Goodbye to Another Wonderful Cat | Bowie. 2017 - 2025

Once again, our house feels different. 

We wake up in the morning, and he's not sitting outside our bedroom door. We come home from work, and he's not curled up asleep on a corner of the couch. We prepare dinner, and he doesn't walk in meowing as the plates are placed on the table.

April 30th. It was a Wednesday evening. I got home from work and my wife and daughter said they'd go get us some burgers for dinner. My son was out working, so it would just be the three of us. 

Off they went to a local burger joint (which ended up stuffing up their order) while I sat at the kitchen table taking some lenses off some cameras and swapping them around to see which lens would fit which camera. 

Ten minutes or so later the doorbell rang. It was a neighbour from a few houses down. He had a torch in his hand, as it was beginning to get dark.

"Hi, teeritz, it's ******, from number 4, Do you have a cat?"

I said that we did have a cat, and he explained that his wife had told him that a cat was lying on the nature strip outside their house. 

I headed out there with him and as I got closer to his house, I could see the familiar shape and colour of our cat, Bowie. 

"Oh, no, no, no", I thought to myself as I got closer. 

"Ahh, damn, Bo", I said as I crouched down to feel his chest and back. His eyes were slightly open, pupils fully dilated. He still felt warm, but didn't stir.

He was gone. 

"Oh, dammit", I said as I stood up, wondering what to do next. I thanked my neighbour and he asked if I needed any help. I told him I'd be okay and that I'd just go get a towel and be right back. He waited a minute or so for me to come back. He asked again if I needed any help. I thanked him and told him I'd be alright, as I crouched down and wrapped Bowie up in the towel. Burmese cats are known to be heavy, often described as 'bricks wrapped in silk'. He felt heavier right now as I bid my neighbour a goodnight and headed back to my house a few doors away. 

It was now around six-thirty pm on this chilly Autumn evening. My wife and daughter had been gone about 20 minutes. They should be back soon, I thought to myself as I sat down on the weight bench in our carport and looked down at this little cat in my lap, wondering how I would break the news to them. I stroked his cheek as my eyes welled up. 

"Oh, Bowie", I said as I continued patting him. I wondered if he had been hit by a car, but there were no marks or signs of trauma to his body. The tears kept coming. About ten minutes later, I got a message on my phone from my wife; "Sorry, an idiot took our order". 

That explained the fact that it was now around 30 minutes since they left. It was about twenty minutes later when I saw my wife's car turn into our street. It pulled into the driveway and as I sat on the bench, I looked up at my wife and daughter and shook my head. 

 

"What happened?", my daughter asked as she got out of the car. I explained what had occurred, but I had trouble getting it out. She said we have to take him to the vet, we have to take him to the vet. She was now understandably distraught.

I told her I'd been sitting with him now for over 30 minutes and I didn't think a vet would do any good. I took a slow deep breath and retold what had happened, my voice a little shaky. My wife was still trying to comprehend it. 

 

The above was written about a week after it occurred. I stopped writing because it was all still too raw.  I'll continue now (July 27th) and I'll see how long I last.

 

She had gotten home from work at around 5:45pm and my daughter had brought Bowie over to greet her. He seemed fine and his usual self, she told me. They then discussed dinner plans and I arrived home shortly afterwards.

We didn't see him around anywhere. He must've done his usual thing of heading out for a while before we had dinner. So, nothing unusual so far. My wife and daughter headed out to a local burger joint while I messed around with camera lenses before the doorbell rang and I got the awful news from my neighbour. 

 

Bowie was still wrapped in the towel and we got him into the car and made the short drive to a nearby animal hospital.  The girl at reception listened to our outline of events and called out a vet, who took Bo into another room. We waited about 20 minutes before the vet came out to tell us that there was nothing more that could be done. She said there was some fluid on his lungs and his front claws looked a little shredded. No evidence of impact, but it could have been a car. She based this on the condition of his claws. My wife said later that his claws were already like that and she had been meaning to trim them. We took him home and laid him out on his favourite cushion and draped his little blanket over him. 

All that was left now was to tell our son about it once he got home from work. There was no point in calling him while he was working. We didn't want to upset him. That would come later. 

Needless to say, the ladies of the household were very upset. 

 

Here he is, a few days after we first got him in 2017. He was very wary of us all and spent his first week hunkered down under our daughter's bed. Over the course of a few days, she noticed her socks were going missing. This cat had slowly hoarded a bunch of them and had arranged them in a semi-circle under her bed, like sand-bags. He'd built himself a fort. Took him quite some time to warm up to us all. My son was working nights back then, so he spent the most time with this little guy throughout the day, slowly coaxing him out from under the bed and playing with him during the day. Of course, we had Dussy, our other cat, who was older and she never really got comfortable with the idea of another cat in the house. That's putting it mildly. She hated him and would hiss whenever he came near. She did mellow a little in the last few years of her time with us. Regular readers may recall that she got ill very quickly in September 2023 and we had her put to sleep before her illness got worse.

 

Our son got home from work at around 10:30 that night and we broke the news to him. He was upset, but I think he wanted to hide it. That's okay. My wife and I did remind him that it was important to grieve in his own way and not to keep it bottled up. We told him it was unfair what had happened to Bo but it was important to deal with it. 

The next evening, my wife looked up a few pet cremation services online and found one that had gotten very good reviews. They were located on the other side of town. We made the necessary arrangements and provided a photo of Bowie - the one at the top of this post - and they were great to deal with, I have to say.  

My son brought Bowie into his room on the night that he died and placed him on the chair at his desk. This was a spot that Bo liked to sleep in during the day. 

It was a thoughtful gesture. Our son said that he didn't want Bowie left alone in the lounge room overnight. 

The next evening, we had taken Bo off the couch and placed him on his cushion. The pet cremation driver would be arriving soon. As I tilted Bo's head a little, some blood ran from his nostril. Once again, a reminder that he was truly gone. I dabbed at it with a tissue. 

My wife placed some leaves from a tree next to his head on the cushion. He liked sitting under that tree in Summer, she reminded me. 

In the coming days, I'd spend a few minutes here and there Googling info about how cats can die so suddenly, since I felt that the vet's conclusions were a little vague. 

Can Burmese cats die suddenly?, I Googled.
Yes, it turns out that they can. This breed is susceptible to heart issues. It would seem that he may have had a cardiac arrest. This didn't make me feel any better, but it did provide a possible answer to why he went so young. 

