ultracrepidarian: a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise.
As Reddit on iOS minus ads explained, Reddit still has a lot of value and today I read this post about a new watch search engine. To quote his post:
Sorry for the image link, WordPress mangled the quote. The link is https://chronoscout.co/en/watches/
Give it a try!
Oh yeah, Margaret and I have some ideas, for now there’s just a single sad index.html at https://dialedin.watch/ but stay tuned!
Backstory – for a few years I had a Confluence-based site at WatchOtaku.com where I wrote and reviewed watches. I shut it down in 2019 and since then the files have been available at http://www.phfactor.net/swr
However, that URL is gross, the files were raw HTML and thus hard to read, so this morning I moved them to a new hostname and added the lovely 4KB water.css, so now the URL is semi-clean and the pages are readable, light/dark compatible and responsive for mobile. Still 100% free, no JS, no tracking. Enjoy!
Some links for a burgeoning student I know:
James Stacey’s tutorial – part 1 and part 2.
SteveG, the OG god of macro, documented his setup here, in case money is no object.
Anyone have an iPhone app that they like that automates macro focus stacking?
Here’s a SteveG, from his Credor writeup:
More recently, on the TGN podcast, James recommended the free Adobe app ‘Project Indigo’ for wrist shots. It doesn’t do focus stacking but I’m gonna try it out. Their writeup says that they plan to add stacking as a feature and show this example of manually stacking 41 images:
Sometimes you buy a watch because it’s just right. Proportions, dimensions, luminosity, legibility, price, movement, style. This one preoccupied me for a couple of months and arrived last week.
Really enjoying wearing it.
Downsides so far – the lumed numerals blur in the dark into blobs, so the initial legibility decreases a bit. I miss having a date available. Since it has unidirectional winding, there’s noticeable rotor spin that you can feel and hear.
Overall strong positive. At 36 by 10.8, it’s super comfortable. I love the design and style. Legibility is excellent as is timekeeping. At 1100 with bracelet (always buy the bracelet!) the value is good for a Swiss made watch this well detailed and finished.
There’s a larger 38mm version, but for me, with the all-dial case, 36 is perfectly sized.
Farer page is here. No relationship, just a happy customer.
It’s as good as hoped. Wish it was 38 instead of 41mm but still a delight.
They’ve been intermittently sold out but this isn’t a limited edition so you can eventually get one.
Delightful timekeeping on mine so far – better than chronometer spec, under 2 seconds per day or better. Astonishingly good!
https://www.scurfawatches.com/product/treasure-seeker-white-dial/
My most-read post on the site is the well-named “You should buy a Scurfa dive watch.” Today, they released the long-anticipated ‘Treasure Seeker’ line for sale, and at 368UKP (~510USD) it’s one hell of a deal!
It’s more upscale than my DI-500, with mechanical 9015 movement, included bracelet & strap, ceramic bezel and much fancier dial. For all of that, the price is incredible.
They have black, dark blue, bright blue, orange, yellow and white dial versions, all with attention to contrast and legibility. For example, the white dial version has black-edged hands and markers – nice!
The bright blue is called ‘Hydra Hat’ after a piece of dive equipment, and it’s lovely. And tempting. The black dial is the only one sporting a few color highlights, which is the only complaint I can muster.
I think the other colors would also have benefited from a bit of color pop here and there. Ahh well.
Nice saturated orange.
Me? I just ordered the white dial. I think it’ll be versatile, legible and a delight to own, and Scurfa seem to hold value very well in case the 41mm / 165g is too large or heavy for me.
By way of comparison, I’ve been debating the new Seiko SNE569:
38mm, sapphire, solar quartz movement, unknown bezel (aluminum or possibly plastic, definitely not ceramic.) MSRP is around 550USD, with eBay price of $450. The bracelet has folded end links, and that plus the cheaper bezel are my main annoyances. Great watch, so-so value.
Scurfa – the watches and the values both continue to impress me. Can’t wait for mine to get here!
This is a watch that probably has a small audience – it’s quartz, with asymmetric day/date, which most WIS find less appealing. It’s got a bit of the high-legibility look of the ‘old man retirement watch’ e.g. Timex Easy Reader:
In this case, it’s interesting to me in a couple of ways – it’s a tribute by Seiko of their 1929 railroad pocket watch:
Secondly, I actually like day/date and like how this looks on the dial. Seiko managed to just not clip the ornate ‘3’. Lovely!
Also, I like solar powered quartz. Accurate, eco friendly, it’ll have the correct time if left idle for a week or a month. Lastly, I love 38 by 9.5mm size. Super wearable.
