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July 03 Another happy owner of the Orient Star 300m diverI think the Orient Star 300m diver is getting more and more mind share among watch lovers here in Singapore. Here's a message and picture that I received from another happy owner of the watch.
Congrats to the owner, Nick Wong.
June 30 Watch repair shots Here's a King Seiko that I saw the watchmaker working on at K2 recently. It belongs to a customer who brought it in to fixed a problem with the date mechanism. It's a 5246-6020.  Here's the movement.  The watch was quickly dismantled right to the date wheel area. The watchmaker identified that something was not fitted correctly and corrected it.  Everything was then put back together and a test was done to ensure date change occurs at 12:00.  Movement is then put back into the case and the crown was put back in as well.  Here's a picture of the watch at this stage.  Next, the crystal was installed.  Followed by the crystal retaining ring.  Case closed.  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Done by: June 26 Vintage Seiko 7019 Today is 26th June 2009, Friday. Do you know what day was 4th June 2009? You need a calendar to find out or do a manual calculation or simply wear this vintage Seiko 5 on your wrist. Besides the day/date display on the dial, the watch comes an inner rotating date bezel. All you need to do is set the date on the bezel to correspond to the day markings on the dial for the particular month and you have the calendar of the whole month on your wrist. Btw, this interesting watch belongs to a gentleman I met at K2 last Sunday.   June 23 Bought a vintage 6159-7010 After getting the SBDX011, I became interested in the automatic Tunas. The other two automatic Tunas that Seiko made are the 6159-7010 and the SBDX005. Both watches are rare but fortunately for me, a 6159-7010 came my way before I even embark on my watch hunting. My watchmaker, K2 got hold of one in February '09 and a regular customer of his bought it. Recently, the customer sold it back to the watchmaker and I managed to snag it before the other Seikoholics (you know who you are) even get to see it.  http://yeomanseiko.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/got-myself-a-6159-7010/  June 22 New blog by a local collectorToday, I would like to share with you a new blog started by a local watch collector. The blog is called "Present Time" and is still in its infant stage. The owner is Derek Woo and he is currently compiling his watches to beef up the blog. Please visit: http://present-time.blogspot.com Meanwhile, here are some pics that he sent to me:    June 18 Seiko Tag Lines Seiko used a number of tag line or slogans in the past. Below is a very old one that I have posted before.  This one is my favorite. I have seen a number of people use it as a signature in watch forums.  Now, here's a recent one that I have seen. It is called "Dedicated to Perfection" and is used in this Seiko Criteria ad (June 2009).  June 16 4s15 Sports 200 For those in Singapore, I just want to let you know that I saw a 4S15 Sports 200 at K2 last week. If you are looking for one, don't miss the opportunity. The watch is the same as the 4s15 Alpinist except it is inscribed with "Sports 200" on the dial instead of "Alpinist". Here's a cellphone shot of the watch.  June 15 Tuna and ZillaHere's a pic that I received from a local guy who just started collecting Japanese watches. He started off with an order for the SBDX011 and while waitiing for it to arrive from Japan, he bought the Citizen 1000m in a local watch shop.  Photo by Superboey His purchase of the Citizen was made shortly after I posted this picture in one of my previous blog entries and he even emailed me to ask about the advantages and disadvantages of the watch.
As he said in his email, "Its all your fault!".
June 13 Met two fellow collectors at the watch shop I was on leave yesterday afternoon so I decided to make a trip to K2, my usual watchmaker shop. Bought two cups of coffee there and while sipping coffee with the watchmaker, two customers came to the shop. One of them was wearing the SBBN011 and the other was wearing the Ecozilla. From the watches they were wearing, I knew they are Seiko collectors and started talking to them. Their screen names are "Wasupmersibles" (or "Wasup" for short) and "Jamban" respectively. Wasup was wearing the Darth Tuna and when I showed him my SBDX011, he was totally in awe. In fact, he was speechless for a while. Then he told me he is in the waiting list for the SBDX001 too just that there isn't enough supply of the watch at the moment. Here's Wasup's Darth Tuna SBBN011 on a double ridge strap.  Jamban brought a few pieces of vintage Seiko's for servicing and was busy discussing them with the watchmaker. Nevertheless, I managed to get a wrist shot of his Ti Ecozilla.  And here's a pic of my SBDX011 King Tuna.  Click on the image to see full size picture June 10 Orient Star LegendMay be old news to some but I read from Isozaki Tokei's blog that Orient will release a new watch called the "Orient Star Legend". According to the site, it is a reissue of a watch that was originally released in 1976. The watch will be released in July 2009.
