Prometheus Poseidon Stainless Steel

Readers might remember that I acquired the Prometheus Poseidon Bronze in 2016 @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2016/02/e-mail-from-reader-bronze-diver-at.html. The Bronze came with a rubber strap and leather strap. I have always wondered how would the Poseidon S/S be like when worn on the wrist, matched with its stainless steel bracelet. The heft should be quite something, I would imagine.

As luck would have it, right before I was supposed to leave for a snorkelling trip to Pulau Babi Besar and Pulau Rawa in Johore, I received a practically NOS discontinued Prometheus Poseidon Green as per the below specs :

This meant that the S/S cost some RM170 cheaper compared to the Bronze version, yet came with an extra S/S bracelet. Very value-for-monies indeed by my reckoning. The latest version, currently on pre-ordered basis, while sporting the same look, was now dressed in white dial as per below :

So how have the Poseidon S/S been while on the current snorkelling trip? I hadn't brought my underwater camera for this trip, so I could only shoot some pictures of it while on land. It has been wearing nicely, although you won't quite forget that you have this piece on your wrist due to the weight of the whole piece. However, if you were able to size the bracelet to hold properly, then the wearing could be quite comfortable as per what I was experiencing on-site now.

Altogether, a pretty good (re)addition from the Portugal micro-brand to my collection, again.

PAM364 Test-Drive

Remember my entry about the PAM00364? Well, a fellow reader of this blog and a Dr by profession, swung over my place yesterday evening and passed me his watch for my consideration. He was interested to swap the piece with my Omega Planet Ocean and Speedmaster; with the reason for the proposed swap being that the Panerai was simply too large for his wrist. Since the watch was literally in the watch winder over the last few years, the good Dr further gave me a trial run with the watch i.e. I could test-drive the watch over the weekend and decide if I would take it next week. 

What do you guys think? A tad too big for me too, right? A very macho piece indeed; and because of it's titanium construction, it ain't as heavy as one would have thought.

First impression was that I liked its built-tough construction; but I doubt that I could carry this piece comfortably on my wrist. Anyway, let's try to out- no harm done anyway. I've always been more of a Rolex and Omega fan, perhaps this could be the game-changer. And because I am not as experienced with Panerai compared to the Swiss brands that I bought and sold all the time, the next thing that I need to find out was where I could send this piece for verification and checking/servicing, if I do so decide to pick it up. Any ideas?

Happy Mother's Day Gift

So the Boys have been putting on their thinking caps over the last few weeks, and pondering what gift to get for their beloved Mum for Mother's Day. Having been exposed to my watch craziness over the last few years, they naturally thought of 2 things that their Mum may like : handbags or watches.

My elder boy has been scouted for quite a few commercials over the years, so yeah, he had quite some savings there. And since I would have to chip in too (to round up the figure after they emptied their piggy banks), I naturally prefer getting her a watch- another dress watch that she could wear during functions, preferably with rose gold colours since she does not have any watches in that shade of gold as yet.

A Rolex Datejust with MOP dial and diamonds, would have been nice. But the Boys' piggy banks left too much a difference to be desired, so I KIV-ed their suggestion. These pictures from the Net were poisonous enough though.

The above pictures were for looking only, then. Let's stay with the budget and move towards Omega instead. There were quite a few good choices in the De Ville collection.

Ultimately, the Boys chose a Red Gold on Steel, with MOP dial and diamonds. It's not a Rolex, but their Mum was happy as bird to receive their thoughtful gift.

Sea-Dweller Ceramic : Classic vs Red

So the new Sea-Dweller Ceramic Red-liner had been hitting the ADs' shelves and more and more collectors were getting their hands on the pieces. Pictures and adverts for flips were also getting all over the place now. Which one would you prefer : Classic vs Red?

For myself, I've been missing the SD4k quite a lot; that I may just get this piece back into my collection. But it won't be easy as the last pieces in the market were selling at great premium now, and collectors whom wanted to off-load this collectible piece were also asking an arm and a leg.

In the meantime, I'll just have to console myself with other pieces coming into my collection. Could you guess what piece was this pre-owned collectible as featured below?

Why Purchase From Overseas Authorised Dealer?

A reader whom previously missed the purchase of one of my Rolex watches as he was concerned about any warranty claims in Malaysia, given that my watch was purchased from an overseas Rolex AD, wrote to me over the weekend to ask if the watch was still available as he had checked with Menara Dion and was informed that Rolex Malaysia would honour any warranty claims provided the said watch was still under its international warranty period (as evidenced from the dated warranty card). Unfortunately, the watch had since been sold for a few weeks now so he would just have to seek elsewhere.

And there upon lies the question- why would I purchase from overseas AD when I could also purchase the same watch model locally?

Rolex prices were manufactured-controlled worldwide, and differences in pricing between AD to AD would not differ by too much. However, for repeated customers, ADs were able to take a small hit on the margin in order to keep the relationship going. Also, some countries tend to have faster stock turnover, so the ADs don't mind a small discount to keep the stock rolling. And importantly, there's the VAT refund that could be claimed by tourists' purchases.

