Seamaster 300

... as someone who likes to play with watches, like they are lego bricks, I would love to assemble a sort of 300 from parts. Have the movements which need cases. just really get POed that crappy aftermarket 'aka fake parts' cost as much or more than the real thing which probably are not real.

Would be nice to see some return of the designs, to the classier stuff done with drawing boards. Doubt though than such would happen.

Designers are looking to follow marketing trends. Such things to be salable to the consumer markets need to favor the current perceptions. In the end it is all about marketing. I used to keep a newspaper clipping on my office wall what listed the 5 most effective marketing words. The one I can remember were, new, improved and brighter. I forget what the other two were. A quick online search suggest 'You,' as one of the others. 'Now' may have been the fifth. Not sure words like 'free' 'discount' or 'sale' really have any real meaning in this context.

I suspect like watch design, this list changes with every newly graduated classes of brighter students, whom now, improves your life. I am not seeing Nostalgia, reliable, serviceable, or old in any of these lists.

I find that the apple watch gets the most wrist time. I want to wear the mechanical rat watches and show them off. It becomes about convenience and practicality. Nostalgia only goes so far.

I do have plans for putting a mechanical movement into an apple watch case, could be a good use for one of the 56x movements. Much more doable than an apple watch in a classic SM300 style case ...

@502 to right I agree with your assessment.

I was attracted to Omega by the past stuff. Reprinted marketing literature etc. So I do not really understand why they do the CGI melted watch look everyone else does. My guess is that the younger people in charge want to make things for their generation. They must use statistical marketing surveys to target what they 'think' consumers want.

Speedmaster is an outlier. I think the target market when introduced was race car enthusiasts. Pure chance it wound up in the space program. Speedmaster was the one watch I wanted when I drifted from automata and clocks into watches. Also pure chance that was one of the first I collected. The rest of the watches collected, I was telling someone the other day are just gravy.

Not sure why I did not notice the SM300 until I started looking for empty watch cases. Common 33x bumpers and 55x/56x automatics in plated cases could be had for under 100 bucks in the early 1990s. Until I started reading this forums, did I learn they used the old tried and true movements. When I did see the Bond watch on the screen it looked like overrated computer designed bling. I forget if it was quartz or not. Ironically I bought (and still sometimes use) the CAD drafting program that probably designed such things. I did a deep dive into injection molding which requires certain features one sees in a lot of designs over the last 30 years.

I seem to recall seeing the drop forge towers that ended in the lower parts of the Lemania factory. My friend and mentor was into high speed punch presses, which were in the lower realms as well. I think that in the mid 1990s this equipment was mostly used for prototypes. Not sure who or where the cases were being manufactured. I also had the impression that some of this work was on the co-axial escapement. I took a lot of 3D photos in the upper parts of the factory where things were being assembled.


Rolex is as rolex does. Pretty much every Stainless steel or nickel plated tool watch after WWII had a screw back case once the patent expired. I have boxes and drawers of such generic looking watches. Gold watches on the other hand are a different thing. Personally never understood the love for such. I think it may have something to do with the lust for gold, and the power gold projects. We forget that gold between the 1930s and 1970s gold was not allowed in the US as an investment medium. That the price was artificially restricted to like 35 bucks an ounce. So watch cases were as good a place as any to store it.

Seems though the eliphant in the room is Swatch and the Moonswatch. Probably should be careful on the wish list, as some of the SM300 design may eventually be replicated in plastic.