8/8/2014 : Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgendy Red, 8.40 pm

This has been a good week to me. And I'll be starting the weekend with one of the watches that I had been admiring for a while but have yet to pull the trigger. I am, of course, referring to the...

Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgendy Red, codenamed BB Red hereinafter.

Throughout the year thus far, I have been purchasing and flipping a fair bit of watches - some almost within the same month, as some watches may look good on the Net but may not exactly sing to you after they arrived vide international shipping. Yes, I have been buying quite a no. of watches vide the Net, although I always choose those retailers with good feedback worldwide and preferably return policy. Asian retailers may not entertain returns, but having worked in UK for a no. of years, I am used to such European store policies whereby you may return those goods purchased (but unused) within a month or so.

The fact that watches from overseas normally cost a little lower than the selling prices in Malaysia, helped steering me towards that angle somewhat. Or they may offer some useful freebies or watch accessories.

The good thing about this watch blog was that fellow watch enthusiasts always point me towards the right direction. 2 days ago, I wrote about the temptation of BB Red @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2014/08/tempting-tudor-heritage-black-bay.html, and a fellow reader pointed me towards a mint piece advertised by a watch collector for just RM8,800.

I contacted the said watch collector ("WC") and was given to understand that he had received the BB Red as a gift, but he was actually interested in another piece so he was letting the BB Red go, to fund towards his intended purchase. The watch was supposedly in mint condition, and as good as new.

If it was as good as new, I could save some RM2,000 from the purchase compared to walking into a Rolex AD, which would then help to fund some Peter's Gunny Straps for some of my watches. We arranged to meet tonight near my home.

After some pleasantries upon meeting each other, he handed me the BB Red for a thorough check-up. We watch collectors normally keep our pieces on rotation in the winders, and watches from collectors would typically be in tip-top condition.

This piece was no different. In fact, it was even newer compared to the display sets in ADs.

This was an easy deal. One look and I know that it was a done deal. And WC even gave not one but two pieces of genuine Tudor Nato straps with the purchase. One was the black colour strap that came along with the boxed set, while the other was a retro chic strap decorated with raised rows of interwoven satin originally from his Tudor Heritage Advisor.

He told me that he had read my blog and knew that I was a Nato type of guy.

So I came home, had a quick dinner and started to work on the link adjustments to suit my wrist. Easy-peasy of a job armed only with my trusty mini-screwdriver. And thereafter, a quick rub with my trusty Cape Cod watch-polishing cloth and I have a BB Red that was shining and gleaming like the stars above.

Enjoy the pictures hereafter :

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with this BB Red purchase and I have no doubts that I would enjoy having her adorning my wrist from hereinafter. There she was, having a good chat with her new-found horology friends. Nice...

Soft Drinks : Pepsi, Root Beer - Checked; Sprite Next?

Over the last couple of months, I have gotten the following :

1) Pepsi

2) Root Beer

2 soft drinks later, if I could next afford to save towards a Sprite, I'll be a very happy man indeed :)

Shhh, don't let my wife know that I'm trying to save towards the D-Blue ;p

Watches Flipped Since the Start of This Blog

Like many watch enthusiasts, I have been flipping watches for a while. But just out of curiosity, let's examine some of the more memorable watches that I have flipped since the start of this blog in 2013 :

1) 2007 Seiko Perpetual Calendar (Out of warranty);

2) 2012 Oris Artelier Date (Out of warranty);

3) 2013 Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Calibre 16 (Wristwatch Annual 2013) (Under warranty);

4) 2013 Seiko Sportura Aviation Alarm Chronograph (Wristwatch Annual 2013) (Under warranty);

5) 2013 Seiko Monster Dracula (Under warranty);

6) 2013 Citizen EcoZilla (Under warranty);

7) 2013 Ball Fireman Night Train DLC (BNIB);

8) 2014 Oris Aquis Date (Under warranty);

9) 2014 Casio G-Shock Riseman Wave-Ceptor (Under warranty);

10) 2014 Certina DS Podium GMT (BNIB);

11) 2014 Orient Mechanical Force (BNIB);

12) 2014 Hamilton 3828 vintage chronograph (new old stock);

13) 2014 Steinhart Ocean Forty-Four (BNIB);

14) 2014 SevenFriday P3-01 (LNIB);

15) 2014 Edox GMT-Class 1 Titanium (LNIB).

