Day 12 WRUW Wednesday October 12 Wear A Watch On A Bracelet

[cd_god]

OK

It is October 12th (somewhere)

Day 12 of the October WRUW daily theme.

Today's theme is “Wear a watch on a bracelet”

I am not a fan of bracelets going back to when I started collecting watches.

I especially hate watches with integrated bracelets.

I also hate Nylon straps.

But wait you say

Most of my daily WRUW threads going back to the first days of TNJ are watches on cheap 99¢ with free shipping Ebay nylon Nato straps (which you can't find any for the last 2 years but that is a conspiracy post for another day) from China and recently with the addition of my BASSS and SKX5 GMT are on bracelets.

Maybe I am getting old or lazy or maybe it is no longer PC to be a Rebel and stand your ground and now you have to sit down and go with the flow

If you do the right thing for the wrong reason you are still half right.

[trilo]

I'm trying to get this running again today. I have ngelected it too long and it stopped.

[raz]

I love bracelets (not integrated ones as sometimes I like to swap with a rubber leather nato) so much that with the exception of my Darth and few vintage dress watches, all my watches have bracelets

[rossr]

Citizen Cosmotron X8 on a bracelet (with an extension segment).

[leffemonster]

SPB063J1 from the Presage ‘Prestige Line’. The bracelet is a nice step up in quality over the ‘basic’ line, such as the Cocktail Time, with solid end links and a milled clasp.

[pip]

I very nearly chose this one yesterday. It’s a Valjoux 7733 chrono movement. I have grown very fond of these manual wind old chronos. I just love the way the movement looks when you pop the case. My guess is this is from the 1970’s just going by the style really.

Again, this wasn’t running very well and had been fully stripped and serviced and a new MS installed.

[russtmurray]

[inboost]

@cd_god, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that maybe you've just not had the right bracelet experience. I would agree there are plenty that are just not simpatico with the watch, the wrist, or both. Still there is something about a good one! Same goes for the NATO strap and it's cousins I suppose. I've never been a fan, that is, until I became a fan. Again it takes the right watch, the right strap, and a little bit of break in to make it right. Of course you know all this...

pip - the red handled tool on the bench shot of the case and pushers, what is it? A mainspring winder set? I'm very intrigued! Great job on the repair too, I've yet to do a staking job of putting a wheel and pinion back together, I'd like to try and get a feel for it before I need to do it for real.

Today for me it's a watch I bought primarily for it's bracelet, so perfectly fitting for it to go on the wrist today. Sadly it's in terrible mechanical shape through neglect and abuse. The seller and his photos did a good job of obfuscating the truth, and I'll go as far as to say I got duped. Still it wasn't an overly expensive mistake, but I feel I paid double what the watch was worth at $80.

Behold my first Ricoh, a Dynamic Wide 21j with my very first Beads of Rice bracelet that I believe could be original but who really knows when the watch is cheap and from 1966 (by my estimation). I have to thank vmaxnl for getting me excited about this series of Ricohs, as he's got a beautiful Dynamic Wide DX 30j version.

This Beads of Rice (BoR) bracelet is unusual in that it's very loosly knit, and this is by design. None of the little links are stretched out and they have equal spacing row to row from end link to buckle. It wears very comfortably, and is eye catching in the geometric offsets it shifts though. If you look at the side shot below you'll notice how tortured the hands are on this watch. They are bent badly and the lume is crumbling out of them. I see oil spots and light corrosion on the dial and inside surface of the heavily polished crystal too. The cyclops is formed on the inside of the plastic crystal, making it a nice smooth exterior. Still, I don't like it as most of the time it's hiding the date instead of magnifying it. I do love the day wheel on this one, it's a good set of flash cards for learning the Kanji symbols for days of the week!

When it's turn comes I'll put up a service thread as I'm interested to learn about the "Ricoh Way" and I'm sure others would too!

