The New Ice Blue Uruga

From Minase -

Courtesy of Minase

This new dial version is available is several sizes, and with a steel bracelet (above), rubber or leather strap.

For those of you just tuning in, here is some background on Minase -

https://www.henkitime.com/2018/03/a-grand-day-out-visiting-minase-factory.html

https://www.henkitime.com/2018/03/a-grand-day-out-part-2-minase.html

https://www.henkitime.com/2018/03/a-grand-day-out-minase-3.html

The current price of the Uruga is priced at $6,600 and ships directly from Minase International. 

Minase's Windows Collections Get a Dial Upgrade

This is the latest from my favorite Japanese brand, Minase -

 

Courtesy of Minase

The Windows collection has been expanded to include these new dial designs in the Yukihira design pattern.

Per Minase -

The YUKIHIRA pattern, as it now appears on the dials, originates from a hammering process. It reflects light beautifully and creates a sense of depth and shadow. It is enhanced by the beautiful indexes and case, treated with Minase’s exclusive handmade sallaz polishing.

Courtesy of Minase

Specifications

Case: 

Stainless Steel 316L or 18K rose gold

Dial: 

Copper, electroformed and lacquered in blue, ice blue, green or white

Dimensions: 

38 x 47 mm. Thickness: 13 mm.

Movement: 

Swiss ETA 2892. Hand-finished surfaces with perlage, blue screws, bridges with diamond polished bevels and a main plate and bridges in black or. MPS lubrication-free bearings, ETACHRON regular system, Top-range execution. 21 Jewels. Frequency 28’800 vibrations/hour (4 Hz), 50 hours power reserve.

Hands: 

Polished steel, minute and second bent at the tip, luminous material on hours and

minutes

Functions: 

Hours, minutes and central second hands.

Bracelet: 

Stainless steel 316L or hand-made genuine black or brown leather band

Full Circle with the Seiko Presage SPB359

Round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way!

(Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971)

Long before there was a job with Tourneau, a three-year stint with DOXA, the blog formerly known as Tempus Fugit, and now probably too many consulting projects with Swiss, Japanese and German brands to count, your's truly was a semi-freshly minted graduate from the University of Oregon with a BA in English (New World Literature as a focus). It is fair to say I had not figured out what to do with my life.  

Moving to Japan changed my life. I found a career, and I met the woman I would marry. And on a side note, nearly 31 years later, we are still together.

Japanese watches at that time were not really valued the way they are now by the Japanese public and or watch collecting community as a whole. In the early 90s, Japan was very brand conscious, and at least in the metro Tokyo area, Swiss brands were IT. 

I have returned to Japan twice since living there - both times in 2018. And it's funny returning to a place you called home 25 years later. You assume that the people who were there will still be there, frozen in time. The landscape of the city I lived in (Kasukabe), had changed completely. And I suspect that now after an additional 6 years, it's changed even more. But what is curious about memory, is it is often more visceral than anything else. Smells, sights, noises can trigger memories of people and events that you have filed away deep in your personal hard drive, remaining completely forgotten until the switch is flipped.

Seiko came out with the Presage "Laurel" in 2023. It was created in celebration of Seiko's 110th anniversary. It was limited to 2500 pieces. And when I first saw it, it triggered a flood of visceral memories. It brought me back to being 23 years old, trying to figure out how to navigate in a new environment, living in a "newish" city that was still deeply rooted in the past. Old, yet modern, and constantly evolving while never letting go of its history.

I have been tracking the Presage Laurel for the past year and a half. and hitting a personal milestone, the timing seemed right. I love the look and feel of the Laurel. I appreciate the fact that it is, indeed, different. And this, in turn, might be why it did not sell out as quickly as a limited series might typically do. But there are some retail outlets our there who still have them, so if it is in your wheelhouse, I would encourage you to run, don't walk to get one before they are gone.

For those of you in search of the vital statistics:

The case measures 37.5 mm in diameter and is of stainless steel. The movement is Calibre 6R27 which is an automatic movement with self-winding capability.

The functions are hours, minutes, and seconds with a date and power reserve complication. The power reserve is approximately 45 hours.

The dial is enamel - and it is beautiful.

A watch can be simply a way to measure time. But at least for me, the Seiko Presage Laurel is a time machine, taking me back to a place and time I continue to reflect on, uncovering misplaced memories that continue to inspire me.

Enjoy your watches.

I Could Do It Better Myself - The Volunteer Media - An Update From Henki

I wrote this back when I still owned and operated Tempus Fugit. A fair bit has happened in that time. I opted out of a job with a brand, I sold Tempus Fugit to someone who handed it to someone else, and it now appears to not be publishing anything, I accepted the job I have now which is working for MassHire - we help people find jobs and train for new careers. It is very satisfying work albeit with very long hours. Owing to this the publication pace and nature of Henki Time is not as manic as others. With that said, I still feel I have something to say, and this piece is one that I think still rings true. So brand owners and brand managers - don't forget to support the volunteer press. 

Even when we say things that might cut a bit too close to the bone ; )

A much younger Henki teaching English in Villa do Conde Portugal in 1995. You might recognize the gentleman on the far right as the current Secretary General of the United Nations.

