In this blog, I will highlight my watch collection. All the photos are mine. New posting will be uploaded the start of every week (Sunday)
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| 1964 Seiko Crown Chronograph |
The Seiko Alpinist is a living icon. It was a series of watches designed in 1959 for Japanese mountain climbers and it started with the Laurel Alpinist. Today, the most famous of all the Alpinist and a cult classic, the SARB017 is the face of the series. In early 2018, devastating news came out from Seiko when it announced the end of the production for the SARB017. The fans were disappointed to say the least and Seiko was inundated with countless request for a stay of 'execution'. This caused a spike in the price of SARB017 still available with dealers as well as prices in the second hand market.
I have in my collection two Casio G-Shock squares. The all resin GWM5610BC-1JF and the all stainless steel GMWB5000GD-1ER. You can read a review I wrote on a head-to-head comparison between the two here. It was a long wait for me before I got the metal G-Shock due to the overwhelming demand.
The third generation of the Seiko Sumo divers were recently released during Baselworld2019. The latest iteration has the two biggest changes in the design specification. First was the introduction of the new 6R35 movement to replace the workhorse 6R15 used in the previous two iterations. Second was the use of sapphire crystal instead of Hardlex crystal also used in the previous two iterations.
When Orient announced in August 2019 the launch of their new Sports Collection under the Orient Star brand, I was intrigued. For the last few years, the corporate restructuring involving Orient and Epson has taken a toll on the company's ability to offer new models. Compared to the other two famous Japanese brands such as Seiko and Citizen, during that period, Orient's offering was rather pathetic. However, 2019 appears to be a change. A couple of interesting series have been launched which are very interesting. For this review, I will be looking at the Air Diver series.
Recently, I was fortunate to get my hands on a 50th anniversary timepiece from Seiko that commemorates the brand’s first automatic chronograph movement launched in 1969. The Seiko Prospex Automatic Chronograph 50th Anniversary Limited Edition SRQ029J1 was made in honour of the Seiko Caliber 6139. It was a major milestone for Seiko but it also was part of a gigantic battle by big watch makers to come out with the first truly automatic chronograph. In fact, three competing designs were launched in 1969 by the three competing teams. The first team was Seiko, the second team was Zenith and the third team consists of Breitling, Heuer, Buren-Hamilton with the help of Dubois Depraz. I am happy to note that I also just gotten my hand on the 50th anniversary timepiece to commemorate the third team’s first automatic chronograph movement, the Caliber 11 Chrono-Matic. The Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 Auto Chrono Limited Edition is the timepiece that Hamilton would like to remember that momentous event.
Another new offering from Orient Star under the Sports series is the Outdoor group. Consisting of seven models, this group caters to adventurers. The design is not as aggressive as a dive watch but more substantial than a standard wristwatch. In fact, the design of the crown is more in-line with a pilot watch.
As a watch company, the BALL Watch Company has been making watches since 1891. Back then, it specialises in railroad timepieces. However, like many watch companies in the world, dive watches was an area that was worth looking into. The BALL Skindiver timepiece conceived in 1962 in response to the increasing popularity of underwater diving in the United States.