[suntzu]

[small]

Day12 A Bracelet

I have to say most on this forum have a Seiko 5, one of the "five" is a bracelet? Today might as well be a free space…I’m glad there was no additional caveat, that it couldn’t be an OMSB (Old Man Stretch Bracelet), which I have a strong bond for. I for one think they are fantastic at work, slip on slip off, while washing hands. There by preserving the vintage watches I so love…

At one time, this was my favorite case design. It is now one of mine. Thought of holding out to the end of the month for “Not a Round Watch” day and figured I’d be creative since it’s well a circle on a square…

The 6309 8080 (9) I have found these with White and Blue dials. This had an original bracelet which was a plus. Oh and it was sized well too, not too small…This particular one is about the nicest example I have, with a white dial. Funny I didn’t post/comment in the collector or hoarder thread (With the survey) but I have been hoarding it seems. I swore I was just going to keep buying this reference (and others I liked) until I got a better example, I would then flip the lesser…In this particular case (and maybe a few others) I have decided to preserve the better examples and wear the lesser without worry…Now I have a selection...

A comment of note. It has dawned on me that a few of the 6309 watches I have, are either White or Blue dials? While there may be black out there, for some references, I wonder why they are as limited as they seem to me. Heck the 7009-821X has numerous dial colors and different indices? I guess most references don’t have but a couple, but some sure do have a bunch… The creative nature of Seiko with their dials is something they should be proud of. Even their cheaper watches have some very striking dials..

[cd_god]

Today's Seiko golf tip of the day: on every sand shot your feet should be anchored in the sand.

XW

10 Watches

This is the ONLY X that should ever be on a watch dial (except for roman numeral hour markers)

Noah Fuller sold custom watch dials and hands and bezel inserts for collectors back in the mid 2000's.

Then he came up with the idea to make his own watch based on the 6309 cushion case divers.

The Tsunami.

He upgraded the WR to 333M, drilled lugs on the case, solid link bracelet with solid endlinks, different bezel and crown options, and you could choose from his dials.

Or you could go classic 6309 style.

If I recall there were 500 made in groups of 100.

100 PVD cased, 100 original 6309 style, 100 buyer could customize, 100 Bone Frog?, and not sure what the other 100 option ones were.

Noah happened to come to the US before the watch was released and made a few stops across the country for meetups with forum members of the Old Network 54 Seiko Citizen forum and other forums.

When he stopped here he had a prototype for everyone to look at and I told myself I was going to buy one when they came out even though the price was above my normal spending limit for a watch at the time.

EDIT: I found the original link to the original post but it has been scrubbed from the interweb 

www.network54.com/Forum/78440/message/1250048379/We+Put+the+WIS+in+WISconsin

I set my cash aside and waited and waited and waited for the preorder reservation and then I bought my 1965 Malibu instead and stayed off the watches and blew all my money on parts working on the car.

These don't come up for sale very often and when they do they seem to be the Bone Frog dial models.

I was fortunate to find this one for sale in pretty much the same configuration as I would have ordered it anyways.

Unfortunately I don't know if it is an original Noah Fuller model or later Jake / Dagaz model.

[inboost]

Oct 12, 2022 6:23:10 GMT -8 cd_god said:

I set my cash aside and waited and waited and waited and then I bought my 1965 Malibu instead and stayed off the watches and blew all my money on parts working on the car.

I hate it when hobbies start to compete. I also hate it when a hobby squashes a past one. Yet here I am fully investing all my free time in watches (yes, pun intended) and most of my other hobbies are quietly collecting dust eagerly awaiting my touch again some day. It makes me feel sad when I think about it too much.

The real difference here is that watches are easy to jump in and out of for me. I don't have to go anywhere to work on them or use them as intended. I don't have to pull anything out and set it back up to start working. I don't have to register them or burn through expensive resources to enjoy them. They are quiet (well, there is Mr. Bell my Wife will argue - that 4006-6070 seems to have somehow gotten on her bad side) They store up much more easily than cars, etc. Purchased spares or accessories ship in small little envelopes instead of on LTL freighted pallets. The point is that it's just an easy hobby to completely embrace. 

So all that to say I get it, I completely commiserate, and I hope that Malibu is still moving forward towards cruising the boulevard once again and I'd love to see a photo of it!

Inboost

[victor]

I've been out fishing so haven't played the last few days.  No cellular out on the stream.  No PC. Just fishing.  Lots of King Mackerel.  Black Fin.  Some of the other boats came in with Mahi and Triggerfish, but they were fishing near the shoals and off the bottom.  Yellow Fin were around but we didn't get any.  Did see one spinner shark, which was pretty cool.  We also caught False Albacore which we would have thrown back, but my buddy has a Chinese co-worker who loves it, so we brought back a couple for him.

I only took one watch with me, a Seiko Solar Chrono. No need for a pic of that today, though it is on a bracelet.