I Could Do It Better Myself - The Volunteer Media - An Update From Henki

Despite what some folks think, the majority of the press covering the watch business these days is of a voluntary nature.  This is largely the result of brands cutting advertising budgets, and people going back to former occupations, getting married, or finding better ways to earn a living and spend their free (and not so free) time.

So gentle reader, an inside look at a day in the life of Henki -

5:30 - Whether I like it or not, Tallulah (the older cat and Executive Publisher) is awake and waiting to be fed.  Sabrina (the younger cat and Editor in Chief) is waiting as well.  I head downstairs, turn up the heat in the house, and feed the cats.  I gulp down my morning tablets with a glass of water, have the first of several espressos and head back upstairs to the office.

5:45 - emails reviewed, and...
Not a sausage! 
Not only has watch advertising money dried up, watch brands are producing fewer and fewer models, and some have made their PR functions redundant.  News is scant, and unlike some of my colleagues in the Fourth and Fifth Estate, I prefer not to manufacture it.

6:15 - Go down and make a coffee for Wendy who is up and getting ready for work.

6:25 - I receive a follow-up email from the PR manager at Brand Y.  Y for "why won't you write a paid piece about us?", which I have explained a few times - I don't write advertorials.  I realize my unwillingness to do so is probably holding me back financially, but a man must have a code ; )

6:45 - Email in-box pings, and... 

Good news! I am the winner of the Nigerian National Lottery! Maybe I'll buy Watch Time from Ebner so I can finally have my own magazine!

7:15 - Finally I decide that as no news is forthcoming, I will write an editorial type piece. The Grey Market is always good for a few hundred words, and is showing no sign of slowing down.  Oh, wait! A PR staffer from Brand X has sent me a personal email with a story about a watch event featuring their brand, in Marblehead, Massachusetts (which I could literally have walked to from my house as it is the next town over), with several "Important and Respected" watch journalists who were flown in from New York and Europe a few days previous. The PR person feels that as I live nearby it would be great to have a story about this wonderful and glamorous event (lots of swag, 4 star meals, etc.) from a local perspective! I take a beat, decide to ignore the irritation that essentially - this person wants me to write a pr piece about an event that I wasn't even invited to even though my attendance would have cost Brand X $0... and I simply don't reply.

8:00 - Kiss Wendy and wish her a good day as she heads out the door.

8:35 - Hastily showered and dressed, lunch made, it's off to work.

8:55 - Parking lot duty.  Where I work we have very limited parking, and as such the students have been informed that they cannot park in the back lot.  Needless to say, it is a game of cat and mouse as several try to slip in anyway to avoid parking on the street.  This, in turn, prevents other staff members and board members (who have a meeting today) from parking.  While being the Director of Adult Education and Workforce Development has its perks, playing parking lot "sizzler" is not one of them ; )

9:05 - Call with my contact at the Dept. of Education office.  Nothing major, clarifications regarding programming made, and all seems under control.

9:35 - Call from reception, someone is interested in learning English, could I come down and speak with them?

10:30 - Class break time.  I try to speak with each of the four teachers, make sure everything is under control.

10:45 - Back to work on the grant application.  It is due on Friday, signatures are needed from the boss, and I still need to nail down the budget.

12:15 - Text message from brand manager in Switzerland.  Could I recommend a sales manager in Florida.  I file that under "not pressing" and dive back into "grant writing land".

12:30 - Lunch with the teaching team.  Brief ad hoc meeting to review a few items coming up.

13:45 - Call from former student of mine who is interviewing for a job. Would I act as a reference?

2:30 - 30 minute walk around the surrounding area to clear the head.

3:25 - Personal email pops on my iPhone, and I see that the watch from Brand X that three of the big outlets already wrote about 2 days ago is suddenly now a press release for "the rest of us".  I delete the message.

4:15 - draft of the grant application is finally ready to be reviewed by the boss.

4:45 - The phone rings just as I am leaving the office.  Meeting arranged for Wednesday morning to review our proposed adult education program with a new partner one town over.

5:15 - Stop at Trader Joe's for dinner items.

5:35 - Feed the cats dinner, scoop out the litter box, make a coffee and fire-up the laptop.

5:55 - Complete text edit for one of the brands that I "side-hustle" for, and respond to a customer query for another.  Yes, the watch in question is available, yes, it does cost that much, no there will be no discount!

6:17 - Phone rings, it's Japan (not the whole country, but one of the brands with whom I have a relationship) with an urgent request for a special event, could I help organize it?

7:25 - Dinner is nearly ready, and Wendy arrives home after a long day.

9:26  - Story lined up for tomorrow involving a review of a new brand's watch.

10:25 - After 15 minutes of futility, I give up trying to read any more of the book I've been working on since Christmas.  Turn out the lights and off to sleep.  Tomorrow is another exciting day in watch media!

Twice Again

The Swatch Twice Again.

People who write about watches tend to skew towards the new, the shiny, the haute.

A bit about me - back when the dinosaurs still roamed the land, I was 25, living in Japan, and just gotten together with the woman I would later marry. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I strode into Robinson’s department store in Kasukabe (Saitama-ken) and bought the original version of this Swatch. If you knew me then, you would say that this was a bit out of character for me.

