Looks great. No larger than 38mm, pretty please.
Looks great. No larger than 38mm, pretty please.
No date. Keep the vision pure.
I really like this, prefer the original rendering without the green tip, bit of green in the nato would be good though....
Looking forward to seeing how this progresses...
Like this very much and count me among the future owners.
How about black DLC over PVD?
I've got a DLC coated watch and it seems tougher than PVD?
* dons tin helmet *
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ DLC (diamond like carbon) is the coating applied by the PVD (physical vapour deposition) process.
Last edited by Dave+63; 18th August 2013 at 11:01.
My understanding is that DLC is a surface coating whereas PVD bonds with the substrate on a molecular level.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
So, PVD is a coating method and DLC is a coating material.
A DLC PVD coated watch seems the most scratch resistant.
My experience bears this out.
http://www.messinajewelers.com/blog/...es-pvd-or-dlc/
Any thoughts from Eddie or Chris on the lugs?
Fixed lug bars or not? Pierced or not?
I love the design and of the options shown I think the first is my favourite - great stuff!
David
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
a buddy sent me an email about it and thought it was already in production!
great effort on the rendering... hope this gets made...
in the minority here but the Everest is the smallest i have now at 40mm (the length of 49mm is just right for my 7.75inch wrist too!).
so i would definitely buy this if it had specs of the Everest... black, i think would make it look smaller too (but that's just a personal opinion). so perhaps slightly bigger than the PRS25... say 41mm and 50 in length? pilot watches are / were "bigger" anyways (yeah even before the "big watch fad")...
but again, these are just my thoughts and would again be in the minority!
congrats in advance to another sure winner!!!!
On PVD and DLC, I owned a LW with a DLC coating and it had scratches (barely noticeable), even some áreas where the coating was gone and the bare steel was visible.
What I want to convey is that it seems crítical to edúcate people on the limits of DLC and PVD: you are going to scratch the watch, and DLC reduces the impact of knocks and the visibility of scratches....but does not eliminate 100% of them....
I agree, I've got a Heuer 510.501 which has a PVD finish which has knocks and some wear which is possibly more noticeable than on a steel watch and less easy to repair. It also appears faded so that it is not as dark as a black leather strap. In the camera world there are two different finishes for M rangefinders - some form of PVD and black paint. The black paint models are more highly prized aesthetically as they 'brass' where the paint wears on the edges of the camera and the brass shows through. It's a more sympathetic effect, however the base material is brass rather than steel.
What about a ceramic case? From my experience it does not have to be that much more expensive than steel.
I am yet to be convinced to by a 'steath' watch but I am loving the green and black combo. Auto would be my preference!
Maybe this will be my first purchase...
I keep coming back to this thread. The more I look at the watch the more I like it. I'd be in the quartz camp on this one. Perfect grab and go do it all watch.
Probably the best looking PVD watch I have seen, and the only one to make me want to own it. So many PVD offerings tend towards being chunky and lose any 'stealth' as a result. Black does not seem to be slimming in watches in my view. The green lettering goes well with the black and is a refreshing change from the usual reds and oranges. If the second hand is to be tipped then co for the green - any other colour makes the clean design look busy IMO. If we want a more aircraft look what about a green/white chequerboard second hand? It's just my view but is the hour hand a little short? I would like to see it graze the trailing edge of the two digit numbers. 38/39 mm sounds perfect to me but I don't have any thing in my watch box over 40mm - the 68 may change that however.
John
I personally like how you first started off with this one, Chris, as I think the aesthetics are very nice and very clean, and very simple in the excellent sense and meaning of that.
The only cosmetic tweeks I might offer would be to delete the "100M AUTO" below "SEAFIRE", or at least the "AUTO" part of that, and relegate such information to the caseback, and, for some reason, I think a plain placcard style counterbalance to the second hand like the Seafire's original oxygen gauges you show might look a bit better.
Perhaps if I was offered the chance to choose the colour of the "SEAFIRE" font myself, I might have gone with a golden hued orange to it that would, in the context of the very nicely done white-on-black theme of the dial, remind me of the last glimmer of the sun's light at the fall of the starry night at altitude, something I would guess thousands of British aviators saw during WWII as they departed their bases in England and Scotland on the many night missions they flew against the Nazis.
The non-ubiquitously coloured but apparently original Seafire instrument board congruent dark green ("British Racing Green"[?]) fonted "SEAFIRE" certainly looks OK, though, if that's what most prefer, but it's maybe a bit less poetic(?), and technically even a bit "colourically" discordant with the last syllable of the watch's name "Sea-FIRE" (though I don't think anybody will notice -- or care much if they do).
Looks Great
I think designing the technical specifications and case construction of this watch to fill in for the amazing VFM Eddie built into the now discontinued Precista version of the PRS-10 is a great idea. By my lights, that would mean using a very tough and nicely cost effective classic military aviation evolved domed and deep-seated "armoured" steel tension ring secured acrylic crystal two-piece screwback 316L stainless steel case design; maybe a good but economical and batteryless Ciitizen (Miyota sourced?) "Eco-Drive" light-powered quartz movement; and a sturdy screwdown crown unit like the late PRS-10's but with the instrument board clock style knurling treatment chosen for this one.
However I might personally wish it would, though, I don't know if going that way with this "Seafire" project would comport well with market demand. I say that because, as bizarre as it struck me when I first read it, a member here said at the time that the just departed PRS-10 had been a slow seller for Timefactors, and that is why it had been discontinued.
