluating my options, I wasn't sure about the relume but knowing it was Jack doing it and seeing it in person made me appreciate how livable it will make this piece. You rarely see vintage pieces torch up like that and it is stunning! Plus I've got my all original 6309 turtle in at IWW right now and I'll be leaving the old crusty lume, so I'll always have some patina to stare at when I need it

On to the pics!





It holds up very well to the scrutiny of a harsh light:










So far it's running sub 10sec/day on the wrist which is fantastic. The case is thinner than expected and wears very comfortably on the wrist. I feel really fortunate to be able to be a steward of this piece for hopefully a good long while!

I don't plan on any mods or changes on this one, with the possible exception of an Uncle Seiko tropic strap so that I can keep this one in good shape in case it is indeed vintage.

[Apoc]

it was better than expected!!  I am smitten.  

I'm pretty sure these exact words were uttered like 12 times before in this thread.

[Sijray21]

Does anyone else like the simpler style of watch faces? I typically don't wear watches, but got this as a gift last year and have loved it since then.

[Apoc]

No. GTFO.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice Jray! Movado is real "love it or leave it" but they definitely have a very modern style and I will say look good with a suit. They aren't my thing necessarily but I appreciate the simplicity!

[Sijray21]

No. GTFO.

[G.Irish]

I like Movado's simple and clean style, bought my wife one as a gift. Very nice if it fits your personal style.

[JustinG]

Clock Work Synergy posted some new CF/leather bands, figured I'd try one out, cause Carbahn Fibahhh

They have some sort of rubberized coating to keep the weave intact. Overall pretty nice. They have some other stitching color options, but I stuck with Black/Black.

https://www.clockworksynergy.com/shop/wa...tch-bands/

[JustinG]

Nixon "Night" ranger...
https://www.nixon.com/us/en/night-ranger...25-00.html


Me like

[JPolen01]

Wow that's nice looking. I don't even hate the glow.