Yet another SOTC, and me gushing

Hi all!

Just want to share my current collection and some history of it.

I start getting interested in watch in 2016, back then I saw a picture of Nomos' tangete,fell in love, start my research and found out that it was beyond my (at that time) college student bank account.

During my research back then there are few other model that caught my eye, seiko sarx027, an orient symphony with arabic numeral , in general I was looking for watch with white and clean dial.

I bought an orient symphony, wear it for few months and start to get the itch of getting more, and thus the first pair of my collection:

1. Ghost of microbrands past (Tangramatic nereid argo on the left and Meshable 003 on the right)

Have I told you I like Tangente back then? 😜

Nereid argo feels like a 2010s watch, its HUGE (42mm) for an all dial watch , it got basic miyota movement, but it also have painted enamel dial (which I think quite rare) and I really like its dial design of crossing Bauhaus and deck watch. Just a shame that it is too big.

Meshable 003, good size (38mm), nice movement (miyota 9015) but the dial feel way too flat and all the dial element is a tad too small IMO

I don't wear these 2 anymore recently, and I'm not sure what to do with these 2, most likely I'll give it way to friend or family in the future.

After 2016, I went to the smart watch phase and bought several smart watches between then and 2023.

The problem with smart watches , they broke after a year or two.

Either their battery gave up, or some software things make it more unusable over time.

So, this year after the 4th or 5th smart watches, I had enough and take a look and good ol mechanical watch.

And that's when I find this second hand in the local online marketplace

2. The remnant of Seiko's glorious days (SARX027)

Well, beside the era of giant watches, I feel like 2010s is also where Seiko shine the most. SARB, SKX and many other seiko models are the bang for buck champion. This SARX027 come from that era despite being not as popular.

It got enamel dial (not sure whether its vitreous or just paint), decent movement,beautiful dial, and it was priced really reasonably back then.

It got some downside as it is quite big (40mm) and thick, making it not exactly a dress watch. But still, I love the dial and would not part with it unless I get the spring drive version.

After getting the SARX027, I got the opportunity to visit Japan for work, and the shopping spree started.

3. Lesser known great value JDM watch (Citizen NB 1050)

In Japan, you can get these for around 45000 yen after tax free deduction for visitor. At that price, I struggle to find anything else (beside microbrand maybe) that provide the same value.

It got good size (38mm) , good movement (miyota 9015) , and pretty handsome dial. You might want to replace the bracelet as the oem one make the lug to lug way too long and depending on your strap choices, you can dress it up or down.

Don't rely on citizen's duratect coating too much as it managed to pick up few scratches since I start wearing it. I was quite rough on it , so that might be the reason.

Overall, I consider this a really good buy and the uncle seiko bracelet make it more wearable at the cost of making it slightly too dressy for my taste. If I ever return to Japan, I will get a nb1060, that's how much I like this line.

I also manage to get this one while I'm in Japan

4. The odd one in the family (SPB337)

The Alpinist lineup is known to be dressier field watch, but the SPB337 say no to being dressy and goes all emo and tacticool instead.

I like this model at first because of the mint accent on the dial, but after a while wearing it, I now appreciate the black coating a lot. It make it less noticeable and seems to fit with how I dress daily (very casual).

I fear the day the black coating got a major scratch, so this one is a bit of a paradox. It supposed to be a tough tool / field watch but in the same time the coating make me baby it more than other watches.

It's a bit thick, the compass bezel is practically useless, but still, a very nice daily wear for normal people that stay on desk.

And for the last one

5. The obligatory dive style watch (Orient Mako 40)

Earlier this month I got the itch to get a diver style watch, for the sake of getting a diver. I was honestly not sure if I will like diver style watch, so I was looking for more affordable dive watch. It is kind of hard to find a affordable diver that is small, got sapphire on it and decently nice looking.

Seiko got the SNE solar , but it is solar, I was looking for automatic, Citizen entry level diver is way too big and missing sapphire.

And there is this mako, which have a really nice size for a diver (40mm). It wear nicely on my tiny wrist , have interesting stainless steel bezel and got a decent dial. It is not a true diver as it is missing few things. But, ehh, I don't even visit pool in the last few years.

Currently, I'm still not sure about this one. On the paper it check all the mark I wanted. But every morning, I rarely gravitate to this one. So this one might get culled in the future.

If you read all the way through, thank you!