Ohhh Santa..... You need a GPS system.....

Wake up early in the morning of Christmas Day.... Only to get myself disappointed.... My Christmas Stocking was empty; Santa had missed my chimney and forgot to put in my presents again this year..... Yo Santa, I have been a very good boy.......

So this was how I look like on Christmas day and boxing day..... A sad soul........

So what did I wish for Christmas? World Peace, end of hunger, poverty and  inequity, Justice for all.... the list goes on and on.....

Well what I really want for Christmas is:

1) Credor Chronograph 2000 Limited Edition 6S77-0A10

2) Tudor Heritage Black Bay 79220R (or I prefer to call it Red Snowflake Submariner)

Well since Santa did not answer my wish; I have to work hard and harder to save enough money for these..........

Seiko Crown: An antique gentleman's dress watch.

Seiko Crown: Simple and nice

I posted about a Seiko Crown 21 Jewels under the title "Yesterday Beauty, Today Classic, Tomorrow Treasure" back in February this year. 

Here I have a stainless steel Seiko Crown measuring 34mm in diameter. This one can be dated back to 1959 or probably 1960.

Most parts of this watch is in prime condition except for its white dial. The white dial has spots of aging, but the deterioration is in a graceful way. 

The gold hour markers and the gold hands give the watch a classical noble look in contrasting with the white background. I also love the curved acrylic crystal, it makes this watch a timeless classic.

This is a simple watch..... it has a core function only, that is to tell time. No excessive design pattern, no excessive un-necessary function, just a plain old time teller. 

At the heart of this old faithful is the Seikosha 19 Jewels Cal. 560. It is a manual winding movement that still keep reasonable time after half a century....... so really nothing to complain about.......

Lately, I have seen the price of vintage watches escalating... As a collector, I do have a mix feeling. At one hand, my collections have become a little more precious; on the other, is become very expensive to acquire another piece. Life is never perfect......

Out of the Blue: Pronto Tropic Master

My Infatuation with Rolex look alike again: Pronto Again

Must have bought this one semi consciously or probably under hypnotic. That is how bad my infatuation with Rolex look alike. I guess this one must had came from Ebay Hong Kong. I don't know when and I don't know how.  It is a used unit that need some touch up. 

But I do know what may have prompt me into buying mode. It was the aquatic blue Topaz like hour markers that synchronized well with the yellow gold champagne dial. 

This is a male President model with a diameter of 38mm excluding its crown. I pretty sure the glass is a replacement as it is missing the usual magnifying cyclops lens at the 3 o'clock for the date. The date window has an elevated gold window frame. 

I always love the Pronto logo and Pronto emblems on the dial. The only discontent I have is the day and date disks of this watch are with white background. Well the black and white does make reading a little bit easy but it is losing the harmony with the champagne dial. But that is only my two cents worth.

Well the yellow gold coloured fluted bezel and the screw down signed crown have shown considerable sign of wear and age.......

So is the golden middle segment of the two tones president style bracelet. Well it is going to be hard to find Pronto replacement. But all these parts are interchangeable with other Rolex Oyster homage or if you have a very very deep pocket then original Rolex SA parts. 

The pronto clasp is always very short but properly signed. I think this is a distinctive feature of Pronto comparing to other Rolex Oyster homages. 

The back case is a stainless steel screw in type with a window display. You can clearly appreciate the gold plated ETA 2834-2 Swiss movement. 

Pronto is among the few homages that actually labelled itself as Swiss Made on its dial and at the back case. The use of "Swiss Made" is governed by an ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council dated 1971.  

In general, a watch is considered Swiss when whose movement is Swiss; and is encased in Switzerland and whose final control by the manufacturer takes place in Switzerland.

One thing for sure, all these Rolex homages are very well made. The Rolex Oyster designs are here to stay. It is both contemporary and classic........

Do not know how many Rolex look alike I am going to post.... It seems like I am never getting tired of writing about all these........

My other Pronto: -

1) Pronto ~ Another Rolex Look Alike

2) When there is first, there is always a second

3) Pronto again and again

One of the rarest Titoni Cosmo King around: Mother of Pearl

What is yours... will always be yours! 
Titoni Cosmo King 777

Have not bragged about Titoni for a while. The other day, my watchmaker friend was showing me a rare Titoni's dial of Mother of Pearl with stones setting for Titoni gold or two tones (Gold and Stainless steel) Cosmo King. That reminded me that I have a Titoni Cosmo King Stainless Steel with the same dial.....

Be very honest about it, I had seemed this watch in a shop's cabinet for years. Somehow or another, it didn't trigger my interest. So how did it end up in my humble collection? One day I was visiting that watch shop with a close friend. That friend took interest with the watch and asked the shop owner to reserve the watch for him. A year or so passed, one day, the shop owner called me and asked whether my friend was going to pick it up..... So I quickly called my friend and asked him whether he was going to pick up that watch. The response was "Yea yea yea..... I am going later!" So I presumed problem solved.  

Months passed.... One morning, I was casually visiting that watch shop with my wife. I was a bit dumbfounded that my friend had not collected this Cosmo King. My wife asked the owner for a look of the watch and decided to buy it for me.