The monies from the sale of the above watches went towards the purchases of some interesting pieces. Amongst them were the following :

1) 1972 Rolex Datejust vintage (pre-owned serviced with warranty);

2) 2005 Tag Heuer Kirium Ti5 (pre-owned serviced with warranty);

3) 2014 Edox Les Vauberts (BNIB);

4) 2014 Seiko SKX009JI Pepsi (BNIB);

5) 2012 Ball Hydrocarbon "Mad Cow" (pre-owned serviced with warranty);

6) 2014 Steinhart GMT-Ocean Ceramic (BNIB);

7) 2014 Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military (BNIB);

8) 2014 Steinhart Nav-B UHR Handwinding Bronze (BNIB-incoming);

9) 2014 Glycine Combat Sub "Root Beer" (BNIB).

There were some other watches purchased as gifts for family and friends, but these don't count as they were not really for my own consumption.

And since the start of this blog, daily accumulated readership has crossed the 22,644 threshold and hopefully would be increasing still.

It shall be interesting to see where this journey continues from hereon. Here's wishing that all of us wear our watches in good health!

Tempting : Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgundy Red

Wearing the Glycine Combat Sub Root Bear had me thinking back to the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgundy Red. After all, it's the same case size at 41mm, utilises the same Swiss ETA 2824-2 movements, and on the leather version, both had the distressed leather looks.

I had checked and a brand new Tudor Heritage Black Bay Red with bracelet would cost circa RM10,000 at the AD, or RM9,600 with grey resellers. The Glycine Root Bear in comparison, was a steal of a price at RM3,400. That's a difference of RM6,200 between both watches- but of course, the Tudor may come with bigger bragging rights. Brand-wise aside, I just like the Heritage Black Bay's overall design and its vintage red rose logo, and the heritage it represented.

I took a look on Mudah and saw that there were 2 pre-owned pieces on sale in KL. A 6-month old piece was selling at RM8,800, while a 1+ year old piece was selling at RM6,680. Both were still under warranty and I'm quite sure that prices could be negotiated further.

The question then was... should I pull the trigger? And if yes, new or pre-owned?

Maiden Wear : Glycine Combat Sub "Root Beer"

Swapped its original Glycine distressed leather strap to Nato leather strap, and we're set for some happy time with the Root Beer adorning my wrist for today.

Root Beer with nasi lemak- anyone?

New Acquisition : Glycine Combat Sub "Root Beer" (Model No : 3863.19AT2 C-LB7BF)

I told my wife that I'd swing by Mid-Valley to pick up a pair of Mont Blanc Starwalker writing instruments (as Mont Blanc calls them, the rest of us just say pens) that I have ordered a day before. A quick swap on the credit card and I was good to go.

What I hadn't anticipated however, was to lay my eyes on a pair of Glycine Combat Sub 'Root Beer'. I've always wanted to own a Root Beer watch but it's not common to see such watches these days. You could say that it was love at first sight, and the friendly salesperson informed me that it was a new arrival to the shop. A quick browse on the Glycine official site confirmed that it was a new reiteration of the Combat Sub range.

The friendly salesperson could see the sparkle in my eyes as I gazed at the Root Beer, and he offered me to try it on. I politely declined but he had already taken the trouble to undo the plastic wrapping on the watch, so the least I could do was to try it on.

It was truly a beautiful piece. And it was a rare piece- well, at least not a piece that you'd see everyday. I thought long and hard, then gave a quick call to my wife to ask if I could get an unexpected piece from the watch shop. Better to get her consent upfront rather than to risk getting an earful later. She checked the picture I sent her, and she liked it too.

And so the die was set. I whipped out another credit card and I have to make good of RM3.4k later the month. But the Root Beer really looked so good.

So I came home, had dinner and then took some photos with my mobile phone for the blog. The original distressed leather strap really looked rather convincing as a vintage piece and boy, was it soft to the touch! I didn't want to ruin it and quickly replace it with a pair of leather Nato. After all, I have quite a few pairs of 22mm NATO and Zulu straps in my watch cabinet.

So guess what watch am I wearing now... No prizes for the right answer though- it's way too obvious.

And here it was next to its Diver buddies suited up in Nato too.

Seiko SKX009J Pepsi... Again

On a whim, I picked the made-in-Japan Seiko SKX009J to accompany me today. It's a cheap and cheerful watch, and paired with a pair of Zulu Extreme PVD 5-ringer strap, proved to be very comfy adorning one's wrist. One of my fave go-to watch in my winder. A must-have for all watch collectors, seasoned or otherwise.