 

(August 3rd)

My wife was miserable in the days after he died. She said she just felt so sad about it, stating that he died so close to home, on a cold evening, without being with his people. 

 

We did, however, remind each other that we had all given him a nice life. 

Friday nights, my wife and I would make pizzas. The kids would be at work, so it was usually just the two of us. Bowie would appear in the dining area while we ate, and he would almost always end up with a piece of pizza crust to munch on, his little nose crinkling as he chewed.

Saturday nights were an especial treat for him. Again, the kids would be working and I would cook fish for my wife and I. 

Despite my cooking a smaller piece of salmon or barramundi for my wife, at her request, she would often not finish the entire piece, and guess who would be waiting for the leftovers?

This would later be followed by his normal 8:30-ish feed of meat. So, he was getting some surf & turf action going on Saturday nights. Living like a prince, he was. 

When I broke the news to my colleagues at work, I got some sympathetic responses from those who also own cats. One of them said; "I don't know which would be worse- a pet getting sick and dying or one that dies suddenly."

I didn't have a response at the time, but I've now had time to think about it, having experienced both outcomes. Dussy went downhill pretty quickly. She had a seizure on a Wednesday night and we saw a rapid downhill change in her health. She had trouble walking after that. The vet also said that her sight had gone. Her condition would worsen quickly. We had her put to rest the following Tuesday. It was very difficult to make the decision but it gave us time to come to terms with it. Not a lot of time, mind you, but enough for us to rally 'round and support each other while we made her as comfortable as we could in the time she had left. 

We would grieve afterwards. 

Whereas with Bowie, he was here at 6:00pm on a Wednesday evening and gone half an hour later. 

So, which would be worse, Lily? 

Losing a pet suddenly is worse. 

It's now just over three months since Bowie died. Till now, we weren't ready to look at getting another cat. However, chez Teeritz is a cat household, so it's only a matter of time. 

Since Bowie's passing, I've often thought that I could see one of our cats from the corner of my eye as I sat in the lounge room or dining area. When I've turned to look, I saw that it was a cardboard box or a shopping bag. My wife has said the same thing. So have the kids. The presence of our departed felines is still felt in this house. 

 

We visited the pet crematorium a week after they came to take Bowie away. We had the option of having his ashes posted back to us, but we didn't even entertain that idea, despite the fact that the crematorium was located way over on the other side of town. 

There was something cold and detached about Bo being sent in the mail. 

My wife and I drove out there on the Saturday morning and collected our little guy.  

We stopped off at a cafe on the way home. The little canister containing his ashes sat on the table between us. 

We soon finished our coffees and headed back to the car as the sun shone and the day warmed up. 

It was time to bring our beloved cat home. 

 

Despite the pain that one can go through when losing a pet, the joy and amusement that they provide far outweigh the grief that you experience once they're gone.  

And that's what I hold on to. 

Bowie lived half as long as our other beloved cat Dussy (still miss her), but he made a big impact on us all, and he had more of an effect on me than I thought he would. 

He will be sorely missed and always remembered in our household and we are grateful for the time that we had with him.

 

Thanks for reading.  

 

My Most-Worn Watches of 2024

Another year has flown by. I hope 2024 has been kind to you. My year was okay, with a few ups and downs, but nothing major either way.

And so, 2024's most-worn wristwatches. I looked at last year's post and I'm not sure if I'll be able to top it with regard to how much info I'll put into this post, the amount of photos I take, etc, but we'll see how we go.

So...

 

1) Rolex Explorer, Ref.: 124270 (2023)

 

Having spent 69 days of last year clipped to my wrist, I knew it would be high up on the list but I wasn't expecting it to take top spot. 

This watch has a long history within the Rolex brand and some watch nerds consider it a bit of a sleeper these days, as demand for other sports models, such as the Submariner and GMT Master, tend to dominate social media posts and dealer wait lists. For me, though, the beauty of this watch lies in its understated aesthetic and low-key vibe. 

Glossy black dial, with bold hour markers and numerals, perfect (for me) 36mm case diameter, and held together by the classic Rolex Oyster bracelet.

This bracelet design has been much copied by various brands since the late 1950s, but to the trained eye, there's no mistaking the Rolex design. It looks as good as the actual watch itself, and whenever some other brand copies the Oyster bracelet a little too closely, it always looks like it doesn't belong on the watch. 

And, tenuous as it may seem, there's the Bond Connection. I'm sure I've stated this before, but here I go again, as a refresher. Ian Fleming wrote a Rolex watch onto OO7's wrist in his second book, Live And Let Die, in 1954. He described it as a "Rolex Oyster Perpetual, with large phosphorous numerals, on an expanding metal bracelet."

My theory is that this here was the watch, the Reference 6150, from the early 1950s;

 

Reason being, as Fleming was such a stickler for details and brand names, if Bond's watch had had the word 'EXPLORER' printed on the dial, Fleming would have mentioned it. This model doesn't have the Explorer name on the dial.

Again, it's just a theory of mine. Internet watch and Bond bloggers like to go on about Bond having worn the Explorer model in the novels, as Fleming himself was known to have owned one;

 

However,  as I say, if Bond's watch had had the Explorer name across the dial, I think Fleming would have stated this. 

As 1950s Britain was still adjusting to life in the aftermath of World War II, Fleming had created a globe-trotting secret agent who had a taste for the finer things, and something as simple as a wristwatch with the word 'EXPLORER' emblazoned across the dial would have added a further tinge of adventure and exoticism to the world of OO7.

Fleming went to the trouble of describing Bond's own personal car, a 20 year-old 3-and-a-half-litre Bentley with souped-up engine, and wrote of  OO7's breakfast preference for Cooper's Vintage Oxford Marmalade and eggs that were hard-boiled for 3 minutes and 20 seconds (made using "speckled brown eggs from French Marans hens", for crying out loud).

Sure, my own little wristwatch theory is not much to go on, but this is the kind of speculating that keeps Bond/Watch nerds like myself awake at night. 

Regardless, whatever Bond wore, the current model Rolex Explorer is a formidable timepiece (hated phrase, that) and is one that fully deserves its iconic status. It's robust, understated, and very, very accurate. Mine runs consistently at - 2 seconds per day, which is perhaps the most accurate watch I've ever owned. Sure, I'd prefer it if my watches gained time rather than lost, but it's a very small quibble, and I can have it adjusted when the time comes to have the watch serviced in about five or six years. 

 

Bond fans are forever.

