Man of Honour
Hmm good point, naval heart of the UK, I'll have to go on a "daily exercise mr officer" soon then!
Really love this! The date is very cool. What is the inner most dial?Quick and dirty shot of my new-to-me Grand Seiko which landed this morning - been hunting for this original, old logo variant for a good while. The sapphire bezel means it changes from black, to silver, grey and even white at certain angles. Not one for those who can't stand reflections. It's a beaut and a prime example of some 44mm watches totally belying their size when on wrist:
Bad photo but picked this up last week. Had an Explorer II a while ago which I loved but it was on the thick side. This one is a keeper. At least it is for now!
I'll be after one of these next I think, but would like a fluted bezel and rhodium dial.
Explorer 2 is a big (ish) watch, I have a 7" wrist, and can just about get away with it. I don't think I would get away with it with anything smaller.
That is rather great, any close-ups of the dial and bezel from various angles? Always like seeing how light plays with such finishes.
It's the fixed inner chapter ring for the GMT hand that shows the 'missing' numbers from the bezel. This is so you can use the usual hands for local time, the GMT hand + fixed chapter ring for one time zone, and the GMT hand + rotating bezel for another time zone.Really love this! The date is very cool. What is the inner most dial?
Needs a better pic of the bezel.
The 39mm is the Explorer and only in black, but the 42mm is the Explorer 2 and comes in both black and polar dials. They're very different watches given the Explorer is a time only piece, whilst the Explorer 2 has a date complication as well as the GMT function.Looking at Rolex's site it seemsthe 39mm Explorer only comes with a black dial whilst the 42mm ones offer white which is a bit of a bummer as I really like the white dial.
I'm biased as I get real pleasure in the Spring Drive movements - it's extremely hard to get over their sub-sub-sub-second accuracy, even in the context of very decent mechanical accuracies of a couple of seconds a day. The sweep is also mesmerising, but that can be captured with a high beat movement like Zenith's El Primero which has a similar visual effect, but rather impacted service intervals as a result. Some dislike quartz's involvement in the SD, but I can get over that given its hybrid mechanical nature!Ah cheers for the pics both above and info, that's handy to know if the chance ever comes up about the Explorer in the future. As it stands the only 4 figure watch I'll likely add is a GS Spring Drive as mentioned but it has to be a certain design I like not just any GS!
All in good time
Definitely need to get one of these SDs. Great video, thanks.Yeah whilst SD has a quartz element it's not battery powered so not the same and IMO it is the best of both worlds and engineered to some sort of wizard-like perfection. They are hand made by a Takumi in Seiko's master workshop where iirc only a select few are chosen as "capable" of creating a GS watch like the hand finished components etc. To me that's a level of perfection that many Swiss luxury brands can't match to the point even the underside of a hand on the dial is hand-polished.
In fact here's a Hodinkee vid on GS that I'd seen couple years back but long forgot:
Their ethos reminds me of Nissan's Takumi division who are in charge of making the NIssan GT-R or Toyota's people in charge of the LFA. Things are so anal that even the weight of the dust caps matter and that's kind of awesome.
Bulova have smooth sweepingquartz watches too and have done for generations - They are purely quartz though and will run out of battery after 1-2 years. Very nice otherwise.