From the Depths Arises...

It's amazing how your mind can fool you. Well, it does me, but maybe I'm simple-minded.

Me: Oh, I only have x number of watches in my collection.
My wife: What about all those boxes of watches you have in the wardrobe?
Me: Oh they're all empty, just the boxes. The watches are in the safe.
My wife: No, I'm talking about the display boxes, the ones that hold a dozen or more watches.
Me: Where?

So maybe you're not all as bad as me, but it turns out I'm a major league denialist. There was a box of watches in the wardrobe. Several actually.

Me: But they aren't part of my collection, they're just watches I've picked up along the way, no longer wear and never got around to selling.
My wife: Hmmm

So, I made a concerted effort to root out all of the "hidden"/"not hidden" watches "in"/"not in" in my collection. Oh my, there were a few...
I actually took the time and effort to sell many of them, but with a few, just a few, I thought "Hmm, I still quite like that".

Now these watches had not all been squirrelled away just because I stopped wearing them, they often had problems; problems that at the time I just couldn't be bothered fixing. Almost all of them were not by any stretch of the imagination, big problems, but they were by and large enough for me to a) not wear a particular watch at the time and b) eventually squirrel it away when it's presence kept reminding me that I had to do something about it that I couldn't be bothered doing. Hence the existence of the Schrödinger boxes.

Here is the first of perhaps a series of updates that I will post here of some of the watches that escaped the cull, for whatever reason.

This is a 1990s Seiko Giugiaro Diver (designed by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro). I've owned several of these (with green / orange / black dials) as the quirkiness of the design just tickles my fancy. It has a bit of an H.R. Giger / Alien vibe going that I have had with several watches over the decades. I've mentioned that I've always liked a green dial, and this was one of the early ones, quite a dark green that in some lights hides it's beauty under a more mundane black dial appearance. There are several things I just LOVE about this watch. The dial for one, is classic 90's Kinetic, but done well. The case and particularly the bezel, really appeals to me - I realise that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm fine with that. Finally, the bracelet, which I find to be both stunning with its alternating polished and blasted links and also very comfortable. The watch is in remarkably good condition for a thirty-ish year old watch.

Things I don't like about this watch... Just the one thing really, it's the kinetic movement. Well, more specifically that the "never need to change a battery" capacitor died and that was the main cause of it Schrödinger status. When I rescued it from the depths, I replaced the dead capacitor with a new one. I discovered a local watch parts supplier that could provide the capacitors at about half the cost of what they usually sell for, so I did this and a few others that were lying around. One of those will undoubtedly make an appearance on this thread not too far in the future.

And now a few pics...

I understand where you're coming from, Gary; to coun a phrase that I dislike.

I, too, have my Schrodinger's collection; it's a tea tray, with a tea towel on it for softness, and a number of watches sat on it that are 'to be sold'. They're part of my collection but not part of my collection as they're 'to be sold'.

As to your Seiko kinetic, I get why you're keeping it. The bracelet is a work of art.

Guy

Sent from my Galaxy S23 Ultra using Tapatalk

My, that’s an almost dangerous looking watch!

The Schrödinger’s watch analogy is a very interesting one. Until recently I kept my watches in a few basically cardboard boxes. But then I bought some nicer display boxes and they’re all out for me to see. And I’m now stressing about watches that I hadn’t worn for years and am still not wearing, thinking I should do something with them.

Maybe that thing I need to do is box them back up again!

As mentioned, I have some others to cover. This is #2.

Next one along is another Seiko Kinetic - this one is a Streamline. The Streamline series had a very small number of models, mostly in two-tone stainless & very hard wearing TiCN (Titanium Carbon Nitride) finishes (also used on 2000s Sporturas) and are mostly asymmetrical in shape. I've owned a few different models, this was my first one and an enduring favourite. It's interesting as my wife likes a few watches, but loves only three - her Aqua Terra, her Cartier Tank and this one. She consistently refers to it as the bat (if you look at it with the crown up, you'll probably get the reference). Not only asymmetric, but offset, this is an unusual and very polarising looking watch.

One of the things Seiko did well with this watch was the chamfered off case back at 9 - the 6309 Turtle diver has a similar shape to the underside of the watch, effectively keeping the case away from the wrist, meaning that it sits very comfortably even with the offset dial location. I managed to buy a NOS case and bracelet for it about 15 years ago, and did the swap, but as was the case with most of my Kinetics, the capacitor went and replacing it was somehow always a job for next week or month and it ended up in one of the Schrödinger boxes.

My wife was stunned when she saw it, she thought I'd sold it years ago. I asked her if she would like it for herself, but she declined, telling me that was the watch I was wearing when we first met, so it was mine, not hers. Not that I've ever thought of doing so, but I can never sell it now!
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These are both *very* nineties watches, just a Tag Heuer S/EL can only be a nineties watch. That's not a bad thing, it just dates them to a time.

