Tag: Rolex

A Tale of Two Two-Tone GMTs

By Joe Berk

Some time ago, we wrote a blog comparing the Casio Marlin and Rolex Sea Dweller dive watches.   This one is similar; it compares my nearly 40-year-old two-tone Rolex GMT II to a recently-released Seiko two-tone GMT.

Two GMT watches: The Rolex GMT Master II (left) and the Seiko two-tone GMT (right).  in the photos here, the Rolex has a much richer appearance; in real life, the Seiko looks just as good.
A close up of my Rolex GMT Master II, purchased new in 1986 when I was still a yuppie.  Note the cyclops lens over the date.  It really works.  The older I get, the better it works.
The Seiko two-tone GMT, purchased a few days ago.  The Seiko also has a cyclops lens over the date.  It’s a cool and useful touch.  This is a very nice watch.

I’m a sucker for a good-looking watch.  Many of my retired friends take pride in not wearing a watch, and many young people don’t wear watches (they’re glued to their cell phones all day; they can get the time there).  I always wear a watch.

The first watch I ever owned was a gift from my parents.  It was an inexpensive Timex that was completely unexpected, I loved it, and I wore it for years.  I first recognized watches as a status symbol and a cool thing to own when I was in the Army, and like all the other lieutenants overseas, I bought a Seiko chronograph at the Base Exchange.  After the Army came the aerospace industry where a Rolex was the status symbol, and when I was back in D.C. lobbying Congress to buy Aerojet cluster bombs instead of Brand X (Honeywell was Brand X for us), a jewelry store had the Rolex GMT Master II you see here.  I wore it full time for years after I first bought it, and then only intermittently after that.  I felt the Rolex was pretentious around clients, and I was afraid it would reinforce a feeling that they were paying me too much (which they were).  Now that I’m retired, the fear of being pretentious has been replaced by the fear of getting mugged, so I don’t wear it very often.

The hands of fate. The top arrow points to the bezel, which can be rotated in relation to the GMT hand (lower left arrow) to tell time on a 24-hour scale in a different time zone. The second-from-the-top red arrow points to the minute hand. The arrow on the right points to the conventional hour hand.  If you look closely at the inverted diamond at 12:00, you can see the bezel is slightly off.

So what is a GMT watch?  Basically, it is a watch that allows you to tell time in three time zones.   If you wanted to, one of the time zones could be Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the time at the Greenwich Observatory in England.  Most of the time, I could care less what the time is in England, but that’s where the GMT descriptor originates.

Today, there are multiple approaches for time telling in different time zones, but the classic approach (and one followed by the Rolex and Seiko watches in this blog) is through the use of a third hand and a bezel with 24-hour numbering.  The way it works is this:

      • The standard hour and minute hands tell the local time.
      • The third hand can be shifted to tell the time in a different time zone.
      • The bezel can be rotated to tell the time in a third time zone.

There are variations on the above (like switching local time with destination time, etc.).  All of this may sound like a solution looking for a problem, but trust on this, when you travel to different time zones, it’s a very useful feature.

The Rolex GMT allows you to “step” the hour in one-hour increments by use of the winding knob when the knob is partially pulled out (some folks say this makes the Rolex a “true” GMT).  On the Seiko, it doesn’t have the “step” function; use of the winding knob advances either the third hand or the conventional hour hand without the one-hour clicks (depending on which click you bring the stem out to).   To me, either approach is acceptable.

The Rolex GMT Master II retails today for $14,050; the Seiko goes for $475.  There’s a lot more to the pricing story, though.  Prices on a Rolex are all over the map, and Rolexes sell for well above their suggested retail price.  Some, even used, sell for three or four times their suggested retail price.  I don’t know what my Rolex would sell for today as a used watch, and I’m not really interested because it’s not for sale.  The Rolex will eventually go to one of my grandsons.  I paid $3287 for it new in that Washington, D.C. jewelry store in 1986.  I could easily get my money out of it if I wanted to, but like I said, that’s not going to happen.

An all stainless (i.e., non-two-tone) Seiko GMT. These go for $317 on Amazon. It’s a good-looking watch.

Staying on pricing for a minute, the two-tone Seiko GMT is a relatively new model, so I couldn’t find it discounted on Amazon.  If the two-tone coloring is not important to you, you can get the all-stainless version on Amazon for $317, which is a smoking deal (it’s $158 less expensive than the two-tone version).

