Just reflecting on things and taking stock.
After dabbling with watches since my childhood, like many, my buying and selling went into a higher gear when I signed up to TZUK.
I guess that I could be classified as a serial flipper and my time on here has been characterised by one theme or another. This has included, vintage mechanicals, soviet watches, dress, digital, moon or space watches, no date watches, chronos, pieces under 38, homages, manual winds only, only one watch, only two watches…..and so on. With of course the odd tangential obsession with different kinds of straps thrown in for good measure.
At each point due in part to limited funds but more, or if I’m honest, due to a number of odd character traits I have sold watches either singularly or in batches as I have moved into the next thing.
My current rotation: Smiths Everest, CWC RN Diver (quartz) and Seiko SARB017 Alpinist
The whole thing has gone in fits and starts and more often than not come full circle so that I end up right where I started with a particular grouping of watches.
At the moment I find myself not really interested in another theme so have been delving back through my old threads to decide on which old favourites to gather round me for the time being. How long this state of affairs will last, I have no way of knowing but why worry about the future – its nice just to enjoy the present.
Smiths Everest 36
Well, not exactly an old favourite as it hasn’t been around that long but it does fit in the Zex and other 1016 homages camp. In addition to a TC and other bargain basements homage types I’ve owned perhaps 4 Zex’s. Some I have owned more than once as the have yo-yoed between me and other forum users. Until the 36 Everest the Zex was the closest I’d come to the 1016 which is way out of my reach. But there were a couple of things I just couldn’t get over – the awful legend on the dial, the issue of repeated crown failures and AS new old stock movements appearing to lack lubrication when they arrived. The Everest has none of these issues and is a winner, indeed compared to the Explorer 14270 that I owned for a short while I think that it looks and wears better. Up until last month it had for a while become my only watch. I have enjoyed wearing it on leather and Perlon but it always ends up back on a bracelet as it just seems ‘right’ this way. Initially I wasn’t too impressed with the original bracelet, especially the gigantic clasp so swapped this for a generic tapered oyster style bracelet that I sourced from eBay. When I found that this was an almost perfect fit for my SARB017 I moved it on to that and refitted the original – which I have now got used to and have to say that I am rather happy with!
It is probably the best watch I’ve ever bought. If I end up selling this one I have no doubt at all I will buy another at some point.
CWC RN Diver – quartz
I am pretty certain that this is my third one of these. One I sold and bought back twice. Despite favouring sub 38mm pieces I find that the CWC wears really well and doesn’t seem as overly large as some divers watches I’ve tried. I think that the designed which involves a relatively slim case and smallish dial make it OK for me. I just love the way it looks and the only reason I have sold past ones has been about needing to raise cash rather then it not fitting in with any particular theme. I find a Eulit Perlon an ideal strap for this type of fixed bar watch though the CWC looks great and wears well on its original grey Phoenix NATO. This is a MK1 bought new from Silvermans. I expect that the time is not far off when I won’t be able to afford to repeat this considering the way the retail price keeps rising.
Seiko SARB 017 Alpinist
My fourth one of these. I moved the first two on due to the none AR coated flat crystal spoiling the appearance of the beautiful green dial for me. The third I had fitted with an AR double dome sapphire and it became the perfect Alpinist. Again, the need to raise funds to pursue a newly emerging obsession led to me moving this on.
I’ve had the same double dome crystal fitted to this one - thanks Brendan! It says something about how much I love the dial matched with the gold hands and roman numerals that I am happy to overlook the fact that it has a date window – something that usually I simply can’t live with. The dial really pops out at you from all angles with this crystal fitted – the original only gives you fleeting glimpses of the rich green finish looking rather dull the rest of the time.
I really like how this wears on this generic oyster bought initially for the Everest.
After all of these shenanigans it’s still hard to say what my ideal watch is and what direction I spiral off into the future as regards new pieces to buy. I am clearer on the kind of features that I prefer though. Polished / shiny cases look and feel much nicer to me than brushed or matt ones. Now that I have figured out how to size bracelets properly, I love them though still maintain that genuine Perlon is the best strap in the world. I like easy to read dials that have a few other things going on such as discrete numbered bezels – internal or external. I like gold hands and indices.
I will be interested to see how things go after posting this thread as usually when I post a SOTC it prompts a rapid change of direction and another bout of flipping and buying! The proposed PRS32 chrono looks appealing as does the white dial Everest – depending on which designs make it through to production of course, other than that nothing is calling me specifically at the moment. The time will come though…………….
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Originally Posted by magirus