 

2) Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, Ref,: 79030N (2020)

My 1982 model Rolex Submariner 5513 (archive pic below)...

...is currently being serviced by Rolex and I should have it back sometime in the next few weeks. As such, it didn't spend much time on my wrist last year. Once I get it back, I'll see how I feel about it. At the moment, I'm in a 50/50 state of mind regarding whether to keep it or not. 

Either way, I've had the Tudor BB58 for just over four years and, IMHO, it represents the kind of dive watch that Rolex used to make. 

As such, this Tudor wound up taking 2nd place to the Explorer, clocking up 59 days on my wrist throughout 2024. Sure, it doesn't possess the iconic status of the Submariner, but that's not the reason why I buy watches to begin with, even though I do have a few classic watches in the collection. In my view, the Black Bay 58 was an instant classic the day it was first released in 2018 and it continues to be a strong seller for the Tudor brand. Detractors would argue that the Black Bay range is Tudor's one-trick-pony, but the brand has other product families that provide some nice and dressy alternatives to the sportier Black Bay series. It's just that the Black Bay models managed to hit the ground running upon their first release back in 2012 and they have never looked back. 

I'm wearing my Black Bay 58 as I write this portion of this post and this watch still impresses me as much now - if not more so -  as it did the day I got it. There is a lot to like about the BB58. The simplicity of the dial layout, which makes for easy legibility. The perfectly sized 39mm diameter of the case, which works on various wrist sizes. The accuracy of the movement and its 70 hour power reserve.

Again the detractors have their list of gripes about this watch and I suppose I can go through what I think about about it all while I'm here. From what I've read on various watch forums over the years, here are some objections to this watch;

 

1) The design borrows/steals too heavily from Rolex.

       Well, Rolex still makes the Submariner and it is a beautifully made wristwatch. I handle them on an almost daily basis when they come in for servicing and I always take a few seconds longer than required to admire them. However, on my skinny little 6.5 inch wrist, the current model Sub just looks too large on me. The case lugs are wider than they used to be and it makes the entire watch dominate the top of my wrist. The Tudor BB58 sits nicer on me. 

Naysayers will then go on about the dial design and layout, stating that it's a poor blend of a Rolex Submariner dial that clashes with Tudor Submariner* snowflake hands. This don't bother me in the slightest. I fully accept that this is a watch whose design delves into Tudor's archives while also giving a nod to its parent company Rolex. Besides, I like the round hour markers, as they are a reminder of Tudor dive models of the past.

*The Tudor Submariner was produced throughout the late 1950s till the mid-1990s. The 1970s model that began using the snowflake hand-set design - in an effort to distinguish it a little more from the same-era Rolex Submariner's classic 'Mercedes' hour-hand design - looked like this;

 

Picture lifted from; https://www.analogshift.com | Tudor Submariner MN

 

This watch was issued to divers of the French Navy, officially referred to as the Marine Nationale, but also known as La Royale. These watches had case-back engravings to designate them as official navy-issue items. This particular model has a crisp and bold 'M.N.79' engraved across the case-back to signify its issue to French navy divers, and to show how bad-ass it is. 

And, that snowflake hour hand holds a lot more lume than a Mercedes hour hand - as seen on the Explorer up top. Which would be a consideration for a naval diver who might be operating in pitch-black or low-light conditions. 

You'll notice the difference between the hour markers of this watch and the Black Bay 58. The square design (again, more lume) mimics the boxy snowflake. 

So, does Tudor borrow (or steal) from Rolex? Nope, not as far as I'm concerned. Tudor had its own lineage back in those days.

When Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf decided to create a new watch brand with Rolex parts, designs and durability, his intention was to make a watch for the working man. Something more affordable than a Rolex, but with a similar durability and reliability. And so, the Tudor watch brand was born in 1946, using cases, dials, crowns, hands, etc made by Rolex, but fitted with outsourced, rather than in-house, movements. This is what kept prices lower for a Tudor watch.

While Tudor may have existed in Rolex's shadow for a long time, it has distanced itself a little in the last decade, with it's own range of bestsellers. 

 

2) There's too much gilt accenting on the watch.

       Gilt accents are the little touches of gold that you see on the dial, hands, and bezel insert. On this watch, I like it, as it again harks back to vintage models from the late 1950s. 

 

3) The lume on the dial and hands is fauxtina.

       Fauxtina is a made-up word. When white hands and markers age on a watch, they begin to go off-white, then pale cream, then a darker shade of cream (sometimes pumpkin orange, eeeww!), then greenish, then brown. This is referred to as patina. Much like if a yellow painted fence begins to get paler due to constant UV exposure.

When a watch brand uses off-white, cream, or sandy-beige coloured lume for the hands and markers, it is often disparagingly referred to on watch forums as fauxtina. Fake patina. 

Me? I don't mind it if it's off-white or cream. I get steamed if brands use a sandy shade of beige, as it gives me the impression that the lume is older than it really is. Makes the whole watch look decrepit, in my view. To each their own.

The cream-coloured lume complements the gilt accents of the watch. 

 

4) The bezel insert is aluminium. Makes the watch look cheap. Why couldn't they use ceramic?

       Are you kidding? I'm GLAD it's aluminium. Sure, it might scratch easier than ceramic (no noticeable scratches on any of my watches with aluminium bezels thus far), but I've seen enough watches with ceramic bezel inserts which show little chips (or worse, cracks) here and there. Nahh, give me aluminium any day of the week. 

Ceramic doesn't belong on a watch case. Ceramic, as I've said often enough, is for teacups and toilets.

And, my personal favourite/s;

5) Tudors are for people who can't afford a Rolex/Tudor is a poor man's Rolex.

       Yeah, and? What's your point, bud? This one bugs me because it comes from a place of snobbery and nastiness. There's enough of that in every corner of existence, so if we can leave it out of a discussion about wristwatches, that would be great.

I can look at any modern Rolex watch and see the DNA of Rolexes past, I can see the history behind it, the work that's gone into the production of the watch, and how it has achieved its legendary place in the world of wristwatches. I wonder if these people can. 

Or did they buy it because buying a Rolex watch is what you're meant to do when you've 'made it'?

An exclusivity brag? An Instagram flex?

A Tudor watch is wonderfully well made and extremely reliable. 

And it's not trying to compete with Rolex. 

Never was. 

