What time is it? Watches and horology

What would be the horological equivalent of DBAD

Richard Mille?

Reminds me of the Citizen Eco-Drive Promaster Altichron, which I actually really like.

36mm is def a better size for me, and agreed: looks good. Will check it out - thanks!

Decent vid on it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rHzBMAhQIw

Waterproof leather straps, are there any decent ones out there? Something reasonably chunky, brown, 22mm tapering to 20mm and ok for swimming. Is there such a thing?

Watch Gecko would be my starting point

https://www.watchgecko.com/rubber-watch-straps?custom_strap_size_watch=33&p=3

Brown though is difficult

https://www.watchgecko.com/rubber-watch-straps?custom_generic_colour=536&custom_strap_size_watch=33

Waterproof leather straps

My Alpinist came with one. It’s pretty unpleasant tbh. Stiff.

Hirsch do them I think?

https://www.hirschstraps.com/products/hirsch-mariner-water-resistant-leather-watch-strap-in-brown?_pos=1&_sid=8277fa7a3&_ss=r

If you ever want to sell it, let me know

😍🥰🥰

that's helpful. Down a rabbit hole and also considering Citizen BM8180-03E -- not mechanical and a little bigger, but also a little cheaper and seems to be good for everyday durability etc

Seiko on Steveo parachute strap

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Waterproof but non leather .. wears nicely

Looks good, and in an appropriate environment

Really appealed by the SLA017 and SLA037, but I don’t feel comfortable spending this kind of money without trying one IRL..

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Does look good but does the canvas take a while to dry out?

They’re both absolute bangers but the 017 was at the top of what I felt was an acceptable RRP, then they put a hi-beat in the 037 and another €3K on the RRP. I’d rather spend a chunk on a good condition OG 62MAS for half the money.

They are bangers but it’s such crazy money

Cheers and @Aroogah Hirsch are the main ones I've seen but they're not really the chunky diver style strap I'm looking for. I think I just need to accept that leather on a dive watch won't really work.

@panic sorry but no plans to sell it. Once things get back to normal I'm hoping I'll be able to actually start wearing a watch with no date and still know what day it is.

@inchpincher @Howard

Apparently the SLA017 perform well over the the -10/+15 sec per day announced if correctly set, don’t think the Hi-Beat is a big advantage, especially considering that it’s still a solid caseback ?

Apparently, the high RPP is due to high fabrication cost because of small production numbers (2000 pieces for SLA017 and 1100 for SLA037)

After all, reviews of the SLA017 said that finish quality is excellent, comparable to high end Swiss made watches with equivalent RPP or higher..

So why not ?

So why not ?

Get one of these for £900?

Do like the skinny bezel and crystal on the SLA though. If you can find one to buy.

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Hello, looking for an opinion. Black Bay Harrods as an investment piece? Waste of time or not?

waste of time in my opinion.

I own an SLA017, I'll give you my thoughts.

It's a really, really nice watch.

I believe the ~£3.5k price at launch was pushing it but arguably justifiable given how nice the finishing is and the limited run. It's clearly part of Seiko's broad corporate strategy to increase prices across the board and move upmarket. The price for the 037 is a combination of that, plus halving the run to drive rarity and push secondary prices up, creating a halo effect to increase the perception of the brand at that price point and allowing them to raise prices within their volume ranges. Note that none of the other recreations they've done at that price point (eg the Willard) have increased in price on the secondary market. It's only the 017, and that's because it's such a classic design, it looks great and it helps that it's a very wearable size.

The 8L35 movement is pretty good but it's quite an old design and we shouldn't forget it's also the movement inside the Marinemaster 300, which was about half the price of the SLA017 for a long time. They don't adjust it particularly extensively and while mine is very good - it stays within +3/-2 secs per day - I've heard enough people say theirs is nowhere near that to know that I've been lucky in that regard.

The case is wonderful, as are the hour & minute hands. Those are the two areas you can really see the price. The brushing and polishing are top drawer. The crystal and bezel are very nicely done too. The dial is beautiful, and while I really like how the hour markers look, it's worth noting that they are not applied like the original 62MAS. They are stamped through the dial from the reverse side and machined down to a polished finish. This is something Seiko do on a lot of their dive watches, and while the surface finish is beautiful, what you get is slightly soft/rounded corners where the dial rises up. This is one of the few criticisms of the 017 from a lot of Seiko enthusiasts (along with the printed Seiko logo instead of applied) - if you compare it with a 62MAS dial you can see the box markers are a lot sharper at the corners on the original.

Also worth mentioning is that the bracelet on the SLA017 is terrible for the price - so bad they've given up and not bothered including one with the 037. The end links leave marks on the case so watch out for that on pre-owned examples.

The newer hi-beat calibre in the 037 is a big upgrade over the 017, but it's not a £3k upgrade. What drove me to seek out a good 017 a few months back was realising that Seiko were going to keep raising their prices and lowering volumes on this model because they know they have a winner with collectors and it makes them look good. I'm not particularly happy with their approach but they'll sell them all, I'm sure. Is it worth Submariner money? Not sure. Is it a beautiful, coherent, well-executed classic divers watch design? Yeah, it is.

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+1