Back in the office today.  Wearing my carbide case LM - one of my favorites, but I don't wear it often as the quickset has broken and the day/date don't often line up.  Looked in the case and noticed that it was lined up right now - would have worn it no matter what the theme of the day was, but fortunately it fits, even if the bracelet isn't correct.  Nearly impossible to find the right one as the correct bracelet is a mesh with curved ends to fit the watch body.  But that's part of the fun - constantly looking and hoping I eventually stumble across it.

[59yukon01]

[dapellegrini]

I’ve selected this one today, as it originally came on a (vanilla scented) rubber strap, which was just too large for my wrist and was subsequently replaced with a manufacture’s / OEM bracelet option - to “fix it”. Interesting side note (to me at least) - vanilla scented bracelets are nice when you try them on in the store, but living with them is a different thing. For instance, when you are eating your ramen noodles, geoduck, fois gras or whatever you eat - the vanilla smell is a constant (and often unwelcome) companion. Lesson learned.

This is a jubilee style bracelet with a butterfly clasp and a small spring loaded extender as well for a better fit. It’s got a twin button release clasp with the zodiac logo engraved on it.  Oh, and quick change spring bars - why doesn't everyone do that?  



The watch it is attached to is a Super Sea Wolf 53 re-edition. It is a 39mm revisiting of the original 1953 diver that arguably put Zodiac on the map (they technically had been around since the latest 1800’s). It may also be a re-edition of the watch that inspired the Zodiac Killer’s name and signature: watchismo.blogspot.com/2007/08/killer-zodiac-watch-of-zodiac-killer.html - if you are into that kind of thing…

The original Sea Wolf was released around the same time as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and the Rolex Submariner. I believe Zodiac was considered a quality/value Swiss alternative to those other brands. Today they are owned by the Fossil Group (ya, I almost fell asleep writing that), but to their credit, these watches are hand finished in small batches and powered by “in-house” movements. This is a pretty subdued version - many more colorful options are available.





Mine is from a batch of 500 this year (2022). I think that makes it 10 times more limited than my Bulova Parking Meter for instance.

My unboxing/review here:
wristsushi.proboards.com/thread/23436/zodiac-super-wolf-standard-issue

[vmaxnl]

Oct 12, 2022 4:22:37 GMT -8 inboost said:

@cd_god, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that maybe you've just not had the right bracelet experience. I would agree there are plenty that are just not simpatico with the watch, the wrist, or both. Still there is something about a good one! Same goes for the NATO strap and it's cousins I suppose. I've never been a fan, that is, until I became a fan. Again it takes the right watch, the right strap, and a little bit of break in to make it right. Of course you know all this...

pip - the red handled tool on the bench shot of the case and pushers, what is it? A mainspring winder set? I'm very intrigued! Great job on the repair too, I've yet to do a staking job of putting a wheel and pinion back together, I'd like to try and get a feel for it before I need to do it for real.

Today for me it's a watch I bought primarily for it's bracelet, so perfectly fitting for it to go on the wrist today. Sadly it's in terrible mechanical shape through neglect and abuse. The seller and his photos did a good job of obfuscating the truth, and I'll go as far as to say I got duped. Still it wasn't an overly expensive mistake, but I feel I paid double what the watch was worth at $80.

Behold my first Ricoh, a Dynamic Wide 21j with my very first Beads of Rice bracelet that I believe could be original but who really knows when the watch is cheap and from 1966 (by my estimation). I have to thank vmaxnl for getting me excited about this series of Ricohs, as he's got a beautiful Dynamic Wide DX 30j version.

This Beads of Rice (BoR) bracelet is unusual in that it's very loosly knit, and this is by design. None of the little links are stretched out and they have equal spacing row to row from end link to buckle. It wears very comfortably, and is eye catching in the geometric offsets it shifts though. If you look at the side shot below you'll notice how tortured the hands are on this watch. They are bent badly and the lume is crumbling out of them. I see oil spots and light corrosion on the dial and inside surface of the heavily polished crystal too. The cyclops is formed on the inside of the plastic crystal, making it a nice smooth exterior. Still, I don't like it as most of the time it's hiding the date instead of magnifying it. I do love the day wheel on this one, it's a good set of flash cards for learning the Kanji symbols for days of the week!

When it's turn comes I'll put up a service thread as I'm interested to learn about the "Ricoh Way" and I'm sure others would too!