Before moving to Japan I had spent nearly a year and a half struggling to keep myself afloat. I was situationally homeless for a part of that time. When I got the job, I had to come up with about $3,500 (or so) to pay for my flight and have one month's worth of cash to live on until I would get my first pay check.

I sold everything I owned to get there…and that first year I was notoriously cheap. So believe it or not, the 6,000 Yen (less than $60 US at the time) I spent was a big deal. But something told me this was a big moment. Looking back 29 years later, I finally pulled the trigger on that Swatch's replacement, the Twice again.

Watch brands love to try and tug at our psyche, usually with over-priced, instantly forgettable wrist trinkets that will likely be worn for less than a year and discarded as the gift itself held little to no personal connection. With that said, it’s not lost on me that without any marketing efforts, a new $85 Swatch has landed such a visceral sucker punch on me some 29 years later.

Enjoy your watches!

Marking Time - About My Omegas

If you turned up for news on the latest Blancpain release, I'm afraid you've knocked on the wrong door ; )

Innovation and the "latest and greatest" is always intriguing. But with that said, I often find myself thinking back on what started my interest in watches, or as Robert-Jan at Fratello once said -

"What was the trigger?"

The first watch was this Omega. In truth, I had owned another automatic watch which I got at a pawn shop in Tachikawa, Japan in exchange for my quartz Tag Heuer and 4,000 Yen. But 1996 found Wendy and me living in Turku, Finland. And rooting around a weekly flea market I found a pair of truly neglected Omega wrist watches. The first was in such bad shape that the stall owner refused to let me buy it. The second he only did so reluctantly. Now whether he was really looking out for my "best interests" or he thought he might get more money from a more prosperous customer than an itinerant English teacher is a matter for another time. Long story short, negotiations went back and forth, and I bought it for the princely sum of the US equivalent of $23.00.

My first stop, the same day was to a jeweler in the downtown area who fitted it with a forrest green strap. Needless to say, this was an unusual choice, but my being not only foreign, but an American allowed me a certain amount of freedom to make odd choices. 

Now I wish I had taken a photo at the time. The dial was not merely patinated, it was pretty much ruined. The white/silver finish pretty completely missing in several spots. The second hand fell off twice. And thus began the long rehabilitation process. I took it in for a service. The watchmaker at the shop in Salo (next to the NOKIA center I taught two days a week at) took it in and 100 Finnish Markka later it didn't really seem to have made any difference. And things stayed that way for the next three years until we moved to San Francisco.

Once there, I discovered Geneva Watch Repair in the old Shreve Building. The owner / watchmaker took in my Omega, arranged for a redial (sacrilege to some, but the dial was completely shot), put in a NOS crystal and crown, new gaskets, a full service, and I was back in business!

The folks at Serregin's engraved the case back with 4 important years that marked:

1992 - moved to Japan and met Wendy

1995 - moved to Portugal 

1996 - moved to Finland

2000 - moved back to the US

And I happily wore it, but not as much as before as the watch bug had sunk its teeth deep into my limbic system and dozens of different watches flowed in and out of my possession. But the Omega 30 has remained a constant.

Enter the Seamaster CO-AXIAL

Whether I was ready to admit it to myself or not, I had one fairly strong (semi) regret in terms of watches that have been in my possession.

Back in 1992 I was what could be charitably called "situationally homeless". I was working at Kinko's (remember them?) and sofa-surfing. I had graduated from the University of Oregon and spent the following year and half trying to figure out what to do with my life. To say that things were getting "chancy" would be a gross understatement. I had sold virtually everything I owned, and was down to my Thomas McGuane collection of paperbacks, a handful of CDs, 1 pair of jeans, 3 shirts and a sweater (or 2). 

One Sunday I sat down at the coffee place I would frequent (a cup of coffee was $0.75 with free refills) and as I was leafing through the Sunday Oregonian, I came across two ads in the help wanted section -

TEACH ENGLISH IN JAPAN

Now for the record, I had ZERO teaching experience, and was vaguely acquainted with where Japan was in relation to the Great Northwest. But I did have the one requirement that was needed - an undergraduate degree (Thank you U of O!). I applied for the jobs more on a whim - my job search results up to that point had been mostly for naught. But I was about to be pleasantly surprised - both companies contacted me, I borrowed a suit and tie, drove the 4 hours to Seattle for the first interview, stopped in Portland for the second and 3 days later had a job offer! The only hitch was that I would have to be ready to leave in exactly 60 days. 

The next 50 days were spent working as many shifts and as much overtime as I could manage, I temped here and there and did everything short of selling my plasma to save enough money to pay for my flight and first month of living expenses. With 10 days to go, I found myself short by $65, with no real hopes of raising anything further. But I did have one more thing that had not been sold earlier.

Family heirlooms, at least in my father's family, tended to be discarded fairly willy-nilly. As it happens, I had inherited my Grandmother's Omega. It bears mentioning that this was probably a 28 mm quartz watch. Essentially, too small even by 1992 standards. I had never worn it, and truthfully it never occurred to me to do so. It simply sat in a sock in my dresser drawer. I was 23 and had to make a choice. Hang onto the watch and what seemed like a prolonged spell of itinerant living and minimum wage "copy-jocking", or let it go and roll the dice on a new life in a strange country where I did not have a friend and did not speak the language. 

