It took me a while. But I finally pulled the trigger on a Seiko SRP777 "Turtle." MSRP is around $475.00 but you can find them from US sellers online for around $250-300. Even less from grey market sellers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
I've always been fascinated with automatic/self-winding watches. My dad wore several throughout the years including a Seiko 6105 in the 1970's. As a kid I used to like playing with them because I got a kick out of hearing the rotor spinning inside the case (ahh the magic of childhood without electronic media devices!).
So throughout the years I've been into wearing various mechanical watches and I have been loyal to my love for dive watches especially Seiko models. I haven't found a nice 6105 yet. But I have gone through several really nice 6309s. Generally I stick with vintage watches.
But when Seiko released a model based on the 6309 I had to have it! And here it is. Finally! Sitting nicely with a couple 6309s I keep in rotation:
All this time I just assumed the Turtle was identical to the 6309 except for some modern improvements. But it's actually a little bit different:
Unless I'm imagining things, the case looks slightly larger and has some different angles. The dial is slightly different as well. The hands are beefier. The bezel is an upgraded 120-click unidirectional mechanism instead of the 60-click bidirectional bezel on the old 6309s.
Here's a lume shot. The lume is fantastic:
Here it is next to a 6309 I had re-lumed with SuperLuminova:
Nicely done Seiko! This is a lot of watch for the price.
I've always been fascinated with automatic/self-winding watches. My dad wore several throughout the years including a Seiko 6105 in the 1970's. As a kid I used to like playing with them because I got a kick out of hearing the rotor spinning inside the case (ahh the magic of childhood without electronic media devices!).
So throughout the years I've been into wearing various mechanical watches and I have been loyal to my love for dive watches especially Seiko models. I haven't found a nice 6105 yet. But I have gone through several really nice 6309s. Generally I stick with vintage watches.
But when Seiko released a model based on the 6309 I had to have it! And here it is. Finally! Sitting nicely with a couple 6309s I keep in rotation:
All this time I just assumed the Turtle was identical to the 6309 except for some modern improvements. But it's actually a little bit different:
Unless I'm imagining things, the case looks slightly larger and has some different angles. The dial is slightly different as well. The hands are beefier. The bezel is an upgraded 120-click unidirectional mechanism instead of the 60-click bidirectional bezel on the old 6309s.
Here's a lume shot. The lume is fantastic:
Here it is next to a 6309 I had re-lumed with SuperLuminova:
Nicely done Seiko! This is a lot of watch for the price.
