Watch Wednesday (2/23/11)

What's this? Watch Wednesday? Well yeah, I bought a watch, so... WW has been on hold for several months, because I was trying to exercise some restraint, but I knew I'd end up buying another watch eventually.

Seiko makes good-quality, moderately priced watches, many of which are not "officially" sold in the US. But the internet makes many things easier to find and obtain. I bought this one from an eBay seller; it came with the boxes and warranty coverage, which is not always the case, so do your homework if you're looking into such a purchase. Sites like Creation Watches and BlueDial carry a lot of these watches too, as does Amazon. (I have never personally purchased a watch from any of these sellers, but I'd certainly consider doing so.)

As I mentioned the other day, I posted some watches on Style Forum, one because I'd decided it wasn't quite big enough for my wrist. That one sold right away, and I see this one as its replacement—it's quite a bit larger, about 43 mm across. Automatic movement, display back, nice beefy case, cool orange accents on the dial and hands. You can't really tell in this crappy pic, but the second hand is black and the tip is orange (the white circle is on the other end), and that little orange triangle between 4 and 5 is pointing at the date window.

As usual, this watch came with a lousy strap (if you look at this picture you can see it) that I had to replace. It's leather with a plastic top surface stitched to it that's supposed to look like those "kevlar" straps, but it looked cheesy and made squeaky noises every time I moved my wrist. Gone. In its place is this thick leather strap by Hadley-Roma, from Global Watch Band in Florida. This thing is about 1/4" thick at the ends that meet the watch (check out the step-up from the stitching to the padded center section).

The leather was so stiff I was worried I wouldn't be able to get it to shape to my wrist properly, which is important when you're breaking in a new strap so it sits on your wrist the right way. I figured out which hole I needed to wear it in (the last one) and put it on the little plastic stand in the pic for a few hours to help with the shaping, and then I was able to strap it onto my wrist with no trouble.

The last watch featured on WW back in October also got a new strap, and it's also a huge improvement. This one is made by an Italian company called Morellato, and I bought it from The Watch Prince. It's a very interesting leather that's been treated to be water-resistant and feels like some sort of synthetic, but the best thing about the Morellato straps is that they're made in Italy, but priced like straps made in China.