What time is it? Watches and horology

Seiko SLA017 is really nice. Stick.

The Kermit is awesome. You must have some deep level connections if you’re picking all these up for retail.

The Aliexpress mod kit I ordered arrived today having landed and been in customs since the 12th. It is impressive. It significantly bulks out the the watch in comparison to the standard case.

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I took pics along the way, fitting etc. so can do a bit of a write up on it if there's interest.

Royal. 😎

Looks great! How long did it take?

I am interested!

The Chinese, a great bunch of lads altogether.

This is the mod kit in question I ordered (silver set): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001201086844.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.6bba4c4diVy2s2

This is what arrived. Well packaged, celebrating 35th anniversary of the Smithing company. Interesting but completely meaningless. The package has a surprising heft to it.

Inside reveals quick release spring bars, three in total so you've got a spare if needed. There are also four new flathead screws that will secure the case to the carbon core, with two spares. These are about twice as big as the phillips head screws that secure the factory case.

Underneath more foam, everything else. Tools included are a phillips head for removing the existing case screws and two flatheads, the larger blue one for fixing the new screws into the case and the smaller red one for removing bracelet links. The flathead screwdrivers are comically bad but do the job fine and actually make it hard to bork anything as it's difficult to get any meaningful purchase.

Case and bracelet come shrink wrapped. The finishing is a mixture of brushed and polished, the coarseness of the brushing matches on the case and bracelet. The Royal Oak style bolts in the bezel are pretty convincingly sunk in.

The bracelet is fully brushed with a polished chamfer. Overall, I can't find fault with the finish. The case is heavy but the bracelet is a piss take, so be ready for that. It's as if the designers correlated weight with quality.

The clasp is the weak point. It's fine. It doesn't feel flimsy but it could be more reassuring. You fold one side over first and then the other which has a cover bit with "Shock Resist" on it that looks like it might interact with the release system but doesn't. You will fold it wrong at first at least 20 times.

There are no instructions. Soon clear why. If it takes you longer than ten minutes to fit this from start to finish, you're a ham fisted moron. Bracelet link removal is flathead screw pins, deployed well. Link removal affirms overall bracelet quality.

It's heavy as fuck (149g with the mod kit vs 51g standard) to the point that it may be problematic for some. It feels very sturdy. Just as comfortable as the factory configuration from the 8ish hours I've been romping around with it on but without the "sticky" feeling I've gotten from the rubber strap previously. The new case does considerably increase the overall size and profile compared to the original plastic case and that's important to note. I was in dangerous territory size-wise with the original format and so now I'm to-ing and fro-ing as to whether this is now too big for my wrist. Will give it a few days.

It would be helpful if I had experience with some of the factory metal cased G-Shocks to compare as a benchmark but I don't unfortunately. But I'm very happy overall so far. File it under "absolutely worth a punt".

I have already put a tiny ding in the bezel at 10 o'clock. Cos of the uniform design I can take the case and rotate it 180 degrees where it'll be a bit less noticeable maybe at 4 o'clock. You can also buy the case and bracelet separately, which is handy.

New Rolex's: https://wornandwound.com/news-rolex-introduces-a-new-generation-of-submariner/

Those colourful OPs are fun but no way would I ever buy one. I like the champagne-y dial. New black no date sub is fantastic. Slimmer lugs are spot on.

Green op is nice. I was hoping for matt bezel inserts like the pelagos.

1mm wider, larger hour markers, movement upgrade, no blue steel model - think I win the Sub prediction sweepstake. ;)

New 36 OP gets the movement upgrade but loses a couple of the better colours. Black one looks nice with the thinner lugs and dots outside the markers instead of minute numerals.

Mild shock that they’ve apparently discontinued the OP39?!

Yeah, same. 36 best size anyway :-)

Slimmer lugs are ace but 41mm - not that I'll ever get the chance to buy one mind.

41mm is ace...

But never gonna happen.

I like the champagne-y dial.

The light gold one? I really like that! And in a better size too.

Oh yeah that green face 36mm, that's the one. The champagne one would be nicer if the gold bits were silver.

The champagne one would be nicer if the gold bits were silver.

That's what I thought I'd think but I reckon it works big time.

The coral red is quite cool, not for me personally but it's a nice colour.

They're ruined the 34 with the new dials. No more white option and they all have Roman numerals round the edge.

The coral red is quite cool, not for me personally but it's a nice colour

I think red is generally a bad colour against pale skin, same with tattoos.

Totally agree, there's a reason (nearly) all my watches are black, grey or silver. I'm just happy to see these poppy flat colours, they're more appealing and interesting than the old "grape" sunrays IMO.

Can you still get Tiffany dials? That turquoise one looks pretty close to their colour.

Shame it's just a single Materia slot and not linked but still a good start.

I want the old LV to wear it, as bike, watch are made to be used..

@jv got the LV at retail, waited a bit for it, but cannot complain..

I'll give you the non steel blue, everything else was pretty much a given. Extremely underwhelming to me. Think ceramic green and blue don't work with a black dial and the OP range has taken a hammering in my eyes. Cant believe they got rid of the 39mm. They're different, not that I like it. I'd be interested to see the OP case more than the Submariner.

They make me think of NOMOS due to the bright colours now.

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