I learned a long time ago not to worry so much about what other people think. As such, I have a varied collection of watches that cover a wide range of brands and models. The type of person who might gush over my 1982 Submariner would not even look twice at my Baltic Hermétic Tourer. I've spoken to my fair share of watch people over the years who have cultivated a type of 'level up' mentality, whereby they keep aiming for more expensive watches or brands as their collecting journey progresses, to the point where some of them end up with a bunch of fifteen to twenty thousand dollar pieces. Or more. Good for them, I say, but my head doesn't work the same way. I simply like wristwatches, so I can get just as enthused about a two hundred dollar Seiko as I would about a fifteen thousand dollar Rolex. 

3) Omega Seamaster Professional 300m, Ref,:2531,80.00 (1999)

       This one took me by surprise. I wore it over 49 days of 2024 and, while I suspected it might get some more time on the wrist once I'd made the hand conversion, I was still surprised to see this watch take the third spot on this list. The Seamaster Professional had a stellar run. First produced in 1993, it ended up on Pierce Brosnan's wrist in Goldeneye in 1995 (in it's quartz iteration) and soon became a juggernaut model for the Omega brand.

I wore this watch virtually every day for the fist six years that I had it, before my collection began to get larger, and it served me faithfully. 

As the years rolled by, and I got older, I began to have trouble reading the time on this watch in low-light or total darkness. Those skeleton hands don't carry much lume on them. The watch began to be worn less and less. This was a bit of a shame because it fit me very well and its case profile was quite slim, unlike a lot of dive watches nowadays that are quite thick.

So, I began to wonder if there was something that I could do about the hands.

 

I had read on forums about some folks who had been thinking along the same lines and had found a solution.

The 1960s Seamaster 300 model had a wonderful sword-shaped hand-set;

 

With a little fiddling (not to be attempted by the faint-of-heart), these sword hands could be fitted to the Seamaster Professional 300m. 

As luck would have it, the watchmaker that I work with told me that he just might have a set of these hands at home, and he'd bring them in. 

He brought them in the next day and, lo and behold, the hour hand slotted onto the central pipe without any issues but the minute hand would require some delicate broaching to make it fit. 

Basically, the hole at the end of the minute hand would need to be reamed out slightly to make it a fraction larger, so that it could fit securely onto the pipe. 

Each pipe is narrower and slightly shorter than the one inside it, a bit like an extendable transistor radio antenna. Hour hand slots onto the widest pipe, minute hand goes onto the next narrowest one, and the seconds hand goes onto the smallest. Each of these pipes rotate at different speeds, with the seconds one being the fastest, for obvious reasons. It rotates 360 degrees once every minute (60 seconds). Now, I'm no watchmaker, but I think that's how it all works. 

Anyway, the sword hands were fitted to the watch and this was the end result;

 

Yep, that worked out nicely. To the extent that I began to wear the watch a lot more than I had in a long time. 

I have given some thought to getting an after-market bracelet for the watch, just to further 'de-Bond' it a little. The classic brickwork bracelet that this watch is known for seems to have dated a little in my view. Although, who knows? I might just put the original bracelet back on. Not sure.

T'is a fickle business, this watch collecting. 

The watch tends to look good and feel quite comfortable on a nylon NATO strap, though, so I might just leave it on this or maybe switch it out to a rubber strap for the Summer months. 

Either way, I'm very happy with this conversion. Collectors will scoff, but what the hell. 

This simple conversion has rescued this classic Omega from spending more time in the watch box than it really should. Since it's perhaps the longest-owned watch that I have, it deserves to be worn. And I still have the original hands set aside, should I ever wish to reverse the process. All good. 

 

 4) Baltic Hermétique Tourer (2024)

 

I got this watch in late August and by year's end, I was surprised to find that it had made it into the Top Six. 

It racked up 33 days on the wrist in a very short time.

At a wonderful 37mm in diameter, it makes for an extremely wearable watch. Baltic is a brand that popped up on Kickstarter in 2016 and hasn't looked back since, having released over half a dozen different models of varying designs with great success since then.

I opted for the brown dial, which you could refer to as chocolate or tobacco, given the rich hue of it. I don't have any watches in brown, so I figured I'd break up the collection a little. The dealer I went to (Time + Tide, Melbourne, Australia) only had this model in stock on a brown Tropic rubber strap. Fine by me, for the time being. I asked them to place an order for the metal bracelet in the meantime. 

In saying that, the rubber strap is super-comfortable on the wrist, with a nice pliability to it. I've purchased some rubber straps of this type that were about ten bucks and were very uncomfortable to wear, leaving a deep imprint on the wrist after a day's wear. Something to avoid if possible. 

 

It's a great little watch. The dial has a couple of layers to it, with the extreme outer edge of the dial - along the minute track - having a sunken layer to the rest of the dial. 

As for the dial itself, it's a stunner despite its minimalism. The hour marker batons and four Arabic numerals at the cardinal points are made of SuperLuminova. As a result, aside from glowing nicely in the dark, these markers and numbers look like they were piped onto the dial, like lettering on a chocolate birthday cake. The syringe-shaped hands have a generous fill of lume as well. This watch looks as good in the dark as it does in daylight. 

The bracelet arrived soon enough and onto the watch it went. This Baltic has 150 metres of water-resistance, so it should handle anything that I may throw at it. 

 

A word on water-resistance 

                                      I do tend to go on and on about it, I know. And I always go for watches with more water-resistance (w/r) than I'll ever need. The most that my watches would be subjected to is a day at the beach or pool. I'm of the opinion that 100m will handle pretty much anything that a mere mortal will put their wristwatch through. Now, I've sometimes read on watch forums of people who have swum laps in a pool with their 50m w/r Omega Speedmaster Professionals (the 'Moonwatch' that...you know...went to the moon) on their wrist with no issues whatsoever. 

I have also read of somebody who got caught in a storm wearing his Moonwatch with jeans and a t-shirt and water/moisture got into the watch. 

Here's the thing; if you have the watch pressure-tested once a year before the Summer season, you should be okay. 'Should' being the operative word here. 

I know myself well enough to know that I'm not disciplined enough to pressure-test my watches once a year. 

And, some brands will say you can swim with a 50m w/r watch, while others will say it'll just handle accidental splashes or a rinse of your hands. So, to play it safe, I won't put a watch underwater unless it's 100m w/r or more.  Your methods may vary, and good for you. 

One slight gripe about this Baltic Hermétique. The winding crown sits flush against the case, hence the "hermétique' designation in the name of the watch. This makes winding the watch a bit of a challenge, but I knew this when I signed on. No biggie.

