I’d like something a little more modern for every day and yet I wouldn’t want it to be a classic Seamster. What do you think about this model? Does anyone on OF have it?
First I am seeing of this, but after 5 mins research my thoughts for what their worth. Pros: A cyclops date window?! A quartz watch Fairly limited production run (1997-2000). An unusual look - I would say a handsome watch. I was drawn to it from your first picture. No Helium escape valve Earlier Tritium dial will start to be developing a nice patina by now. Unusual combination of quartz and mechanical movement (a rotor that charges a battery? (I am out of my depth here)). But 100 hours of power reserve on it. Just weird. Cons: All of the above. Having never heard of it ten minutes ago, I think I might be a fan already. EDIT - Oh, and 1997 of them came with this watch-box:
This is quite the collectable Seamaster. Not easy to find full set. Someone here picked one up not long ago.
I had one, the silver dial version. It is known as the Seamaster Omegamatic 200m. That one has had some touch up work, or photoshop. None will have a bezel mark that red these days, these were made around 1996/7, all have tritium lume. Most hands and dial markers have faded orange and the lume has usually faded beige. These use a hybrid movement, the 1400, which is in essence ETA's version of the Seiko kinetic. In some ways it is less advanced than the Seiko version and also suffers some of the drawbacks those movements have. The Omega interpretation originally used a Renata capacitor as the power storage cell which is charged by a conventional rotor. Only issue is that this cell fails if it isn't used near constantly and only stores about 4 days of charge at best. It can, unlike the Seiko version, be hand wound though which is a useful USP. These caps are often swapped for a particular rechargeable battery, (Pan MT920 I think) which offers a longer reserve and can tolerate periods of inactivity better but still has a finite life. In reality they need a new cell as often as a quartz watch needs a battery or more so, so where is the benefit over quartz of that? Oh and the caps or batteries these use are about 20x the price of a conventional battery, though we still aren't talking big bucks. Otherwise they wear like the similar looking SM120m, or mid size Bond SMP (but slimmer) that is to say they are 36mm with quite a small dial area but very light and slim. Would I do it again? Honestly no. These are quirky and look good but need to be worn a lot to stay healthy and wont really tolerate being used as part of a rotation, as your only watch it would work but where would be the fun in that? The scuba tank box is worth as nearly much as the watch, a very similar design was used on the SM300 150th Anni LE with the grey dial and white gold bezel.
I have one and love it. I put a new cell in it (not as easy as most battery changes), and now I hand-wind it every couple of months, and it works fine.
@padders whoa, thanks for all information! So changing battery to Pan MT920 will help? They are around 12 bucks, so no big deal. But, I'm mixing stuff.. Battery, cells, caps? What is the difference?
Here's a quick crappy photo. Red bezel triangle and second hand tip remain fairly bright, and it's painfully obvious that photoshop wasn't involved here. Not sure how long the cell will last. I got this about 4 years ago, installed a new cell, and it's been fine with periodic hand-winding since then.