Jules Vern And His Nautilus

Well, perhaps not Jules Vern.

A reader sent the above picture to me. It was stated that the Singaporean owner had completed his trilogy of Nautilus pieces and was understandably happy as bird.

I could only imagined what joy it must be for the owner to marvel at such a priceless collection whenever he had time to look at these pieces of art. The fact that Nautilus' waiting list go up to 10 years these days and some ADs have even closed taking in orders under the waiting list, make the collection all the more impressive.

And these investment would likely appreciate in value over time, and word has it that the Nautilus 5711 would have a price increase within the next month or so. So if you have a piece of these treasures, do cherish them well as these are solid long-term investment which could enjoyed on a daily basis. 

And after all, you never actually own a piece of Patek Philippe; you merely look after it for the next generation.

“Sir," replied the commander, "I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo; and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the Nautilus.”

Back From The SC

A reader sent me a picture of the above, belonging to a chap happy as bird that his Eii was now back  in his hands, from servicing at Rolex SC. 

I have previously serviced 2 watches at the same SC, and their services had been good. The complimentary green watch pouch and more importantly, the additional 2-year warranty; was reason enough for the premium to service back at Rolex.

Do you normally service your Rollie pieces at the SC or at external watch smiths?

Customised With Diamonds

Having this blog, I receive offers of watches and accessories from time to time. Today, I received offers of 2 items i.e. Hublot Classic Fusion Titanium customised with after-market diamonds, and Rolex President bracelet with centre-links customised with after-market diamonds.

Would you go for bling-bling like these?

Seiko Baby Tuna, Now in PADI Format

Seiko seemed to be coming up with more and more special editions. A baby tuna now clothed in PADI colours, anyone?

"I Want A Rolex Submariner, Only Classier."

A reader wrote in to say that he wanted to get a Rolex Submariner, but he wanted a classier one as everyone he knows has a 116610LN or an older version. He was therefore undecided between the following options:

For me, I would go for the 116613LB as the blue & gold is that bit more charming compared to the conservative black & gold. In fact, if the reader was a frequent traveller and could purchase a piece overseas as per my previous purchase @ https://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2017/11/one-watch-policy.html, he could net himself a bit of a bargain and flipping it off in future would be a bit easier too.

It was rather true that when we spoke about a Rolex sports model, the most common perception was to go for the Submariner. However, to me, it ain't necessarily a bad thing as it was also the most demanded model, so it was easy to flip if one wanted to liquidate the piece thereafter.

Which then brings us to the above Yacht-Master 40 models. Being of the 40mm footprint, these were in the classic Rolex sports model size (as opposed to SD43 and DSSD). In terms of design, they carried the classic Submariner look but made more posh as they incorporated precious metal such as platinum for bezel, on selected models. Armed with the same triple-lock, they were officially good for 100m of WR, although real world performances should be higher than that (knowing Rolex's reputation and its watches' capabilities).

So if I were to be on the look-out for a Submariner but wanted a more classy act, I would definitely consider the Yacht-Master 40.

And this was how the piece would looked like in real life :

A charming piece, isn't it? After writing this entry, I am tempted to get a piece of this rarer timepiece for a longer-term review; so keep your eyes peeled hereabouts if this does turn into reality.

MM300 : An Affordable One in SBDX001

A reader wrote in to comment that besides the DiaShield DLC coating, stronger lume, and signed crown on the SBDX017, the previous version in the SBDX001 would have made a more affordable alternative. So I just casually Googled and found that it was out of stock on most international sites, although neighbouring Indonesia seemed to have a few pieces across some watch sites. And at RM5,890 given the current Forex, it would seemed to be a legitimate alternative compared to the SBDX017 at RM7,000.

So take a bit of time to do your homework, and you could end up with a bargain of a price. Have fun scouting around!

Champagne Time

I'm seated in my plane, waiting for it to taxi down the runway for the take-off. The stewardess mentioned that the champagne would be a good companion during the wait. Oh well, cheers then...

The Rolex GMT-Master ii used to be the de-facto watch on all Pan-Am flights, hence the flight connection, no pun intended. Well, I may not be sporting the Rolex for this flight, but the PAM on flight felt right at home nonetheless. Just a play with words.

Can you spot the Rolex Explorer ii on the fellow passenger's wrist? I used to have that piece before I flipped it off some years back.

All too soon, the weekend was over and it was time to fly back. Well, the PAM has served me well over the short getaway, and it deserves the thumbs-up!

MM300 : A Chance Meeting With A Reader

I receive lots of e-mails for this site, and I would apologise that I may not have the time to answer each and every one on a private basis. One that came last night was from Derrick, whom pointed out to local sales on BNIB pieces of Seiko MM300 or SBDX017; and asked if I could get one and do a quick review of the piece (as he was interested to get into the action if it was a good piece). In fact, he pointed out that he was willing to pay me 90% of my purchased price, if I decided to flip the watch to him within 2 months' time.

