Next Franken Mod : Seiko Baby Ice Monster "Great Wave Off Kanagawa"

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa limited edition dial was supposed to be fitted into the Seiko Blumo G2 @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2019/02/next-franken-mod-seiko-blumo-great-wave.html.

Then, leaks of the Seiko Baselworld 2019 had the Sumo G2 earmarked as to be discontinued and replaced with the Sumo G3. I had already modded a Sumo G2 into a MM300. Since the G2 would be discontinued, I had second thoughts about modding the Blumo G2 and to instead leave it in its pristine original condition.

In fact, Seiko ADs were already updating their adverts having the Blumo under discontinued status. Yup, you could be sure that the prices would be on an upward trend after some time.

So I started looking around for another Seiko piece with blue chapter ring, that could match the Great Wave dial. I also wanted its movement to be hacking and self-winding capable. And I suddenly thought of the Seiko Baby Ice Monster aka SRP481k1.

A couple of clicks later, I had this piece enroute to Malaysia today, and I believed that the dial would looked great housed in this Baby Ice Monster. The dial would be matched with this pair of Dagaz hands :

Keep your eyes peeled on the up-coming Franken Mod!

PS : I also received the following original Seiko SBDX017 aka MM300 dial and hand set. I would be modding a set into a 6105 piece. For the other set, what kind of Seiko watch would you liked to have it go to?

Seiko Pieces for Baselworld 2019?

Any fans of Gundam hereabouts? A Japanese site apparently mentioned that Seiko would be releasing 2 Tuna LE 1,000 piece each, in conjunction with the Gundam 40th Anniversary. If these does come out during Baselworld 2019, would you be handing your cash over?

Fans of the 6105-8110 could be in for a treat. There could be a re-issue of this iconic Apocalypse design...

Hang on to your Gen 1 and Gen 2 Sumo pieces. If this Gen 3 does get released, chances are the discontinued earlier reiterations would see an increase in their value as per the norm.

Goodbye, Seiko SuMMo...

One stock (SBDC033 Blumo) and one upgraded (SBDC031 Sumo). The latter had been upgraded with Seiko SBDX017 MM300 original parts and other premium parts, which had been an interesting process. Which one would you prefer more?

A few readers had requested that I assist them with some proposed Seiko mod works, but I had to decline as I had quite a few mod projects of my own at the moment. Thereafter, an Eureka moment came about as I thought about offering my modded projects for other collectors to enjoy, at a discount compared to my cost. After all, this meant that someone would be giving the real wrist times, while I get to free up some space from my watch winders and continue to mod more Seiko watches over time.

I placed an advert on this SuMMo (Sumo + MM300), and received many offers in just a couple of days. I then decided to let go to a collector whom I'm meeting up later this evening, to help him jump-start his Seiko collection. 

He's getting a good bargain, and I decided to throw in a brand new pair of Seiko SBDX017 strap (metal keeper compared to SBDX001's rubber keeper) and Dagaz full hand set. These ought to keep his interests going forward towards other mod projects.

Just take a look at both these watches side-by-side. Both were manufactured in Japan as Sumo variants; but they looked as different as chalk and cheese after the mod works. In fact, I had been getting quite a fair bit of attention with this SuMMo even when compared to my real MM300 in SLA021; so for anyone whom was interested to pursue such a similar project, I would dare say that it would be worth your while. The parts might not be easy to get though, and they were pretty costly on some watch parts' sites.

Let's just enjoy looking at these marvellous pair, before we bid goodbye to the SuMMo in a couple of hours. Hope that the collector would put some good wrist mileage on this unique and spectacular piece!

Goodbye, Seiko SuMMo, you would be missed...

Another Seiko mod that I would let go next is the SKX007J1 Planet Ocean @ https://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2019/01/franken-mod-seiko-skx007j1-planet-ocean.html. It's yours for just RM1,800 if you were keen, dear readers.

The Seiko Sea-Dweller

Well, I hadn't quite thought of the Seiko SuMMo mod as a Rolex Sea-Dweller equivalent; but there were a no. of queries on this piece and one of the interested party was looking at this readily-available piece as a replacement of the Sea-Dweller that she had in mind for her husband. She had contacted me to ask for a Sea-Dweller but I have not been able to secure a piece for her; so it was a bit of a surprise when I received word that she was interested to take the SuMMo as a replacement instead.

