Seiko SBDC063
Seiko SBDC063 or the mm200, marine master 200, baby MM. Call it what you want but this has been a watch I’ve been wanting since it’s release. The smaller size has made me question if I’d love it or not (the crystal is basically the same size as an SKX which I feel is too small for me) but it’s open dial and slimmer bezel make it look bigger or more open. I love it’s case, it disappears on my wrist. I do wish it had a signed crown, more defined clicks on the bezel and different hands (mm300 or hi beat hands?). But all in all it works and is my favorite watch.
Seiko “Yacht Master”:
This is a watch I had put together from parts I sourced myself. It’s a seiko save the ocean great white dial. OEM seiko SKX009 hour and minute hand with an aftermarket trident second hand. I’ve got a blue chapter ring from long island watch. It’s got a YM bezel insert from DLW as well as a CT case, crown, flat sapphire & ARed caseback. The movement is the NH-36 from the deep blue below. It’s a coin edge bezel from one second closer. It has a strapcode super oyster solid link bracelet. This has quickly become my favorite watch!
Seiko Presage SRPB77 Cocktail Time:
I picked up a used cocktail time from WUS. I’ve had all divers before this so it’s a bit of a diversion for me in terms of watches. I stumbled onto the cocktail time on instagram and fell in love with it’s bold look with that amazing dial. I’m really loving the watch. It doesn’t have any lume so it’s much more fashion over function. It does have hand winding which is great. I love the cupcake crown. It’s also insanely light since it’s not on a bracelet (I have the bracelet but it’s not the look or feel I’m going for with a dress watch). The shot above has a double perlon 2 piece strap on it which I love. I’ve got a navy leather strap with white stitching coming for it as well. I had the 41 variant first which is a navy dial with silver hands. It’s a nice looking watch as well (check the gallery at the bottom for shots of it and shots of both together) but I found it hard to read in certain light especially with some of the reflections you get off the top hat crystal. You don’t notice those reflections nearly as much with the white dial and the dark hands give a nice contrast in all light. With the 41 you needed some light reflecting off the hands to make them pop off the dark dial.
Seiko SKX171
I have 2 seikos as well. The first is a SKX171 that I had yobokies modify for me. It’s got snzh55 hands, mm300 second hand, yobokies planet ocean bezel insert and a yobokies 60 click unidirectional coin edge bezel. I went with the 171 as I wanted a black day/date but also some indices that were a bit more elaborate than the painted on style from the 007/009. I also wanted some sword hands and went with snzh hands to match the chrome edged indices. The only thing I don’t love about the final product is the red second hand. I LOVE having a red second hand but I really want this discontinued option from dagaz… So I’m currently looking for alternatives. I was originally trying to make this a MDV-106 homage which is why the second hand is what it is. But now I’m working on tweaking it beyond that to just be my ideal watch design wise (hence the PO bezel insert -vs- a sub look alike).
Seiko SNK807
This is my daughter’s first “real”/automatic watch. It’s a navy faced SNK807 that she picked out the hands and strap for and we had NEWW mod for her. It looks amazing. The one complaint I have is the hands are all from DLC, it’s a snowflake second hand and mil spec hour and minute. The mil spec hands lume is much dimmer than the snowflake second and both are less than the OEM seiko lume (that part I expected). This isn’t a watch she’ll be needing amazing lume on anyway but it’s just odd how dim the mil spec hands are. She picked out a pink silicone band from amazon that has rose gold hardware as well. I also picked myself up a navy band so I can wear it when she’s not…
Casio MDV-106
The casio MDV-106 is a great tool watch for a ~$30 quartz. Honestly this is the watch I want, just as an auto… I love the case size. I love the bezel and it’s insert. It makes me wonder if I prefer a sub mariner style insert or a PO insert on the seikos as I’ve only ever had their stock option and POs (and I do NOT like the stock option). I love the red second hand and this watch has made that a trend for me in all my watches. I don’t like the hands though. Don’t hate them but just don’t love them. The indices on the dial made me realize how boring they were on my SKX009… I actually REALLY like the rubber strap that comes on the casio and have bought extras for my seikos. I’m considering swapping this for the new blue version as I don’t have a blue dialed dive watch and have always wondered if I’d like that look or not.