Also, some of the black finishes available for stainless steel have technical downsides I don't think Eddie is likely to find acceptable so I'm guessing will want to go with the best of these, and I would fully agree if the black finsh is a prerequisite for this project. However, given that probably somewhat expensive black finish is pretty much there only for its instrument clock-like and maybe "that looks cool" cosmetic effect, I think that in itself alone is likely going to start lifting this watch out of the "Shockingly High VFM" category at least I thought the PRS-10 so attractively occupied.
I do personally like TTC'S (David's) idea of it taking up the PRS-10's now blank spot though
Last edited by Rollon; 19th August 2013 at 09:57. Reason: Added a word I neglected to include originally ["colourically"].
The PVD finish on the PRS4/11 was just fine IMHO. Regarding size , please don't make it too big , there are enough comedy wrist clocks on the market . 39.5mm max .
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Well it won't be the Bulova P102 movement :-(
EddieDear Mr. Eddie,
Long time. Thank you for email.
I'm grateful that you are using our 9015 on your watches !
Regarding your request, we are afraid that movement is not for sale,
it's only for internal use.
We hope your understanding.
By the way, do you have plan to come to Hong Kong watch fair this year ? I
want to introduce our representative in charge of European market.
Thanks & best regards,
Kawato
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Been reading with interest and I love it. However I wouldn't buy it at 38mm. I only have one 38mm watch and I never wear it as it's so small! 40mm would be fine
So WILL you be going to Hong Kong to meet the European rep? Seems like a slightly cockeyed plan unless you fancy a holiday at the same time :-)
Go with the 2804, you know you want to!
EDIT: I've just realised that with the 2804 you the 'Auto' on the dial would be superfluous, and so, since the dial is perfection as is, go with the 9015, you know you want to :-)
I keep coming back to this thread. I've been hovering over the buy button of a Techne, recently, but this design just seems so much more classy
Last edited by holio cornolio; 19th August 2013 at 12:52.
sorry, please delete
Last edited by bmwrover; 19th August 2013 at 14:40.
It's a tool watch. Having an outer track adds to its usability, as I see it.
Do Citizen/Miyota sell Ecodrives outside of the group?
What about the ten-year lithium Ronda as used in the PRS 18?
I just want one, Quartz would be lovely but auto will be OK too.
As far as colour goes the bit of red takes away rather than adds IMHO so just black and white and green works best.
I see no reason why the Miyota 9015 wouldn't work for this one.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
^ I'd think the Rhonda 715L is at the very least probably the much more practical choice in quartz movements considering that it is a long standing TF standard given its use, according to Ron Jr's "PRS Virtual Museum" I just double-checked, in the Precista PRS-18 and PRS-17 divers, the just departed upgraded Precista version of the PRS-10, and the earlier Broadarrow PRS-3 and PRS-4 RN style divers.
I've never personally had a watch with that specific movement to my knowledge or memory but I have had long life lithium quartz powered watches before and don't recall a movement problem with any of them. I've also never myself read anything negative that I can recall about the Rhonda 715L long-life lithium quartz movement itself other than one member here complaining his ran a bit slow, as in about one second per week, and apparently, as it apparently is with most quartz movements manufactured now, the design did not allow that to be adjusted out, IIRC. I have read the general precaution to never allow a lithium battery to get wet lest it might catastrophically burst, but I've never personally heard of a leaky lithium powered quartz dive watch or whatever letting its lunch go like that. I also still regret that I hadn't bought one of the Precista 10s before they (for me unexpectedly) disappeared.
I'd agree with Mark (ML) on that, and it was one of the reasons I mentioned in a previous post above that I thought an Eco-Drive quartz mov't might work for this one (I like the batteryless-ness of it to be honest). I've always had good luck with the Eco-Drive but my experience with them is limited to one I bought and gave as a present to a relative (and still maintain for her when it needs it -- after a number of years, I've only had to charge it up and reset the time after she left it in her drawer too long and complained it wouldn't run and/or the time was wrong after it restarted when she tried to wear it again) and a nicely inexpensive (about 105 GBP here w/ no VAT & no tax) BN00001-04H Citizen 300M Professional Eco-Drive Diver I bought much more recently after I read the MOD had issued it.
The problem is, though, that then I subsequently read MOD had experienced problems with the Citizens they had issued and, just a day or so ago, a couple good forum members here alerted me to why --- MOD apparently found that the Eco-Drive divers left in storage for mission specific issue would power down from lack of light and then a certain percentage of them would apparently experience power cell deterioration for some reason. I wasn't expecting that latter part and had been assuming any problems MOD might be experiencing with the Eco-Drive movements themselves would have been logistically keeping them lit up and fully charged for per-mission issue, something that wouldn't likely seriously effect iether individual issue or individual ownership. Hearing that an Eco-Drive's power cell might deteriorate if left in a drawer, though, is, obviously, not something I nor likely anybody owning one of these would want to hear. Mine has run fine for me, but, you know.
Based on that, I'd like to withdraw my own suggestion of an Eco-Drive movement for this Seafire project until more can be learned of it. Maybe the Seiko "Solar" movements are better and available, I don't know.
To probably best fall back to my own normal personally preferenced mechanical default at this point to try to make a [good] suggestion for a movement of choice, does Miyota make a non-auto hand wind version in iether the 8215 or the 9015 series of movements? I think I'd myself see one of the standard automatic versions of these sturdy, well proved, apparently -- as in hopefully -- still relatively inexpensive, and apparently -- as in hopefully -- still relatively very available (i.e. compared to their respective ETA counterpart) Miyotas the better choice for this particular watch, but a lot, and perhaps a majority, of members posting want a manual wind mechanical movement if the Seafire isn't a quartz.
Good. I wish I'd read this before I wrote all of that I did just above though
Last edited by Rollon; 20th August 2013 at 19:37.
38mm, Miyota auto, no date...?
Erm, yes please
This gets better and better. Must ... learn ... patience ...