Spoiler Alert - 

I sold the watch. It netted enough to pay for my air ticket, and I negotiated enough for a camera and 3 rolls of film in addition. The next Monday I took the train to Portland, went to the Japanese consulate to process my visa, and 3 days later I boarded a Northwest flight to Tokyo.

Japan changed my life. I met my wife, Wendy. I found my vocation, teaching. And from there I would go on to live in Portugal, Finland, England, and Scotland before returning to the US.

Nearly 25 years later, I got an email offering me the CO-AXIAL in trade (with cash) for a watch that I felt was not really for me and was trying to sell. And to be honest, I really wanted cash, and the Omega was not really on my radar. I opened the next email in my in-box, and it was a copy of an old letter from my Grandmother that one of our cousins had found. And it included a picture of her with me, her wearing the Omega I had sold so many years before, that had made it possible for me to really start my life. Sometimes fate whispers, but in this case it shouted. I accepted the offer for the Omega (with cash) and didn't look back. Sometimes you have accept that the universe, however flawed, tends to reveal itself as it is meant to be ; )

Enjoy your watches -

The Series 8 - And Why I Want It

From Citizen -

Courtesy of Citizen

This is actually 1 of a series of 4 new watches from Citizen, but for me this one is "Best In Show".

Courtesy of Citizen

This specific model is the NB6010-81E.  I realize that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it is a name worth remembering. And for me this one not only speaks to me, but actually shouts to me. Regular readers will note that I spent several years in Japan following university. And for me, it is really where my "grown-up" life started. I have searched high and low for a full-on (case and movement) Japanese watch that would not only visually take me back, but also viscerally hit that memory button for me, and this one finally seems to have done what Seiko and G-Shock have nearly, but not quite yet succeeded in doing.

Shamelessly Borrowed from the World-Wide Infoweb

This is a watch I could see a brooding, super cool Ken Takakura wearing as he walked the streets in the evening. Not in a hurry, but always with a purpose.

Courtesy of Citizen

This is a watch with balance. Something sporty and dead cool in a world of jumped-up dive watches. You want this watch.  I know I certainly do. It is at once nostalgic and modern, without putting on airs of being something that it isn't.

It is priced at a reasonable $1,000 US.

And needless to say, I am preparing for an awkward conversation with my piggy bank ; )

If it is in your wheelhouse, and it certainly is in mine, here are the pertinents -

MODEL
NB6010-81E

MOVEMENT:
9051 - Automatic: Hours, minutes, seconds and date
42 hours of power reserve, Antimagnetic 16000

CASE:
40 mm stainless steel, water resistant to 333 feet

CRYSTAL:
Antireflective sapphire crystal
Impact and shatter resistant, antireflective coating 

Why I Bought It - My Opinion Is Fact: Rowing Blazers

A few Henki factoids:

1.  I lived in Japan for 3 plus years, and in that time bought several SWATCHES, and first automatic watch (a Rado Golden Horse at a Tachikawa pawn shop).

2. Nearly 25 years later I returned to Japan to do a story on Minase and ended up acquiring one of those.

3. Later that same year I returned YET AGAIN to Japan to do a G-SHOCK tour and came home with a pretty swell G-SHOCK MTG-B1000.

4. Since launching Tempus Fugit I have done pretty much everything short of stripping naked and sprinting through the hallways of Seiko North America screaming I LOVE SEIKO (a sight that would have been far less repugnant in my younger, thinner days when I resided in Kasukabe and Hachioji during the early 90s) and have YET to receive any type of response from their PR and marketing offices.

After 11 years of unsuccessful attempts to engage with the gatekeepers of Seiko North America's "fortress of solitude", I have accepted that unrequited love sometimes must, by necessity, remain so. But then I thought to myself - "Henki, you can still love a watch even if the brand does not return that affection." 

I was recently presented with the opportunity to purchase a brand new, in-the-plastic (and tin) Rowing Blazers x Seiko 5 Sports Artillery Zig Zag Watch. And needless to say, gentle reader, I jumped on it. 

This past weekend I was at the Watches, Whiskey and Wine show in Hagerstown, Maryland and was pretty amazed at the number of people who found their way to this big/small town near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. Visitors came from as far away as North Dakota, Texas, Indiana, Ohio and New York City. That, in and of itself, amazed me. 

I may, in fact, be jaded. It is possible that I've been doing this too long and perhaps what I needed was a "reboot" of sorts. And this past weekend was that.

What was great was was meeting some of the younger folks who came to the show to cover it. There were some of the usual characters, but I met two or three that gave me real hope for the next group of "recorders of passion" coming up. There was no boasting, no false swagger. Honest, earnest and sincere guys and gals who just simply loved watches and liked writing, videoing and podcasting about them. 

So there is hope for the future ; )

But back to today's topic:

My opinion is fact - The Seiko RB Artillery Zig-Zag is the best Seiko 5 released in recent history. If I am honest, I cannot claim to be the end-all authority of anything. Where I might have said, "hey, just do the Zig-Zag, that's the essence of Rowing Blazers. Make that one first and see how it goes". But the group behind this Rowing Blazers/Seiko mash-up clearly had a different take, set the bar higher at a series of 3 watches, and sold them all in fairly short order. And that is why they are the toast of Seiko aficionados and cognoscenti around the world, and this is also why I am writing about it.