Movado used to make some fantastic pocket/purse watches in the 1920s-1960s that were called Ermeto. These were designed to be totally sealed cases and they had a crown that would sit flat against the case when not being wound or set. 

 

The two leather-clad halves of the watch could be slid together - like theatre curtains - to 'shut' the watch closed. Notice the thin crown sitting flush against the case.

Wikipedia | Photo Attribution ; By Jafd88 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Anyway, the Baltic Hermétique Tourer's crown. Yes, it's super thin and hard to grasp, but the way around this is to give the watch a couple of turns with your fingers, difficult if your fingers are the size of hot dog franks. Then, give the watch a couple of shakes. The way I do this is to hold the by its bracelet so the that the watch protrudes from my hand and then I give it a flick, the way you might when you cast out a fishing rod. You should hear the rotor inside the movement whirring as it spins. I do this a couple of times, then I set the watch and go about my day. Pulling the crown out to set the time offers a little resistance, possible due to the rubber gaskets in the crown tube that are designed to make the watch 150m water-resistant. Like I say, no biggie. 

 

Here it is on the bracelet, a nice bead-of-rice design (due to the shape of the central links which mimic grains of rice) that makes for a very comfy fit on the wrist. The smaller the links on a watch bracelet, the more it will follow the curvature of the wrist.

Notice how the crown practically disappears into the case side. Nifty, and it gives the watch a nice old-school 1950s vibe. 

The finish on the case is wonderful,  with its blend of brushed and polished surfaces. This is indeed a watch that punches above its weight. Internally, the watch is powered by a Japanese Miyota 9039 Calibre, made by Citizen, and it keeps pretty good time. The use of this well-regarded movement helps to keep the price down below a thousand AUD, when purchased on the rubber strap. It also means that any watchmaker who knows what he's doing would be able to service it without any dramas.

All in all, it's been a great watch so far. If you were to dip a toe in mechanical watch waters, this brand would be a good place to start.

 

 5) Seiko Prospex Solar Diver's 200m, Ref.:SNE585P (2023)

 

Another surprise. I hadn't realised that I'd worn this one so much last year. Twenty-five days of 2024 saw it narrowly taking 5th place.

 

This watch is a slightly smaller diver than I'm used to but this was exactly what I was looking for. Measuring 38mm in diameter, it is a barely noticeable fraction smaller than the Tudor BB58 and it sits nicely on the wrist. 

I was after something solar-powered. I'd briefly looked at the Seiko Speedtimer Chronograph, but wasn't thrilled with the larger thickness, and I was preferring a dive watch anyway, as I thought it might make a good watch for travel. Besides, the Speedtimer was going to cost more than I was wanting to spend. 

This Solar Diver ticked more boxes for me. And it was on sale, too! 

I opted for the blue dial, to add a little difference to my stable of black-dialled dive watches. The bracelet was the standard pin and tube configuration and it felt a fragile to me, so I soon got an Uncle Straps Oyster-style bracelet for it. 

The dial of the watch is a solar panel and if you leave the watch in good sunlight for a couple of hours, it should give you about ten MONTHS running time before the watch stops. It has a battery in it, which should last about ten years, from what I've read. Nice.
 

This has quickly become my travel watch. I've only taken it overseas twice, but it has served me well. The set-and-forget nature of a battery-powered watch is a definite plus for me when traveling, as I have enough to concern myself with. Currency exchange rates, phone chargers, language barriers, etc, can occupy enough space in my head when I travel, so if I can remove a minor distraction or task, then I'm all for it. 

And, should this watch be heavily damaged or, worse yet, stolen, I won't shed too many a tear over it, as it can be replaced. 

 

I've switched it over to rubber straps and NATO bands from time to time but it seems to end up back on bracelet before too long. Fine by me. 

It also makes a good watch to wear on those (unfortunately too rare) occasions when I do a workout. Knocking this watch against dumbells, etc poses no problems at all, and it may look good with a few scuffs and scratches anyway.

 

Seiko is a favourite brand of mine, and it's because the brand makes watches like this. I did read a snippet from an interview with the Seiko CEO and he stated that the brand cannot be all things to all people, indicating that Seiko may not always make inexpensive watches such as these. Remember that this is a company that makes a $100 mechanical watch as well as the venerable Grand Seiko brand, which starts at three or four thousand AUD. 

For now, though, Seiko still produces a dependable solar-powered watch for not a lot of money. 

Such as this one.

 6) Omega Seamaster Railmaster Co-Axial, Ref.:2504.52.00 (2009)

 

I sold this watch to a customer back in 2009 and he wanted to sell it a few years later, to help fund his impending wedding, and he offered me first dibs on it. It was impossible to say 'no', since I had wanted one for a while but by 2012, this 36mm model - along with the rest of the Railmaster range - had been discontinued. 

I wore it a lot in the years after I got it but I'd always found its crappy clasp set-up to be its Achilles Heel. It's a flimsy arrangement, held together by a tiny screw. I wrote about this in last year's Most-Worn Watches post, if you'd like more info.

Aside from that, I can't fault this watch at all, as it encompasses a lot of what I like or want from a wristwatch. 

I solved the clasp issue by changing the bracelet over to a mix of two aftermarket bracelets. It was quite a fluke. I used the end-link from a Forstner Flat-link bracelet and attached it to an Uncle Straps FOIS bracelet. This combo leaves about a half-a-millimetre gap which is barely visible. AND it has a standard push-button folding clasp. Nice. And it definitely solved the problem, resulting in the watch getting a new lease on life and getting regular time on the wrist again, spending 23 days on the wrist last year.

 

Much like the Rolex Explorer, the Railmaster keeps things fairly simple with a dark dial with Arabic numerals at the cardinal points, making for clear legibility. 

Add a sapphire crystal and 150 metre water-resistance and you have a GADA watch, which in watch-nerd terminology stands for 'Go Anywhere, Do Anything'. 

I've had this watch for over a decade and it is surely due for servicing. Twenty-twenty-five is the year of maintenance for a few of my watches and this one will most likely be attended to at some point. 

And that's 2024's list done and dusted. As you may notice, it was mainly dive watches and Expedition watches. I didn't plan it that way but that's how it turned out. It gives a pretty good indication of my current tastes. 

