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.