I am a Rowing Blazers fan. I do not necessarily love everything that they do, but I can say that there is something for nearly everyone. Rowing Blazers has sold me 4 blazers, 2 rugby shirts, one sweater and counting! And for me, of the three Seikos they released, this was my runaway favorite.

I suspect I will probably mount the croquet stripe strap (which is the shit that killed Elvis) and save the bracelet for later.

So coming from a somewhat jaded and crusty fellow who enjoyed a reboot and reminder about what is great about this slightly sick passion that we all enjoy, to loosely quote that other great commentator on the watch business, Barry Hearn - Remember why you got involved in the first place.

Enjoy your watches!

Don't Fake The Funk - Sō Labs

Every so often I clap eyes on something that renews my faith in watch town. And while I realize that more intrepid, curious and perhaps better informed outlets might have already shared news about Sō Labs, in the interest of trying to catch up, here you go -

While I can not claim to know a whole lot about Sō Labs, I can say I'm digging their ethos!  In their own words:

SŌ LABS IS A TEAM OF CHICAGO BASED WATCH DUDES STRIVING TO PUT THE FUN(K) BACK INTO TELLING TIME. 

We believe differentiation meant starting from the ground up. Our core design aesthetic of transparency drove the need for a fully custom watch to bring our concepts to life. Our name is meant to encompasses this vision:

SŌ ~ translates to 'Layer, or Idea/Thought/Conception'層/想 in Japanese. Having lived there for a short period, I was greatly influenced by their playfulness in design and minimalist aesthetics. Transparency through layering is central to the look of our timepieces.

LABS ~ innovation requires hypothesizing, tinkering and experimentation; all processes which we've put in place to launch our LAYER ONE Series and look forward to pursuing more through the future launch of our automatic pieces.

 

Our dials are intentionally logo-free so that our Pantone color combinations, transparent cases, gradient wheels, and printed disc handsets can remain the hero of the brand's identity.

Finally, each model we release will remain in limited quantities because Exclusivity is Never One-Dimensional, sō add another layer!

Courtesy of Sō Labs

Having lived in Japan for 3 years, I can absolutely agree, and needless to say I could easily see some sharp dressed youths in Kasukabe, fresh from a shopping excursion to Harajuku sporting one of these drip time machines.

To just pick one is challenging, but the Emerald Rhino speaks to me -

Courtesy of Sō Labs

Priced at a wonderfully accessible level -

$175.00

Here are the pertinents -

A chunk of emerald green, a punch of rhino grey, a dazzle of tiger orange and dot of prussian blue.

Emerald Rhino has a FULLY LUMED dial!

Comes with a 20mm dark gray suede Sō Labs strap, all packaged within our custom 'petri dish' packaging.

This inaugural collection from Sō Labs was designed from the ground up in the heart of Chicago. From the clear case to the die-cut dial and the handset discs, every element of the Layer One Series has been thoughtfully considered.

Limited to 500 pieces - each watch is uniquely numbered

38mm | Miyota Quartz | 3ATM | Acrylic Case | Fully Lumed Dial

Some Urushi Goodness

From Minase -

Courtesy of Minase

As previously mentioned, I worked for Minase to help bring them to North America. As of the turn of the year, I am no longer an official team member, but absolutely an unofficial brand evangelist! And therefore, after nearly 2 years, I can put on my enthusiast's hat and write from the heart.

The Divido is a huge favorite, particularly in North America. In many ways it sums up the thesis behind Minase's watches, extremely well executed design combined with painstakingly extensive hand finishing. And as with the other dials (particularly the blue/purple), the Urushi dial is the crowning touch to an already impressive time machine. And as much as the blue/purple dialed Divido was a rare find, the Urushi dialed Divido is a true unicorn, selling out in the blink of an eye. 

But don't worry, the folks in Akita-ken are hard at work to make some more! For now the replenishment pieces are available for pre-order.

Here are the pertinents -

Model : Divido Deep Blue Urushi Silver Maki-e dial

Case : Stainless steel 316L. Domed box type sapphire crystal (non reflective coating) on top, see-through sapphire case back. Water resistant up to 50 meters (5 Bar).

Dimensions : 40.5 mm. Thickness : 12,0 mm.

Lug to lug: 48 mm

Weight total : 150 g.

Movement : KT7001/1, power reserve 38 hours, Swiss ebauches, customized by MINASE with hand-made polishing and « perlage » on plates and bridges. Minase customized rotor, treated in black or.

Face : Deep blue, Urushi sprinkled in silver Maki-e

Hands : polished, luminous material on hours’ and minutes’

Functions : Hours, minutes and central second hands. Date at 3.

Bracelet : 316L stainless steel with deployment buckle. MORE concept.

The Daruma

From G-Shock -

Courtesy of G-Shock

This is one of the latest releases from G-Shock, and hits a very special "start/stop" button for this writer.

