Seiko MarineMaster 300 : The Real McCoy, Franken Mod, and Homages (Part 2)

Continuation from http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2019/04/seiko-marinemaster-300-real-mccoy-mods.html

There's no doubt that one of my fave Seiko watches was the MM300. I especially liked the MM300 G3 i.e. SLA021/SBDX023, which upgraded to sapphire crystal and ceramic lumed bezel compared to its predecessor in SBDX017. However, the SBDX023 was selling at Seiko Mid Valley at RRP : RM15,050 with no discount given that demand outweighed supply; which was a rather steep price. I could get my Seiko JDM watches from Japan so I tend to be able to get them relatively cheaper, and have shared 2 pieces with fellow readers here.

The MM300 G2 i.e. SBDX017 had been discontinued so its price had increased a fair bit in the secondary market, and BNIB pieces were going at RM8,500 these days. Gone were the days where they were going at RM5,500 similar to its predecessor in SBDX001. 

Since I loved to mod, I would have preferred to upgrade the SBDX017's hardlex mineral crystal and aluminium bezel by myself, but the mono block construction had my panel watchsmiths very reluctant to attempt any mod works on the piece. So when the SBDX023 was released with the upgrades that I had in mind, I immediately made an order and netted 4 pieces.

But there was one thing that I wished to improve from the SBDX023. Given a choice, I would prefer to have an all-lumed ceramic bezel like that of the Tudor Pelagos that I owned. Since I couldn't mod the SBDX017 easily, I used a Sumo G2 (now discontinued too) i.e. SBDC031 as a base watch and the result was simply breath-taking. Besides the original dial and handset, the Sumo G2 received a double-domed sapphire crystal with clear AR, and full-lumed ceramic bezel. How about that?

I had lots of queries on the piece from fellow collectors when I brought it to watch meets. Heck, I even had casual strangers stopping me and asking about that piece, which I documented in one of the blog entries. This SuMMo had since been added into a collector's treasure chest and last I heard, it was adorning his wrist overseas where he was working.

The SBDX017 dial and hands were not easy to get, and prices of these new parts have increased after the discontinuation. Expect to pay circa RM1,220 for just the original dial and handset.

There were lots of MM300 homages in the market, but there's nothing like owning the real McCoy when it came to the cream-of-the-crop for Seiko's MM300. Some of the homages were of poor quality and the common complaints had been weak lume, poor dial print, flimsy build, and the likes. Readers would remember that I was liaising with a CNC supplier on Tuna homage builds some time ago. 

Well, I was also in touch on the MM300 homage build and the discussions had came to fruition with the piece having mono block construction, sapphire crystal, all-lumed ceramic bezel, etc. The build was top-notch and I would make another entry comparing both the original and the homage side-by-side. 

While the dial lume could still not compare to that of Seiko's LumiBrite, I planned to replace the dial and hands with the original Seiko anyway, so that was not a point of concern for me. Check out the above pictures of the homage with all-lumed bezel.

But then again, the MM300 G3's lume was one of the industry's best; and from these pictures as seen on the Net, the MM300 G3 could held its own against the newest Gundam Tuna MM1000 duo that were released recently. If you were the owner of the above pics, kindly e-mail me so that I could credit the pics back to you.

And check out this bronze case mod with a Seiko SBDX014 dial from a fellow modder i.e. Ryan. I have seen quite a few mods on the Net and in all instances, there seemed to be a gap between the dial and the inner case. 

Another modder based locally informed me that he had done this similar mod using another homage case before and the SBDX017 dial was simply too small for the homage case. So there seemed to be a consensus here that the standard dial would not be a perfect fit for the homage cases. Well, I'm going to have a try anyway and have since packed up the watch to be sent to my watchsmith.

We shall have the answer to our question real soon. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of the homage piece prior to the mod works :