In one hand: a fistfull of $100 bills.

In the other: a lit blowtorch.

I don't think I've felt this way about any previous Apple product (though one or two have come close), but that analogy hits strong with the VP.

Hmm: that looks like a good hit from a springbar tool; springbars themselves rarely do more damage than a hairline scratch in a lug (at least in my experience). Patience is your wingman here - but in lieu of a halfway-decent tool, I use a spudger tool (used for prying apart cases on laptops and the like), or the cut-down end of a disposable chopstick.

At the high end, I'm digging Longines quite a bit. The Record 40mm is most-appealing to me as a long-term piece. Goes with anything almost anywhere.

How wild: both Seiko and (to a lesser extent) Casio make up the entirety of my collection, so we're pretty much in agreement here. 😎

True...and, unfortunately, that's the cheapest source I could find - others are selling it for closer to $120. But I think it's unique among quick-adjust clasps in terms of both its operation and range of adjustability.

The more you pay, the more it's worth. - Don McLean

Seiko, to me, is perhaps the most interesting watch manufacture on the planet, as they offer ridiculously-affordable watches in both the mechanical/automatic field as well as quartz, and the farthest North of the horological high-end, producing virtually everything in-house at both ends.

I can't quite reach the heights of Grand Seiko with my budget, but I have managed the middle-rungs via the SARB017 Alpinist, and, reaching further back, their pioneering efforts at presenting the world's first automatic chronograph to be put in serial production, the 6139. Horological greatness, at least in regard to Seiko, is available up and down the price scale, if one knows where to look. And that's one of the appealing aspects of the brand. I have two bog-standard Seiko 5s I wouldn't give up for the world, given their details and timekeeping ability. Cost and value clearly don't travel on a linear scale.

Yep...but you know what it's like you start trying to describe something like this around here...