This series is styled after a Daruma doll. A few of us recent arrivals to Japan referred to them as Darumas for short and "to Daruma" became a bit of a loan-word verb. "I can't go to Morisaki tonight (local Kasukabe bar favored by foreign residents of the Northern Tokyo suburbs, particularly English teachers) I'm trying to Daruma my student loan" meant that you would forgo an evening's revelry to stick the money aside to pay down your student loan, save for a vacation, etc.

The Daruma's meaning would vary depending upon which local you asked, some would say "it's for good luck", others for "marking a journey", but the most consistent answer I got was that it was to mark the beginning and successful completion of an endeavor.  When you pick up your Daruma doll at your friendly neighborhood "Daruma-Mart" (widely available at large temple-type places as well as any tourist friendly area, and apparently now through Amazon), it will have 2 "unfilled" eyes.  When you start your project you will paint or draw in the first one.  When you have reached your goal or end point, you paint in the second eye -

Courtesy of Live Japan

The Daruma G-Shock series it is available in 3 versions, by my favorite is the DW5600DA-4.

For those of you who follow these things, this is based on the DW5600, which is the quintessential square face model -

Courtesy of G-Shock

Courtesy of G-Shock

And for me the coolest part is when the light button is engaged -

Courtesy of G-Shock

At $110 it is a fair bargain, and for those of you ready to "Daruma the Hell" out of 2021, here are the pertinents -

Features

• 
  EL Backlight with Afterglow

• 
  Shock Resistant

• 
  200M Water Resistant

  
  

  Specifications

  • Battery: CR2016
  • Approx. battery life: 2 years
  • Module: 3229
  • Shock Resistant 
  • 200 Meter Water Resistant 
  • EL Backlight with Afterglow 
  • Flash Alert Flashes with buzzer that sounds for alarms, hourly time signal, countdown timer time-up alarm
  • 1/100 second stopwatch Measuring capacity: 00’00.00”-59’59.99” (for the first 60 minutes) 1:00’00”-23:59’59” (after 60 minutes) Measuring unit: 1/100 second (for the first 60 minutes) 1 second (after 60 minutes) Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times 
  • Countdown timer Measuring unit: 1 second Countdown range: 24 hours Countdown start time setting range: 1 second to 24 hours (1-second increments, 1-minute increments and 1-hour increments) Other: Auto-repeat

Should You Ever Visit Japan

If memory serves me correctly, I first encountered Oceanus in the somewhat short-lived Men's Vogue (US Edition).  At the time I was sorta' pissed off because I had worked like the Devil to get DOXA included in the "Worn/Re-Worn" special section at the front of each issue.  For all of my effort, we got the one page and were grateful.  Had my boss not insisted on trying to jam 5000 factoids into that one page it might have had a bigger impact, but I digress.

Anyway, on the pages opposite, there was a flood of words and facts about a quartz watch with a goofy name - Oceanus!  I got an earful about how come they got so much "language" and we didn't, with instructions to make the people at Vogue (you know, the people who actually gave us the feature without demanding payment) aware of the displeasure my boss felt.  I opted to ignore those instructions. And in truth, I didn't give much of a second or third thought to Oceanus, and like Men's Vogue (US Edition) it was come and gone from these shores in fairly short order.

Fast forward 10 years and I was part of a press junket for G-Shock in which we were briefly introduced to the rest fo the Casio product family.  Fun fact - Casio is BIG in the overhead projector and desk top calculator worlds.  And there almost ignored were a few samples of the Oceanus model -

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide info-web

And for one Ohio retailer and myself, it was like when peanut-butter met jelly!  These are really good looking watches, and while they are quartz they prove the theory that there is nothing dumb about quartz.

This is the Casio Oceanus OCW-T200S-2AJF Bluetooth.  And before you scoff and say "Basic quartz with date", allow me to educate you.  Bluetooth is one of the key, operative words.  As I learned from the G-Shock I picked up on that trip 2 years ago, the Bluetooth function links to your cell phone, guaranteeing that your time is correct.  Change timezones?  So long as your phone is with you, it's no problem!  And solar!  So those frequent battery changes will be (for the most part) a thing of the past.

What I've learned during my time as a watch dog is that while mechanical is sexy, and haute is "haughty", it represents a very small portion of the market.  Mechanical watches were simply the result of the technology that was available at that time. Yes, many millions of dollars are invested in improving mechanical technology, and I am just as guilty of appreciating a mechanical movement. But if I am being honest with myself? I am more and more appreciating things that are well made that do not require so much effort. I love Apple products for this reason, my car has an automatic transmission, and I bought a K-Cup machine for my school because although it's not as sexy as some of the more expensive options that let you play "Kitchen Barista", I can honestly say after my tour of duty as a Starbucks manager, it's not something I dream of doing several times a day when I'm in a hurry.

Now unfortunately, as the aforementioned Ohio retailer and I discovered back in Japan, the Oceanus is not available here in the US. But there are outlets in Japan that sell and ship, and if you're looking for something that will look really good, be bang on perfect in time keeping, and not cost you several hundreds of dollars every few years for serving - I would highly recommend the Oceanus.