Source and photo credit:
June 06 Coming Soon: 4R15 diver - SRP043K A 4R15 diver will soon be released. It is found on the Seiko catalog and should be released in the second half of the year. Below are images that I saw on the catalog. Black dial with metal bracelet or rubber strap. No other dial colours sighted. From the position of the date window, I expect the watch to be hyooge. One more thing I notice about the watch is that the crown is located at the 4 o'clock position instead of 3:45. Compare the crown position to your Sumo or SKX007 and you will see the difference. I know this is going to make lots of people excited so let's look forward to its release.   June 04 Watch Handling - Orient Open Heart CFH01001D0This time round I take a look at an open heart watch by Orient. This watch is a recent international model that has garnered some interest among Orient fans on the Internet. The watch is powered by the Orient 46S50 movement which features power reserve at 12, second hand sub-dial at 6 and open heart display at 9. There is no day/date feature in this movement so setting the time is very straightforward because you need not care about the AM and PM. This movement is also used in the Retro Future Air Plane model as well as some JDM Orient Star models such as the WZ0011FH.  Model# CFH01001D0 Click on the image to see full size picture The watch comes with a very nice textured dial which I have captured in the image below. Besides the blue dial variant shown here, there are white and black dial variants in the series.  Here's the side profile of the watch. You can see that the watch has signed crown and curved crystal.  Watch comes with display back showing the movement. Using a loupe, I found the movement number "46S50" stamped on the rotor.  Here's how the solid link bracelet and flip lock buckle look like.    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Orient CFH01001D0 featured in this post is provided by Authorized Orient Shop in Singapore:  483 Sims Avenue, Singapore 387555 Tel: 6273 3355 Fax: 6278 8929 bigtime@singnet.com.sg www.chang.com.sg June 01 Using the Seiko 5 Sports Here's a quick and dirty shot of my Seiko 5 Sports taken immediately after I came back from jogging today. The date is wrong but it's okay since I am wearing it for the jog only. I left the house at 7:30pm and started jogging at 7:34pm after warming up. I set the triangle on the bezel to the 34 minute position to mark the time I started. While jogging, I checked the minute hand against the start time to ensure that I have jogged for at least 40 minutes before stopping. I reached home at 8:20pm and took the picture with my cell phone. The watch is full of sweat and the nato strap is soaking wet.   May 29 Motivation picturesMotivation pictures have been around for many years. Many companies paste then at their office premises to motivate their employees. However, many people started to misuse them on the Internet. They create funny ones to make fun of other people in whatever forum they participate. Besides the online forums, these funny pics are also found on blogs and other sites. Here's one that I came across recently and since it involves a Seiko watch, I thought I'd post it here to show you all.  The watch in the picture is the Seiko UC-2000 from 1984. The dock that the watch is sitting on is UC-2100. This is some kind of wrist computer watch back in those days but I didn't know the dock should be worn on the wrist as well. I think it must be a mistake. LOL. If you do a google image search for "Seiko UC-2000", you will see the original picture and some sites that have more info on the watch. May 27 1000m Comparison Shot For those who like comparison shots, here's a comparison shot of the Seiko SBDX011 and the Citizen NH6930-09F. I believe they are the only two 1000m divers with automatic movement that the Japanese watch companies have made in recent years. The Citizen was bought in 2004 while the Seiko in 2009. Maybe Orient should also make one. May 26 Some happy owners of the Orient Star 300m diverFive friends came together and ordered the Orient Star 300m from Big Time last week. I was present on the day they collected their watches. Upon arriving at Big Time, I saw the five Orient divers placed on the showcase, waiting for their owners. They are the JDM model with the Orient Star "S" logo instead of the traditional logo. I was told these watches were supplied to Big Time directly by Orient.  Each watch comes with a presentation box, a rubber strap, watch tool and papers. In addition, Orient has added a transportation box for transporting the watch in a safe manner. I also notice that the black and yellow versions come with different hang tags.   