marlin

The prodigal son returns in a form of a replacement.

Earlier on, I tinkered on the casio mdv-106 to try to achieve a cleaner dial than it looks. The attempt spiraled downhill and was pretty upsetting for me, although I did learn how to remove a movement from the dial now.

The thing is, this watch is very hard to find in shops in sunny Singapore. And mostly the ones selling had silver/white faces which is something I do not like at all. The search never stops though.

Thankfully, yesterday at Twinkle, lvl 2, People'sPark complex, I found this watch and managed to bargain it to $70 a piece. Cheap and good deal I'd say (not that good factoring the costs of the previous watch combined, economics).

Stripped down looks, this watch has a WR of 200M, and...its a divers watch. For S$70? U get a divers watch on miyota quartz movement? YES YOU CAN!

People are wondering why not amazon or ebay? The traditional guy in me thinks that buying from shops is an added guarantee and its less troublesome, plus it contributes to my economy. This watch came in a resin rubber strap ala G-shocks (I have 3, should review them some day). And since I have another one from the old set, I decided to cut this one short of its excess strap. I kinda regretted when the strap was snipped off and I does look abit unsightly, but, it does what it does and will be my diving strap, if not nato as seen above. I wanna get a leather strap for it too as it is my second skin. So we'll see...lengthy review coming up.

Rotate

Every once in awhile, the monster needs to be taken out for a walk.

Desk diving twenty thousand leagues under the job

long: SNZH57J1 review + homage pictures

At the end of it, we just wanna make ourselves happy with our pleasures, vices and things. Its not about how much you pay for the watch (although I'll be happier if I had a pam not because of price but because of want).

Here's a watch that pretty much roll these things together to create a not unique but very very nice watch I had the pleasure of wearing.

There are alot of reviews for this watch, here's one for the blue that is really comprehensive.
Seiko SNZH53 review by worn and wound

"and all around these golden beacons
i see nothing but black"

- Sam Sparro - Black and Gold

From the perspective of a Singapore skinny guy with thin wrist, here's my take on top of what is being reviewed. If you like great gatsby, this watch dial has that feel when it reflects the gold off the sun.

This watch is 42mm, supposedly the perfect size, the watch is nice but it could use a bigger dial and bezel. Or maybe the lugs are too big. Other than that, the thickness, dimensions all in all works out fine. Even the weight is a comfort for me, coming from wearing monsters with bracelets, pam homages.

The bracelet is light and not exactly my thing as the deployant buckle jut out a lot since I wear it short and tight.

As nice as a watch is, the lume is still a very vital point, to me.

The 12 o'clock marking has a narrow dash rather than a dot compared to the rest. During the day, it is nice and all with the gold, but at night, it just doesn't make the cut. At times, natural lighting can only excite them lumes in the hands only.

Strapping on a Paros leather strap, its very comfortable with a thin tang buckle I recycled from a nato strap.

Apart from leather, this watch also goes very well with a military styled nato strap.

Nonetheless, reason I got this watch is not to pretend vintage. I got this watch to mod it to fifty fathoms. And mod did I.

Lighting provided by iPhone screen

I wasn't half expecting the dial to reach me so quickly, I ordered on 16th Aug and was hoping it to arrive in 2 weeks or 3. But on the 18th the dial was delivered and arrived on Fri 23rd Aug.

A trip to Paya Lebar after settling some stuff in Adjunied, I was at K2, at that time, Mr Goh (owner), was fixing up the mod to a Silver based fifty five fathoms. According to him, an Ang mog (stands for caucasian where I'm from), modded this, it includes new the dial (assuming yobokies) and the Blancpain styled hands.

My turn as I handed my dial and watch to Mr Goh. In less than 3 mins it was done.

Modding watches has a issue, that is the dial and the hands do not have matching lume. Although consolation would be to have the hands be brighter than the dial. Lucky for me, this watch I suppose is Seiko's equivalent of a C1 lume (monster has the C3 equivalent, lumibrite).

Lucky for me, this one is not that bright and matches nicely.

I like this pict alot. Found this great angle by chance. More of such picts to follow for upcoming watches.

I doubt I'll be getting the lumed bezel because it is in C3 lume which is incompatible, also it is very far from the dial, there is a weird circle of black between the dial edge and the inner edge of the bezel. Lastly, It is USD45 incl shipping. WTH right?

The watch currently is on a dark brown leather the buckle is from a nato strap of G market and it has quite a nice vintage diver look to it, yes?

The all important lume shot

shots

Homaged!

I visited K2 for a dial swap and after 5 mins of work, the dial is done and I'm forever excited.

First non-watch related post

Nato gold

Decide to leash it on a NATO to work as I'm getting new shoes for it later.