This was one of my other Streamlines. Not as comfy as this one, but still unusual to say the least.
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Now I know why you’ve had two years off the forum, you needed that time to write all the new/rediscovered watch posts…….

Because I usually wear any watch exclusively for about a week, and sometimes much longer than that, my other watches disappear into W-Space, a little known dimension of the space-time continuum, whence they can be quickly and efficiently retrieved when the time comes.

Officially, when in W-Space, they don’t exist.

Apologies to the late Sir Terry Pratchett for nicking a jolly good idea.

@gaf1958 Those Seikos are cool!

Schrödinger's collection! now that's an interesting hypothesis. I'm very much enjoying your flurry of watch posts after your lengthy hiatus. As to the watches, I really like them. They're odd, but in a parallel universe kind of way. They're the kind of thing Gerald Genta might have designed had he been a denizen of Haight Ashbury in the late sixties/early seventies, on an extended acid trip. I really like that Streamline, and yes, I definitely see bats. Which takes me back to an acid/drug fuelled odyssey by Hunter S Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hallucinogenics featured in that tale, as did bats. In all probability the result of a bad trip.

There is something timeless about these watches, Gary. I think they will always look futuristic wherever the future may lead.

Des

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 9:54 am Apologies to the late Sir Terry Pratchett for nicking a jolly good idea.

Sir Terry would probably be quite chuffed... or at least I like to think so.
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OH HE IS, HAVE NO DOUBT OF THAT.

Steve, you know there can never be a Pratchett novel (in this case reference), without you know who making an appearance.

@gaf1958

Bugrit, bugrit, millennium hand and shrimp.

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 11:45 am Bugrit, bugrit, millennium hand and shrimp.

Gotta love foul ole' Ron.

Do you know my kids still manage to find a different biography or short stories or something from Pratchet for me almost every Christmas. One day, sadly, the well will run dry. That or David Gilmour.

@gaf1958 I could, of course, have said that the watches go to the same place Garion’s clothes and sword disappear to when he turns into a wolf. But that would lead us into a whole new world of characters, and we’d need a barrel of the twins’ ale to get through that, Silk, you mangy Drasnian dog!

@gaf1958
Gary that Streamline is one of the coolest watches I have seen.

I have quite a few watches not worn for over a year, most with no inclination to wear. Some are ones I have no intention to either wear or sell. Others are in my to be sold pile. A few are ones that I certainly regard as part of my collection, it’s just they haven’t been worn for a year or so, but once worn they will likely be in play for a few months at a time.

Neil

Not a Kinetic this time, but definitely in the spirit of H.R. Giger and Alien is this TiCN coated Seiko 7T62 chronograph - I usually refer to it as "the Seiko Giger" or sometimes just "the Alien". In one of the Alien movies Ripley is wearing a Seiko chronograph designed by Giugiaro (see the diver above) - this watch would have fitted right in. Unsurprisingly, being me, I've owned a couple of these over the years. The movement in this one died one day and in truth I never really got along well with the black dial with almost mirror polished silver subdials; the black dial had little dots all over it too - eventually the combination put me off wearing it altogether.

Not one to let opportunity pass, I decided that a bit of a swap was in order - from memory I picked up a NOS yellow dialled 7T62 panda that had possibly the ugliest case I've ever seen and swapped the movement and dial in. It's a bit shouty loud, but I tend to go for that anyway, maybe not as much these days but it's still not a bad look IMO. That of course was back in the days when a NOS Seiko was cheap and easily affordable. Mind you the case would have put almost anyone off all by itself, so that probably helped the price.

I just love the case and bracelet on this watch. Seiko seem to excel in producing some of the more, shall we say "less usual" watches around. Good on them.

And yet another Seiko from one of the Schrödinger boxes. I had always referred to this model as the Starfish (for obvious reasons) but that moniker was later taken over by a Seiko dive watch that has a scalloped bezel that looks far less like a starfish than this one does. Clearly, I didn't trademark the name early enough.

So, it's a nineties 7T32 chronograph - in some ways the 7T32 was the precursor of the modern Seiko mecha-quartz movements, with a sweep chronograph second hand with 1/5 second intervals. As a true pre-mobile phone anachronism, it also sports an alarm function, set by the crown at 4. I've owned a few of this particular model over the years and I like the bezel design - like the Giugiaro diver, it could almost be registered as a lethal weapon. It certainly provides an easy grip when turning the bezel.

Apart from the trademark hollow end link that were pervasive in 90's Seikos, the OEM bracelet is actually quite a nice one. There were a few different styles used on the Starfish models; I think this one is the nicest. It's actually quite comfortable and not a hair puller.
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