I have had a fair bit of interest in the MM300 as documented @ https://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2018/01/pull-trigger-seiko-marine-master-300.html, and so I messaged the above 2 sellers. The one selling at RM7,500 promptly reverted that he wanted to sell it off ASAP, BNIB full boxed set; but the catch was that we need to deal on an immediate basis as he was moving away from KL this afternoon.

Since I already have a ready buyer for the watch at RM6,750 (90% of the purchased price) and my exposure works out to be RM375 per month (for 2 months during the period of review), I could get it with no worries on any subsequent flips. Readers following this blog would understand that I like to buy watches for the reviews, and would thereafter flip them off at a rather high haircut within the warranty period.

I drove to MBB but there was a long crowd there. So I drove to OCBC and got my monies. While at the bank, I met up by chance with another reader whom purchased a Speedmaster Hesalite from me previously. He asked if we could have a drink together and we proceeded to a cafe near the bank.

"So, what's with the rush? Any pieces that you're letting go soon?"

I explained to him that I was to pick up a piece of MM300 if time permits. Turned out that he has an MM300 (the initial SBDX001), and he shared with me on the following :

1. The bracelet was cheap and flimsy, such that he ended up buying the above Jubilee style bracelet for better comfort;
2. The watch was rather tall and bulky;
3. For the relatively high price by Seiko standards, he felt that the hardlex crystal should have been upgraded to sapphire, and the painted bezel to ceramic;
4. The mono-block construction meant that any repairs could only be done back at Seiko Japan;
5. The movement was unregulated, but his regular watch shop was unable to regulate for him due to the mono-block above.

In fact, he offered his MM300 to me for just RM4,500; if I was interested. He informed that the bezel had some scratches; but other than that, it was good. And it came with the above Jubilee bracelet that it was mounted on, plus the original bracelet and waffle rubber strap.

SBDX017 with Jubilee bracelet

That got me to put on my thinking cap for a bit. I actually liked the fact that it had a mono-block construction design for better water resistance without the need for helium valve; but repairability would be a hassle. 

I have had some watches constructed with solid blocks of stainless steel (Ball Hydrocarbon John Hembel) and titanium (Ball Hydrocarbon Space Orbital ii), yet those came equipped with ETA movements that could be easily regulated as the caseback could be opened as per the norm standards. Sapphire crystal came as standard too. And those were flipped off at 50% discount off the RRP.

Perhaps getting the SLA017 or SPB051 would make better sense then. Let's toy with the ideas.

Is This For Real? Rolex Yacht-Master 116655.

I received quite a few e-mails in reference to the above advert. A few readers asked if I could accompany them to view the above watch at KL. From the details that came in, I gathered that the seller was selling at a cheap price as it was a non-complete set.

Even if it was an incomplete set, the seller could have realistically received a higher price if he pawned off the watch or sold it to a pre-owned dealer, instead of peddling it over the net. Sellers normally sell by themselves in order to get a higher asking price, not lower.

However, since one of my readers recently lost his Yacht-Master as detailed @ https://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2018/01/community-service-rolex-yacht-master.html, I asked if he was interested to go for a look too.

Turned out that he had sent his cousin to check the said watch, and it was actually a high-end replica by his inspection. Also, the seller claimed that it was a black-market watch. This would probably be the reason that he would use if any buyers requested for the watch to be verified at Rolex Service Centre.

I declined my readers' request to inspect the watch together. Too many red flags there. If in doubt, walk away.

And given that I know some of them were still camping here and hoping for updates, let me further share with you that the picture of the watch on the wrist in the seller's advert, was actually copied from an overseas website. So there you go...

Brace Alert for Bracelets

Some collectors have all the nice ones. 2 pictures as lifted off the Net but aren't they stunning...

Community Service #5/2018 : Some Updates on Watches' Recovery

There had been a few Community Service posts todate as per the following :

Rolex Yacht-Master, Patek Philippe Annual Calendar & Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Rolex Daytona & IWC Aquatimer, and Cartier Tank

and this would consolidate some updates that I had been receiving from the owners and authorities.

1. The person whom robbed the Rolex Yacht-Master, Patek Philippe Annual Calendar, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak had been identified, and efforts were under way to solve the case.
2. The person whom scammed the Rolex Daytona, IWC Aquatimer, and Cartier Tank had been identified.
3. The IWC Aquatimer and Cartier Tank had been located and brought back into custody, pending return to the owners.