My Seiko GMT was an impulse buy.  Sue and I went out for lunch and there was a small watch shop a couple of doors down.  They had the two-tone model, which I had not seen before other than in online watch forums and Seiko’s website (I was in Tokyo last year, and I didn’t even see it there).  I asked the shop about a veteran’s discount, the guy said “you bet,” and mine set me back $402.  I like supporting local businesses, I like doing business with shops that offer a veteran’s discount, and I liked being able to see the watch in person before I pulled the trigger.

My Rolex runs fast, gaining about a minute a week.  That’s adjustable and would no doubt be corrected if I took the watch in for service, but I’m probably not going to do that.  I’ve had the Rolex serviced twice.  The last time was 25 years ago at the Rolex service center in Beverly Hills (where else could it possibly be?).  Rolex clipped me $1000 for the service.  I wasn’t happy at all.  After the servicing, the numbers on the click-detented bezel were offset from where they should have been, and when I bitched about that, they remounted the bezel.  It was better, but it is still offset a bit.  Within six months of that service (which included replacing the crystal), I noticed a gouge on the crystal.  I had worn the Rolex for 10 years before that and never had a scratch on the original crystal, so I have to wonder if I really received the sapphire crystal I paid for.  A servicing today will probably be about $1500 if I get the crystal replaced and the bezel numbers remounted.  It’s not likely I’ll spring for that.  Maybe I will.  I don’t know.  It’s something I think about now and then, but then I think about getting out on the range with a milsurp rifle or riding my motorcycle and I forget about it.  So far, the Seiko is keeping perfect time.  I’ll let you know if that changes.

The Seiko is a new watch, so I haven’t had it serviced yet.  Poking around a bit revealed that a typical mechanical watch servicing costs from $200 to $250. I think my local guy would probably be less than that.  It’s quite a bit lower than what a Rolex service costs.

Both the Seiko and the Rolex are automatics.  That means they are mechanical, selfwinding timepieces.  The good news is there are no batteries, and it doesn’t matter if I stay out in the sun long enough to charge the solar power source.  The bad news is that if I don’t wear an automatic watch for a few days, it stops.  When that happens, prior to the next time I wear it I need to wind it and set the time.  The Seiko, fully wound, has a 41-hour power reserve.  The Rolex has a 70-hour power reserve.  Rolex gets the nod here.

Regarding cosmetics, the “gold” bezel on the Seiko isn’t really gold; it’s plated.  The accents on the Seiko hands and the watchface are similarly gold colored (i.e., they are not real gold).  The Seiko’s jubilee bracelet links center areas are left a natural stainless steel finish.  On the Rolex, they are gold.  Another thing to note:  On any Rolex, wherever you see something gold, it’s real gold.  Nothing is plated on a Rolex.  The bezel, the watchface accents, the hands, the winder, and the jubilee bracelet are all solid gold.  Both watches look great, in my opinion.  The real gold obviously drives the cost of Rolex higher than a Seiko, but not enough to explain the $14,000 (or more) difference.  Most of the price difference is prestige pricing (Rolex gets away with it because some folks think they need such a thing).  I used to be one of them.  I’m not anymore.

About that jubilee bracelet:  What they refers to are the smaller links in the watchband’s center section.   Non-jubilee watches have bigger, single links instead of the jubilee bracelet’s three smaller links.  To me, the jubilee bracelet makes a real comfort difference.  The non-jubilee bracelet just doesn’t feel as good.

The Seiko is a much thicker case, and it sits higher on the wrist.  It’s enough to be noticeable.  The Rolex is thinner and I like the feel of it better for that reason.

Note the increased case thickness of the Seiko (on the right) compared to the downright thin Rolex. Rolex gets the nod here.

The Seiko’s stem winder is a push in/pull out affair.  The Rolex stem winder unscrews, which theoretically makes it more waterproof.   I don’t wear my watch in the shower any more (ever since I ruined a G-Shock by doing so), so the difference is meaningless to me.

One last area I’ll touch on is the clasp design.  Hands down (pardon the pun) the win here goes to Seiko.  The Seiko’s clasp has three retaining features compared to the Rolex clasp.  The fear, of course, is that the watch clasp comes undone and the watch slips off the wrist.  It could be damaged by a fall onto, say, concrete, or worse, go unnoticed.  The other fear is pickpockets.  I don’t know how difficult it would be for a pickpocket to lift your watch.  I once had a guy (a magician) remove a watch I was wearing without me noticing it.  That watch had a leather band and I later learned there’s a trick to it.  I don’t know if there’s a comparable trick for a metal bracelet, but if there is, I would think the Rolex would be more susceptible to such a thing.