Regarding 2025, as mentioned up above, my Submariner (Ref.: 5513) is currently being serviced - long overdue - and I'll hopefully have it back before end of January;

 

I'm undecided as to whether I'll keep it after I get it back. Part of me is thinking about moving it along and replacing it with a more modern version, one that has a sapphire crystal, such as a Reference 16610 from around 2008. Or perhaps a mid-'80s Reference 16800, which was a transitional model between my watch and the 16610. 

It had the same dial as my 5513 - with the plain white lume plots - but it was the first Submariner model to incorporate a sapphire crystal. 

On the other hand, the 16610 model made a change to the dial by surrounding the painted hour markers with a white gold ring, as seen on this 2002 model, picture courtesy of HQ Milton.com;

 

This simple upgrade vastly changed the look of the Rolex Submariner, in my humble op. Of course, it is a phenomenal watch and sold a truck-load.
The Reference 16610 was the watch that brought the Submariner out into the light. 

The watch conoscenti had always known about the Submariner's place among collectors but this model managed to work its way onto the wrists of folks who wanted a long-established, robust and reliable sports watch from a well-known brand. The Rolex marketing machine purred along smoothly throughout the 1980s and '90s, thus creating a demand for their products that was unprecedented in its history. 

This demand shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, it's quite the opposite nowadays. If you want a Rolex Submariner - or virtually any other Rolex wristwatch - you'll likely need to put you name down on a waiting list and then be prepared to wait. 

And I mean wait. Production just cannot keep up with demand, and it's been like this for almost a decade.

 

Either way, I'm not in the market for a new Submariner. I'd be happy with a model from anywhere between 1990 and 2010. For now, I'm just speculating anyway.

I'll have to give some very serious thought to whether or not my Sub stays or goes. For now, like I say, I'm 50/50 about it. 

 

Aside from that, nothing else on the horizon. I did notice that I wasn't switching watches with the same regularity as years gone by. I used to wear a different watch every day, but found myself wearing the same watch for three or four days at a time last year.

From time to time, I'd read an article about somebody who owns two or three different watches and I'd be a little envious of them. The more you wear a particular watch, the more it gets tied to your identity or personality. And of course, it accumulates more scuffs, scratches and dents over time, in the end making the watch truly yours. There's something to be said for that. 

Another thing that a small collection gives you is freedom from having to decide what watch to wear on any given day. 

As Henry Kissinger once said; The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

Most likely, he only owned one wristwatch. 

No fool. 

Thanks for reading!

 

2024 - September | Binge-Watching Mrs Maisel, and a New Wristwatch

It's been a busy year work-wise, but I've managed to keep my department under control and operating reasonably smoothly. I've enjoyed going to work and dealing with the day-to-day aspects of the job. There have been no major dramas and all of the minor ones have been easily handled. 

In terms of my leisure time, this year has seen me reading far less than last year, which comprised mainly of espionage fiction;

Books Read in 2023

 

Trinity Six by Charles Cumming 

- Journalist chasing a story about spies recruited in the 1930s. Has a le Carré vibe to it. Pretty good.

The Catch (novella) by Mick Herron 

- The completist in me begins reading as much of Herron's work as possible.

All The Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer 

- American spy author. Very well written and plotted.

The Afghan by Fredrick Forsyth 

- Forsyth's research skills are as sharp as ever. Book was okay, maybe a 6/10.

Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood (didn't finish it) 

- About the Double-O Section's other operatives. Bond is missing. So was my interest in this book, which took too many liberties with the world of OO7.

Standing By The Wall (novella) by Mick Herron 

- The completist continues...

The List (novella) by Mick Herron 

- and on...

The Drop (novella) by Mick Herron 

- ...and on. I did like these little novellas, as they provided some insight about the characters in Herron's other novels.

Spook Street by Mick Herron 

- A Slough House* novel. Great

London Rules by Mick Herron 

- Another Slough House novel. Excellent.

Nobody Walks by Mick Herron 

- A stand-alone book, about an ex-spy now living in France, who returns to London after the death of his son. Some Slough House characters show up. Great book.

Reconstruction by Mick Herron 

- Another stand-alone story, again with some Slough House cameos. And again, a great story. Herron writes good characters.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré 

- Read it back in the late '80s. Figured it was due for a re-read. A bleak anti-Bond story.

Winter Work by Dan Fesperman - Set just after The Wall came down. Interesting premise, well-written, but it doesn't seem like a great deal happens. I think I'll have to read it again before I make a definite judgement on it.

A Spy By Nature by Charles Cumming - First in a subsequent series of books about Alec Milius, freshly recruited into British Intelligence. Don't recall much about it, but I did like the writing. Another one that will require a re-read.

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett - Another book that I first read back in the '80s. Thought I could use a break from all the spy stuff.

Damascus Station by David McCloskey - Debut book by McCloskey and it was great. 

*Slough House

Herron's first book, Slow Horses, concerned a bunch of f*ck-ups from British Intelligence who have been relegated to a quiet division in Slough House, led by one Jackson Lamb, a burn-out who's best work may be behind him. This crew, nick-named the slow horses by the rest of MI5, spend their days doing extremely menial and nonsensical tasks, in the hope that they'll get so bored and/or disillusioned that they'll resign, thus sparing any Human Resources headaches for Head Office. 

One of the slow horses left a secret file on a train, another is a coke-fiend, another is a problem gambler. It's for reasons like these that they have been swept under the mat into Slough House. 

Jackson Lamb drinks, smokes...and farts too much. He despises his crew (hoping that they'll quit), but he despises MI5 Head Office even more, and his one major ace up his sleeve is his razor-sharp mind. Whatever he's become that has led him to Slough House, he's still a master-spy.

Mick Herron has created a credible world, filled with a variety of characters in a shady corner of the already shady intelligence universe. 

 

Since signing up for Amazon Prime and Disney + this year, I've been watching a little more TV. One show that I'd been meaning to watch was The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

This show centres around Miriam 'Midge' Maisel, a young housewife living on the Upper West Side. Her husband Joel works as an executive in the city and he has ambitions of becoming a stand-up comedian. 

Problem is, he's not very funny. Midge gives him a lot of encouragement, proof-reads his routines, and generally supports his dream. One night, after a dismal performance on stage at The Gaslight Café, Joel accuses her of not being supportive of his comic ambitions and tells her he is leaving, after admitting that he's been having an affair with his secretary.

Joel leaves, and in a drunken rage, Midge ends up on the stage at The Gaslight Café, and delivers an observational rant that has the audience laughing, and the club manager Susie Myerson quickly realises that she may have a major talent on her hands. 