A Seiko taking the place of a Rolex, not that much heard of actually.

But if you looked at the mod with an unbiased outlook, then it would make good sense. After all, you would be taking the iconic Sumo case that in itself was rather a Seikoholic-magnet, and combined with the classic premium dial and Zaratsu-polished hands of the MM300. Plus the lumed ceramic bezel and domed sapphire crystal on the piece, it would not really lose in a battle with my MM300. RM4k vs RM15k and still looking as handsome as it was, the SuMMo was a runaway winner really.

Looks like this piece would be going to a collector that could give it real wrist time, really soon!

Happy Valentine's Day : New York Double-O-Eight-O

Today's entry was inspired by a Valentine's gift from my better half. She knows that I'm a watch freak, and she must have seen the Safari history caches in my computer; for I got a package addressed to my office today with this gift!

I supposed it was a bit of a blow that she chose to bypass the caches on the other blow (if you get what I meant, wink!) and instead got for me the blowfish. I'm referring to the Citizen Fugu, of course. And in full lume, no less!

For the longest period, if one wanted to get a ISO-certified automatic-winding diver watch that won't break one's bank balances, it was a toss between the Seiko SKX and Citizen NY004. 

The SKX went on to be the natural choice for modders given the ample availability of aftermarket parts. 

Meanwhile, the NY004 gained respect as the military-issued watch for divers serving in Italian, British, and French Navy. The Italian Navy had so much confidence in the NY004 that it was rated for 500m WR instead of the more conservative 200m printed on the consumer dial.

The NY004 was discontinued in 2016, while SKX was reportedly discontinued in 2018 but with ample stock to cater for the next couple of years.

Which then brought us to the current Citizen Fugu. Citizen had in Oct 2018 launched an updated version of the much-loved NY004, now called the NY008, and it had moved upmarket compared to the earlier reiteration. Marketed as Asia limited edition releases within its Promaster range (Citizen's answer to Seiko's Prospex), the NY008 reportedly had better design and lume. These models started appearing in Malaysian ADs just before CNY.

Which would you prefer between both these NY004 and NY008 reiterations?

Limited to either 500 pieces (TH, and MY/SG) or 999 pieces (rest of the range), collectors quickly snapped up the pieces, with the all-time favourite reportedly the NY0080-12X all-lumed dial.

At the time of writing, the all-lumed dial was on sold-out basis in most watch sites and fetching a premium on ebay. Yes, it went from RRP : RM1,440 to RM2,705 on ebay these days!

And yes, if you bought a local AD piece, it came with a 3-year warranty from Citizen!

Besides the full-lumed NY0080 model, the other reportedly best-selling models were the Thailand NY0089 and Rose Gold NY0083 limited edition pieces.

But in terms of lume, no other pieces in the Fugu collection would come close to the NY0080. I meant, just look at that dial!

Since I have a fair bit of Seiko SKX pieces, I could do a direct comparison between both of them. While the specs were pretty close, the Fugu wore smaller, had winding but non-hacking movement, and had the crown placement at 8 o'clock. For left-handers, this watch would be like a dream-come-true. No more having the crown poking into one's wrist, for 'em lefties.

Note too that the crown was signed with the Promaster logo, cool! 

I find that the original strap to be too stiff, which would no doubt improve over time as wearing it ought to stretch it up a little in the longer while. But well, I liked to get the watch wearing well right from the word "Go!"; so I changed the rubber strap to a Camo Nato that I ordered from overseas over CNY, and now, it wore beautifully and comfortably on my wrist.

The green Camo matched the dial to an extent too, so I felt that this could be a combo that I could experiment with.

And seeing this handsome piece, I have since (as you might have guessed) called up some AD contacts and ordered the NY0083 to accompany this NY0080. I might even add more of these pieces since they informed me that the other pieces, except for this all-lumed dial, were in stock. Let me sleep over it tonight...

Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers and hope all of you have a good time with your loved ones tonight...