Farewell 2017 and Hello 2018!

Farewell 2017 and Hello 2018!

With just a few hours until the new year, I looked back at a very blessed 2017. This was a very productive year for me and a momentous one. I turned 45 earlier this year and among the things I wanted to do were to travel to new places. I was able to do these with new places both international and domestic. Among my travels this year were my trips to Australia, Vietnam, and Zamboanga.

The Sydney Opera House

Ho Chi Minh City Hall and statue of the man credited for uniting Vietnam

Zamboanga City airport

I look forward to an even more exciting year ahead with new places to explore and more experiences to live. More importantly, I look forward to spending more time with family, especially our soon to be four-year old daughter who is growing and developing so fast before our eyes. Here's to life and love!

God bless us all this 2018!

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Seiko Landmaster AGS One Piece Titanium

Seiko Landmaster AGS One Piece Titanium

A valuable piece in my 'modest' collection of watches is this one I got from an Ebay auction. The first time it went on auction, the seller had to cancel all the bids since people seemed to be deliberately bidding low for this piece. I actually didn't know how it could be low since didn't even bother bidding for it because the price was already beyond my limit when I saw this online. Not surprisingly, it was again put up for auction a week later but this time, it seemed that the watch was not in many people's radars. I pounced at the chance and voila! I got a Seiko AGS that was something like a dreamwatch for me when I was a student in Yokohama and Tokyo in the 1990s. I couldn't afford this watch on my scholar's allowance back then and could only look at the watch on Akihabara displays not really hoping to get one some day.

This is my 5M45 or SBCW001

The watch face says it all...

The watch looks bulky but it is actually very light, thanks to its titanium body and bracelet.

Side view showing the  power reserve button at 2 o'clock

I had to get good lighting to have a good photo of the back where you can have some details etched on the titanium

Here's another shot of the back in better (day) light

The original watch had a 7-day power reserve based on the original capacitor. I haven't used the watch for more than a week now and its still running and the indicator goes to the maximum 7 days. My conclusion was that the seller already had the capacitor changed on the watch now has the more advanced 14-day capacitor. Unlike my other Kinetic watch, this one doesn't stop to hibernate so I wanted to continue to observe its charge limit until I checked the specs provided by the seller. It confirmed my suspicion that the capacitor had been changed and the watch now has  6-month power reserve. I am very happy with this watch that keeps good time and something I can wear rain or shine, in storms or in the water (20 bar or 200m water resistance and a screw crown), in hot or cold weather. It kind of reminded me of my marriage as we celebrated our 15 years last week. :)

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Titus vintage watch

Titus vintage watch

I have a memory of my father purchasing a watch back in the 1970s. It was an automatic watch as he didn't like the manual winding ones. He also at the time probably didn't fancy the quartz watches that were then becoming popular since these were not as highly regarded as the automatics and manual winds (old school?). Tatay liked this watch and Mama knew this as she even had the watch repaired perhaps more than a couple of times than I remember. That watch was a Titus and was lost somehow. Maybe it got lost when we had our home renovated in the 1990s while I was studying in Japan.

And so I tried to look for a Titus that resembled the one Tatay had. I found several watches at vintage watch pages on Facebook. I fancied some and bid for a couple that I thought resembled the one my father had before, minus the steel bracelet that was quite unique for watches back in the day. Tatay doesn't like the gold stuff so those models were definitely out. It had to have a silver or white face.

I finally found one and it did take a little luck to win it in an auction. I guess others who were usually active in auctions didn't fancy Titus watches so I got this one cheap.

Old Titus automatic watch with day and date features with a leather strap.

A close up of the watch face shows its age and some wear and tear. The day function is consistent with the late 60s to early 70s when 'President' models were popular after the original popularized by Rolex.

Titus' logo on the crown

Back of the watch showing the company name, Solvil et Titus, which was originally a Swiss brand. Titus and many other smaller Swiss watch companies suffered from the rise of quartz watches in the 1970s. The quartz movements were battery-powered and were more accurate than many of the manuals and automatics, and were a lot cheaper and therefore affordable to most people wanting to have a watch. Solvil et Titus is now Hong Kong-based and while retaining the brand and perhaps the quality of watchmaking, is no longer considered a Swiss brand.

Watch on my wrist

I used it a few times before it stopped and I notice something seemed to be amiss with the crown and adjustments. I could adjust the day and the date properly and when I attempted to at least restart the watch, it wasn't 'charging' properly and stopped soon and quite frequently. I took it to a watch repair shop where they opened the watch and discovered a corroded crown that was affecting. This was among my concerns when I bought the watch. It is actually risky in the sense that you really don't know how long these will function well and if they bog down, if you will be able to have them repaired. And will there be spare parts for the watch? It is still with the repair shop and hopefully they can find a replacement or fix the crown soon as I intend to give the watch to my father as a present on his 79th birthday this coming December 1.

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