The Seiko (on the left) clasp has three retaining features; the Rolex (on the right) has only one (which is a small dimensional difference between the outer clasp and the mating pin on the inner clasp). The Seiko design is better.

The bottom line to me is that the Seiko is a hell of a deal for under $500, and if you are looking for a watch that offers all the advantages of a GMT and is dressy, the Seiko is a good buy.  I own both, and I think Seiko hit a home run here.

There are other approaches to a GMT watch.  Citizen has a different dual time approach with their Nighthawk and Blue Angels models.  Many digital watches (some identified as GMT watches and some not) can display the time in different time zones at the touch of a button.  Casio has several cool models that do this.  The Citizen and the Casio watches are reviewed on our Product Reviews page.

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The Casio Marlin

By Joe Berk

I’ve mentioned my Casio Marlin (also known as the Duro) a few times in previous blogs.  I love this watch for any number of reasons:  It’s accurate, it’s rugged, it’s waterproof, it’s comfortable, and it’s inexpensive.  It’s a diver’s watch, but I’m not a diver.  I just like the look of thing.  I’ve worn it on a few big moto trips including the ride around the Andes Mountains in Colombia.  It poured cats and dogs on that trip.  The Marlin was unfazed.

At about $50, this watch has to be the deal of the century.  Just for grins I grabbed a picture of the Rolex Sea Dweller and put it along side the Casio.  If you own a Rolex don’t get your shorts in a knot ((I own one, too).   But the comparison has to make you wonder:  Let’s see, $50 for the Casio and $16,500 (or whatever it is these days) for the Sea Dweller (if you can find one and in today’s market that’s not easy).  As Aristotle would say….hmmmmm.

Yeah, you can go a little deeper with the Rolex (they say down to 3,900 meters).  My Casio says it’s good for 200 meters.  That’s over 600 feet down.  It’s not likely I’ll ever visit those regions and if I ever do I can guarantee you the time of day is not what will be on my mind.

I’ve owned my Marlin for about 10 years now.  I think I’ve had to replace the battery twice.  My guy charges me $3.25 to install a new battery (parts and labor).  The strap got stiff and cracked, so I’ve replaced that once (I think it was $10).  I checked and the cost of a replacement resin Rolex band is close to $300.  On the other hand, the Rolex is self-winding, so it never needs a battery.   Again….hmmmm.

You know what to do…click on the popup ads!

On that comfort thing…the Casio Marlin is about the right size for a man’s watch and the resin band is very comfortable.  I always forget I have it on and on more than a few occasions I’ve gone into the water wearing it (swimming, showering, and most recently, almost being swept away in my Subaru going to the gun club).  It doesn’t matter to the Casio.  I’d say it’s indestructable, but some Internet weenie would want to get into a urinating contest about that.

Boarding the ferry in Magangué on the Magdelena River.  Even there, the Casio’s good looks and functionality appealed to an onlooker.

When I rode Colombia with Juan and Carlos, one time we had to wait a couple of hours on a hot and humid afternoon for the ferry to come in and carry us down the Magdalena River to Mompos.  While we were waiting in what little shade we could find in Magangué, a young Colombian boy came over and touched the Casio, nodding his approval.  If I had another watch with me I would have given it to him.  I still think about that on occasion and wish I had given it to that kid.  I think when I bought my Marlin, they were $39.  That young fellow most likely would have cherished the Casio the rest of his life (as I will).  Maybe I need another ride in Colombia.  If I go again I’ll throw an extra Marlin in one of the panniers.  You know, just to be prepared.

More watches and more product reviews?  You bet!

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Why think small?

By Joe Berk

Half a lifetime ago I was a yuppie, and the symbols of being a successful yuppie included an MBA and a Rolex.  The Rolex was easy (the only requirement was having more money than brains).  The MBA was more difficult.  It required going back to school, which I did.  Getting the MBA definitely gave me a boost.  My career at the munitions company was on fast forward; at one point I was the youngest vice president in the Aerojet corporation (then I got fired, but that’s a story for another time).  I loved being in the bomb business (business was booming, so to speak), and being a former Army guy, I was in my element.

