Longines Master Collection Chronograph Moonphase

A timepiece for the werewolves

Have been watching too much of the Underworld series..... vampires, werewolves, hybrids, immortals..... Gosh!!! Now whenever I see a moonphase watch, my first impression is for the werewolves, or Lycans..... hahahaaaaaaa in my shallow understanding who needs a moonphase function to know when is full moon apart from the semi naked hunk in the Twilight Saga. All these thanks to the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale.....

The model for this watch is L2.673.4.78.6. I have never own a Longines Timepieces before and this is the very first. On second thought, the above statement is not entirely true. I was once conned by an Indonesian who sold me a vintage Longines automatic which is faulty beyond resurrection.

Simply stunning..... a complication at reasonable price! What attracts me with this watch is the barleycorn dial and the blue stainless steel hands. The movement is also beautifully polished with a see through back case. Both the front and back glass are sapphire crystals. The movement L678 is based on Valjoux 7751. It is a self winding mechanical chronograph moon phase movement beating at 28'800 vibrations per hours and with power reserve of 48 hours. This watch is water resistant to 3 bar. The stainless steel bracelet with triple safety folding clasp and push-piece opening buckle is quite comfortable to wear. 

Elegance is an attitude.... and I just adopted it..........

Sea-gull 55th Anniversary Edition

海鸥表55周年庆纪念表

This is how a seagull looks like.... there is a Chinese folks song dedicated to this fine creature.....  

海鸥 飞在蓝蓝海上

不怕狂风巨浪

挥着翅膀 看着前方

不会 迷失方向

飞的越高 看的越远

它在找寻理想....

SEA-GULL is the in-house brand of Tianjin Sea Gull Watch Manufacturing Group, China’s top watch maker. The company was established in 1955 and has developed and prospered, much in line with China’s overall progress and development. Today, Sea-Gull produces high-quality mechanical movements include chronograph, automatic and tourbillon. 

In celebration of more than half a century of timepiece craftsmanship, Sea-Gull introduces the 55th Anniversary Special Edition watch, featuring a “55” engraved in place of the “11” on the numbered dial. The ingenious design bears witness to the unwavering marriage between meticulous production and state-of the-art technology as envisioned by the Sea-Gull's 55 years of watch-making excellency and still counting… This watch (model no: D219.360) was launched in October 2010. The retail price for the watch is about 600 Yuan. 

I bought this watch from a dear friend. He got it from the Sea-Gull bountique during his tour to China in 2011. According to him that was the only remain piece in the shop. My friend also told me this is a limited edition watch. I do have doubt on this, since there isn't any serial number on the watch.

This watch measured 41mm without the crown and 46mm from lug to lug. I like the rose gold and stainless steel combination which gives it a classical look. Considering this as an entry level Sea-Gull, the dial finishing is beautiful and elegant. 

This watch is water-resist to 50m. It has a mineral crystal top and a see through back case. You can see the 23 jewels automatic ST6D3K (ST6D103K) movement which is based on ST6 movement of 1980's era.   

The ST6D3K is decorated with engraving and blue screws.  The back case is signed 55th Anniversary.

Waltham Centennial 100 Jewels

Waltham Centennial 100 Jewels Autochron

hehehehahahaaaaaaaaaaaa 100 jewels??? There was time (during the 1960's) when we think that more jewels are equaled with better movement of precision. I have never see any simple timepiece or even Grand Complication one with jewels more than a hundred. The other one that with 100 jewels is the Orient Grand Prix 100. 

The Waltham Centennial 100 has a unspectacular 17 jewels movement with 83 non- functional jewels embedded in the circumference of the ring attached to the rotor. The jewels count is purely a marketing gimmick and is never a way to make the watch more reliable, or more durable.  

The movement in this watch is a third party movement.... The only consolation maybe its rotor is signed with Waltham Geneve. I bought this watch from Philippines as a witness to an era of poor educated consumers.

A little changes

Dress up a Rolex, for better or for worse?

When I bought this Rolex, it is with 18k gold fluted bezel and authentic gold dial with after-marketed 8 full-cut diamonds and 2 diamonds baguettes. For one moment, I was overwhelmed with the fact that I finally own a Rolex 18ct Gold.

But hey, I am a Sinner and full of lust and desire.... I can never be content.... I have always desire a Rolex Super-President. So I decided to modify this into blink blink full diamonds. Due to financial constrain, I can never afford to do it at one time. 

So during the first year of having this watch, I ordered an after-marketed diamond with sapphire bezel to replace the fluted bezel. 

On the second year, a friend helped me to locate a full diamond dials with ruby indices. I would prefer it with sapphire indices to better match the bezel. Maybe a little bit defect will make it more perfect..... 

Early 2013,  the same friend saw these in Singapore.... yes 18ct gold bracelet with diamonds embedded links. However, with the price of gold sky high and the World economy in a recession..... I have to wait for a couple of years before executing my next move........

Rado Companion

Rado Companion

I have this thing for a watch with black dial and gold hand and indices. This may be due to my love for the most prominent type of Rolex Precision 6694.

Rado Companion comes in different casing, dial and bracelet. This one is similar to the 1980's Rado Voyager series in term of appearance. This is a standard 25 jewels ETA day-date automatic movement with acrylic top. The watch is in fair condition with the bezel worn off a little. The problem is it is virtually impossible to hunt for a replacement bezel.