On The Wrist : #speedytuesday #lastmanonthemoon

What better day to sport on a Speedy, if not on #speedytuesday?

And what better Speedy to sport on #speedytuesday, if not the #lastmanonthemoon?

Right, I would admit that I was probably still in a spot of honeymoon phase with this new acquisition. After all, the Omega Speedmaster Apollo 17 45th Anniversary Last Man On The Moon Limited Edition (what a mouthful!) was launched back in Baselworld 2017 and sold-out to a waiting list of collectors in a short period of time.

This collector's edition was created to commensurate 1972's final Apollo mission in which mankind exited the moon surface for the last time todate. The said LMOTM i.e. astronaut Gene Cernan, stepped off the moon at GMT 05.34 and this key piece of historical time was engraved on the dial. I would refrain from repeating some of the earlier points in my earlier entry @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2019/01/ones-speedy-journey-speedy-speedy.html.

Since this mission was back in 1972, which was defined as the golden age of space travel, Omega designed the LMOTM with a gold case, which was initially launched at 72 pieces. However, there was so much interests and requests for additional pieces that Omega acceded. The gold case was limited to 272 pieces and stainless steel case to 1,972 pieces. 

Many of us moon watch collectors were collectively over the moon then.

However, finding a piece would proved to be a challenge as this was limited to different countries' allocation and my AD informed that Malaysia only had a few pieces. The pieces were quickly allocated for hardcore moon watch collectors. There wasn't even 1 piece out in the local grey market (as could be easily seen for CK2998 and Ultraman, going for big monies due to the high demand) as collectors kept these treasured LMOTM pieces away under lock and key.

Last year, an uncollected NOS was found in Omega Malaysia's stock and I couldn't retrieved it soon enough. The LE no. was nothing to shout about, but beggars can't be choosers. However, I did not have real opportunity to wear and enjoy it, as a fellow collector put on his best rendition of Puss-in-boots' eyes and me being a big o' softie let the piece go to his collection.

But whom would have guessed that my requests for ADs to track another piece would subsequently come out with another NOS at Omega Switzerland, kept aside for someone of importance. After repeated requests, Omega acceded to ship the piece to my Malaysian AD and whom would believed that I would be able to get the sold-out LMOTM for a 2nd time; and this time with a nice LE no.

And the cool part was that since both my LMOTM came through official channels, they had the new Omega 5-year warranty instead of the previous 2-year warranty during the 2017 launch. Talk about having one's cake and eating it too...

After weeks of waiting, I was finally able to bring the LMOTM home. This was the package that I received- and since it's just a week to the Chinese New Year, I received some angpow packets to go with the moon watch.

NB : Hmmm, not sure if the astronauts brought angpows to the space for auspicious meanings?

Check out the etching of Sun God, Apollo looking at the moon, at the 9 o'clock sub-dial. The case back had the same engraved too.

If you noticed that the colour of the dial seemed different across the pictures, that was because the dial was made from ceramic. In darker lighting, it looked rather subdued but put in in bright lighting, and the blue dial really popped out! And when you shine yellow spotlight on it, the play of ceragold across the blue dial truly was captivating.

And did you know that this was the only moon watch with the racing dial pattern as could be seen below :

Amongst the recent moon watch that I had e.g. Panda, CK2998, and Ultraman, I would opined that this LMOTM seemed to be the most attractive of the lot and the history behind it made it all the more special.

Paired with a leather rally strap atypical of moon watch, I found this LMOTM to be a really interesting piece and it had earned its place in my collection. Excuse me while I go gaze at it even more :)

SOLD : Seiko Mod Parts (Only AF-MM300 Dial Left)

So it's spring cleaning time, and my better half remarked that the stuff in my Watch Room seemed to be growing more and more. I looked into the room and she's rather right. It started off with a watch case, then grew into more cases, winders, then the Chubb safes, later drawers upon drawers of parts for mods.

