Seiko SNDA67 Chronograph

As you may have noticed, I don't have many analog quartz watches. (I'll admit, after looking through my previous blog posts, I do have more than I realized.) They simply don't hold the same appeal for me as mechanical watches. Occasionally, I do find one that is hard to resist. Today I'm wearing one such watch, a Seiko SNDA67 chronograph. I was mainly drawn to this by its functional looks, very reminiscent of some Sinn/Bell & Ross dials as well as other military-style watches. It's highly legible with thick hands and big hour and minute markers. The chronograph function measures to 1/20 of a second which is a nice feature (and watching the 1/20 sec. hand spin through its 20 clicks once a second is temporarily entertaining.) The case is a good size, about 44mm diameter, but lower profile than most of my automatic chronographs. Overall finish is excellent, typical of Seiko, and while the bracelet isn't up to that of a Seiko Monster, it's still nicer than many. The crystal is Hardlex, Seiko's proprietary hardened mineral crystal, so it should be pretty resistant to scratches. The crystal doesn't have any anti-reflective coating, so glare could be a factor depending on the scenario. This watch has an MSRP of $295, but is readily available for less than half that. It's definitely a solid package at a nice price.

Pirelli P-Zero Tempo Automatic Chronograph

I'm wearing this Pirelli P-Zero chronograph today. I haven't worn it in a while and just realized I never posted about it. I got it a couple years ago and it is very similar to my non-chronograph Pirelli automatic. The main difference (other than it being a chronograph with a Valjoux 7750 movement) is the genuine alligator strap, which I think really dresses it up and complements the Euro look. I took some new pictures today, but then I found these older photos (which are actually better) so I decided to post them. The photos of the packaging and tags are because I was selling an identical watch at the time. I believe these were being discontinued when I bought them because I paid a small portion of the MSRP shown. It's a high quality, solid watch with a unique design and I'm extremely pleased with it.

Bulova Accutron Farnsworth Automatic Chronograph 63B019

Today I'm wearing my new Bulova chronograph for the first time. I actually just discovered that Citizen now owns Bulova and all their brands, including Accutron of course. I'm not sure if this watch was designed and created before or after the Citizen acquisition, nor am I sure if it matters. It's a nice watch, comparable to my Accutron VX-200 in many ways. Build quality seems as good or better overall, but the bracelet on the Farnswoth is not as complex and possibly not as heavy. Although the chronograph is all highly polished stainless steel and very fancy, it's still built like a tank. The crowns and chronograph pushers have knurling on them, but it's just for looks as none of them screw down. Water resistance is rated at fifty meters. The movement is probably the most unique feature to me. Unlike many chronographs that use the Valjoux 7750 or slightly rarer 7753, this one uses a Valgranges A07.211 which appears to have been designed with larger watches specifically in mind. In this case (no pun intended) the watch is a substantial 44mm wide and 14mm thick with lugs that appear to be 24mm wide. It has a similar self-winding mechanism to the 7750 so it also has the characteristic "wobble" if you get the rotor freewheeling with the movement of your wrist. The dial is very attractive, with a subtle raised pattern, black chrome hands and markers and red accents. So far I really have no complaints. I suppose it would be nice if it had a non-reflective coating on the flat sapphire crystal, but sometimes those are more trouble than they're worth (especially if done with poor quality control.)

Casio G-Shock GA-100-1A1DR "Velocity Indicator"

Here is one of a handful of new G-Shocks I got for Christmas. It's a fairly new model which debuted about a year ago. Casio says the design was inspired by the DW-5900 and GW-500, but I can also see a lot of recent Frogman in it. The size is very close to a Frogman, in both width and thickness. It also seems to share the case and external dimensions with the GA-110 series and the forthcoming GD-100 series. It seems that these watches should appeal to the same buyer as the Frogmen, but at a much lower price point than the new Frogmen. I've also found in the last year or so that G-Shock popularity has grown, G-Shock retailers have become more exclusive (no more G-Shocks at JCPenney as far as I know, now they're at Macy's) and many of the steep discounts that used to be available have all but disappeared. But I digress. Back to this watch, the design is a bit of a contradiction: the "stealthed" bezel and matte black dial tend to disguise the fact that it is quite busy, and are also offset by the bright white hands. I didn't even know until reading the manual yesterday (while trying to set it for the first time) that this watch has a 1/1000 second stopwatch as well as a speed measurement from 0 to 1998 kph. The speed measurement is rather clever, you set a distance that you wish to measure, and then, using the stopwatch, start and stop the timing. Speed is displayed using the three upper dials as well as the lower left display if the speed exceeds 1226 kph, which is Mach 1. As you can also see in the last picture below, the dial illumination is provided by a single yellow LED. That, combined with the inverted LCDs makes the digital displays a bit difficult to read in low light, but the analog hands are always quite legible. Overall, I really like the watch for its combination of size and functionality as well as originality.

Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph 3573.50.00

Well, I finally broke down and got another Omega. It's been a little over two years since I got my first one, a Seamaster Planet Ocean. I've always been a fan of the Speedmaster, not only for its connection to the NASA space program, but also its connection to motorsports. I've been seriously looking at Speedmaster Professionals for a number of months, trying to decide whether to get vintage or new, and if new, then which one? The 3570.50.00 is the model most like the vintage ones and those worn on the moon, with a Hesalite (acrylic) crystal and solid steel caseback. The 3573.50.00 is virtually identical to the other one but features a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, a sapphire exhibition caseback to view the movement, and a movement that is very slightly modified to look better (a small plastic piece is replaced with a metal one.) Ideally, I would have bought a vintage piece, probably from the late 1960s. Unfortunately, prices for excellent vintage pieces are high, and while eBay has lots of vintage Speedmasters, it's difficult to find one that is authentic, original and in good working condition without spending more than a new one. I was actually leaning towards the more "authentic" Hesalite-equipped model (what Omega refers to as the Original Moon Watch), probably because I saw it as being something closer to the vintage models I wanted, but then I realized I really wanted to see the movement and that I would probably also get a vintage one someday, and none of those have exhibition casebacks. Like my Planet Ocean, it took an excellent deal from a reputable online retailer (the same one I got my Planet Ocean from, in fact) to push me over the edge. It also happened that they had the sapphire-equipped model for less than I had planned on paying for the Hesalite-equipped model. So, I got the watch and it's fantastic. For some reason I expected the sapphire crystal to be shaped differently than the Hesalite one, but it's virtually identical. I'm also very happy with the exhibition caseback since unlike my other automatic chronographs there is no winding rotor to block the view, and I could probably spend hours just watching everything move, engage and disengage as the chronograph is started, stopped and reset. I was a little afraid that I would be disappointed with the size. If you've looked at my other watches you've seen I'm a fan of large watches, but while my Speedy Pro is smaller than my Planet Ocean (42mm vs 44.5mm diameters) it certainly does not feel small. "Sleek" might be a better word. Once again, the lack of automatic winding works well here as it is much thinner than any of my automatic chronographs. It lives up to all my expectations and I don't have any complaints.

Guess Quartz Chronograph

Today I'm wearing another Guess watch. I probably should have taken the time to fit a new power cell to it, but I'm confident it would work if I did. I've never worn this before, but I can't really say why. It could be the mix of stainless steel and gold, a combination that I've only recently warmed up to. I think it's reasonably attractive and more than a little Breitling-ish. It has a Japanese quartz movement so it is probably pretty reliable. The bezel does turn (one-way, no less) but there's no indication of water resistance anywhere on the watch, so it's far from being diver-spec.