Show Off Your New Watch

[Landed_Alien]

[mention]Split-Time[/mention], [mention]Stretch44[/mention], [mention]pdsf[/mention] - Thanks guys!

[Gorem]

Postage from Russia is back to normal

[AndroidIsAwesome]

A little overdue but these two watches arrived in the past 10 days.
First it's the 38mm Titanium Ball trainmaster 60 seconds. Awesome watch and size, with the eta2892. I swapped the Ball buckle out with a deployant seiko clasp. Originally the owner purchased this watch as NOS a few months ago from an AD in Japan as this model was discontinued sometime around 2013 I believe? So it's still under warranty for 1.5 years Excuse my not so great pictures









Next watch is the Eterna Kontiki diver which user [mention]whoagorgeous[/mention] graciously sold to me. And I'm sure you've seen his pictures of it on the previous page I've been hunting this down on the bracelet for a while now so I couldn't be happier. It is a big watch but I actually like that about it. Some days I just want to wear something bold. One little detail I noticed is the crown seems to actually be a domed piece of crystal covering the logo.

Both watches are running about +7spd

[Split-Time]

A little overdue but these two watches arrived in the past 10 days.
First it's the 38mm Titanium Ball trainmaster 60 seconds. Awesome watch and size, with the eta2892. I swapped the Ball buckle out with a deployant seiko clasp. Originally the owner purchased this watch as NOS a few months ago from an AD in Japan as this model was discontinued sometime around 2013 I believe? So it's still under warranty for 1.5 years Excuse my not so great pictures









Next watch is the Eterna Kontiki diver which user @whoagorgeous graciously sold to me. And I'm sure you've seen his pictures of it on the previous page I've been hunting this down on the bracelet for a while now so I couldn't be happier. It is a big watch but I actually like that about it. Some days I just want to wear something bold. One little detail I noticed is the crown seems to actually be a domed piece of crystal covering the logo.

Both watches are running about +7spd

You seem to be having a great couple of weeks! Those are two fantastic watches!

[watchpalooza]

My wife had a package waiting for me on the table today. I had bid €14 on this 70’s jade green “Classic” and wound up winning it for €7.50 + shipping:

The mint vintage bracelet alone would be worth this. The deep scratch at 2 o’clock polished out, the case shows no chrome loss, the original brass springpins are in fantastic condition, and the bracelet perfect. I have paid much more for less in the past. Here are the after photos:

Inside, a 21600 A/h France Ebauches FE 140 1-B that I was pleased to find to be in great shape. On the timegrapher it was showing +78s/d and 0.1ms beat error. It was not magnetized, and after a slight adjustment I have the rate set to -10s-d in position 1 and +10s/d in position 6, which should result in only a few second deviation when wearing.

[flypanam]

My super cheap timex waterbury automatic has arrived!

Some key points- First off the presentation is the nicest I've seen personally for a timex, with a very nice box within a box, and the watch resting lengthwise on the pillowy interior of the inner box. It looks like how some of the seiko sarbs (particularly in my experience the alpinist and original ****) were presented.

The pictures to me made it look like it had a white dial but its actually a very nice textured silver. The open heart is somehow smaller in person than it looks in pictures, which is great. I'm not sure what it adds, but its one of those things that people who aren't into watches tend to see and comment on which I guess is good. The dial itself and the numerals are super legible and understated in a good way. Its pretty no-nonsense.

The case is a near perfect circle with very little bezel in that old school style, which exaggerates the size of the dial and improves the legibility at the same time. Its a little thick, but the down-curving lugs do a good job to keep it hugging my wrist and slim the profile as much as possible.

The caseback reveals the simply decorated but still kind of elegantly styled (in that understated way, which is becoming a theme) miyota 8215 (im guessing) movement, which does a fine job or powering the watch but of course retains its characteristically loud winding. The strap is very nice to me, quite thick and soft with a signed buckle.