While I do clear the watches from time to time (and they seemed to clear really fast especially for the Rolex sports pieces and Omega Speedmaster pieces), I have been collecting a lot of watch accessories that were categorised and placed into various drawers. I probably have < figure hidden in case my better half logged in here sometimes > of watch straps, bracelets, crystals, movements, bezel inserts, bezels, etc.

So let's clear some current stuff from the top drawer. This way, I could be seen clearing some unused mod parts and in all likelihood, she won't ask me to go dig through the rest of the drawers. 

< Insert evil laugh here >

Let's start off with some Seiko bits and pieces first.

1) Seiko Sumo SBDC001/SBDC031 : Original black bezel insert (SOLD)

Condition as depicted above. Available 1 piece only.MY clearance price : RM100 per piece.

Price as seen on eBay.

2) Seiko Sumo SBDC031 / SBDC033 : Original 20mm bracelet (SOLD)

Condition as depicted above. Available 2 pieces only. MY clearance price : RM290 per piece.

3) Seiko Sumo SBDC031 / SBDC033 : Original Hardlex Crystal (SOLD)

Condition as depicted above. Available 1 piece only. MY clearance price : RM30 per piece.

3) Seiko Turtle Reissue SRP779 : Original Hardlex Crystal (SOLD)

New. Available 1 piece only. MY clearance price : RM50 per piece.

4) Seiko SKX007J1 / SKX009J1 : AF 22mm bracelet (SOLD)

New. Available 1 piece only. MY clearance price : RM120 per piece.

5) Seiko MM300 : AF dial

RRP : USD39.00. Available 1 piece only. For Seiko 4.00 automatic movements. MY clearance price : RM100 per piece.

5) Seiko MM300 : AF full hands set (SOLD)

RRP : USD35.00. Available 1 piece only. For Seiko automatic movements. MY clearance price : RM100 per piece.

Singing The Blues

So on my way back, I stopped by an AD in a neighbouring country that had stocked up on 2 pieces of  Batman, to assist our fellow collectors to pick 'em up. Needless to say, there were 2 collectors whom would be very happy to have these pieces in time for CNY. They came over for the Batman the very next morning, and were no longer singing the blues.

There were a couple of blue dial watches that I was pretty keen to get my hands on. For starters, there's the Apollo 17 that was en-route from Switzerland to Malaysia; and I should be able to have this by this week. I had flipped the previous NOS piece, and was eagerly awaiting to check out the LE no. on this piece if it would be one that I would keep or flip on.

In fact, I had already ordered an Omega rubber strap, and a hand-made blue stingray strap with pearls; to match up with this piece.

Then, there was also the Ulysse Nardin Manara editions that were released for 2099. Indeed, these were not just timepieces, but rather wearable art for the well-heeled. I knew that these were worth collecting indeed for the discerning collector.

Beside the above watch straps, there were a no. of premium in-comings so it's interested to wait for their arrival to Malaysia to gauge how well they would pair with my current watches.

Exciting times ahead for sure!

Seiko Trivia : Samurai X

Nope, I don't think that Seiko issued a LE of this Seiko Samurai X; but it looked good nonetheless, no? The power of Photoshop.

Seiko Trivia : Seiko Turtle "Apocalypse"

Since we discussed about the space Seiko in the last entry, let's moved on to the famous Seiko Turtle - the real iconic one that would spawned the re-issues over the years. Initially designed for deep sea diving in the 70s, it gained prominence as a military-issued watch for soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war. In Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen's Captain Willard character wore this watch and popularised it on the big screen.

A true-blue Seiko fan must dab into the must-have iconic dive models i.e. Seiko SKX009, Turtle, Sumo, MM300, and Tuna. I have had many pieces of Turtle Re-issue but not in the form of this iconic piece. Therefore, I have made some arrangements and had cleared a space in my Pelican case for an in-coming 6105-8110. Do watch out for the up-coming Franken Mod (6105) in due course.

This should be fun!