That could have been me in the ’80s and ’90s. I wore a jacket and tie to work every day.  I had the big glasses, too.

Anyway, while I was going to night school for the MBA, one of my classes was titled Human Behavior or something like that.   The guy who taught it was a Ph.D in one of the soft sciences, and I knew pretty quickly that he leaned way left.  That’s okay; in my book you can lean however you want as long as you don’t expect me to agree with you on every issue.

The first night of class the prof had everyone tell the rest of their class their name and what they did.   We were all yuppies, we were all young, and we all had good jobs. It made for good entertainment, but I had a feel for how things were going from the first several yuppies who told us what they did and the prof’s reactions and questions.  Yep, the guy was a definite leftie.  I started to wonder what his reaction would be to me…a guy firmly entrenched in the military industrial complex working for a munitions company.

“So what do you do, Joe?” Dr. WhatsHisName asked.

“Uh, I’m an engineer,” I said, hoping he would leave it at that, but knowing he wouldn’t.

“What kind of an engineer are you, and who do you work for?”

“Uh, I’m a mechanical engineer,” I said.   No sense in oversharing, I figured.  Maybe he wouldn’t notice I didn’t name my company.

“Who do you work for?”

“I work for an aerospace company.”

“What company, and what do you engineer?”  This guy wasn’t going to give up.  I liked my job and I liked what I did, but I wasn’t about to tell Jerry Rubin here I supported the Vietnam War.

“I work for Aerojet, and we make a variety of products.”  It had become a contest, and I was losing.

“What are your products?”  He had me.   Time to ‘fess up.

“I do cluster bombs.”   There.  It was out.  I knew the guy was going to call whoever it is you call when you find someone violating the Geneva Convention.  The good doctor stared at me for several seconds.  The other 30 or so yuppies in the class were dead silent.  It was a pregnant pause if ever there was one and we were pretty close to the 9-month mark.  Somebody’s water was about to break.

“Does your family know what you do?” he softly asked, speaking almost in a whisper.

“My wife does,” I said, mirroring his subdued tone.

“And how does she feel about how you earn a living?”

At this point, I knew I had to come clean.  “Truth be told, Professor, she’s disappointed in me.”  I had hoped that would end the discussion, but the guy would not let up.  He was a dog and I was the bone.  Then I sensed a way out, anticipating what his next question would be.

“What does she say to you?” he asked.

“Well, Doc, like I said, she’s disappointed, and she’s made that known on several occasions.”  The good Professor was nodding knowingly.  He was hearing my confession.   I don’t recall specifically, but I’m pretty sure he was smiling.  I was on a roll and I continued. “You see, Professor, my wife works for TRW’s Ballistic Missiles Division.  They do nuclear intercontinental missiles and she’s always asking me why I’m wasting my time screwing around with conventional weapons.  If you’re going to go, she always says, go big.  Go nuclear.”

My yuppie classmates started laughing.  Me, I was scared.  I was running a perfect 4.00 grade point average in the MBA program up to that point, and I thought I had just blown any chance of aceing this course.  The professor nodded without expression, made a note on his pad, and went on to the next yuppie.  My being a wiseass had earned a good laugh, but that note he made couldn’t have been a good thing and I was afraid it would cost me.

So how did it turn out?  I busted my chops in that course and I got my A.  But I was sweating bullets for the rest of the term.  Little, non-nuclear bullets, but bullets nonetheless.   More importantly, the cluster bombs I helped engineer won the Gulf War a few years later in 1991.   Most of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard tanks were taken out with CBU-87/B cluster bombs and GAU-8/A 30mm ammo (and my company, Aerojet Ordnance, also made the ammo for those A-10 Gatlings).  Sometimes when studying human behavior, the guys who know (I mean, really know) reach the only conclusion and solution possible:  An adequate quantity of high explosives delivered on target.  I’m not at all embarrassed about having had a hand in that.  Fact is, I’m proud of it.

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Malls, Munro, Taj Mahals, and more…

An Indian in the cupboard? Not quite. Read on.

I guess I should start this piece by explaining I’m not even sure what the Clifton Club is. After spending several minutes on Google researching it, all I could find is that it’s either a wedding and Bar Mitzvah venue in Lakewood, Ohio, or a series of bling pieces from high-end watch maker Baume and Mercier. I’m going to go with Door No. 2 on this one. It’s the only explanation that makes sense in the context of what follows.