Garmin Fenix 3
Garmin Fenix 3 non heart rate. I love this watch. Super functional and tough smart watch with a battery that lasts all week. I would love a newer 6 but will use this watch until I kill it which will take YEARS!
The current family photo!
That’s missing the garmin but it’s all my “real” watches at the moment. I’d like to add a chrono (I’m stalking the seiko SSB033 currently) and a pilot/field watch (currently looking at a citizen nighthawk). But I’d also like to get rid of at least one of the above if I were to add 2 (n + 2 – 1?). If I were to cull the herd the 2 considerations would be the nato 300 and the duro. They’re not getting much wrist time and really the skx isn’t much either. The nato I feel is the right size watch for me but I prefer the mm200. The SKX is special to me because it’s a mod I chose all the parts for and it took 4 versions to get right but now that it is I LOVE it’s look… And the duro is just the best $40 you can have and not worth selling. I might just wait for it’s battery to die and then not replace it?
Some watch sizes (from when I was thinking about the mm200 and thought it was too small):
- Parnis PO: 45mm x 13.5mm case, 33.4mm crystal, 22mm lugs
- Sea King SK-1-BK: 44mm x 13mm case, 33.4mm crystal, 22mm lugs
- Seiko series 5 SRPB91K1: 43.5mm x 12.5mm case, 33.4mm crystal, 22mm lugs
- Seiko SKX007 PO modded: 42.4mm x 13.8mm case, 31mm crystal, 22mm lugs
- Deep Blue NATO: 45mm x 14.2mm case, 34.4mm crystal, 22mm lugs (non tapered bracelet from sea king)
- Casio MDV-106: 44.5mm x 12.26mm case, 33mm crystal 22mm lugs
- Seiko SBDC063, mm200: 43.6mm x 13.2mm, 32mm crystal, 20mm lugs
Previously owned:
SKX009 II
Changed some things up with my SKX009. Elias wasn’t wearing it and I wanted to try a yachtmaster mod. This is a Blue YM bezel insert, chapter ring, dial and skeleton mm300 hands from DLW watches. The crystal is a new flat crystal from crystal times that is bevel less which looks amazing. It’s on a strapcode oyster bracelet (that I already had).
Seiko SKX009
My second SKX started life as an SKX009 (pepsi colored bezel with navy dial and chapter ring). I’ve gone for the “planet monster” made famous from this thread on watchuseek. Mine has an all silver chapter ring (due to the wrong part being sent). I had the work done to my skx009 (that was stock for over two years, here’s what it looked like originally) by Duarte at NEWW. So far I’m really digging the look of the planet monster. The lume is INSANE! It’s funny how this watch looks smaller than the skx171 above (they share an identical case). Some of it is the bezel being the stock seiko option on the monster -vs- the coin edged version on the 171. I think the silver chapter ring also plays a part here. I’m going to keep it as is for a while to see what I like and what I don’t about it before changing anything… But some spork hands are an option as is another coin edged bezel. I might also swap out the chapter ring for black eventually but who knows. The other funny aspect of this watch is it’s much more of a sport looking watch -vs- the 171. The monster has green indices and orange and white hands. The 171 has chrome hands and indices… So I might swap the 171 onto the bracelet as my dressier option and the monster onto a strap/nato eventually. One disappointment with it is the lume on the dial is AMAZING but the hands are pretty terrible -vs- even stock seiko hands. So the dial is brighter -vs- stock where the hands are less bright and it’s a bit of a miss match… That’s part of the reason the spork hands are a consideration…
Deep Blue NATO 300
This one is kinda sorta gone… It’s been totally remade into a franken seiko. It had a seiko movement so that’s in another watch that’s totally made with seiko replacement parts and an OEM dial and hands. I also have a Deep Blue NATO 300 on a strapcode miltat oyster bracelet. It’s a 45mm version of the Seiko SKX. I prefer larger watches so it’s a natural fit. I love it’s larger size but do wish it wasn’t thicker than the SKX. It’s funny because when I first got my SKX I wanted to mod it, new bezel, insert and hands… But I’ve left this alone and I like the look. It helps that the indices are applied so it has a nicer dial. The bezel insert also looks nicer as its thinner in proportion to the rest of the watch because everything is bigger.