This is arguable, but I think it’s also a Seiko version on the Tank Must SolarBeat, where Cartier carefully hid the photovoltaics inside the Roman numerals:
The bad news – as plus9time explains, this watch bears no Seiko reference number and isn’t shown on their site:
These models are produced for customers directly and are not for sale via the Seiko websites. The models have Seiko branding on the dial and case back and sometimes have Seiko style model numbers, but some models may not publicise the model number or provide the company’s own model number. Often these models are produced as a limited edition with a set number of units and other times retailers may offer the unit for presale and then once a number of orders have been received the model will then be ordered from Seiko and produced to match the demand.
https://www.plus9time.com/blog/2021/7/4/2021-first-half-seiko-releases
In this case, the vendor is ‘Japanese shopping club LightUp.’ The collaboration is to celebrate their 50th anniversary, the product page is here. (In Japanese, though Chrome does OK translating it.)
You can only get this watch in Japan. LightUp only delivers to Japan. What’s more, since Seiko won’t sell it to you, I don’t know if stalwarts like Seiya or Higuchi can get it for you either.
I begged a favor from family and they came through – the person living there will order and cross-ship it to me here. I hope it’ll be worth the expense (~$480) and hassle. Something about that dial and font, man, I couldn’t resist. Leave a comment if you order one and let people know how you did it!
The family wasn’t able, as LightUp was apparently difficult to order from. Seiya was happy to buy and ship one:
Hello from Tokyo,
Thank you for your inquiry.
This model is sold at limited stores so I would purchase it at the below shop if the estimate is acceptable.
45,000 Yen -Seiko Solar
783 Yen -- Domestic shipping fee
3000 Yen-- Shipping fee
3600 My commission 8%
1833 Yen -- PayPal commission 3.5%
54216 << Yen
US$491
I’ve had it a few weeks now and will try and post about it. It’s as hoped – low key, super wearable and I really enjoy wearing it.
I like restraint in watch design – clarity, legibility, smaller cases that wear more comfortably. I also value accurate timekeeping. There have been some recent releases that hit that intersection nicely, so why not share in case others are interested?
Via Plus9Time, the Seiko Astron SSJ003J1:
Seems to be selling for about $1800 with availability in September 2021. At nearly 2k, that’s edging into Grand Seiko quartz prices; quite a big step up from the more mature models with radio control. For example, the Seiko SBTM313:
or the SBTM305, with a dial closer to that of the Astron:
Solar powered, similar in size and style, but radio set (5 band) versus GPS. Sakura has them for just under $450. 1/4th the price!
From the competition, Citizen has multiple offerings. I like the Attesa line, in particular the CB1120s:
That’s the reference CB1120-50F, a 37mm titanium beauty, also available with baton markers and/or white dial for about $450.
That’s the AT6070-57L. Nice, and I like the day-date for everyday. Maybe 600$.
I bought the CB1120-50F above and have had it about six months; it’s stellar. Best radio reception I’ve ever seen, beautifully made and just a wonderful, zero-attention watch. It’s easy to recommend. The SBTM series is a pretty direct competitor and I find the green-dial 313 rather attractive.
At 500 bucks, you’re talking expensive quartz, with competition rampant including the Apple Watch. The 2k for the Astron is mighty hard to swallow, given the super niche differences in usefulness – the difference is being able to get time sync in places without radio reception. Australia/NZ, polar areas, South America. If you live there, probably worth it. If you live in Europe, North America, UK or Japan, why bother? Radio sync, in my experience with maybe 15 watches, gets you within 0.5 seconds and sometimes closer – as mentioned the Attesa is best-ever and dead synced to NTP, radio and GPS references.
I should also note that the CB1120s have non-standard lugs, meaning you’re basically stuck with the bracelet, which is usually a thing I consider a deal breaker; in this case I loved the watch so much I bought one anyway.
On an unrelated note, I wrote this post on my iPad, not too bad as an authoring experience so I should be able to post more often.
Springs and gears and levers, painstakingly made and finished.
Playing with the Moment macro lens during a long Zoom call.
It’s hard to make these and the fine details add cost. But dang they’re beautiful.
Watchsmith is an application that seeks to give you complete control over the appearance and utility of your Apple Watch. First, it provides a wide array of complications. Each of these is completely customizable, with controls for things like font, color, hand type and location1. The initial set is just over 50 unique complications, with dozens more planned down the road. My goal is to provide a complication for just about every use and let you make it look just how you want. In the absence of 3rd-party watch faces, this is the closest I can get to making my own watch faces.
Introducing Watchsmith – David Smith, Independent iOS Developer
Insta-download. Yeah, I got a v5 Apple Watch a week or so ago and wow how they gotten better since the launch version I bought when they first came out. Anyway, Watchsmith looks quite clever and promising, and its free to try out.
His privacy policy is fantastic:
Other than these two cases, no personal data ever leaves your devices. Unless you email me for support, I will have no information about you or what you do within the app.
I don’t want the responsibility of managing your data correctly, so I don’t collect it, which I think is better for both of us.
ultracrepidarian 