All in all, worth much more than the $65 I paid. Maybe even worth retail if youre a fan of the styling. A couple days after I pulled the trigger I thought this would be a regret impulse buy, even at the price, but color me impressed by timex. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[Sussa]

What do you think, can I pull off the two-watch look?

[whoagorgeous]

[mention]Dub Rubb[/mention] [mention]Sussa[/mention] Hi!

[Stretch44]

@Dub Rubb @Sussa Hi!

Nice! Let's see a lume shot.

[whoagorgeous]

@Dub Rubb @Sussa Hi!

Nice! Let's see a lume shot.

[recapt]

This Franken-stok I took a flyer on from eBay finally arrived after a long journey from Ukraine. I was hoping I could simply swap the dial with the other one I have incoming but apparently that's not how this is going to go... turns out that watch is riddled with issues.

Despite the seller's willingness to accept a return, I have decided to keep it since the hassle of doing so just isn't worth it. Plus, I'll be able to salvage some of the parts for the watch I am ultimately trying to build.

On the positive side, this watch sports the no-longer-made Vostok 119 case which I've found wears perfectly on my wrist (39mm; 47mm lug-to-lug). I am going to add back in a hand-wind Vostok 2209 movement like the one that originally came with this case in order to keep it nice and slim (<13mm).

One of the many challenges I have in front of me is that the 2209 takes a different size seconds hand than the 24XX series found in modern Vostok automatics,. So I am trying to track down a .22mm seconds hand the I like and goes with the modern Vostok hands I will also be adding.

This project is getting WAY out of scope from what I first envisioned, but it will be fun to see it all come together... I hope.

BTW: Here is the dial I have incoming...

[watchpalooza]

This arrived today amid an otherwise challenging day. Thanks to [mention]ManOnTime[/mention] for shipping it across the Atlantic. All told, +$90 in shipping, taxes and fees, but still feel it is worth it. Beautiful finishing on this one.

[flypanam]

My recent cheapie binge continues to pay off! [mention]Dius[/mention] posted this promaster for $120 on Amazon, and I used a targeted $30 off with Amex to bring it down to just $90 with free prime shipping. It was a price I couldn't resist.

One of the main factors that led me to sell my skx009 (twice actually. And a 007 once as well, plus a heavily nodded green skx with mother of pearl dial), was that while those watches were great and iconic, I simply liked my other divers more and despite the legendary status of the skx newer divers also simply offered more. After purchasing a Pepsi Citizen Fugu and a vintage 6309 Pepsi Seiko Diver, I really had no use for my skx. The fugu was like a modernized skx and the seiko to me ticked that "legendary icon" status checkbox with more gusto. Problem is that while the seiko is all beat up anyway and I dont mind wearing and possibly scuffing up even more (it adds character), my OCD makes it hard to wear the pristine limited production Fugu without freaking out.

Enter the promaster eco drive. At $90, this is something i wouldnt mind really wearing as a beater. However the quality is still absolutely there. I was immediately tempted to compare my new acquisition to my beloved citizen fugu automatic, which really was the proverbial final straw that broke my will to bother keeping an skx in my collection at all.

Honestly, while the designs are similar the watches are actually much more different than I thought they'd be. The most obvious difference is the crown location, 4 o clock vs 8 o clock,, but its not just that. The promaster is larger in general, in terms of width and thickness. Interestingly though, to me the 44mm promaster still doesn't look THAT much bigger than the 41.5mm fugu, and in pictures they somehow even look almost the same size! Edit - i even had to take one more picture and add it to this post, showing the casebacks because that one demonstrates the actual size difference between these two, while my other pictures really make these watches appear to be the same size! Weird! Maybe its just a testament to the design of the promaster and how it achieves a compact appearance despite the large footprint.

The gloss black dial of the fugu is more luxurious than the matte blue of the promaster, and the whiter and sharper lumed indices on the fugu just look higher quality as well. And it may be a personal preference but the fugu's 3 o clock day/date window is better looking than the 4 o clock date-only window on the promaster. And a Kanji day dial is ALWAYS a win.