Seiko SSB033
Didn’t wear a chrono so I sold it. Here are my initial thoughts: I finally picked up a chrono. Yes it’s a quartz or really a “mecha-quartz”. We’ll see how much wrist time it gets but I really like the look with the black dial but polished/silver outer rings to the sub dials. Yes it’s a bid of a homage to a specific daytona but out of all the chronos in the land I didn’t want one that was trying to be a dive watch or anything else at the same time as a chrono. This layout seemed to be the most straight forward. I’ve got the OEM leather strap and then a red and black silicone option as well for now. I’ll most likely pick up a black leather with red stitching option as well.
Seiko series 5 SRPB91K1
Seiko series 5 SRPB91K1, on paper this watch checked a lot of boxes for me. It has a larger case (~45mm IIRC?) and a great look. It reminds me of the duro above to be honest, which is a good thing. It has a display caseback which is always fun. The crown doesn’t screw down but that’s not a big deal for me (I’m not taking these diving and it makes it easier to set). The one thing I couldn’t get over with this watch is the silver edge to the dial. This watch has a rehault instead of a chapter ring, which is fine, but the look of the dial with the outer edge silver just looked unfinished to me.
Sea King SK-1-BK
I had a seaking for a while. I thought for a long time I really wanted an omega planet ocean. The seaking is very similar. It was a very nice watch but the dial was just too busy for me with it’s stick indices. And as much as I love sword hands something was just off with the shape of these hands. It did have an amazing bracelet which proved to me I prefer a non tapered bracelet as well as a ratcheting clasp.
Parnis PO Homage
A cheap Parnis I picked up to see if I liked the look of a PO which I’ve since sold:
maratac big pilot
I bought a maratac big pilot from countrycomm. I didn’t love the hands specifically so I returned it and got an SR-1. I did however love the red onion crown at ~4 o’clock and it looked great on my super oyster bracelet.
Maratac SR-1
The SR-1 is a nice watch with a sterile dial and the crown is an awesome onion at 7 o’clock. I love the crown and I love that it’s not at 3 but I prefer the bottom left 4 o’clock position seiko uses. With it at 7:30 and a sterile dial I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put this watch on upside down only to realize when the buckle is backwards… In the end the thickness of this watch and it’s relatively boring hands are why I sold it.
Orient Mako XL
(not my picture of the orient mako XL)
My mako XL was returned after a week. It arrived with a scratch on the crystal at 12 o’clock which isn’t OK with a new watch so it was returned. I LOVED the bracelet on this watch. It had hollow end links though but they weren’t really the issue. The bigger issue is the shape of the watch where it transitions from the endlink into the bracelet, the bracelet basically comes out under the bracelet. The size/shape of the case was great. I didn’t mind the day pusher at 2 o’clock (I was worried before buying). The depth of the dial below the crystal isn’t as deep as my SKX009 or my Parnis which bugs me. If it were a less wide dial it’d probably be OK but it’s a weird look to me at this size. The sea urchin looks similar from pics to my eye. The bezel is nice. The insert is missing a pip marking. I like the feel of the click even though it’s 60 clicks around. I actually almost prefer 60 clicks I think? I really don’t like the hands. The fact that you can’t easily mod the watch is a turn off.
It’s funny to come back and reread my thoughts on a watch I’ve long since moved on from… I can’t remember my issue with the bracelet on the XL. The lack of a better marking at 60 on the bezel is still an issue. But I like the hands now and the depth of the watch as well as the open dial are things I like. I’m left wondering about the 2 o’clock pusher again. I actually really like the hands now but I know I don’t like the indices being sticks -vs- dots. Times change!
