Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean : James Bond Skyfall (2012)

I have been overseas the whole week and only brought the Rollie Hulk (Rubber B) with me. Whenever I go for outdoor activities, a rubber strap would be the preferred choice; which was the reason that I was thinking of getting the Ball Hydrocarbon rubber strap for the Space Orbital II.

The reason I spoke about the rubber strap was because I had flipped the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 2500 (Casino Royale) earlier the month, and I had been missing it since. It was a watch with quite some wrist presence, and there was an emptiness after the piece was sold for RM13k.

I don't fancy the Omega Seamaster 300 (Spectre); and the piece that I would be glad to add to my collection after the Casino Royale piece, would be the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 8500 (Skyfall). The Skyfall piece was essentially the same piece as the Casino Royale piece, coupled with improvements in the caliber (from 2500 to 8500), bezel insert (from aluminium to ceramic), and Seamaster wording on the dial (from silver to orange).

I am debating whether to get the PO 8500 on bracelet or rubber strap; although I roughly could deduced that the one paired with the rubber strap would be lighter and more versatile. The bracelet piece was more costly by a mere RM400. The Malaysian prices were as per below :

So I swung by one of my favourite Omega ADs on my way back to Malaysia this evening, and checked out the PO 8500.

Since sales was slow, the boutique manager was ready to give me a good deal given that I was a serious and repeated customer on many occasions. He further promoted the 43.5mm Seamaster Planet Ocean GMT in titanium, and it was a pretty light piece.

He did not have the PO 8500 with rubber strap, but he assured me that he could ask for a stock transfer in a jiffy.

So readers, what do you think? Should I go for the PO 8500 with bracelet or rubber strap?

Oh My Balls!

I am overseas at the moment for business matters, and received this e-mail from a fellow reader. To be honest, I have not thought about flipping both these Ball watches of mine- as one was Ball's 125th anniversary limited edition series, while the other was the top-of-the-range Hydrocarbon series. As such, I would think that they were both collectible pieces indeed.

What do you think of the offer? Should I flip 'em Balls, all pun intended?

Batman : Rolex GMT-Master ii 116710 BLNR

I've made many friends over this hobby, and us watch enthusiasts were an acquired group of tastes. We could sit there for few hours just talking about watches and movements, when we could in fact just got to know each other. That was exactly what happened to me just about- I met his nice chap and we started talking about our watches; and the next thing you know, hours had slipped by. As a parting shot, this nice chap passed me his newly-acquired Rollie Batman to steer me towards this piece. The force was definitely strong with this one. Must try to resist...

Review : Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Spacemaster Orbital II (SOii)

Readers would know that I have a soft spot for the tough-as-nails Ball timepieces, having added 4 such pieces into my collection over time, no pun intended. Well today, I would write a little about the more elusive Spacemaster Orbital II (SOii). This is a piece that you would not easily spot if you were to just walk into any of Ball ADs, and the salesperson in One Utama informed me that this model was on a deposit-order basis; as this was not a mass market piece (no thanks to its RRP : USD6k / RM26k price tag).

I must admit that I was initially rather undecided if I was going to purchase it only for a review and then treat it as a catch-and-release; as online pictures had me at a crossroad over it. On one hand, it's the highest range in the Engineer Hydrocarbon series with state-of-the-art 39 tritium tubes and patented Amortiser functionality (to protect the rotor from excessive shake damages); yet on the other hand, I wasn't fully-sold on the very busy dial (a balanced chrono, in my mind, would be designed along the lines of Speedy and Daytona), and rather large and thick case. I wasn't sure if it would wear well on one's wrist.

I should not have worried. Make no mistake, this was one large watch. And it actually had quite a heft for a titanium construction. If this SOii was built with stainless steel case and bracelet, then I would deemed that it'd have been a rather unpractical piece for daily wear. But Ball managed to design such a comfortable and easily-adjusted bracelet (with mini-links), that it was easy to get the watch to stay exactly the manner that it should be on my wrist. It's snug enough that it doesn't wriggle about, yet it's flexible enough that it doesn't dig into my flesh. Those mini-links truly worked wonders to ensure that the weight of the watch was properly-carried on my wrist. And that solid clasp was wonderfully-easy to operate, and there're even additional hidden links therein for your thick jacket or scuba suit. With that concern neutralised, I knew that the watch was pretty much a keeper.

Movement was via the Swiss ETA 7754- basically an improved 7750 with a GMT module. As with ETA movements, this workhorse was very smooth and should be a reliable and dependable piece over time. I have tested the chrono over hours long and all the works had been smooth so far. The bezel is a bi-directional compass that you could align for direction, with the hour hand aligned to the sun.

I would skip the normal stuff and jumped into the core strength of this SOii - the tritium tubes. This watch simply came to life in the still of the night. It was so bright that I was attracted to go sneak-a-peek at the winder quite a few times over the night, to see the colourful displays of both the Ball watches therein. I felt like a small boy in a candy shop indeed.

I went for a medical check-up today and the radiologist remarked that I had came prepared with an anti-magnetic watch, when she sported my SOii. It would seemed that the people in the medical faculty were well-aware of the strength of Ball watches, and the Hydrocarbon's case was a give-away of its tough-as-nails properties.

After getting my clean bill of health, I tucked into the people's champion of lunch choice i.e. nasi lemak with beef rendang, and I was already looking forward to having some wonderful adventure aheads armed with this piece of Ball armoury.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures below :

Speedy Tuesday

Yes, I know that most Speedy enthusiasts would wear Speedy on Tuesdays. Truth be told, I have not worn my Speedy for quite a long time, months perhaps; and the sleeping beauty was retrieved from her slumber in the winder this morning for a launch-off. Any watch collector would need to acquire a Speedy into his or her collection, as there's just something very alluring about the chronograph watch that accompanied man into space in the history of moon-watch.

This Speedy Panda example, still looks gorgeous in my eyes; with its play of white dial and black sub-dials, and red accents over its demure face. The Cordura strap as historically used for heavy-duty military wear, had worn on well with nary a tad of depreciation. 

And Omega released some nice pictures of Speedy Tuesday LE earlier. Let's further appreciate the beauty of this famous moon-watch.