The buyers arrived and stood behind their respective watch for a group photo. Among them are bicycle shop owner and cyclist, construction company owner, pet shop owner, swimming instructor and a magazine editor. Buyers of the Orient Star 300m diver come from all walks of life.  After the group shot, it was time to size the bracelet. The job was done by Leslie of Big Time.  Can you see the pins and sleeves in the picture below? Sizing five of these bracelets at one go can be a nightmare.  Here's the beautiful yellow diver (WZ0271FD). I am also a happy owner of this watch. Bought mine last year. Check out my Orient 200m and 300m divers post.   And here's a group wrist shot. They are happy campers for now.  May 24 New Model: Seiko 4R16 World Time Seiko released a new 4R16 model recently and I had the opportunity to handle one of them. There regular editions as well as a limited edition in the new series and the watch that I am featuring here is the limited edition model. It is limited to 1000 pieces only. The model number is SRP040K1.  SRP040K1 Click on the image to see full size picture Unlike the current automatic watches that Seiko sells in the local market, this watch comes with a inner rotating world time bezel. However, I must say the world time feature is a manual one. User needs to use the crown at the 2 o'clock position to rotate the world time bezel when using the feature. The 4R16 movement itself is not a world time movement. It only drives the hands and day/date wheel. The limited edition model has black out case and bracelet and some pink gold elements found on its hands, minute ring, day/date frame, crowns and 24 hour bezel. Shown below is a regular edition (SRP037K1) for your comparison. It comes with stainless steel case and bracelet.  Regular edition - SRP037K1 The watch is fitted with sapphire crystal and features a black textured dial. The hour markers are on the minute chapter ring which is layered over the dial. The watch is water resistant to 100m. Since the world time feature is a manual one, they have added arrows on the world time bezel to make it more user friendly. For the same reason, they have made the crown at the 2 o'clock big and easy to turn. And by the way, both crowns do not screw in. Below are the side profile shots.   The display back shows the 4R16 movement and its "Tokyo stripe" rotor. The serial number of the watch, "XXXX/1000" is shown on the caseback as well.  Watch comes with solid link bracelet with folding clasp and push button release. The end links are solid as well.  Here are the box and papers.   For those who are interested in how the world time feature works, I have included a few pages from the owner's manual.     The new 4R16 World Time watch is distributed in Singapore by the authorized Seiko distributor, Thong Sia Group and here are the MSRP's of the regular and limited edition models. Prices are in Singapore currency.  Limited edition  Regular edition  Hangtag +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Seiko SRP040K1 featured in this post is provided by:  K2 Watch Company 845 Geylang Road, Tanjong Katong Complex #03-K1. Singapore 400845 Tel: 6746 0270 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ May 23 Local News - Big Time Stock Replenishment For those in Singapore, Big Time has received their stock replenishment from Orient. Here are the lineups: First, the 200m sports divers. These are probably the hottest Orient watches for now. Stock came in last month and were sold out very quickly. Better head down to Sims Avenue if you want one of these.  CEM75002D, CEM75001M, CEM75001B These two Orient Power Reserve dress watches are pretty hot too. Some quick and dirty shots here.  CFD0F004W  CFD0E002W And here's a new model that was brought in for the first time. For those who prefer solid caseback, this is the watch.  CEV0M001B And last but not least, a previous Open Heart model brought in at the request of a customer, Gary Mok. (Gary, if you are reading this, enjoy your watch. It's a beauty). I believe the model# is CDH01001D.  May 21 Asian Watch ForumDiscovered a fairly new watch forum recently and thought I'd share with those who have yet to hear of it. It's the Asian Watch Forum where Asian watches including Japanese and Chinese watches are being discussed. From there, you can get to a couple of info and resources pages, as well as other forums via the links.
So please click on the image below to visit the Asian Watch Forum and remember to book mark it while you are there.
May 19 SBDX011 & SBBN013 Comparison Shots My SBDX011 met its quartz counterpart at Big Time last weekend. Here are some comparison shots :- SBDX011 (right) dwarfs the SBBN013.  Caseback shot.  SBDX001 (left) is much thicker.  |
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