I normally prefer watches in stainless steel; but one that I would buy in two-tone would be the Submariner 116613LB. To me, that was a handsome watch; although it tend to be a slow-moving flipper compared to the 116610LN Black and 116610LV Hulk. Rolex ADs locally could hardly get stock on this piece, so it would go at retail at circa RM55k; and I even saw a grey reseller shop selling a NOS at RM52k (!) at a shopping centre at USJ yesterday. Goodness gracious, few years back around 2013 when MYR was still relatively stronger, this model was only going at RM33k from grey resellers!

(Sigh, I should have gotten a piece of the 116613LB back then...)

I travel quite a fair deal (almost monthly in fact) so I could make good purchases from overseas ADs on many occasions- and some of the countries that I have gotten good deals from were at Hong Kong, UAE, and Europe.

The English economy post-Brexit ain't not doing too great these days, and my friends there informed that there were many good deals going about on monthly basis. Many times, retailers were prepared to just sell to get the cashflow going. Therefore, I checked online to gauge if there was any good pricing on the 116613LB and this looked like one of it :

After conversion, the piece would be just short of RM50k. Some may argue that you could probably negotiate for the same price through the local grey retailers, and you would be true... but there's still the 20% VAT refund that could be claimed at the airport, so the final price of the piece would amount to RM39,800. Of course, you would need to factor in an additional 6% GST when you pass through KLIA and declare the said purchase.

And because of the rationale that I tend to get my pieces cheaper through such manner, I could then flip the piece some time down the road and not take a huge beating in my capital spent. And that was also the reason why I could always priced my pre-owned watches lower than the market prices; and the reason why my watches tend to move quite fast pursuant to an advert. So now, you know.

Omega Seamaster : Real or Fake?

A reader i.e. Malik wrote in to ask if RM5k was a good price to bag a pair of Omega Seamaster watches, that a seller had advertised on Mudah. Even though pre-owned and with no more warranty, he rationalised that he could send both watches for Omega SC full-servicing (RM2.2k per watch) and sell the watches at a minimum of RM10k each thereafter.

Let's take a look at the advert and pictures that he forwarded me to my e-mail earlier :

Well, Malik, if you were reading this, I would proceed on this deal very carefully. From the pictures of the watches that you sent to me, the bezel insert, pearl, dial, date, etc just do not look sharp and crisp as per what I am used to by Omega's standards. That was no Seamaster box, and the Red Book should be a brighter shade of red, while the warranty cards and tags were downright different from the original Omega pieces. I would exercise serious caution on the authenticity of these watches on sale.

For original Omega watches, RM2.5k per watch was a steal of a price. However, for fake watches, I wouldn't even want to go that way. Responsible sellers would be upfront about their types of goods, not mask around and hide the truth. The best way to go forward would be to request to finalise the deal in Omega SC, so that you could get the SC to verify the authenticity of the watches on the spot.

For pre-owned watches, always, always... buy the seller, not just the watches.

Rubber B, Re-Visited

I'm a fan of Rubber B vulcanised rubber straps; and ever since the Rubber B previously used on the Sub Hulk was removed as it went with the SD4k sale, I had been using the Sub Hulk with the bracelet. It's good; but as the Sub Hulk is my rough and tough watch, a rubber strap would suit its demeanour better.

Anyway, I have always wanted to test the Sub Hulk paired with the Green VulChromatic strap; as I believed that the pair would go well together. So a couple of clicks later, all we have to do was to wait for the delivery to be in place. Let's see how it goes...

Dagaz Antartica 200m

Anyone in the Seiko modding scene would be aware of after-market parts from Dagaz, Yobokies, and the likes from Hong Kong; although there were now more premium parts too from Europe these days e.g. Dr. Seikostein, Crystalnet, etc. I used to mod with local Asian parts too, and have recently went with the European parts to test the waters. 2 such examples were my Seiko Turtle LEs @ Turtle Blue Lagoon LE (SharkOne) and Turtle Emerald LE (BlueOne). These could be the only ones in the world with such mods.

The thing about modding is that you have to get a good watchsmith to modify and install the pieces for you. For instance, bezel inserts were easily replaceable and were commonly installed using 3M double-sided tapes. Believe you me, that these quick-fix would not be a long-term solution and if you were one that brings your watches to the sea lots, it'd only be a matter of time before the insert got washed off while at sea. 

My watchsmith typically use a special glue solution for inserts to be installed on bezels. While it would take more effort for subsequent changes thereafter, it was also much more secured and your trips to the sea need not be in an alarmed state. Works for me.

Anyway, so I was looking out for parts and saw that Dagaz had an SKX009-modified Antartica watch for sale at USD315. They had been releasing SKX009-based watches around the USD300 price tags for a while now, and the Antartica caught my eye. Readers would know that this was the rudimentary base watch with non-hacking movement, but the SKX was a no-pretence, bare-as-heck watch that modders loved to play with. Next up would be the Seiko 5s. The Turtle Re-issues brought the modding scene to another level thereafter.

I quickly made the necessary payment vide PayPal but there were errors with the processing. So it shall be a matter of trial to see if the said watch would be picked up by another collector instead, whom could go through the purchase without errors. But then again, that's what make the hobby fun and frustrating at the same time.

If I missed this, there'll be another one, I'm sure.