A thread for watch love - The Bear and Badger

cockbeard

b0r1s wrote:

I’m with you both. I wanted one but the attitude has put me off.

not the attitude for me but the quality. I know it's 'only' a couple of hundred quid, but these things have the dye leaching out of the ceramic and scratch up if you so much as look at them. I guess moon dust is a lot finer and softer than sand

Minkymu

So i am intrigued by King Seiko.

We have all heard of Grand Seiko, purveyors of great dials and stonkingly well made watches. Well back in the 60's Seiko formed two sister companies, King Seiko and Grand Seiko, with the aim of each company challenging the other factory to produce the most accurate movement and compete in the Swiss accuracy trials.

Btw. Seiko are still are the only mass production watch manufacturer that makes every component of their watches in house. Not even Rolex do that.

Grand Seiko won the in house competition and still flourish today. However both companies received podium finishes in the trials several years running.

King Seiko faded out shortly after the quartz crisis but has been bought back following Seikos 140th anniversary. Designed to sit just above Presage range and just below Grand Seiko. Steel case construction and 37.5 mm case size. A lovely 7 link bracelet with a variety of finishes like brushed and polished surfacing. Very retro chic vibe.

I want one!

£1475.

Difficult to tell but the dials are sunburst silver, brushed silver, sunburst cherry, sunburst tobacco brown and sunburst slate grey/ black.

My choice would be the slate grey/ black, however those silver dials run it a close second. Will need to try them on.

g.man

It’s nice, but a bit angular for my tastes.

Minkymu

g.man wrote:

It’s nice, but a bit angular for my tastes.

You can have your eye out with it

g.man

Heh

Minkymu

Tudor are at it again.

This time with a subtle update to the slightly unloved Pelagos range. The case is still grade 2 brushed titanium,but it is now a more wrist friendly 39mm instead of 42mm.

Again style wise the update makes it a bit of a tribute band to the original Rolex submariner.

Apart from a few mm it has also lost 300m of water resistance (200m vs 500m) it has also lost its date window. A move that will bring rejoicing amongst the no date window crowd. The dial is now satin black instead of matt black. As a result the advert now markets it as a unisex piece you dont need to dive in. The bezel is scratch resistant ceramic but with a brushed finish instead of matt on the 42mm version.

The red Pelagos text is a nod to the collectors fave Submariner.

To top off what is a nice update, Inside is the Tudor manufacture calibre MT5400, the same calibre used in the Black Bay Fifty-Eight line. Therefore I would infer the thickness of the watch will be not far beyond 12mm or so. The COSC certified calibre offers a near weekend-proof 70 hours of power reserve, and heightened resistance against magnetism thanks to its silicon hairspring.

It also has markers made from solid pieces of ceramic that are applied to the dial.

The new super trick quick adjust bracelet is included.

£3500 of your hard earned. Bargain. No joke.

As far as im aware this is only available in black. The 42mm black and royal blue versions continue

As ever the watch comes with a rubber strap in the box.

This would look top tier on a nice expensive nato strap for the authentic 70's cool.

Minkymu

Oris have updated its Diver sixty-five range to offer a 12h timing bezel and the new inhouse developed calibre 400 movement. Comes with a revised black dial too.

The calibre 400 comes with an 120hr power reserve,and get this, 10 year service intervals. That is some confidence in your movements reliability. Not cosc certified but the movement confirms to cosc rated standards of accuracy.

£2500 off your hard earned puts it dangerously close to Tudor Black Bay 58 money. But i still like it.

g.man

Loving that new Pelagos, but titanium is an absolute no-no.

Minkymu

g.man wrote:

Loving that new Pelagos, but titanium is an absolute no-no.

They market it as 'extremely scratch resistant' ??

g.man

ahahahahaha...nope.

Minkymu

g.man wrote:

ahahahahaha...nope.

Apparently that has now being removed from the marketing as there is no mention of scratch resistance on the Tudor website? Yet this was definitely mentioned in the launch material

g.man

Well I for one am shocked by this development!

Minkymu

Tudors new Ranger is catching a lot of grief. Its being called boring.

I think mainly due to the dial. The makers are printed on rather than applied so they have no depth. The whole dial is flat, but look closely and the slate grey dial has a sand like texture with cream markers.

Printed markers with superluminova is quite normal for most watches, however the ranger is coming in for unfair comparison with the Rolex explorer.

The watch is 39mm compared to the explorers new 36mm size. I feel people are using the fact the explorer usex to be 39mm to try and slot this into that gap. There is a £4000 + price difference however.

I have seen the watch in person and i like it. So im struggling to see the hate for it.

Has anyone else seen it in the flesh? What do you think? I like the nato strap but feel
I woukd be frowned upon if i didn't opt for bracelet and then buying the additional nato.

Minkymu

Titanium is hard, with a Vicker’s rating of roughly 350 HV compared to the typical 150-200 HV of stainless steel. This might seem counter-intuitive since, in practical daily use, titanium seems to scratch more easily than stainless steel. However, this is because titanium naturally forms an oxide layer on the surface, which can scratch relatively easily. The upside is that a quick touch up with a fiberglass pen makes surface scratches disappear.Stainless steel watches tend to need polishing to repair scratches, this is a process which often removes more metal and can lead to cases becoming misshapen.

I guess you pays your money.

But christ id be fucked off if my £3.5 k watch scratched like shit.

Minkymu

That new Apple watch ultra with the diving band in black is a bit of me.

A proper dive computer tool. With compass, depth and temp guage as well as safety warnings and marker points.

From a cool point of view, its mil spec dual compass gps and has a kind of night/stealth mode where the display goes red and removes all blue light. No kill switch or actual night vision goggles mode like the Garmin Tactix Delta.

I would have liked it to have included a halo jump mode and solar charging a la Garmin again. Flip side is the delta has no dive computer function or that would be pretty much perfect

Just trying to convince my mrs that if i sell my series 6 nike version this is a good buy.

£849 though? Eeek.

I can get a Tactix delta solar sapphire glass for that

Edit Garmin do provide dedicated decent model watches but i want it included in the tactix

Bob

I’ve bought a new Rolex. Had the last one 20 years and it’s more than doubled in value and could really do with a bit of tlc so I px’d it. This one has the bigger face and is substantially heavier / I’ve bought a watch winder as despite wearing the old one every day I’m not sure I’ll wear this one every day

Minkymu

Oooh pics please Bob

hylian_elf

Nice! Yes, pics please!

davyK

Why anyone would spend money on a watch by Apple......the kings of obsolesence by design.....is simply beyond me.

Minkymu

You've put me off it now

hylian_elf

Apple do watches?!

Bob

I’ll get some pics ! I would just say anyone who doubts the worth of quality time pieces my Rolex
Experience has been exemplary

Unlikely

It tells the time expensively.

Yossarian

Time is money, after all. More money, more time.

b0r1s

Mo money Mo problems

Unlikely

It's a rich man's world I guess.

Bob

Unlikely wrote:

It tells the time expensively.

Yes! But due to the self winding mechanism not well.

Minkymu

So far Bob is being a big prick tease lol

Minkymu

Send watch pics

Bob

I uploaded some but I wasn’t happy with them. Deffo
For sure tomorrow

I also found my old 96 tag. Complete with box case and warranty certificate. Had the battery replaced and looked online and about £300 seemed the going rate. Put it on Facebook at £275 and it went off the hook!

Howdy, Stranger!

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