SNZH55 Black Bay mod
SNZH55 Black Bay mod
I've just been sorting through my pictures on my phone and noticed I have a picture of each Grand Seiko I have owned so thought it would be fun to document the ones I have owned and sold over the last year and where I have ended up. Until I joined this forum I had never heard of Grand Seiko
It all started with this, the SBGR051.
Then the SBGX061
Followed by the SBGH005 (currently being sold by Wooster on SC for a bargain price).
Then the SBGX117 (will definitely own one of these again. Fantastic watch)
I also briefly had the white dialed SBGX117
SBGA029 (would love to get the titanium version)
SBGE001 (stunning, but for some reason I just don't like red on my watches)
And finally my current SBGJ013.
Last edited by Binsull; 21st October 2015 at 15:51.
I too have gone a little Seiko crazy of late although, and this is very unlike me, it's the quartz variety that has piqued my interest.
Just had a very recent cull in which I sold these:
I'm left with this:
And this, which I absolutely love. It's relegated a few very expensive mechanicals to the watch drawer. Comes with a very nice bracelet too:
Is it so wrong that I'm drooling on my keyboard here? Some lovely Seikos in this thread. Gregory's digital is well cool IMH. Like Jneds I too got my first Seiko for my birthday in 81. One of those calculator jobs with the teeny tiny buttons. I was near welded to that thing until the bracelet fell apart. I still have it somewhere, in "well used condition". :) Still works mind you.
When you consider that when the Seiko guys showed up in the watch chronometer trials in the 60's they were regularly beating all comers in the prizes and only Zenith and Longines were holding the side up(IIRC Patek, Rolex and a few others got their bottoms handed to them on a plate). In the end the local Swiss got so peed off with them winning they changed the rules to exclude them. That's a prize in of itself. While the Swiss were getting together to build the first automatic chrono, Seiko built theirs(6139) a column wheel, vertical clutch, auto that was smaller than the Swiss ones and got to the actual market ahead of them by a couple of months. The fact you can get a vintage one today for a few hundred quid, while the Swiss versions go for multiples of that is amazing to me.
Their movements don't usually have any fancy adornments and finishing of the top Swiss names, but they seem to be near bulletproof. One example I can think of was a mate's diver(the particular model escapes me). The seals had gone and he wouldn't be the gentlest of souls, so the dial showed clear water damage, the case looked like it had been dug outa King Kong's footprint and when he asked me to look inside at the movement, you could see corrosion all over the place. It looked like a scrapyard in December. Timekeeping? Even in that state, within 10 seconds a day. Seiko, the Tonka trucks of watches. :D
Used to have a black dialed Monster, an SKX009 and an SKXA053 "Bullet" mod, currently have an SBPG001 Spirit, an SBGA003 GS and an SKX009 mod.
I'm a big Seiko fan but your precis contains a lot of internet lore.
Seiko mainly entered quartz watches into the competitions, their earlier mech watches did very badly in the mid sixties and finished in the high hundreds IIRC.
Seiko determined to do better and did in fact improve their placings as the years went on but say they thrashed the opposition is rather far fetched.
The reason the observatory competitions were stopped was not because Seiko won but because mechanical watches were seen as passe and everybody was getting into quartz.
As regards the first auto chronograph, three firms completed them at about the same time. The Breitling-Buren-Heuer combo was just a DD module on a Buren micro rotor. The Zenith El Primero was a fully integrated three sub dial auto, the Seiko 6139 was a single dial without sub seconds (unless you count the centre chrono second) so was somewhat lacking but Seiko pushed it forward to try and get the first auto chrono mantle.
Going by the nomenclature, the two dial 6138 should have been released first but wasn't ready in time so the 6139 was put out.
As I said, I am a Seiko fan but over the years a lot of misinformation has been spread about historical facts including in Seiko's own, "Journey through time", something I have posted about in the past.
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...light=lassalle
Cheers,
Neil.
As ever Sir, I stand corrected*. It's good for me, otherwise I lose the run of myself. Well it's likely I'll keep losing the run of myself, but this way actual experts will keep me in check. Well... until the next waffle exercise on my part. :D
Still I do so love this thread. It's like the floodgates have been opened, almost to a love that dare not speak its name. My username is ______ and I'm a Seikoholic. *fervent clapping from the gallery*. So far I have remained sober, but this thread and these pics are tempting me. *rings sponsor to hear talk of vintage Longines and Zenith to keep me safe from the dark side*
It's not working. :)
TL:DR? Feck off N.C, stop showing me up. :D
*when someone uses the word 'precis' correctly, you just know you've been owned and it's best to leave the field at that point.
Last edited by Wibbs; 19th April 2014 at 23:42.
BIG Seikofan here.
I've had a lot. This is from when the collection was at a peak;
now I only have two:
Last edited by yonsson; 21st June 2014 at 15:07.
I only have two, but I really love them
sandblasted Sawtooth
and the Tuna
[IMG][/IMG]
Another Seiko victim here... Had an old 6309, love it so much I bought another that was restored. Only watch I have two of. Also forced my self to sell my Sarb065 after serious overspending. Miss it so much that I bought another to replace it which is now on its way to me, only watch to ever sell and then buy again :-). Here is my 6309 duo.
And my old Sarb065.
Tempted!!
http://bit.ly/1hVT6pH
I hanker after a sarb0065 and have a WTB out for SARB0015
I own this... And it makes me smile every time it gets an airing! Probably draws the most comments too!
A future classic?
A fairly recent acquisition for me, the Seiko SARB033
It's cousin is incoming shortly, the SARB035. I'll post when it does.
That's cheap isn't it?
Latest arrival, and surprisingly my only present Seiko!
Even though I'm a bystander in all this, for my money and in my very humble, the Seiko Monster in it's various forms is going to be one of those iconic watches of our current times. I was hovering and very nearly pulled the trigger on one local to me recently. Given I'm one of those dyed in the wool it has to be vintage/preferably circa the Boer war/automatics are the very devil's work saddos this came as a psychic shock to me. One of the gorgeous "special edition" blue/gold jobs and in the end it sold for a really good price too. I think I pulled a muscle from kicking myself...
Just shoved my new Tuna on a leather zulu....
Nice.
Greg.