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larryganz
·After I gave my son an SMP Bond quartz birth year watch for his 18th birthday in January, he decided that he prefers quartz Omegas over his SMP ceramic chronograph, which lets him avoid the more frequent costly mechanical movement services.
Over the past 2 years his SMPc chrono had slowly climbed from +2 sec/day to +4 sec/day, and finally was running more than +6 seconds a day over the past few months. He was disappointed with this slow climb in rate with no sign of being magnetized, and worried that a mechanical watch would be too high maintenance for his needs at his age.
Because his SMP Bond quartz was actually the first Omega he'd ever really wanted, and it made him very happy, a couple of weeks ago he traded me his SMPc chrono for a really nice 3D 7.2 surround sound home theater system. I felt bad that he'd given up such a nice watch for a home theater, one that I could have given to him for his graduation and let him keep his watch. I wanted to fix this, knowing he really wanted a quartz chronograph. I planned to give him a Seiko Astron Solar GPS Titanium Limited Ed with white dial and black ceramic bezel.
When my son heard me discussing an X-33 order with Jim 2 weeks ago his eyes got big and he was in love at first sight. I thought my X-33 would be here this week, but it's looking like next week because Basel caused a backlog in orders with his supplier. Regardless, I didn't want to give up my X-33, and I kept the actual order a secret. So, after I got his old watch back from being regulated to +1 sec/day under warranty, I ended up trading it towards my son's grail watch, the Omega Skywalker X-33.
I basically wanted my son to have his first brand new Omega (that wasn't a hand-me-down) for graduation. I knew that it would drive my son nuts to see me wear an X-33 for a while before passing it down. But now we can have matching chronographs again, as soon as mine arrives from Jim next week. I was keeping this under wraps, but couldn't wait any longer to post it now that one of the two X-33 has arrived yesterday.
I need to read the X-33 manual, because the alarm is easy to access but hard to figure out how to actually set up. Same with the other two time zones, and a few other features. You can sleep the watch and extend the battery life (LCD goes dark and all hands move to 12), and you can get the hands to move out of the way of the three lines with a button, but I'm also told that you can sleep just the LCD and I don't know if that's true yet.
I still have to decide what to do with the two X-33 until the end of May. I could hide them both until his graduation, so that having even one X-33 in the house would be a total surprise. Or, I can wear mine now and drive him nuts for the next two months as a lark, until he opens up his surprise watch to wear on his walk across the stage. But the second option gives him hope that he can talk me out of mine. Which scenario do you like best? I'm thinking #1. I would just have to wait longer to get to wear mine - I can wait if I have to.
I also picked up the new Bulova "Dave Scott" Moonwatch re-issue on bracelet. I have the limited edition version with tropic leather and nylon NASA strap arriving in 2 months. Only 1200 of the LE version on leather and NASA-style NATO will make it to the USA, and it's actually cheaper than the version on bracelet. I have no idea of the total number, and it might be like the FOIS, so I don't expect this to be any kind of investment. But I got a killer deal on the pair of Bulova from my local watchmaker. Worst case, I keep the LE with all the straps and the bracelet, and sell the extra Bulova on a generic leather or NATO if I don't need it (or a true WIS will have a spare).
The story of the original Bulova is kinda interesting, being built by Bulova USA (Universal) as a one-off chronograph and gift to Dave Scott before the Apollo 15 mission, I think with a Valjoux 7750 based movement inside. After the postage stamp fiasco, I have to wonder if he broke his Speedy crystal just so that he could actually wear the Bulova on EVA-3. But why didn't Bulova rest on it's laurels after that, and why did NASA keep it a secret for years, and why did Dave Scott forget it was a Bulova and not a Waltham for so many years? Regardless, he managed to contaminate his Bulova with moon-dust (it's on the Apollo 15 inventory sheets as well) and the rest is history ($1,625,000 well spent or not).
The pushers feel great, with a nice smooth click. It's a 262Mhz high accuracy quartz and the sweep hands are nice and smooth, except that the 6 o'clock second hand ticks once every half second while the chrono sweep ticks like 6-8x a second, and the 3 o'clock 1/10 second dial is totally smooth unlike any automatic except a Spring Drive. The bracelet and fit seem good, and the case-back has a history lesson about Apollo 15 printed out, including the EVA-3 date of 8/2/1971. The 3 o'clock sub-dial stops and rests after a while when the chrono is running to save battery life, and then it jumps to the proper position when you hit the stop button. The chrono sweep and 1/10 hands both reset by flying clockwise towards 12 position, and there is no lap counter feature. They hid a subtle date window at 4 o'clock that doesn't give away that the original had no date.
I'll add photos when the second X-33 from Jim arrives next week. We talked for a long time the other day on the phone after I got the X-33, about whether to change my order with him. I seriously considered the NIB NOS 3573.50 sapphire sandwich for myself instead, so I'd have a watch to receive my Mitsukoshi panda dial and silver hand set, but I really prefer the 3572.50 with Hesalite and he thought I'd like the X-33 more. I'd only do the sapphire sandwich if I didn't give an X-33 to my son, and I don't want to torture him like that.
I've bought and sold 5 Aqua Terra due to poor lume, wrong color, or sometimes too large looking with that big dial, and with no rotating bezel or chronograph I didn't wear them much, so i ruled out the AT Golf. I have a GSOTM and Ti PO 9300 so I didn't need a Ti Speedy 9300 or DSOTM either (too much $$). I considered the PO GMT but I have an old and new Rolex GMT II (Coke and BLNR) and I have an old and new Polar Explorer II (as well as a black Exp II), so it would be redundant.
