No 400 & 401 - Seiko SRPC49

I booked one of those right away when the Seiko Black series was first announced. This was sometime during the fall of 2017. Since Seiko had started to produce Turtles and Samurais in almost every different color combination, and the PADI-versions had blown up and infected every series, it was not a matter regarding if Seiko would release a PVD Turtle but when. And what an unnecessary hype this watch became. All of a sudden people who usually wasn’t into Seiko watches expressed their interest in this watch.

The release had been scheduled for Jan/Feb 2018 but right before we headed into 2018 there were a lot of things going on in my watch world. For starters I had just ordered a Breitling Chronospace EVO Nightmission (the plan was that this was going to be my main watch for 2018). I also had the whole Tactical Diver-project with CWC going on and I hadn’t been able to resist joining the ZRC North Adventure Kickstarter project. This was just to mention a few things. So, what was I going to do with a black Seiko Turtle when I had a kick-ass black Breitling coming in? Nothing. I knew I was going to flip it the moment I received it so I decided to cancel my pre-order. But then in the beginning of February, about six weeks into my Chronospace order, I received some terrible news. Breitling’s new vice president had decided that quartz chronographs wasn’t going to be a part of Breitling’s upcoming line-up and the production of Chronospace EVO Nightmission, among other quartz chronos, had been cancelled. WTF? I of course was given my money back but I was so bummed out about it. I had really been looking forward to this watch. Suddenly I had a lot of money but no incoming watch. And then at the same time this bloody Ninja Turtle got released and it got even more hyped than it already was. Everyone wanted them which made them sell out quickly everywhere and since I had cancelled my pre-order, and all my close watch contacts had already sold out their inventory, I was left there standing without one. I couldn’t take it! That of course made want that darn PVD Turtle even more, even though I really wasn’t that interested. I had been consumed by the hype. That was a fact.

Much nicer box than the classic white cheap ones.

#400 - The Seiko SRPC49 a.k.a. Ninja Turtle.

So what happened? In the beginning no one was of course selling but then one day I happened to stumble upon two new pieces. One in a store (a store that obviously everyone else had forgot about) and one from a private seller. So what did I do? I bought both. Why? I don’t know! Perhaps because I didn’t want anyone else to have them? Anyhow, they didn’t make me happy at all. I put them both in my closet and didn’t even bother to open them up. Not even to try them on. For a brief moment I considered keeping them but my old motto kept coming back to me. “If you don’t use it, lose it.” I absolutely hate having stuff I don’t use lying around. Then it has to go. So it was goodbye to both of them. Of course I was not the only one selling. Suddenly they were for sale everywhere. Now it is only a matter of time before they become rare and everyone wants one, again.

#401 - The second one I found by a coincidence in a store.

Looking back at the SRPC49 it didn't even look nice. I mean, that mismatched lume between the hands and the dial, what the hell? I know it was intentional and that it had a purpose but come on, it looked really stupid. Also, polished PVD-surfaces is the worst, it looks terrible. The day-date disks should of course have been black and not white. With just a few changes this watch could have looked so much better. Hope they’ll get it right next time!

© All pictures by a Watch Flipper's Diary unless noted.

No 266 - Korsbek Oceaneer

It sometimes happens that I buy watches located overseas, mainly from the United States, but when I do I rarely pick up anything expensive because of the risk that it might get lost or stolen on its way over here. I just don’t like taking that risk. But this Korsbek just never wanted to pop up locally, or even within the European Union, which gave me no other option than to look for it in the US. And one day in early October 2014 when this watch came out for sale on WUS I just couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I needed to cross it of my list. Now! Luckily I had a friend, who was working in NYC at the time, who I could use as the receiver of this watch. Perfect! Risk eliminated! Just one small catch. I had to wait almost five months until he was scheduled back for a trip to Europe. Goddamn, a five month wait is a long time when waiting for something this good.

It turned out I only had to wait two months and a half instead of five because I invited him over to celebrate New Year’s Eve with us in Stockholm (and no, it was not only because I wanted to get the watch quicker 😅). Finally I got to wear it on New Year’s Eve morning when we went for some winter fishing and it was awesome. The watch I mean. The fishing not so much...

#266 - The Korsbek Oceaneer. Here on top of its Pelican case.

The Oceaneer was a beast. Big watch! Thick and long. Unfortunately it was impossible for me to wear it on the bracelet. The lugs where just so long and straight. So instead of having the bracelet curving and hugging my wrist it was just hanging straight down from the sides leaving two big empty spaces between the bracelet and my wrist which looked ridiculous. On an Isofrane it worked and looked much better. What made me love the Oceaneer was its huge minute hand. Now that’s a sword alright! The combination of the bead-blasted case and the PVD bezel were also two details I loved about it. It actually came with an extra matching bead-blasted bezel if you wanted to switch but I never bothered to install it. The PVD one looked so much cooler and gave it more contrast.

Solid piece with the bracelet on!

Of course I knew this watch was going to be too big for me, I'm not stupid, but I just had to check it out and I’m so glad I did it at last. Dive watches from micro brands used to be my thing! I don’t know what happened to Korsbek but the brand seems to be pretty dead today. There doesn't seem to have been any activity from Korsbek in the last five years. Too bad I think, the Dane behind this brand really had some wicked watches going on. 

Taken during brunch on New Year's Day.

© All pictures by a Watch Flipper's Diary unless noted.

No 264 - Longines HydroConquest Chronograph

I have never really been a fan of Longines. I had had a dress watch in the past and the only other model I had really cared for was their Legend Diver. The reason why I never had owned one of those was that I back in 2012 participated in a passaround which gave me the chance to try out the Legend Diver for a couple of days and I found it to be a polished dress diver which wasn’t something that appealed to me.

I’ve always thought that the HydroConquest series have been a little too boring so they were never something I had ever considered buying. A good entry watch perhaps for a non-watch nerd who wanted to buy their first real Swiss made watch but was looking in a more affordable category than Rolex and Omega but wanted something a little more exclusive than your regular Certina and Tissot watches. What made me buy this chronograph back in October 2015 was mainly three things. 1) The beautifully faded insert made it look really nice. 2) Being a quartz chronograph meant it was going to be more or less maintenance free and I wasn’t going to be surprised by a big service cost. 3) The reasonable price it was being sold to meant I wasn’t going to make a huge loss when I later was going to sell it. I was actually very happy and surprised by it and wore it quite much. The only thing I didn’t like about it was its polished center links. They had to go, so I handed it to a Longines AD who helped me out brushing the whole bracelet which gave it a much more tool-watch look. 

#264 - The Longines HydroConquest quartz chronograph, ref. L3.643.4.96.6

 

This watch was later sold to a good friend of mine who’d started to become more and more interested in watches and who wanted a decent first watch. A year later after he'd been wearing the HydroConquest he bought himself a Rolex SD 16600 and I helped him to sell the Longines. So I guess the Hydroconquest did its job well in dragging down another soul in the watch swamp. The prices for a used Hydroconquest are usually very reasonable. I think you get a lot of watch for what you spend and even though you perhaps don’t get the most exciting watch it is still a very good all-round watch that can be used for pretty much anything. 

On a 22mm croc leather. If I'm not mistaken the lug width was 21mm on this watch because I have a slight memory of having to squeeze it in.

© All pictures by a Watch Flipper's Diary unless noted.