Let me back up a step. Yesterday I chauffeured the ladies to Fashion Island in Newport. It’s a very trendy shopping mall in a very trendy part of So Cal (think Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom’s, French poodles, BMWs, and the like).  For me, a visit to any shopping mall is torture, but it keeps me in good graces with the rest of the clan and builds up goodwill points for the next collectible firearm purchase, so it all works out.

Anyway, while the girls were shopping I wandered into a high-end watch store (think Rolex and armed guards) and I noticed, of all things, a motorcycle. A new Indian, to be precise, in the middle of the store. I’ve never ridden an Indian (new or vintage), but I always thought they were beautiful motorcycles (again, both new and vintage).  I’m not a big cruiser guy, but if I was, I think I would buy an Indian. They are good-looking motorcycles, and my buddies Joe Gresh and Duane both hold them in high regard (and that’s a powerful endorsement).

While I was admiring the Indian, a sales guy approached me (my new good buddy Eduardo…Eduardo, I think, is a particularly elegant name).  Eduardo saw my confusion (a motorcycle in a jewelry store?), and he explained that Indian had a marketing partnership with Baume and Mercier, a high-end Swiss watchmaker.  It all centered on Burt Munro and his record-breaking land speed record activities.  Indian.  Baume and Mercier.  Burt Munro.   Ah, it all came together.

The Baume and Mercier Indian watch. $3900, and it could be yours. Motorcycle not included. It is a beautiful timepiece.  It’s part of their Clifton Club collection, and if you wear it, you could be a member, too.
Indian got it right.  It’s an OHV engine, but the valve covers are designed to emulate the flathead design of the original Indians.  It’s masterful, I think.
There’s a lot of room in those freight and setup fees.  Don’t ever pay what any dealer asks for in these two categories. Read 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM, available on Amazon.com, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Do these marketing partnerships work? I suppose they do. More than 20 years ago, Ford teamed with Harley to offer a special limited edition F-150 pickup with Harley decals.  As near as I could tell, the decals were the only thing special about that truck, and the only thing limiting the edition was how many they could sell. I had a lot of fun teasing a friend of mine who owned both a Harley Bad Boy (yep, they actually had a model with that name) and the limited edition truck. I drove a ginormous Tahoe and I rode a Suzuki TL1000 in those days.  I told my friend I was going to put Suzuki decals on the Chevy and call it a TL-Ho. Good times.

Anyway, the Baume and Mercier watch I saw yesterday was cool (at $3900, it should be), and the Indian was beautiful. I hope the deal works out for Baume and Mercier, and for Indian. I pondered the Harley and Ford partnership mentioned above; I’m guessing nothing came of that, as the two companies seemed to have parted ways.  Then I remembered that Bentley, the luxury British carmaker, has a partnership with Breitling (Breitling is another expensive Swiss watchmaker).

I wondered…what’s in it for the companies that strike up such partnerships, and what’s in it for their customers? I don’t think there’s any kind of pricing advantage or free gear package, so what would be the attraction?  Is it simply living a branded lifestyle (you know, for insecure rich folks who need something more in their lives)?   Or is it somehow making a statement about one’s wealth?   Look at me!  I drive a Bentley and wear a Breitling!

That got me to thinking…would a marketing partnership work for other brands, and in particular, would such a partnership work for less expensive motorcycles and watches?   You know, look at me!  I ride an RX3 and I wear a Timex!

What if you could sell a new motorcycle and give away a free watch with it? I’m thinking of China bikes, India bikes (not Indian Moto, but bikes actually made in India), and maybe Thai bikes.  It might work if you included a free watch with each new motorcycle, and it would cost essentially nothing. I visited the Canton Fair in Guangzhou last year and I’m on their email list now, so I get all kinds of offers from Chinese manufacturers.  You can buy new Chinese watches for $0.62 each (and if you’re thinking they are low quality, you need to think again and maybe research where what you’re currently wearing is actually manufactured).

The branding and theming opportunities might be fun.  KLRs are made in Thailand…suppose you got a free milk-crate-themed watch to match your KLR’s topcase?  The KTM 390 is made in India; perhaps you could include a Taj Mahal themed watch with each new 390 (isn’t that what the “TM” in KTM stands for, anyway?).  Think of all the marques with models, engines, or major components manufactured in Thailand, India, and China…Hawk, SWM, CSC, Royal Enfield, BMW, Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Honda, and more.  You can see the possibilities.

Yeah, this could work.