Kevlar is just too stiff for my liking, it doesn't seem to soften itself through usage.

Letting the gold n green n red n black out.

Mine!

Latest addition to my wrist closet. 

Have been planning this for awhile, was planning to get at end of the year but my impulse got the better of me.

I will mod it fff (for fucking fun) style. 

SNZH57J1

Bought a kevlar like strap (PAROS again) from K2's Mr Goh for cheaps. To put on in place of the bracelet + hollow end links.

Vintage-y gold markings with a tiny lume pip. The hands are nice though, for a vintage looking watch, it has that sword hands.

I've written alot about this watch in my previous posts. This is more of an update.
The dial has been bought from dagaz, I chose this because it is simple and rugged compared to the finer looking ones from dagaz (little stock) and yobokies

I'm looking for double pencil white hands with matching lume, perhaps c1? And a lumed bezel insert that is not so exp.

I have seen people going all out mostly top end yobokies (taken from his site) parts:
FFF dial with gold/silver indices C3 lume - usd 45
FFF styled hands gold/silver C3 lume - usd 26
FFF styled lumed bezel - usd 50
total: usd 121 equals to sgd 150 and more..almost the price of a new watch itself
There is also people who decides to get a sapphire crystal which is another usd 60!!!

Its not exp for giving your watch the look you like, but it is just not me.

I digress, anyway, cannot wait for the dial to arrive and switch it in as a luminite, I'm getting tired of seeing the dial being just weak lume and all. So just this simple dial switch and we will see where things go.

Here's a picture of someone who has done it.

Looking good!!

marrone scuro

Its to my greatest amazement that a single strap change can breathe a fresh new breath. It made me wear the watch everyday and liking it more and more.

The combination...i love it. I can feel it in my plums. The golden hues bouncing of the light matching the dark of the strap.

When I first got this watch, I was in the midst of my Jules Verne craze, my radiomir got such a nice strap, I've got to have one for the mini fiddy too. But after awhile, I feel that this model is not as well made as the 26 mm version, it was still stiff, the colour is weirding me out and all. Mismatch I feel.

Thus the hunt for a new strap was needed as I was starting to hate the watch.

Enter dark chocolate.

Once again, these lovely straps are brought to you by:

Cannot believe the amount of product advertising I'm doing for them. They should pay me and sponsor me straps. Readers, when making this post, I'm not sponsored by anyone/company use these straps. I just feel that they are really affordable and have a certain level of quality or bang for buck, and this buck is banged really really hard.

The strap has one flaw. The buckle-hole is the pin hole rather than the bar shaped hole. So I have to carve one out myself.

Normally, I would just pierce it with a "-" sign screwdriver, just as this is not a hole punch, usually there will still be excess leather that isn't as pleasant as a hole punched out. So after the screw driver got through, all you had to do was to take a knife and cut out any leather that is not level with the strap. This should be the closest you can get to a punch.

This strap tapers to a...22mm? Luckily I have a fitting buckle.

Shots, more shots than clint eastwood's magnum:

Some night shot after sending the missus home in a cab.

I have girly wrists; < 6.5 inches. watchlover FML

The cab stand has this orange light that makes the weakly-lumed markers look nice.

I like the way the strap looks on my hands, everyone has a strap/bracelet that looks good on them, find that one and you will be grinning all the time, remembering the reason you fell in love with these ticking wrist accessories.

I feel:
My set-up is so cheap when compared to people who have those lovely equipment. The blue cloth is my bed sheet.

Till the day I get a proper camera. But doesn't really matter does it?

Excesive

I like the look of nato/zulu straps, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to fit me.

strap is toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long
watch is elevated from wrist (bad for heavy watches)
have a hard time staying on the wrist position and tends to ride up, nerdifying me
Nylon is not the softest material on my gentle milky fair baby-like skin
with the strap being so thin, thick buckles will dig into your wrist and slit it and maybe kill you

But I still wear one once in a while because it is tough, and we know the watches stay and they can look good and feel comfortable.

Strap ideas these days

Female colleagues have been commenting that the blue red on the fortis is very nice and refuse to believe that it is less than S$10 from qoo10.com.sg

The leather zulu was bought today from visiting K2 at S$18. feels very very soft and is abit thick still. Considering removing the under strap to make it more wearable and trimming the wretched long ends.

Look at that excess space, strap makers, don't assume everyone interested in your strap has a >7 inch wrist. There are skinny people who love watches and stuff too.

And also, if you have got to make it so long, do not punch so much holes, skinny me, has never ever used the first 5 - 8 holes the buckle passes by. In fact I always have to have an extra hole or 2 punched in non-proportionate part of strap.

There has to be small wrist people like me. If there is sized 22 waist pants, there has to be shorter straps!