My next watch: Suunto Core

The Suunto Core Alu/Brown will be my next watch after a lot of days of meditation. Just wanted to say to anyone that reads my blog (if there is anyone...) that if you are also planning in buying a Core. you should check it's serial number. It should start by 907xxxxx or further, the previuos models showed some issues with the software.

I've already got a Black/Orange Core s/n 746xxxxx and it just shows two problems: it drains batteries pretty fast and it doesn't show the low battery symbol. But it's not a big issue for me, I can live with it.

I will post pictures of my Suunto Core B/O when I have time of taking some good pictures.

When I get the new Core, I will also take some pics comparing both Cores.

Wishlist updated

I've updated the wishlist. My thoughts have change a bit as you can see at the wishlist. I will post some pictures of the new models added.


Suunto Core

Suunto Elementum
Suunto X6

Casio GW-2000B-1AJF

Casio GW-2500


Suunto X10

Casio GW-6900

Hamilton Khaki X-Wind Limited Edition

As I promised, here is the review of the Hamilton Khaki X-Wind Limited Edition. This is one of the few limited edition watches that I have, so I'm very proud of it.
For the Swatch group (which Hamilton belong's to) it's positioned as a medium range brand in their scale of valors.
For me it could be positioned further above than medium. It's true that it's case isn't elaborate with precious materials, but it's the only feature of the watch that I would think why they don't consider it a higher level range.

The machinery of the X-Wind is a Valijoux 7750 which is a common machine for top end chronographs. It has two rotating bezels in the interior which enables you to calculate the cross wind. If I have to tell you the truth, I don't know how to do it, and as I'm not a pilot, it will have to wait in my list of things to learn, I have other priorities...

The level of detail of the watch is incredible, when I first saw it in the display of the retailer I knew that it had to be mine. I love the contrast of the orange graphics on top of the black. It's legibility is nearly perfect. As far as I have seen, this is one of the best chronographs in that aspect, even it's superior to some diver's chornographs.

The lume is ok, it could be much better. The way I would improve it is applying the lume material to the numbers indicating the hours. By now it has lume on the dots that are just beside the hour numbers.

When your eyes get used to the dark you can read the hour perfectly, but just until then, if you do a quick change of light, forget it.

The rubber strap with it's unique orange stitching is very comfortable and I think that matches the watch perfectly. If they did a leather strap as the other X-Winds but with black metallic clasp and rivets it would also be great.

The back case has on the half of it a diagram which I supose is the angles that the plane can achieve when landing or something similar. The other half you can see the machinery through a saphire glass.

Well, hope that you enjoyed the review, if you hae some questions don't hesitate to ask.

Orient WL FH04-CO

Just a few pictures of my Orient pilot watch. A review will come soon!

Lately i'm having a crush on these watches...

This are the watches I'm pulling my trigger on, but the problem is: NO MONEY AT ALL!!!

Seiko SBDX001

Seiko SBDB001

Seiko SRP031K1

Seiko SKX007K-P

Seiko Orange Monster

MKII Sea Fighter

Stowa Prodiver

Baume & Mercier Capeland Diver
Ocean7 LM2

STEINHART "TRITON schwarz"

Next month: Hamilton X-Wind Limited edition!

Just introducing my next month's review: Hamilton X-Wind Limited edition.

Seiko Sportura SPC003

Today I'm going to review the Seiko Sportura SPC003. This watch was a gift for my 26th birthday and until now it had a lot of wrist time. It has a quartz movement, which I'm not very fond of, with a battery life of approximately 3-4 years. The reason I don't like quartz movement is basically because they are not planet friendly due to the batteries, and when this ones dies it's a hassle to change the battery, you know, go to the retailer, they have to send it to the technical service which they can spend 2-3 weeks to change the battery, and finally go again to the retailer.
But even though the drawback of the battery, I had this watch on my wishlist. Why? Because it's design. The case, dial and the leather strap are in perfect communion with each other. This watch look's fast. The dial represents the tachymetre of a car, where the minutes with a retrograde counter of the chronograph looks as it´s indicating the speed of a car. The seconds counter of the chrono are in the centre with a flashy orange and the centiseconds and miliseconds are in the subdial placed at 12 o'clock. You should see how smooth turns the hands of the centi-miliseconds when the chronograph is on, it's incredible.

The subdial placed at 9 o'clock represents the seconds at normal time. One more detail that I like is the bee nest pattern at the background of the dial, it makes the watch more racing!

You can also see that this watch attachs the band with the case by four CNC'd pieces that looks like if they were taken of a F1. One more detail that enhances the sporty character of this watch.

What I liked a lot about this watch is that it is very thin. I'm used to thick watches (G-Shock's and automatic watches) and it's more comfortable to wear thins watches than thick ones. There are few mechanical movements that are thin, and the ones that are their design is too classic for me, as far as I've seen.

I think I should mention another drawback that I didn't realized before I got it. The lume of this watch could be much better. Not for the material they use for the lume, but for how many markers has with lume. The markers that have lume are 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10 & 11 o'clock, not much in case you wake up in the middle of the night and you look at your watch to know what time is it. The last drawback I have realized is that it's not the easiest watch to read the time, it's fine but it's not the best.

In conclusion, I think that is a watch that sacrfices some of the watch lecture principles in favour of an attractive design. So, if you like the design and like quartz movements, go for it. By the way, it looks way better in flesh than in pictures. But if you prefer mechanical movements or don't like to change batteries every now and then but you like the design, better go to a retailer first and try out the watch, then decide.

Citizen Promaster Aqualand JV0000-28E

Hi!

Lately this watch has been on my wrist nearly all the time. I've been wearing it since the mailman deliver it, back in october '08. Although it had a great competitor to beat, the GW-9200 aka Riseman, which arrived to my collection nearly at the same time. I wear this watch for my day to day life, only swapping it for the GW-9200 when I go mountain biking or doing any other outdoor activity.

I love Citizen's attention to detail and their good quality products. Since a while ago, I had an automatic watch fever, but this Promaster model caught my attention and made me look with attention all the Citizen collection.

I'm looking forward to use this watch where it's meant to be, diving. Let's see if this summer I can go snorkeling in a good place such as Corsica or Sardegna. I'm really hoping to.

One of the many features that I like from this watch is it's lume (sorry, no picture of it) which is blue. I've read in some forums that the lume from Citizen doesn't last very long. In this watch the lume last all night. I don't know if my watch is an exception for this problem...

The digital display is great, it has a dot matrix which makes the numbers much nicer than the most common digital displays. It has an EL backlight which is reversed (the numbers and letters are the ones that get lightened).

In conclusion, it's one of my favourites for everyday wear, as it's stylish and also sporty enough for casual wear. It's a huge watch so those who have a small wrist might try it before purchase it.

The Eco-Drive it's supposed to be maintenence free for the rest of your life (let's see if that's true), so you don't have to worry at least for your watch.

I'm looking forward to post some pictures in the water when it gets hot here in Spain.