 

Midge is soon arrested by police for some lewd remarks during her impromptu performance and hauled off to the station. Groundbreaking '60s comedian Lenny Bruce, performing a set at the Gaslight also, is arrested as well. He becomes a recurring character in the show. 

There's a lot going on in this show throughout its five seasons. Midge establishes her own set of rules and conditions in her attempt to become a stand-up comedian in an era when women weren't encouraged to pursue this kind of career. Susie Myerson attempts to set herself up as a talent manager for Midge and other acts. Midge's parents have their own struggle in trying to understand and accept their daughter's new-found chosen vocation, while her ex-husband Joel attempts to find his own path in life. 

The acting is top-notch throughout, as evidenced by the numerous Emmy awards the show's creators and cast have garnered in recent years. 

Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was responsible for Gilmour Girls (2000-2007), this show is extremely well done in almost every respect. The casting is wonderful, with particular mentions to Rachel Brosnahan as Midge, and Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson. Together, these two actresses carry the bulk of the show. 

 

Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam 'Midge' Maisel (left) and Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson. Two wonderful actresses, showcasing exemplary performances of two strong female characters with a wonderful friendship, which is the back-bone of the show, IMHO. Whenever Midge is about to go on stage, Susie's catch-phrase is a short and sweet break-a-leg statement; "Tits up". Only two words, but the meaning is profound, in my view - You're a woman, working in the predominantly male world (of stand-up comedy), so rope the audience in initially with your feminine charms, be proud, and then slay them with your comedic prowess. You are woman, let them hear you roar. Then they'll roar with laughter.

Extra-special mention goes to Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman, Midge's father, a Mathematics Professor at Columbia University, and Kevin Pollack as Moshe Maisel, Joel's father, who runs a garment business. 

In saying that, though, I can't fault anybody in the cast. Marin Hinkle and Caroline Aaron do a great job as Rose Weissman, Midge's mother, and Shirley Maisel, Joel's mother, respectively, each imbuing their characters with recognisable traits and mannerisms. 

And then there's the camera-work and cinematography! Outstanding. Beautifully lit and staged, with a cinematic quality to it all. 

 

 

There's a scene where Midge is about to entertain some troops and it starts with a Rockettes-style opening dance number on stage. Watching it, I couldn't help feeling that the way it was staged and shot, it wouldn't look out of place in a Spielberg movie. The production values and camera work were movie-quality. 

 

If I have one beef about the show, it would be the dialogue at times. Portions of it contained phrases that didn't exist in late '50s/early '60s America. 

When Midge recounts her first arrest to a subsequent audience at the Gaslight Café, she says; "And there I was, being perp-walked into the station."

When she tells of an incident where her young son was being indolent, she says; "I could take him."

These are modern terms and phrases, that appeared to take me out of the Mid-Century world of the show.  I suppose I can understand why they might have been included. 

Modern parlance would appeal to a modern audience. 

It's just that, given the attention to detail utilised in re-creating a 1950s diner, a street filled with big fat Buicks, Plymouths and Chryslers, and Midge's wonderful Audrey Hepburn-esque wardrobe, the modern lingo seems a little out of place.

In saying that, though, it is used pretty sparingly throughout the series, so it doesn't jar too much. 

Maybe I'm just being finicky. 

 

The attention to detail and homages to Old Hollywood are evident throughout the show.

There's a scene in Season 4 where Midge is working as emcee at a seedy strip club which is soon  raided by police and everybody scrambles out of every possible exit to avoid getting arrested. If you had sat me down in front of a tv without me knowing what or where this scene was from, I'd almost have believed it was an out-take or deleted scent out of Billy Wilder's The Apartment or Irma La Douce. You'd almost expect to see a young Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine in it. 

And the Steadicam work is wonderful.

 

While it presents one or two clichés here and there - Not all Italians sit around singing Funiculí, Funiculá - it avoids the worn-out trope where Susie shows any attraction to Midge. Their friendship is built on mutual respect and looking out for each other and I'm glad that the show didn't go in an obvious direction. Like Midge's yearning to be  a stand-up, Susie's ambition - to become a talent manager - is an uphill battle in a world full of male talent agents and the series charts her struggle, but she's a tough-talking, chain smoking, foul-mouthed gal who gets sharper at the job as the show progresses and she gives the boys a run for their money.

 

I can't fault this show, to be honest. Just about every character has a major arc in their individual stories, the performances are superb, the writing and plotting are on-point, and it's all very pretty to look at. 

Worth catching this show, if you haven't seen it. 

 

I picked up a new watch in August. The Baltic Hermétique Tourer. 

Baltic was started back in 2016 by Étienne Malec. He soon launched a campaign on Kickstarter, with the aim of getting enough backers to fund the production of a three-hand watch and a vintage-styled chronograph with a bi-compax dial. These watches would be vintage-inspired designs made using modern materials. 

His Kickstarter goal was to raise €65,000.oo. 

He ended up getting pledges for €514,806.oo over the 35-day period of his campaign.

 

Here are the two watches that were funded by his Kickstarter campaign;

 

Since then, he has expanded the brand to encompass 11 different models. Baltic has become one of the success stories of the wristwatch micro-brand world. Easy to see why. As I work in the watch industry, and have been collecting watches for twenty-five years, I spend a lot of time on the web looking at watches. Micro-brands pop up all the time. Some of them are good, offering a different perspective to much of what is already being produced. 

Some of them are derivative of existing or classic designs and don't really bring anything new to the table and end up looking like direct copies, with just a small tweak here and there to keep the lawyers away. 

And some of them are not very nice at all, lifting numerous aesthetic cues from other brands, to produce a watch that has already been done better by somebody else. Very often, these kinds of micro-brands cut a few corners during the production phase and this becomes evident when one takes a good close look at the final product. 

Baltic produces watches with a vintage vibe. While they don't mimic any exact watch from the past, their designs evoke the look of watches from the late 1940s through to the early 1970s. 

Anyway, you can always check out their website;

 

Baltic Watches 

Meanwhile, back to my Baltic watch. I've always liked the simplicity of a basic time-only wristwatch with a clearly laid-out dial. Often referred to as an "Expedition watch", this type of watch was perhaps first made popular by the Rolex Explorer, from back in the early/mid 1950s. Other brands made watches of a similar style. Two that immediately come to mind are the 1957 Omega Railmaster;

Pic borrowed from blommanwatchreport.com

 

This watch did okay for Omega, but never reached the same heights as their Speedmaster chronograph and Seamaster dive watch, both released that same year. The Railmaster was discontinued in 1963 and a new edition was released in 2003, in three different case sizes. A 60th anniversary model was produced in 2017, a virtual copy - based on Omega's archival blueprints - and this was followed by a new modern iteration the year after. 

