Christopher Ward, sneak peak...

The people at Christopher Ward will be releasing a new watch in the coming months. The watch will celebrate 100 years of Aston Martin. The new watch will be based on their popular C70 DBR1 Chronometer watch but will feature something special. Christopher Ward was able to source a piece of aluminium that was from the original winning Aston Martin DBR 1/2 from Christopher Bennett of TMBA ArtMetal. 

Christopher Ward, working with car enthusiast Johannes Jahnke, have created a medallion which will be fitted in the back of the new watch (covered by sapphire crystal), which features the car's number 5. There will only be 100 of these watches and will be priced at £1950. Pre-order will start soon for a November delivery, just nice for Christmas. 

The car....

Photograph: borrowed from the Internet

The watch....

Photograph: Christopher Ward

As can be seen from the photograph above, the watch will feature the number 5 on the case back and the name of the winning drivers, Roy Salvadori and Caroll Shellby. The two Aston cars came in first and second in the 1959 Le Mans 24 hour race. 

I will update this once I have more information on the watch, especially the specifications and other details. 

Its morning....

And I am bored. Thought I fire off a couple of shots.....

OK, this is way OT.... :) Apple mouse

The DW-5030C1....

Dusty...sorry...

Metal keeper...

Beautiful case back, screw down. :)

Shot with Fuji XE1 and 60 mm Macro lens.

5 years....

Just realised that we have been in Taiwan for 5 years. When we first arrived, Casio was celebrating its G-Shock 25th Anniversary. I remember it well because I just got (back) into collecting Casio G-Shock and got this with the help of Seiya. 

The Casio DW-5025SP-1JF.

And now it is 5 years later and Casio is now celebrating its G-Shock 30th. Anniversary. I thought I would stop and was. I even sold and traded most of my G-Shocks. That did not last.....

I got this last night....

The Casio DW-5030C-1DR.

Would I be celebrating the 35th. Anniversary in Taiwan? 

Casio Military Sand

Casio has released 2 new G-Shock models under the Military Sand Collection. The watches are the DW6900SD-8 and GA100SD-8A. Both watches are inspired by the desert sand terrain and are outfitted with a sleek matte stone colour resin band and bezel. 

As with other G-Shocks, both watches are shock resistant, water resistant to 20 ATM and will feature the usual G-Shock complications like stopwatch, EL Backlight, alarm and countdown timer. The DW6900SD-8 will retail for USD 99 while the GA100SD-8A will come in at USD 110 and should be in the stores as you read this. 

The DW6900SD-8.

GA100SD-8A

Photographs: Casio

Let the lume time roll....

SKX031. Still bright, even after 10 years.....

Commercialisation....

I have given it a long thought and have decided to go ahead with my plans to commercialise the blog (a tad) and allow some advertisements (assuming there are people who wants to advertise with me). The blog will still continue as it is, my adventures in the world of horology, and that will not change. I hope my readers, followers, friends and family will continue to support this blog.

7S26A...movement shots

Some shots of the movement that powers the SKX031, the Seiko 7S26A. It is a robust, reliable and is a work horse movement. The only downside is that the movement does not hack and no manual wind capabilities. 

The 7S26A basic specifications...

Introduced in 1996

Size: 12 ligne

Jewels: 21 (diashock)

Rate: 21,600 A/h

Power reserve: 40 hours

Functions: hours, minutes, central sweep seconds, quickset day and date

The Seiko 7S26A.

The rotor, signed Seiko Time Corp, movement reference and jewel count.

You can just see the pawl of the magic lever.

Seiko SKX031

I just got this watch back from my friendly neighbourhood watch guy. It went in for a full service and spa treatment. Now it is running full speed ahead.

This watch is interesting because of its history. I got this watch from a good friend who is an aquatic biologist. Interesting that the watch he wears is only rated to 100M and not any deeper. Evidently, from my understanding, the famous Roachman (Wayne World of Watches) had a hand in selecting this watch for my friend. He, my friend, wore this watch during his early days as an aquatic biologist, doing research work on farming and growing fresh water fish in desolated places to feed the hungry. He wanted and needed a watch and he approached Roachman and this was the watch Roachman recommend to my friend. Roachman even took my friend to the shop to buy the watch. How cool is that....

Anyway, how did I get the watch? Well, I always wanted and liked the Rolex milsub, but getting one was out of the question. So the next best thing? Make a homage and the best candidate was the Seiko SKX03X series. But these watches were no longer made and they are hard to come by. So I asked around, and low and behold, my friend told me he had one and since he is not using it, he will pass it to me. Thrilled I was. I was about to order the parts needed to modify the watch when when my friend told me about the history of the watch. After listening to the history, I decided not to do anything to the watch, except to service the watch and maintain it as it is. 

The watch....

Water resistant to only 10 ATM.

The crystal, all scratches and all. Well used and loved. 

New gaskets all around, including the bezel. 

Interesting serial number, no?

The screw-down crown. 

The bezel. Easy to use and rotates both ways. 

 The SKX031. 

Yet another strap change

This time it is the Omega X-33 turn to have a strap change. Since the X-33 is not the most water resistant watch in the world, I decided to fit it with a leather strap. More reason not to get the watch wet. :)

So, the strap...

Yes, the strap was from the Tudor. 

The Omega X-33.

Get the correct tool out. The bracelet/ spring bar removal head has to be the slimmer one as the gap to access the spring bars on the Omega bracelet is narrow. 

As can be seen from the photograph, the gap is narrow. 

The tool in the gap to remove the spring bars. Some of you may want to tape up the sides of the lugs to prevent scratches. 

The Omega with the leather strap. Looks pretty good actually. 

Another view. 

OT X33 testing...

My Omega X-33 undergoing testing not sanctioned by Omega.... or maybe Omega just did not want us to know about it. 

The test....

The tester 'tasting' the watch...

Emmmm..... not bad....

I kinda like it... In fact I am over the moon...

Test passed.... The watch is mine....

You are not going to get it back....

Busy busy but interesting...

Got these in the mail the other day. Interesting to say the least. I will be having fun reviewing them over the next few weeks. Buckles made of material you would not normally associate with buckles. These buckle are made of wood (yes, wood), ivory and other exotic materials. 

For more information:

Fine Watch Buckles

The tangs....

The buckles...

Some of the buckles...