Throughout the week, there had been lots of feedback from the general public. Thanks to you readers from all over the world whom stopped by to read this blog, we have been able to spread the word around so that sales of these models were forwarded to a common platform for further checking and verification. We had also been able to advise the owners at a loss, on the best manner to recover their watches.

There were thankful messages from the owners and fellow WIS for the effort undertaken. Of course, there were also liaison from the authorities that made all these possible.

There had also been e-mails from others whom were less enthusiastic about me posting the Community Service on my blog, especially since it seemed to have a far reach amongst the WIS community. I believed some of these were watch dealers or grey resellers. On one hand, I could empathize with them in that they were just taking in pre-owned watches for the purpose of resale. How would they know that the watches were stolen? And in the above cases, because the scammer was selling her ill-gotten watches to the same pre-owned dealer week after week and he was able to buy those goods at relatively cheap prices with no questions asked, it would be quite a loss to him as those watches were confiscated and returned to the actual owners. I hope that he has insurance to cover the losses of his goods.

To those of you whom asked about the identity of the pre-owned dealer, it would not be ethical for me to share as he was just making a living and such negative matters could damage his reputation. At the end of the day, he was also made a victim like the other victims in the scams.

Good to wrap up the week with good news all way round. Enjoy your watches, mates...

Bond's Choice

It has been more than a fortnight since I had the Seamaster out for a stretch of its legs, so I picked it from the winder and wore it to work today. And being both fans of both Rolex and Omega, I must say that the Seamaster fights it out in a neck-to-neck competition with Submariner. Whereas the Submariner felt like the classic diver piece, the Seamaster was the sophisticated gentleman with fire in its eyes and knock-out blows in its fists.

Hmmm, kind of like the transition from James Bond during the former Submariner days to the current Seamaster days. (NB : Below 4 pictures were lifted from the Net.)

Hmmm, perhaps I should add a Commander's watch?

Night Lamp and Macy the Guard

It was bed time and I saw my youngest one sneaking into my watch room and coming out shortly, trying to look cool as cucumber. About an hour later, I went to his bedroom to check on him and saw that he was asleep, with a PAM by the table. The lume was shinning still.

I checked with him on this in the morning.

"I don't want to turn on the night lamp at night. I want to help save the world (NB : He meant to conserve energy.) But I don't want it to be too dark. So I used your big watch as the night lamp."

Fair enough, I thought. But why was his bear, Macy cuddling the watch instead of sleeping by his side as usual?

"I don't want the Big Bad Wolf to take your watch. So I asked Macy to guard your watch."

Try beating his logic :)

Community Service #4/2018 : Cartier Tank Anglaise Serial No. 3507327420UX

Update :

I must thank all parties whom have been reading my blog for working together with me to spread the word around. Late last night, I received a lead about the whereabouts of a previously-scammed watch by Inez Lau / Nicole Chew, and thereafter had been tracking the Cartier watch below through various network. In fact, I just got off the phone with an attending Sergeant looking into similar cases and was informed that the serial no. of the watch sold by her to an entity matched that of the details in my blog. So it would seemed that we have located the missing piece. Now we have to work towards getting this piece back. As the owner remarked to me, "At least there's hope of getting the watch back now." 

Another watch owner i.e. AH had just requested for my assistance to send word out that his above watch had been scammed off in a similar fashion as that of https://andywristwatches.blogspot.my/2018/01/community-service-rolex-daytona-serial.html. 

After hearing of his account on the modus operandi and his description of the lady scammer and her husband, I showed him pictures of the scammer from the earlier Daytona case and AH confirmed that it was the same person; although in this case, she used the name of Nicole Chew Yin Sun. But the picture of the scammer revealed that Inez Lau Yin Ling and her alias, Nicole Chew Yin Sun were the same persons.

He further revealed that the scammer and her English husband (whom was introduced as a Dr working locally) came to meet him face-to-face at Desa Park City in a white BMW Z4 sports car. In the Daytona case, the scammers met DL at Bangsar South and was said to drive a black Ford Mustang and white Audi TT. Actually, this pair of scammers used to be quite well known for a while; and it looked like they have since branched off into luxury watches.

You could read more about the pair's exploits here @ https://thecoverage.my/news/scam-netizen-shares-experience-social-media-warn-public-beware-con-couple/, but the tales aren't going to make good bedtime stories. Some print screens from the site included the following :

From various owners' accounts, it would seemed that there could be 4 watches i.e. Tudor, IWC, Rolex, and Cartier that could have been lost via this manner. 

Coming back to AH's Cartier watch, please keep a look-out for this watch bearing the above serial no.  I would opine that the scammers could dispose of the watch at pre-owned watch shops too, so do keep a sharp eye thereabouts. In fact, from information from various parties, the earlier Daytona was believed to have been purchased by a pre-owned watch dealer so we have to see if the information works out.