For my money, though, the early Noughties edition is the stand-out. I got the 36mm model in 2012 and have never looked back. For those who may not know, my review is to be found on this blog via the 'Watch Reviews' tab up above. 

You can see the simplicity of the dial layout on a watch like this. Very easy at-a-glance readability.

Another watch that was touted as suitable for expeditions was the Nivada Grenchen Antarctic. As seen in this magazine advertisement, lifted from...

 Hodinkee.com | Hands-On: Vintage Or Modern? The New Nivada Grenchen Antarctic 35mm Helps Us Take On The Age-Old Debate

...this watch was marketed as being worn and used during Operation DeepFreeze, a US-led expedition to the Antarctic by Admiral Richard Byrd in the 1950s. 

As you can see, these watches looked like most other day-to-day men's watches of the era, but they were quite hardy and, if much of the advertising is to be believed, these watches stood up to quite a bit of punishment. 

A lot of basic men's watches were put through the ringer during these expeditions. There's the well-known (among Tudor watch nerds, anyway) letter that was written in 1956 to Rolex - Tudor's parent company  - about how well an Oyster-Prince model fared throughout the British North Greenland Expedition;

Dig that letterhead! 

As is pretty much well-known among us watch nerds, Edmund Hilary wore a British-made Smiths De Luxe mechanical watch  during his ascent up Mount Everest in 1953. 

These simple watches, worn during these endeavours, could take a beating. Their dials were clear and easy to read, their water-resistance was sufficient for the job at hand, and they were powered by a self-winding automatic movement. As the examples I've mentioned all took place in sub-zero climates, it might be fair to say that the watches would have been covered by jacket sleeves to protect them a little. Then again, if needing to check the time quickly was a necessity, a jacket sleeve may have been pulled back a little to expose the watch for easy viewing. 

All conjecture on my part. 

So, with all of this rugged history attached to this type of wristwatch, I spent a few months looking at this Baltic watch, read a few reviews, etc, before I visited the only seller in Australia who carries this brand. I had contemplated purchasing direct from Baltic's website, but when I got serious about the watch and did the sums, it pretty much worked out to be a difference of about $80.oo less if I bought from the website. The benefit, in my view, of purchasing from a bricks-and-mortar store is that, should anything go wrong with the watch, dealing with any warranty-related issues is more straightforward when doing so face-to-face rather than via back-and-forth emails and shipping. 

And so I bought the watch. I opted for the chocolate brown dial with matching Tropic rubber strap. My collection contains enough black, blue, and silver dials, so I thought I'd change things up a bit and go totally left field. Other colour options were blue, green, or a nice shade of beige.

 

Yeah, brown was the right one to go for. It looks edible. Case diameter is a wonderful 37mm, which sits so Goldilocksy on my 6.5 inch wrist. The dial. Ahh, the dial. Chocolate brown, with the hour markers and numerals made from C3 SuperLuminova and applied onto the dial like whipped cream piped onto its surface. And it has a slightly 'stepped' area on its outer edge, which sits lower than the rest of the dial. Hard to see in the photos. 

The movement inside it is a Miyota 9039, self-winding automatic with a 42 hour power reserve. Miyota is a subsidiary of Citizen watches, of Japan. Many micro-brands use Miyota movements. This is one major way to keep production costs and selling prices down, as this brand's movements are quite robust, with a decent daily accuracy for the price.

Perhaps the one drawback with the watch is the crown. Hermetic watches are so called because the crown sits pretty much flush with the case when its pushed in. Hermetically sealed and all that. This makes for a nice symmetry of the case. This also makes winding the watch by hand a tad difficult. It's not a huge issue, really. I give it five to ten winds by hand to get it going, by running my index finger along the crown's edge, then a few flicks of the wrist to top it up a little. As long as I'm wearing it, it'll continue to wind itself. I figure it's a very small price to pay when the rest of the watch more than makes up for this minor hassle. 

The case sits quite flat on the wrist and the watch has a 100m water-resistance, making it a fairly everyday go-anywhere, do-anything (GADA, is what collectors call it) wristwatch. While it looks good on its rubber strap, I knew I'd want the bracelet optional also, so I placed an order a couple of weeks later and it arrived not long after. 

The beads-of-rice bracelet design gained popularity in the 1960s and appeared on a number of watches across various brands. A pleasant change from the usual three-link bracelet style found on watches of that era, a major plus with this type of bracelet is the fit. As the links are so small, it makes for a very comfortable fit on the wrist, and it also allows the bracelet to breathe a little, due to the numerous gaps between the links. 

The sapphire crystal on this watch is domed, which allows for some interesting play of light, reflection, and distortion from certain angles, and it very perfectly suits the vintage vibe of the watch. Baltic spent a lot of time and effort on this Hermétique Tourer range (as with their other product families), to produce a distinctive watch with old-school charm coupled with modern technology. 

There was a time when there were quite a few watch manufacturers in France, given that the country borders Switzerland. Many of these brands went under during The Quartz Crisis of the 1970s. A few of them, such as Lip, survived that storm. Other brands, like Yema and Airain, were resurrected in recent years, to be re-introduced to a new generation of watch fans.

Baltic is part of the new wave of micro brands to come out of France in recent years. Serica and Meraud are two other French brands that immediately come to mind. Some of them use Japanese movements, some of them use Swiss. Either way, the attention to detail is commendable and the build quality rivals that of well established Swiss brands of similar pricing. 

As stated up above, the minor drawback with the crown is way off-set by the many positives found throughout the rest of the watch. 

It's a beautifully-made wristwatch, in an age where there are a myriad number of well-established brands with long histories, and a vast number of newly-created micro-brands all vying for your hard-earned dollars. You could do nicely with a Baltic watch. Not a sales pitch. I'm not affiliated with the brand in any way. 

I just think it's a watch that punches well above its weight. 

 

Anyway, another post down. At the time of writing, I'm slightly laid out with a cold. Been a while since I was last sick with anything. Work is busy these days and I worked from home today. No doubt, there'll be a few spot-fires to put out tomorrow, such is the nature of customer service. 

Still, when you have to rely on numerous external partners to help you do your job, you can only do what you can only do.

 

Thanks for reading, and take care.