However the promaster is not cheap looking by any means. The case design is quite simple but aesthetically pleasing. Its brushed throughout except for the caseback itself, and the strap buckle is brushed as well to match. Meanwhile the fugu has a brushed bezel and both brushed and polished surfaces on the case, adding the the depth. The all brushed look doesnt look bad by any means however. The promaster also has characteristic "spikes" in clusters around the bezel edge, similar to the fugu but also distinct in terms of its own style. The lume quality is top notch for both, though nothing will ever compare to seiko lumibright I really like the blue citizen lume and its still no slouch in terms of performance. The rubber strap is comfortable on both (note in the pics the fugu has an aftermarket strap). The bezel feel is absolutely great and identical for both. AND they both say "divers" on the dial, so they're both ISO approved legitimate dive watches, which is something that a lot of microbrands, despite higher depth ratings, cant really say.

All in all, this was $90 well spent. A cheapie that certainly feels like it costs a lot more. Probably because it actually does cost more. I thought $90 was a steal for this. While I do sometimes miss my skx variants of yore, putting this watch on tonight reminds me of why I sold them in the first place. I do understand the modding appeal, but that never was a big thing for me. Now that the skx is basically a collectors piece though, I would be tempted to grab one if the price was right. But with the hassle of the ancient (though similarly iconic) non hacking non hand winding movement i wouldn't see myself actually really wearing it. I'd much more readily reach for the dependable and attractive promaster that I can just pick up and wear, knowing that the stalwart eco drive movement has me covered.

[Dub Rubb]

Apologies for the story prepending my new watch reveal, but this was a big one for me.

My watch collection is nearing in on 40 watches, but the average price paid is probably about $150. Until I recently when I bought a CW Sandhurst for about $800, there wasn't anything above $500. And it stayed that way until yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I've very much enjoyed collecting the watches I have, and although I do realize I need to sell at least 10 of them (having more than 1 watch for each day of the month means long periods between wears), I don't regret being in the cheap and cheerful end of the hobby.

However I've always lusted after a few key grail watches. When I got a promotion at the start of the year, I put my name down on a waitlist for a Rolex Explorer to celebrate. 9 months later I'm still waiting for the call from the AD. Second on my grail list is the Omega Seamaster 300 MC slash Seamaster 300 1957 trilogy. Since the trilogy had been out for 3 years, I knew they'd be long gone.

Just before the work-from-home status landed earlier this year, I was perusing my local friendly AD which stocks among other things Omega. I tried on the 300MC and it was great. I have 6.65" wrists, and generally lean towards smaller watches, but I felt I could pull it off. But they also had a new 300 1957 trilogy. Wow, it was nice. And I knew it would be gone quickly. However at that point, I was planning to pull the trigger on the Rolex so I walked away empty handed. But I kept the 300MC on my short grail list - the 1957 would be gone, but I could scoop the 300MC sometime in the distant future.

Play forward to a couple of weeks ago, and [mention]stretch44[/mention] mentioned on this same thread that he'd swung by his local AD and grabbed a Seamaster 300 1957 trilogy. We live in the same neck of the woods. He must of grabbed this last watch. I was super happy that he'd landed it rather than someone else, as I knew he'd been looking for one. It made me think about the 300 MC, and that my Rolex AD was never going to call me anytime soon. So this weekend I was near the Omega AD for the first time in months and thought I'd treat my by popping in and trying on a few watches, in particular the 300 MC. Well it seems there was still one Seamaster 1957 trilogy left. It came home with me

[mention]stretch44[/mention], sorry, you have a watch-twin in the local area now

(sorry for the terrible photo, will undoubtedly be spamming you with more over the coming weeks)

PXL_20201102_010321439.jpg

First off, congrats on that beauty!!! I too jumped from about $4-500 to an Omega and don't regret it for a second.

Secondly, awesome that there is another bay area buddy! Can't wait for the time when we can all meet up, possibly have some adult beverages and ogle some watches!

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[Dub Rubb]

Postage from Russia is back to normal

So 3 months instead of 4?!?

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