You Don't Choose Your Watch, Your Watch Chooses You

If there are two very solid constants I remember from my coming up as a Northern Youth, they are these -

1.  My father was a country club manager.  Meaning he oversaw the Elyria Country Club, in Elyria, Ohio back in the 70s and early 80s.  For those of you unfamiliar, a country club typically has a golf course, some tennis courts, a swimming pool and depending on the inclinations of the founding members (and in the case of the Elyria Country Club), a fairly massive amount of dining options for the members and their families and guests.  ECC had a main dining room, a "mixed grill" (essentially a slightly more casual dining space that could accommodate about 100 or so, and the "men's girl" which was a bar with about 15 tables in a private room that abutted the men's locker room (remember the golf thing).  And inside that men's locker room was where I got my introduction to the world of work.  I worked in the shoeshine room, where I polished the footwear of some of Northern Ohio's captains of industry, including one George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees immortalized in Seinfeld some 15 years later.

And in that job, as well as other interactions I got to know many of the members' kids.  Some were quite nice, some were little caricatures of their fathers and mothers (often exhibiting some of the less favorable characteristics).  They all had nice clothes, they all played golf, ate at the restaurant, swam at the pool, and partook of the tennis courts when their moms weren't either having tennis lessons or (in some instances) machinating over how to lure the tennis pro into a dark corner of the club where nobody could see.  As a side note - one year the tennis pro bore a downright striking resemblance to Tom Selleck circa 1983.

A fair number of those kids went to the nearby private school - Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville, Ohio.  Curious to relate, there was more than a small rivalry between my alma matter - Oberlin High School, and Lake Ridge Academy in matters of Soccer (that's football to many of you).

2.  I was a soccer player.  I played A LOT.  I was not particularly intrigued by school, but managed to keep my grades in check so that I could play for the middle school and high school.  After practice, I would go to the (Oberlin) college fields and watch the team practice and sometimes one of the goal keepers would invite me to take practice penalty kicks with the team.  After they cleared out I would practice my corner kicks.  I had one ball, so it was a pretty tedious process of taking the kick, jogging to the other side of the field to gather it, then take another kick from that corner.  I would do this about 25 or 30 times before the autumn skies would get too dark to keep going.

In terms of how we matched up against Lake Ridge, at least in my time it was fairly level.  In middle school we won the tournament the first year, they won the second.  In high school we won my sophomore year (that game immortalized by the "Oberlin fake" corner kick play).  A brief bit about that -I always took the corner kicks, and the first kick that comes up in that game, my team mate David Sonner starts running towards the corner shouting - 
"I'll take it, I'll take it".  
Me, being me, was having none of it and a verbal altercation the likes of which polite, Town & Country Lake Ridge parents only heard when watching Cinemax After Dark flowed forth as we both now sprinted for the ball.  For the record, David Sonner was (and by all accounts still is) a phenomenal athlete and had he really been trying would have made it to the ball, knocked it into play, and returned to the center circle before I even got to the corner.  I would like to think it was anger that moved my less than swift frame, but it would become clear that his plan was for both of us to arrive at the ball at the same time.  We both, effectively shielded the ball from view, backs to goal as we continued to argue.  Just as the referee was about to put the whistle to his mouth, David took a quick step away and whispered -
"Here I'm going to pass you the ball."
And at that moment, the 20 watt bulb above my head went off, I understood how this would unfold.  All of our teammates were crowded around the penalty area, as were ALL of the Lake Ridge Royals (another reason to hate them - the Royals?  Why not just call the team the Lake Ridge Money?  But I digress).  Long story short, ball rolled to me, David ran into space as nobody was marking him, I slotted him the ball, he took three touches (his only weakness as a player, he liked to have at least 3 touches before passing or shooting), and parked it in the back of the net.  The Lake Ridge players protested, but there was no rule against exploiting a team's inattention.
Curious to relate?  Later in the second half we did EXACTLY the same thing, this time with me scoring.  That game taught me something, your parents can have a lot of money, you might have nice clothes and be a straight A student heading for Princeton, but if you are used to things in your life following a certain pro forma?  Sooner or later, you are going to get played.  

I guess they smartened up in our junior year as I seem to recall that we drew.  Our senior year I missed the game for romantic reasons probably best left vague in case surviving family members might be reading and be scandalized by what I was up to with a female a wee-bit older than me.  And we lost.

But let's get back to watches, and choice.  First things first, it was fair to say that by the time I hit 16 and 17 I had a fairly healthy aversion to people who were flashy with money, and more certain that money wouldn't necessarily reflect taste, or judgment.  Now, my own judgement was not exactly state of the art at that point, and my taste ran towards modern day Salvation Army.  Following high school I drifted a bit for a year, looked after my Mee-Maw (grandmother) who was in her final year fighting cancer, and finally landed a few thousand miles away at the University of Oregon.  And then my grandmother passed and part of my inheritance was her Omega.

Now let's reflect back on judgement, etc.  In fairness, the Omega was a woman's model.  A bit bigger than some, a fair bit smaller than others.  Even in the smaller sizes favored in the late 80s and early 90s this was more than a bit small for me.  I was also not much of a watch guy.  Oh, one other thing - I WAS POOR.  Following my graduation from the U, I absolutely struggled for the first 2 years or so.  To quote Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen in Wall Street) - 
"I'm tapped out Marv. American Express' got a hit man lookin' for me."  
Out of options, I replied to a newspaper ad (remember life before Indeed?) to teach English in Japan.  It was really more of a whim, a way of telling myself that I hadn't completely given up.  I went to the interview, got invited to a second one - asked to bring a copy of my university diploma with me (seemed odd) and was offered a job there on the spot!

