I'm not sure Air-Kings ever came factory set. I'd suggest finding one you like then buying an after market diamond bezel on the cheap. That way you have the OEM parts incase you ever go to sell.
LOL. In 11 days it has been 29 years she has been married to me and she probably deserves some kind of prize for putting up with that. LOL
I purchased it in 2017, prices were much lower then.. I think it was ~4000? I think you could get a nice 14000 for 4200 or so and then spend ~1000 on the diamond bezel and new face.
This arrived today. Pretty excited to get it in the post. Overall first impression are very good. It's an SKX and pretty much wears/feels like one. This is my first modern Seiko with the Jubilee bracelet. While it's interesting, i'm not sure it's going to stay. I'll have to defer any evaluation until I've actually gone and walked around and used it in daily life, not desk diving. I may go with a SuperOyster or HexAd (StrapCode) or Beads of Rice or RazorWire (Uncle Seiko). It's not a "true gmt" as the GMT hand moves independently, compared with the hour hand moving. That said, motion is nice, crisp and very easy. The GMT Bezel is a smooth, bi-directional bezel, allowing for easy adjustments to a 2nd, or 3rd time zone. The grey lower is interesting, as when you look at it straight on, it almost polarizes and blends with the black upper half. Looking at an angle, it re-materializes to grey. The only odd thing, to me anyway, is that the crown is not a screw down crown. Given that it's rated for 100m, it strikes me as odd that they wouldn't retain that element. I think i'll probably pop the cyclops off at some point, as it's not dead on at 3 o'clock. Again, will wait and see if it grows on me.
Honestly, It's the SKX with the added bonus of the GMT. Lose the cyclops, add a screw down crown and they've got a sold hit, much like the SKX was, for the next 20 years at least.
Sam still has the watches I got her years ago. A Tag quartz, an air king that looks to be a 36mm, a oyster perpetual (way under rated and cheap pre owned) and. . . A nice and scary surprise.
Jed, I know specs say the movement was something like .2mm thicker, but this has me wondering if that movement can be slapped into the many skx mod cases out there? I'd love to drop that thung in a 62MAS or Samuari case
Jed, Thank you for sharing that. I really don't need another watch, but I really want one of those. Looks great!
Its a 4R movement base so I'm wondering if its any thicker. The watch itself is .1mm thicker (I doubled checked from my prior post) than standard Seiko 5 which could be just for the hand stack and in the crystal? I'm sure someone will have a tear down and comparison soon. I'm curious for sure.
You are on the same track I am. I don't know if the movement 4R34 would have to be adjusted for the 62MAS or Samurai case. On examination of the SKX case, I believe there's plenty of room upwards, as the hands don't come close to the crystal. Not sure what, if any accommodation would need to be made on the caseback/chapter ring side. Since Seiko is already selling this movement as the NH34 in it's wholesale channel: Tech specs: https://calibercorner.com/seiko-caliber-4r34/ Buy it: Link1 Link2 I'm sure the places like bbmod and namokimods will have both the movement cases and all other parts at some point in the near future. I've got a whole bunch of ideas after looking at bbmod, modfather, namoki, dllWatches, etc..
It may be. 0.2mm isn't that much for height. I agree with you on the modding community. https://www.instagram.com/modfather_watches/ https://www.instagram.com/bbmod_france/ New Seiko GMT Mod already: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgBkfk3ApLp/ https://www.instagram.com/namokimods/ etc..
Finally got around to getting my wife the watch I promised her ten years ago. It's a fair bit smaller than I thought it would be, she won't mind as she won't wear it anyway, but I maybe should have gone 31mm in hindsight.
That looks good to me for your wife. My wife wears a platinum wedding ring now, versus gold 29 years ago, so that would match perfectly and for less expense.