Pulicords, it is indeed a model that is/was available at US authorized dealers. It has been discontinued and is getting to be harder to find new old stock examples.

The Grand Seiko watches I was also considering were either significantly more expensive or lacked spring drive so I went with the understated titanium spring drive sleeper.

Its movement is nothing short of spectacular! It’s been a few days and it is still perfectly in synch with atomic time. Spring drive is incredible!!!



357fuzz, Nice!! You are all ready for Saint Patrick’s Day!

My son is mad at me for selling my green vortex dial Phoibos Voyager 1st Gen. It was my only stainless steel diver with a green dial.

I’m down to a Phoibos Leviathan, Ergon Maelstrom and a Zelos Mako Gen 2 when it comes to green dial dive watches. All of them have a bronze case. With the recent spring drive Seiko acquisition they might all end up on the chopping block.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:

The Grand Seiko watches I was also considering were either significantly more expensive or lacked spring drive so I went with the understated titanium spring drive sleeper.

Its movement is nothing short of spectacular! It’s been a few days and it is still perfectly in synch with atomic time. Spring drive is incredible!!!

For the life of me I just can't understand why Grand Seiko continues to offer some of their most beautiful watches with the "Hi Beat" movement, when their Spring Drive certainly provides not only better accuracy, but considerably more power reserve.

When I do get my first Grand Seiko it is very likely going to be this model or the earlier spring drive that looks a lot like the current Sea of Clouds Hi Beat. It’ll probably be this model though as it has design elements similar to my favorite Seiko divers like the Shogun, Samurai and Sumo.

I am 100% sold on the awesomeness of Seiko’s spring drive movement. It makes even the best Swiss COSC Chronometers lose their luster.

Stickman: I'm pretty bummed right now! Somehow I damaged the glass bezel on my Hamilton Khaki Aviation Converter Auto GMT (Ref: H76715540) and now it needs to be replaced. I shipped it to the Hamilton USA Repair Center via my local dealer and was told that it would cost me "$1,000.00" to fix it. The watch cost me only $1445.00 when I bought it NEW a couple of years ago!!! Any suggestions for me would be greatly appreciated.

pulicords I would get someone on the phone and ask for a detailed invoice on why the cost is over $1,000.00 dollars for a simple replacing of a bezel on your watch.

I did some digging and your watch is now out of production but they should still have spare parts to service it for at least 5-10 years. All they have to do is pry the old bezel insert and all off and press fit on a new one I do it all the time. It should take 15 minutes of labor tops.

It's a Hamilton GMT and not a Rolex GMT Master II with a ceramic bezel that one I could easily see being 1K to replace.

quote:

Originally posted by dfens:
pulicords I would get someone on the phone and ask for a detailed invoice on why the cost is over $1,000.00 dollars for a simple replacing of a bezel on your watch.

I did some digging and your watch is now out of production but they should still have spare parts to service it for at least 5-10 years. All they have to do is pry the old bezel insert and all off and press fit on a new one I do it all the time. It should take 15 minutes of labor tops.

It's a Hamilton GMT and not a Rolex GMT Master II with a ceramic bezel that one I could easily see being 1K to replace.

I've sent an email to Hamilton questioning the costs and I'm waiting for a reply. Although the "Converter" GMT is out of production, the non-GMT model is still being built and it utilizes the same bezel. It's very frustrating.

Ouch!!! Unfortunately I have not had a good deal of luck with Swatch group’s customer care. Tissot and Hamilton are under the same corporate umbrella and share the same service centers.

When I inquired about service and repairs for my rare Tissot SeaStar Chronograph, which also has a cracked bezel (though very minor), they were equally unhelpful and couldn’t even give me a ballpark quote unless I paid to send the watch to them. Ridiculous!!!

I would think the best thing to do is call around to other authorized service centers and hope for better luck.

Situations like this are why I adore Christopher Ward and the way they stand behind their product.

I’ve broken two Christopher Ward watches as I am VERY hard on my divers and they go above and beyond to treat their customers extremely fair. Hell, I even managed to destroy a case completely on a chronograph diver and that didn’t cost me much more than the cost of an aftermarket Seiko diver case!


I’m sorry to see your beautiful watch in that shape. I truly hope you can find a reasonable watchmaker with access to Hamilton parts so you can get it fixed.

Please keep us informed on the outcome.

If all else fails maybe you can find an affordable Hamilton with a nice bezel on eBay to cannibalize for parts. I’ve done that a few times.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
When I do get my first Grand Seiko it is very likely going to be this model

Jeepers, Stick, that's sharp. What model is that?

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
When I do get my first Grand Seiko it is very likely going to be this model

Jeepers, Stick, that's sharp. What model is that?

It’s Seiko/ Grand Seiko’s answer to the Rolex Sub or perhaps the Sea Dweller as it is titanium. Windsor had one with a DLC finish but sadly it sold. They were asking full retail but were somewhat flexible .

Thanks, Stick! I did some surfing last night and it looked like SBGA463.

I'll look at both later on and learn the differences.