If you want to know if there is an original crystal for this watch mounted, just look in the center of the crystal. You should see a "R". I know my watches have this. But nice watch you have there!

It should look like this:

But to get on-topic:

I have this extravagant Alba AKA. I am not really a fan of metal bracelets, but this is really comfortable.

[russtmurray]

Oct 12, 2022 6:23:10 GMT -8 cd_god said:

Today's Seiko golf tip of the day: on every sand shot your feet should be anchored in the sand.

XW

10 Watches

This is the ONLY X that should ever be on a watch dial (except for roman numeral hour markers)

Noah Fuller sold custom watch dials and bezel inserts for collectors back in the mid 2000's.

Then he came up with the idea to make his own watch based on the 6309 cushion case divers.

The Tsunami.

He upgraded the WR to 333M, drilled lugs on the xcase, solid link bracelet with solid endlinks, different bezel and crown options, and you could choose from his dials.

Or you could go classic 6309 style.

If I recall there were 500 made in groups of 500.

100 PVD cased, 100 original 6309 style, 100 buyer could customize, 100 Bone Frog?, and not sure what the other 100 option ones were.

Noah happened to come to the US before the watch was released and made a few stops across the country for meetups with forum members of the Old Network 54 Seiko Citizen forum and other forums.

When he stopped here he had a prototype for everyone to look at and I told myself I was going to buy one when they came out even though the price was above my normal spending limit for a watch at the time.

I set my cash aside and waited and waited and waited and then I bought my 1965 Malibu instead and stayed off the watches and blew all my money on parts working on the car.
These don't come up for sale very often and when they do they seem to be the Bone Frog dial models.

I was fortunate to find this one for sale in pretty much the same configuration as I would have ordered it anyways.

Unfortunately I don't know if it is an original Noah Fuller model or later Jake / Dagaz model.

Great memories Josh. Got to hand it to Noah, he got the whole re-issue thing for Seiko divers going!

[inboost]

Oct 12, 2022 8:54:00 GMT -8 vmaxnl said:

If you want to know if there is an original crystal for this watch mounted, just look in the center of the crystal. You should see a "R". I know my watches have this. But nice watch you have there!

Hi there vmaxnl, I'm sad to report there is no 'R' but if that was on the outside of the crystal maybe it's just been polished away? This crystal has been heavily polished (it's a bit uneven in it's surface from someone digging at scratches). I took a gamble and purchased a replacement 'windshield' (that caused the customs people to have a heart attack until I explained it was for a watch not an automobile) but this appears to have no 'R' on it either. It's also exactly 1.0mm too small as the watch now in my hands measures 32.5mm with my calipers while still installed in the case. I'll know more when I break the watch down for service. The watch is actually much nicer inside than out except that it runs poorly. The dial and hands are a mess, but without magnification I don't notice it too much. Put it under the scope and I start to reach for the case wrench as I know I can fix this up. It just needs to wait it's turn!!!

[vmaxnl]

The R is pressed on the inside, so unless it's polished there, you should see it... But I was lucky, when I bought this watch. It had a cracked crystal, and at the same time an original crystal was offered. I didn't have to think that long to buy me that...

But good luck with restoring it!

[longbike]

        Aloha 
Have been on a very busy past weekend so back now.
Neighbor down the street called my wife and told her to send me down. Got there and she tells me The Elder Women from
across her home wants to see me. The Women that called me she is Vietnamese so she always calls me ....( Dai'Wie  ) 
We go over there and ...The Elder Japanese Women tells me in Japanese
.... " Ottosan Look at that Crazy Foolish Japanese Old Man up there ".
   I look up on the garage and her Husband is up there and I asked him .... Kenji San .... what are you doing and he 
says he is going to change some of the tin roofing. Problem is ..... He is 82 years of age so I asked him .....What are
you doing up there again ...Kenji San ... and he says working. I said come down here and we talk about it ok.
Now he comes down but strong headed yet.... He says I want to change my roof. So I told the other Women to call my
wife and told her to call my friend to come over to see me.
      Well long story short.
     We got some of the guys to hustle some things and we bought him new roofing and installed it for them
as a gift from all of us. He was the one I did the Home Refinishing last year and a ... New Japanese Fudo Tube I built for them. 
  So the payment was a little dinner party for the guys and some good old fashion cooking she did. One of the guys owns a
.... Small Hardware Supply Store so we got things real good priced.

This for today.




Louis