This is the contemporary model of Cosmo King 777 for gentlemen. It is measuring 38mm in diameter with 10mm thickness. The whole watch: its case and its bracelet is make of high grade stainless steel. The beauty of this particular watch lies in its Nacre dial. Nacre is also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up the outer coating of pearls. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. This dial is further decorated with 10 swarovsky stones.

The silver coloured hands are highly luminous. This watch is protected with sapphire crystal surrounded by an engraved bezel. The modern model of Titoni Cosmo King has a screw down crown with a simple form of Titoni plum blossom mark on it.

The stainless steel case and its bracelet are solid and well polished. It is quite comfortable for daily wear. 

The bracelet is locked with a double push buttons release buckle that is signed with Titoni. 

This watch uses the ever faithful in-house assembled ETA 2834-2 movement. ETA 2834-2 is a 25 jewels automatic movement that has an amplitude of 28,800 bph. It also has a power reserve of 38 hours.

At the back is a nicely decorated stainless steel screw down case back. A plum blossom is engraved at the center with the words Titoni of Switzerland encircling it. This watch is water resist to 10 ATM or 100 meters. 

 

One word of caution with this contemporary model of Titoni is that there is a lot of replicas out there. It is quite hard to tell the different in time. I had seem some even with refurbished Titoni's original movement.

I would advice to buy from a trusted authorized dealer or direct from a Titoni boutique. Try to avoid buying it from the internet and stay away from used or second hand Titoni of this recent model. 

My photo taking skill is horrible, I do not do this mother of pearl dial justice at all......

HERE to have a look of my Titoni Cosmo King's Collection !!!

Not really a Tag Heuer; not really a Limited edition....

Tag Heuer Link Calibre 36 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi Limited Edition? Are you sure?

Supposed to name this post as "What can you buy with RM50 (approximately USD15)?" RM50 that was precisely what I paid for this piece of limited edition. When something sounded too good to be true... then it is usually fake......

I bought the watch from here in April, 2004; the famous Chinatown, Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur.

The Petaling Street is the shoppers' paradise if you want to bargain your way to some cheap things. There is almost everything here from clothes, souvenirs to electronic items to fabrics. Other than cheap stuff, Petaling Street is renowned for selling imitation goods like handbags, wallets, belts, sunglasses, lighters, watches and shoes from brands like Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Versace, Nike and so on.

Here is a classic vendor of Petaling Street. Most of them are super salesperson. If you want to make a purchase here, be sure that you have mastered the art of price negotiation, and have a strong psychology. 

You can find famous names like Rolex, Omega, Panerai, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Chopard, Montblanc, IWC, Audemars Piguet and many more here in this and other stalls. 

I bought this particular watch because it is a Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi's limited edition. I didn't know who is Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi..... I thought he is

OR

OR

Hahahaaaaaaaaa I am dead wrong. This is Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (川口 能活).... former Goalkeeper and captain for Japan Soccer team.  

Put it this way, it was only RM50 for a fully functional chronograph and some more a limited time piece LOL..... who can resist that? So, I bought this time piece; wore it one or two times and totally forgot about it.

Amazingly after a good ten years, it is still ticking inside the closet. It took me by surprise.... Hence, I decided to open the screw back case up to see what Chinese movement it has. I can't believe it, this cheap imitate timepiece actually used a genuine Miyota Cal.0S20 movement. 

Miyota Cal.0S20 3 eyes chronograph with date analogue Quartz movement. It is categorised as tuning fork type quartz crystal with a frequency of 32,768Hz and an accuracy of  +/-20 seconds per month worn under normal circumstances. This is the very same movement Citizen used in some of their Quartz Chronograph. A lot of fancy dress watch and also renown brands also use this movement in their chronograph watches. The price is of course far far higher than my RM50. 

I decided to replace its battery with a fresh one. With twisted mind, I also replacing its original mineral crystal with scratchproof sapphire glass. I don't consider this is a replica Tag Heuer. It is not based on any specific Tag Heuer existing model. This is just a very cruel imitation. Any person with sufficient interest in watches can tell it is a fake. 

All parts of this watch is made of stainless steel. The case and the stainless steel bracelet possessed the design of Tag Heuer's Link series. This watch has a black dial with an internal tachymeter ring. The Tag Heuer logo is a dead give away. This watch is equipped with sword type hands.

The chronograph push buttons on this watch is rectangle shaped. The Heuer signed crown sits nicely within crown guards.

The Link bracelet is locked with butterfly double folding non-visible clasp. 

The back case is something that quite spectacular. The back case is signed with a Tag Heuer logo and with model number stated as CN111B.BA0337. It also bragged being Swiss Made and is limited to 2000 piece. Every single one of this imitation is serial numbered to 1996/2000.

Now there is also a signature of Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and dated June 2002. Too bad I have not seen a real Yoshikatsu's signature......

The real Caliber 36 of Tag Heuer..... (taken from www.onthedash.com)

Finishing this post with a photo of lovely Japanese team female supporters.....