Over the past 2 years his SMPc chrono had slowly climbed from +2 sec/day to +4 sec/day, and finally was running more than +6 seconds a day over the past few months. He was disappointed with this slow climb in rate with no sign of being magnetized, and worried that a mechanical watch would be too high maintenance for his needs at his age.
Because his SMP Bond quartz was actually the first Omega he'd ever really wanted, and it made him very happy, a couple of weeks ago he traded me his SMPc chrono for a really nice 3D 7.2 surround sound home theater system. I felt bad that he'd given up such a nice watch for a home theater, one that I could have given to him for his graduation and let him keep his watch. I wanted to fix this, knowing he really wanted a quartz chronograph. I planned to give him a Seiko Astron Solar GPS Titanium Limited Ed with white dial and black ceramic bezel.
When my son heard me discussing an X-33 order with Jim 2 weeks ago his eyes got big and he was in love at first sight. I thought my X-33 would be here this week, but it's looking like next week because Basel caused a backlog in orders with his supplier. Regardless, I didn't want to give up my X-33, and I kept the actual order a secret. So, after I got his old watch back from being regulated to +1 sec/day under warranty, I ended up trading it towards my son's grail watch, the Omega Skywalker X-33.
I basically wanted my son to have his first brand new Omega (that wasn't a hand-me-down) for graduation. I knew that it would drive my son nuts to see me wear an X-33 for a while before passing it down. But now we can have matching chronographs again, as soon as mine arrives from Jim next week. I was keeping this under wraps, but couldn't wait any longer to post it now that one of the two X-33 has arrived yesterday.
I need to read the X-33 manual, because the alarm is easy to access but hard to figure out how to actually set up. Same with the other two time zones, and a few other features. You can sleep the watch and extend the battery life (LCD goes dark and all hands move to 12), and you can get the hands to move out of the way of the three lines with a button, but I'm also told that you can sleep just the LCD and I don't know if that's true yet.
I still have to decide what to do with the two X-33 until the end of May. I could hide them both until his graduation, so that having even one X-33 in the house would be a total surprise. Or, I can wear mine now and drive him nuts for the next two months as a lark, until he opens up his surprise watch to wear on his walk across the stage. But the second option gives him hope that he can talk me out of mine. Which scenario do you like best? I'm thinking #1. I would just have to wait longer to get to wear mine - I can wait if I have to.
I also picked up the new Bulova "Dave Scott" Moonwatch re-issue on bracelet. I have the limited edition version with tropic leather and nylon NASA strap arriving in 2 months. Only 1200 of the LE version on leather and NASA-style NATO will make it to the USA, and it's actually cheaper than the version on bracelet. I have no idea of the total number, and it might be like the FOIS, so I don't expect this to be any kind of investment. But I got a killer deal on the pair of Bulova from my local watchmaker. Worst case, I keep the LE with all the straps and the bracelet, and sell the extra Bulova on a generic leather or NATO if I don't need it (or a true WIS will have a spare).
The story of the original Bulova is kinda interesting, being built by Bulova USA (Universal) as a one-off chronograph and gift to Dave Scott before the Apollo 15 mission, I think with a Valjoux 7750 based movement inside. After the postage stamp fiasco, I have to wonder if he broke his Speedy crystal just so that he could actually wear the Bulova on EVA-3. But why didn't Bulova rest on it's laurels after that, and why did NASA keep it a secret for years, and why did Dave Scott forget it was a Bulova and not a Waltham for so many years? Regardless, he managed to contaminate his Bulova with moon-dust (it's on the Apollo 15 inventory sheets as well) and the rest is history ($1,625,000 well spent or not).
The pushers feel great, with a nice smooth click. It's a 262Mhz high accuracy quartz and the sweep hands are nice and smooth, except that the 6 o'clock second hand ticks once every half second while the chrono sweep ticks like 6-8x a second, and the 3 o'clock 1/10 second dial is totally smooth unlike any automatic except a Spring Drive. The bracelet and fit seem good, and the case-back has a history lesson about Apollo 15 printed out, including the EVA-3 date of 8/2/1971. The 3 o'clock sub-dial stops and rests after a while when the chrono is running to save battery life, and then it jumps to the proper position when you hit the stop button. The chrono sweep and 1/10 hands both reset by flying clockwise towards 12 position, and there is no lap counter feature. They hid a subtle date window at 4 o'clock that doesn't give away that the original had no date.
I'll add photos when the second X-33 from Jim arrives next week. We talked for a long time the other day on the phone after I got the X-33, about whether to change my order with him. I seriously considered the NIB NOS 3573.50 sapphire sandwich for myself instead, so I'd have a watch to receive my Mitsukoshi panda dial and silver hand set, but I really prefer the 3572.50 with Hesalite and he thought I'd like the X-33 more. I'd only do the sapphire sandwich if I didn't give an X-33 to my son, and I don't want to torture him like that.
I've bought and sold 5 Aqua Terra due to poor lume, wrong color, or sometimes too large looking with that big dial, and with no rotating bezel or chronograph I didn't wear them much, so i ruled out the AT Golf. I have a GSOTM and Ti PO 9300 so I didn't need a Ti Speedy 9300 or DSOTM either (too much $$). I considered the PO GMT but I have an old and new Rolex GMT II (Coke and BLNR) and I have an old and new Polar Explorer II (as well as a black Exp II), so it would be redundant.
