The Collector’s Series – Meet @so.frech, Our First Collector Talking Grand Seiko
For the first time in our Collector’s Series we talk about a Grand Seiko and we do this with Austria-based collector who can be found as @so.frech on Instagram. Grand used to be JDM (Japan Domestic Market) only and only opened up to customers from outside Japan since 2010. Although it’s not a young brand, for people outside Japan, Grand Seiko remained unknown. By now the brand is pretty well established among its peers and here on MONOCHROME we are always highly enthusiastic when we’re talking about Grand Seiko. And not only because of the Zaratsu polishing technique – an ancient method to polished Samurai swords – that results is stupendously good finished cases and hands. We will be talking with @so.frech about his Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA083.
We recently unveiled our Time+Tide Clubhouse Club, as well as our first weekly room “The Breakfast Club”. Each week, Fridays at 5pm EST / Saturday morning at 9AM AEDT, I will be hosting and moderating the Time+Tide “Breakfast Club” on Clubhouse where we will tackle a watch (not breakfast) related topic. Typically the prompt will be a question posed to our team and readers, where ideally we all get to share our thoughts on the matter. With the second Time+Tide “Breakfast Club” weekly meeting fast approaching, I wanted to unveil this week’s topic, and for those less initiated into the Clubhouse app, the rules of the room. It is my goal each week to be able to engage as much as possible with you during each room, and in order to make that happen I have decided on three simple rules. But before we dive into that, let’s reveal what we are talking about this week. Our topic this week: “Apples to Apples: Which Watch Would You Choose Between…?” Based on our first discussion, we found it very interesting that many of you voiced your conundrum of trying to choose between two similar pieces when considering your next watch. One…
Paw prints, Celtic bands, bows on thighs, pretty much anything inked on the face… There’s no shortage of tattoo choices that are questionable at best and watch tattoos represent yet another baffling sub-category. After all, if you want to visibly declare your passion for a particular brand or model, there’s a straight-forward way to do it. You simply wear that watch on your wrist. But this doesn’t cut it for some people. Presumably, they think it’s all a bit fickle – the way you can take your watch off one day and swap it for another piece from your collection the next. Instead they want to go further and declare their commitment with a horological statement that’s more than skin-deep. Searching for positives here, I suppose watch tattoos do have certain advantages over the real McCoy. They’re ultra-thin (eat your heart out Piaget Altiplano Ultimate), they require zero servicing fees and they’re far cheaper than the actual timepiece. They may also prove instructive if you’re a degenerate watch flipper, too. A watch tattoo isn’t something you can trade-in on a knee-jerk whim for the latest shiny release on an integrated bracelet. In addition, it should be noted that tattoos and…
When Seiko launched their new, vintage-inspired sub range of the Alpinist, we shared the three standard models in our story here, but we’ve kept the star under wraps. Here’s the fourth smaller sibling, the limited edition SJE085 Alpinist 1959 recreation, vintage purity on a surprising bund strap. While it might look like mere tweaks to the design of the bright trio covered in our previous story, the SJE085 is, in fact, much more than mere hand-stitched leather cuff-ery. While the look is the same, the case and lugs are only for this Limited Edition, with a 36.6mm diameter versus 38mm for the standard model, and a svelte 11.1mm thickness. This is obsessively designed with a deep passion for the Seiko Laurel original, but why not before I hear you ask? Well, Seiko have been rather generous with their limited and standard diver’s watches, with only a smattering of Presage in between a strong selection of skin divers and Tuna cans. This time they’ve pushed the boat out, especially on what is a charmingly quirky chocolate-sweet bund strap, its whimsical seams and outer grooves looking like nothing else on a standard Seiko. The watch case is both a celebration of the…
Let me start by saying that I’ve had quite the week. Summer doesn’t seem to want to end, the T+T Team are working really hard on a few very exciting projects that we’ll be able to announce soon, but that wasn’t all. We were lucky enough to attend the first watch event in real life for the first time in almost exactly a year and it was great to catch up with several Melbourne-based collectors, as well as see some pretty special watches up close and personal. Also, this week we took a close look at a watch that isn’t a new release, but does have a new element to it. The watch in question is the Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 126710 BLRO that was released in 2018. The element I’m referring to is the colour of the bezel, which has been a hot topic of conversation at T+T HQ. Is the bezel different at all, or is it just the lighting? If it has changed, what are the differences in colour? In our video review, Andrew recalls seeing the watch for the first time at Baselworld and wondering if there had been a mistake, or if these were the colours…