Seiko Turtle. Finally.

[TinyTim]

A beautiful watch!

 

[Rhody]

Lug holes are a very nice feature. I wish the skx007 ha that. Its a pia to change straps. I m not a fan of the rubber strap on the 007 so went with a vintage look of the isophrane strap. Which cost about as much as the watch

 

[adamchur]

Nice watch - Seiko make some good Diver watches
And a decent Diver watch will knock spots off a "Desk Diver" all day long

 

[engblom]

Very nice, been slowly going down that rabbit hole on automatic watches but the cost only allows me getting one after many many months of Ramen Noodles

Vostok Amphibias are not Seikos, but for their price you do not need much noodles. I recommend meranom.com, as they seem to take well care of warranty cases.

Recently some guys from a watch forum I am hanging at tested one Amphibia case to destruction. They are rated for 200m, but the first fault begun at 700m when the case back begun to bulge in and at 820m the crystal broke and the first water entered. That is many times deeper than the rated 200m.

I am using mine every time I go snorkeling.

 

[sajones]

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.

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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:

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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:

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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.

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Here's a lume shot. The lume is fantastic:

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Here it is next to a 6309 I had re-lumed with SuperLuminova:

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Nicely done Seiko! This is a lot of watch for the price.

How much resistance does the crown give when tightening? I find that it seems a little more difficult to screw down than the SKX007. Is that your experience too? I hope I didn’t cross thread the crown.

 

[Chango]

Depends on how much resistemce.

It should give a little more resistance than the skx007 because the 4r36 movement in the Turtle also features crown winding. So you should feel some "buzz" as you seat the crown down the threads.

Any more resistance may mean a problem. Could be as simple as lack of lubrication, or poorly seated gasket inside the crown. Or cross threading.

 

[sajones]

Depends on how much resistemce.

It should give a little more resistance than the skx007 because the 4r36 movement in the Turtle also features crown winding. So you should feel some "buzz" as you seat the crown down the threads.

Any more resistance may mean a problem. Could be as simple as lack of lubrication, or poorly seated gasket inside the crown. Or cross threading.

Hopefully it’s just lubricaion.. it seems like it gets worse every time I screw it in/ out.

 

[Chango]

Get some waxed dental floss and run it across the threads a few times. See if that helps.

 

[sajones]

Get some waxed dental floss and run it across the threads a few times. See if that helps.

I just tried that and it works great now!!!! Thanks!!

 

[Rhody]

Get some waxed dental floss and run it across the threads a few times. See if that helps.

Thats a great suggestion. Assume it would also clean the threads too

 

[Chango]

I just tried that and it works great now!!!! Thanks!!

 

[tipster_621]

Lug holes are a very nice feature. I wish the skx007 ha that. Its a pia to change straps. I m not a fan of the rubber strap on the 007 so went with a vintage look of the isophrane strap. Which cost about as much as the watch

I just got a 009 for Christmas and it was a pain to get the rubber strap off. I think I'm going to stick with Zulu straps for the ultimate ease in changing straps. I am still contemplating getting a nice two piece leather strap. If I do, I'll have to get one of those notched pin tools.

 

[Rhody]

I just got a 009 for Christmas and it was a pain to get the rubber strap off. I think I'm going to stick with Zulu straps for the ultimate ease in changing straps. I am still contemplating getting a nice two piece leather strap. If I do, I'll have to get one of those notched pin tools.

Congrats i agree on the difficulty. I have a few tools at the office and I usually make a scratch or two. But I keep the Seiko on the isophrane rubber.