Nanuq

Well crap, the Seattle pawn shop wanted $900 for it! Good thing i passed.

I do love a nice Speedy but only have 1 compared to many Seamasters.

One Speedy I almost fell for was a Schumacher model 20 years ago in a pawn shop. $500 and beat up, with the fluorescent red hands and checkerboard timing ring around the bezel.

I'm like you, but I've completed the journey.   😈   I started out detesting Panerai as being uninteresting, and eventually thought "what the heck, let's stick a toe in the pool".  So I went to the Dark Side and bought a really nicely done 6154, then a 604 with engraving, then a 3646 Rolerai, then a "welded lug" whatchamacallit with rivet dial.  I wore them awhile and then slowly lost interest, and now they sit at the detested end of the box again.

 

I tried, honest I did.  But I just can't go Full Retard over something as bland and uninspiring as a Panerai.  Time to sell them all!   Or maybe I'll hold onto them just a smidge longer.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep we’re the usual wild and crazy knitting circle around here!

Yep we’re the usual wild and crazy knitting circle around here!

Welcome back big guy!

Dang, that's pretty.  That replacement pip made all the difference.    

5 hours ago, madasboot said:

 

Wow, we need to know more about this one.  I see some very tasty little details there.   

 

Well done, Slay.  I know this took a LOT of time and expense, and we're honored to support your sales of these beauties.

 

My favorite part?  Look at the hours hands.  He even recreated the microscopic bevel around all the cutouts.    

I recently bought a Maranez Samui steel dive watch here:

 

https://www.maranez.com/watches.php#!/Samui-steel

 

I was looking for something that reminded me of a Doxa with the "Project Aware" turquoise blue dial.  This looked the part so I gave it a try.  Price was $349 and that included FedEx shipping worldwide!  Wow, that's Big Boys territory.  So how did it work out?

 

The watch arrived in days, not weeks, and it was much much more than I'd hoped for.  Yes, it's a direct ripoff of the Doxa cushion case.  Yes, the dial screams "Doxa" from every angle.  So let's think of this as a Doxa on steroids.

 

Granted I'm used to the thin 60s Doxas so this thing's heft might not seem as dramatic to the rest of the world.  But Jesus Joseph and Mary this thing's a brick.  Solid.  Carved from the center of the Sun then machined to satiny smoothness.  It has the required cushion case and tophat bezel, with a low profile caseback to keep the height down.  It has a massive 11mm screwdown crown    WAY bigger than any Doxa that went before, that looks perfectly proportioned.  Kneel before the king, Rolex "Big Crowns", this thing has you beat by another 50%.  The flat sapphire crystal is AR coated on the inside and produces wicked cool blue reflections on the wall.  The bezel doesn't rip off Doxa to the point it has USN dive tables engraved on it, but it's plenty useful for timing a dive if you know what you're doing.  Inside lives a nearly indestructible Seiko NH35 movement, and if you do manage to break it, a replacement can be had cheap from 100 sources.  It autowinds silently and comes on a nicely formed thick rubber strap with lots of length but no vanilla scent.  What more can a guy ask for?

 

Give Maranez a look, if you can catch them when they have inventory available to be shipped.  People are figuring them out, and they sell quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks!   

 

Remember my old adage about "save your money and wait for the one you REALLY want to come along, instead of buying a crapload of watches that are almost good enough"?

 

Looks like I failed miserably.  I must need a genuine Doxa again.  All indications point to that.  But which one?  The SUB 300T or the Poseidon or the Project Aware?  I've recreated them all here.

 

The difference is, in my orange and yellow SOXA Seikos I've got maybe $1,100 tied up.  The blue Maranez was $350 including FedEx shipping.  So I have $9,000 worth of Doxas in $1,450 worth of modded gens with warranties and rock solid cases and movements.

 

I like the direction this is going.    

 

I also need to do a review of that Maranez.  It's a microbrand and they're making PHENOMENAL cheap dive watches.

 

My preciousssssss..... 🤪

 

Ok so I went a little overboard this month. But there are so many great dive watches out there!

 

 

 

Clockwise from top: 

SOXA Seiko SRP777 Turtle dressed up like a Doxa SUB300T Pro

Maranez Samui diver, microbrand with Seiko movement and Doxa-esque case

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

SOXA Seiko SRP777 Turtle dressed up like a Doxa Poseidon

Zodiac Super Sea Wolf

*cough* Surplus ammo? Send it this way and I’ll take care of it!

Here’s my favorite, a 1981 Anaconda. You don’t even aim, it just hits whatever you’re thinking about, every time. Amazing. I also have a 1962 Python that looks just like it, it’s fun but not my favorite.

 

Absolutely that's wearable.  Nice work!

If I had $22k and no place to send it, I'd send it here.  

 

https://store.rafikifoundation.org/genocidesurvivors.html

 

Buy out the store.  The craftsmanship is amazing and the proceeds go straight back to the villages.

 

The tricky thing about tropical dials is, the brown color comes from faded black and it's not consistent across the dial.  Some dials fade more around the perimeter and are darker in the middle, while others are more faded in the middle and around the date window.

 

I worked on a MQ dial for awhile using shoe polish to try and recreate the "darker in the center" faded look.  It was tricky working around the letters and indexes, and in the end I did not use it.

 

Mine with fading around the date window and center

 

 

 

Tom Vox's BC with fading around the edges

 

 

 

My pathetic attempt with the MQ dial

 

 

Well hello, gorgeous!  Where have you been all my life?

 

“Like catnip to a cat” you once said.

Meow!

 

Where have you been all my life, gorgeous?! The notorious Super Sea Wolf.

 

 

Buy an old Land Rover and never ever take the watch off. It will acquire a decade of mechanicking scars in a months time

One thing my eye sees, is a brand new 50 year old watch. It needs to be grubby and a bit dinged up. Just a little will do.

Buy some heritage, get a vintage Rolex and let it appreciate for a few years.  If you fall out of love with it, sell for more than you paid and look again.

 

 

I'm in, where do I "like" it?   

Well then there's always this bastardized mutt of a watch that fits NOWHERE in the Breitling pantheon ... it's a Gigandet/Wakmann, who bought the rights to Breitling a time long ago, but it's not a "Top Time" and it's not a Navitimer.  But it's oh so close to both.  And it has the Breitling WOG stamped on the bridge.  I've never seen another one anywhere.  This is the same movement as my old Rolex Jean-Claude Killy ... valjoux 72c.