Now while this would seem like all of my problems were solved, it opened up a slew of others!  Remember, gentle reader, I had no money!  So in fairly short order I had to:
1.  Sell off everything that would not fit into 2 suitcases.
2.  Buy another suit (A friend had loaned me an in store credit at a used clothing store where I lucked into a Polo suit that fit perfectly and had low mileage that I wore to my 2 interviews), a pair of black leather shoes, several dress shirts and ties.
3.  Come up with $1,200 for a one-way flight from Portland, Oregon to Tokyo, Japan.
4.  Sell my car (at a loss of $2,500).
5.  Save $2,500 for my first month of living expenses in Japan.

So after everything else was offloaded, it was down to a few items of resale value left, and truth be told that while my Mee-Maw's Omega didn't bring in a lot of cash, it put me over the top, and I was able to get on that plane.

And to be honest?  I would probably do it again.  My grandfather bought the Omega for his wife not because it was glamorous, expensive, etc.  Because it wasn't.  There were no celebrity endorsements, nobody was putting out press pieces about a model, model's family, model's troubled model children wearing an Omega.  The Omega he bought for his wife was what my grandfather called - "A very fine watch".  Very fine not being defined by how much it cost, but that it looked good and worked very well.  Remember, this was Omega pre Jean-Claude Biver revival.  Moreover, the Omega landed with me because my grandmother left a lot of jewelry, that all went to my sisters.  Fair enough, of course.  She was not particularly enamored of the watch as an heirloom, and it was viewed more as a means of "balancing the scales" for the purposes of inheritance.

Needless to say, a lot of years have passed since 1992.  And while I certainly appreciate a beautiful, expensive watch I find myself turned off by them more and more.  I think a part of it is wrapped up childhood memories of faux & nouveau riche and the crazy lengths they would go to pass themselves off as something more.  One last memory of that time - 
There was a minor scandal at ECC that involved the parents of a Lake Ridge student back in the early 80s.  I will state here quite clearly, how much truth there is to this remains unclear to this day, and I don't know how much of it was fact, and how much was locker room gossip.  The married couple were like so many of that era - husband worked "late".  Things apparently had come to a head when the couple split up after the husband announced he was running off with his secretary/ receptionist/ dental hygienist/ medical assistant (who knows or cares nearly 40 years later).  The wife, in a fit of pique, raided the husband's dresser while he was at "work" and grabbed his Rolex.  The Rolex had been a gift to him from a grateful patient/client (again, 40 years on it doesn't really matter).  Well, while the ultimate fate of the wayward husband and his romantic accomplice have been lost to history, the word around the back rooms of the club was that a few years later, the watch had found its way to a jeweler in Cleveland, and was revealed to be (a very good) fake.

Which brings us to now.  I have some watches made by friends who have their own brands, and I truly do appreciate them.  But about 5 years ago when I was raising money to put towards a charity, I sold several pieces.  One was, shall we say, a bit esoteric so you could not really leverage it for what it might sell for new.  But someone came in with some cash and traded this Omega into the bargain -

My original plan was to sell it as well.  But something twigged in my memory, and I have held onto it ever since.  I appreciate it because it is pretty simple in design - hours, minutes, seconds and date.  It is large enough to be quite readable to my 51 year old eyes, and like my Mee-Maw's Omega - it is a very fine watch.  

It does not dive down to the briny deep, it did not "go to the moon", and it is not crafted of Un-Obtainium.  Moreover, I do not lay awake nights hoping that George Clooney (who I do admire for his humanitarian work) will be spotted wearing the same model, therefore validating "My Choice".  Truth be told, nobody should really give two tosses what his "Choice" is.  

I am not an Omega fanboy, and truthfully find a lot of what they offer of little to no interest.  I think they have not recently treated several of their retail partners so well, their after service wait times have been, at times, pretty poor.  Sorry, but calling this one honestly.  I could not really care any less who else wears one, I think that they are currently grossly over-priced, and I feel that this is borne out over the abundance found in previously owned stock.  But deep down, there was a longing for something that tied together the past with the present, and my Omega in many ways reminds me of my Mee-Maw, albeit it in a convoluted, round about way.  

Life is, inevitably, seldom a straight line.  Just ask the Lake Ridge Varsity soccer team of 1983.  There are twists, turns and unexpected events.  It's a lovely idea to think that your watch will validate everything that you have achieved, and all of the choices that you made.  But ultimately, it is an object.  And we have a lot of objects in our lives, some stay with us, some some are passed on, and others are simply lost along the wayside.  For me, every time I have tried to choose that one watch, that super-duper-special piece?  It has really been anti-climatic and never really "taken".   Don't get me wrong, I love watches, I love wearing the pieces in my (very) modest collection.  But sometimes, if you are open to it, that one watch will choose you.  It happened to me, so anything's possible ; )