A quick browse of the [all well clear of my budget] GS models, these would be my top choices.
SBGC251 - nearly $12k
SBGY013 - $9k
SBGA469 - $5k [less than I was expecting]
SBGA439 - under $5k

I believe SBGC251 is the one stickman and I saw recently at our local AD.
SBGY013 is beautiful, I think, though the bracelet screams "old man."
It looks like the primary difference between SBGA469 and SBGA439 is the see-through back on the 469. Pictures on Seiko's web site make the 469 face look darker and more detailed. There may be more differences, but I don't yet see them.

The lovely Mrs CPD SIG and I spent the weekend in Vegas at the Wynn Hotel.
Beautiful shops inside the Hotel.

"Watches of Switzerland" Shop on one side-
Rolex, Grand Seiko, Tudor, Patek, Panerai, IWC, Zenith... you get the picture

https://www.watchesofswitzerla...tores/wynn-las-vegas

Omega shop on the other side.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard to resist.
(It may have been easier if I actually won )

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:
The lovely Mrs CPD SIG and I spent the weekend in Vegas at the Wynn Hotel.
Beautiful shops inside the Hotel.

"Watches of Switzerland" Shop on one side-
Rolex, Grand Seiko, Tudor, Patek, Panerai, IWC, Zenith... you get the picture

https://www.watchesofswitzerla...tores/wynn-las-vegas

Omega shop on the other side.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard to resist.
(It may have been easier if I actually won )

That’s awesome!!! I consider myself incredibly fortunate to live 15 or so minutes away from a luxury watch boutique that has every brand you mentioned except Rolex & IWC, though they did have a neat preowned IWC last time I was there as well as a few preowned Rolex watches.

What were some of your favorites? Did you get to look closely at any Zenith watches? That was one brand/ case where I really enjoyed talking with the brand representative as well as fellow watch enthusiasts at an event not too long ago.

The El Primero is a masterpiece of mechanical engineering as well as a true work of art.

Vegas is not the place to go if you have a watch addiction, have not seen that many stores since I was in Switzerland. I lost count of how many I walked into, Bucherer over at Caesars Forums Shops was excellent. Yea I hit all the ones at the Wynn after the breakfast buffet.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:


That’s awesome!!! I consider myself incredibly fortunate to live 15 or so minutes away from a luxury watch boutique that has every brand you mentioned except Rolex & IWC, though they did have a neat preowned IWC last time I was there as well as a few preowned Rolex watches.

What were some of your favorites? Did you get to look closely at any Zenith watches? That was one brand/ case where I really enjoyed talking with the brand representative as well as fellow watch enthusiasts at an event not too long ago.

The El Primero is a masterpiece of mechanical engineering as well as a true work of art.

I'm not going to lie, the temptation was STRONG!

The two that are on my short list are the
Tudor Pelagos (The had the Black and the Blue, as well as a left handed)
Omega Moonwatch- (Sapphire, tossup between the auto or a manual)
Toss in a Hamilton Ventura, maybe even get the original one I have up and running.

The Zeniths were nice.
The IWC Chrono's, well, there was a small puddle of drool on the floor when I left.

The Grand Seikos- A gentleman walked in and asked "Where are the Grand Seikos?"
My wife looks at me and says quizzically "The have Seikos?" (Thinking regular seikos)
"No baby, GRAND Seikos"
"What's the difference?"
The gentleman and I looked at each other and pretty much said "Oh, about ten grand."

The Glashutte Senator... WOW! just WOW!

My wife was liking the Jager-LeCoultre's

Back to the Tudor Pelagos-
My wife, being a "South Paw" really perked up when I said "Oh, you have the Left Handed one."
The sales woman, who was extremely helpful, just thought the crown was on the left side.
I had to give them a little further education on the Tudor Lefties.

Where did I learn this trivial, yet horology specific information about things like the "Roulette Wheel"?
Well, thanks to YOU, Mr Stickman!
And I gave you all the credit in front of my wife and the sales lady.
(I don't know if that's going to get you a discount, but you can try.)

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
Vegas is not the place to go if you have a watch addiction,

Vegas is not the place to go if you have an addiction period.

Anything and everything is out there.

CPD SIG,

that’s great!!! I am glad you got to check out a Pelagos LHD. It’s one of the coolest divers ever made.

Before I knew about the roulette day wheel I noticed pics of the LHD with either black or red dates and assumed incorrectly that all the days were red or black. I remember hoping mine was the red variant.

Imagine my surprise when I first adjusted the watch and learned that the red and black dates alternated.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
I believe SBGC251 is the one stickman and I saw recently at our local AD.
SBGY013 is beautiful, I think, though the bracelet screams "old man."
It looks like the primary difference between SBGA469 and SBGA439 is the see-through back on the 469. Pictures on Seiko's web site make the 469 face look darker and more detailed. There may be more differences, but I don't yet see them.

I think the SBGY013 would be my choice of those 4, but agree it needs a different bracelet.
Love the 'ice' dial & simplistic layout.
Accents the blue hand as well. Would be nice with a GMT addition.

But, with a MSRP of $9k, it's just a wishlist addition for now.

Edit: Looks like the SLGA009 is pretty similar with a better looking band & adding a date window.
No power reserve meter though.

Must. Stop. Browsing.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
Vegas is not the place to go if you have a watch addiction,

Vegas is not the place to go if you have an addiction period.

Anything and everything is out there.

Fortunately I only have a buffet addiction, not to expensive considering.