Who Watches the Watchmen (Our Chit Chat Thread)

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Thanks for that info. Yes looking at their website it appears it's the sapphire sandwich they have although they've got it listed online for €5,900. I will be in Cork in a couple of weeks time and will probably call in and check-out the situation in person.

Actually, you could be right. The Seamaster 300 was 5200. Im pretty sure the discontinued moonwatch wasnt 5900 though as that would be close to retail for the new model. Either way it was a nice saving on the newer model if buying new. Worth a call in, they were very helpful when I was in there.

Question about luminous paint.

I assume it has a max amount of 'charge' it can take?

So for example 5min of sunshine will give same amount of lume time as 2hrs of sun on same watch?

unkel wrote: »

Sweet! If you don't mind me asking, is that a watch that's easily available at retail, or even with a discount? Where did you buy? Looking at the values on chrono and they seem to hold their value pretty well, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to decide to buy one vs a watch that will lose you 30% as soon as you get it

There aren't many around it appears, but managed to get one at a small discount on list.

Oddly for jlc list prices are less in euro, its 11,2k euro v 9.9 gbp.

micks_address wrote: »

A quick question on lume. If I’m outside during the day and walk into a dimly lit room my seiko glows..but if I’m wearing it all night in relatively dim room and switch to a dark room it doesn’t..I hear people say oh I can look at my seiko in the middle of the night and the lume is awesome..how is that possible? Are they charging it with a light before bed?

It's because if you wake up at the middle of the night your eyes will be adjusted for night vision (relatively) - i.e. the pupils are dilated to max to take in as much light as possible - when walking from a dim room to a dark room your eyes would need maybe 10-15 minutes to dilate properly (I understand it's a safety mechanism as having fully dilated pupils and then suddenly entering bright light could(?) damage the eyes).

Hence - if you say were at a cinema and look down at your Seiko - the lume won't be necessarily very readable since you were just looking at a bright screen. But waking up at 2am when there's no other light around the glow will be very readable.

With lume - quality is one thing (grade A vs X1 superluminova) but quantity is the biggest factor - if you lash in plenty of layers of lume it will glow pretty well - some hands and indices' designs don't allow for many layers and so even using high quality lume they just won't glow as well as something that has lume thickly applied (like that Seiko Monster - you can literally see the hump of lume that is applied to the indices and hands).

Oh and the colour matters too C3 is brightest to our eyes, BGW9 is second (you lose about 5% brightness just from switching to bgw9):


I've seen red lume before - basically good for nothing even charged with UV light - barely readable even 2 minutes after being charged up.

In my perusing of Instagram I found an account called @lugsandjugs suggested to me.

I'm not sure if she's a DD or not?
But I've never seen a wristwatch worn that way before :eek:

893bet wrote: »

Clearly based on your search history....

Well I've definitely searched lugs, and lug sizes
Never thought to add jugs to the search string tho.

banie01 wrote: »

In my perusing of Instagram I found an account called @lugsandjugs suggested to me.

I'm not sure if she's a DD or not?
But I've never seen a wristwatch worn that way before :eek:

In the interest of research I had to check it out. Out of reapect for Fitz this isn't a link to a Vostock pic


https://www.instagram.com/p/CEUKITcn4Xj/?utm_medium=copy_link

It's been an interesting last few days for me regarding watches or more specifically Bell-Matics! Still waiting to hear back from Fast Fix on my bracelet getting repaired.

Have another of the same bracelet currently on its way from the UK.

And yesterday around Lunch time as I was cleaning the gutters, this happened!



Spotted it in Friday morning during my daily check of the auctions ( something I NEED to stop doing! ). Between work and other things going on over the weekend, completely forget about it.

Fast forward to Monday, had it bookmarked and decided to check it in the morning. Comming up to lunch, last 20 minutes left on the auction, no bids decided to pull the trigger.



€156.45, only bid! A Seiko Bell-Matic 4005-7000 from October 1968. The 4005 was a JDM only model made between March 1968 to around May 1969. Made as a cheaper alternative to the regular 4006 which was 18,500 Yen



Also note the price of the Gold (SGP•WP) model, 2,500 Yen more, how times have changed.

Not sure what you guys will make of the Gold, something completely out of the norm for me but over the last few months of looking they have started to catch my attention, kind of a DelBoy look ! Also the 4005 is a model that has always had me on the fence only having the date.

I have been recommended by several on the forum to add a 4005 to My collection and this felt like as good as a time as any!

Given the last shipment from Japan took nearly 3 months! I will have a little wait to see what it's like in person.

Be interested to know what you guys think of it, Of course it most likely will need a service and the crystal polished to remove the scratches. First gold in the watch box! Can't believe I just bought another one! I'm really in trouble now!

More Pictures [Link]

njburke wrote: »

Charming looking bell you have there. I like the date only and beads of rice bracelet. How did you fare on bracelet size? They can be a little on the small side from Japan if it's vintage. I got lucky with my seiko Advan and the bracelet was the advertised size and fitted well with a couple of micro adjust spaces to spare.

Thanks njburke!
Have been chatting regularly with a guy on the Bellmatics forum since I got that Dolphin Bell last July! (nearly a year already!) and gold models have kept coming up and catching my attention, but up till now haven't been brave enough to get one!

Interesting about that bracelet, I don't believe its actually the beads of rice, not sure if this one has a name. It is the correct original one to the watch, endlinks are marked "4005 700" here is a better picture of the same one that was also used on the 4006-7010





Here is a original two tone beads of rice for comparison



As for the size, going by my other two they were actually fairly big, the Jan 67 however the bracelet has more stretch due to wear so will have to wait and see when I get this one.

The same person who worked his magic on my last two and currently has the Jan 67, Richard Askham. Funny enough when I was messaging him to send the Jan 67 over, he joked "what was next for me? a set of original 4005s perhaps? " So we can blame him for this latest purchase !

C0N0R wrote: »

Going to be in London in about a months time, can anyone recommend any grey market dealers selling new watches - I’ll qualify for tax free shopping and am looking to hopefully pick up a blue seamaster 300.

Thanks

Can’t recommend any specifically, but Hatton Garden is full of them.

scwazrh wrote: »

Anyone here have experience of buying from UK since brexit ?

A seller of a watch I’m interested in has said they will declare it as a €150 value and “watch in for repairs “on the postage .I’m wondering is this viable or would it still get caught for full customs and vat

The seller is a well established jewellers so I hope should be trustworthy

So the risk is if the watch goes missing you will only be able to claim a maximum of 150 on insurance

NIMAN wrote: »

The seller will be filing the claim.
They could only claim for 150.

Whether they would refund you the difference is another question.

Yes that would be my understanding that the seller is at risk more than I would be .Too late now as the watch sold while I was thinking and procrastinating.
Lesson learnt again about jumping on a bargain as soon as I see one..