San Martin upcoming releases // Speedmaster 38, RPX 40, Datejust 36

Oh, God. Why did they have to do this?! And with 100m WR? Why couldn't it have 50m WR, or some other feature I really hate? (I spend a lot of time in the water.)

I thought I would be done with speedmaster homages and variants when I got a real one.

Nope. The real one just made me love every other version more. (I just got an SSC815.) It's like when I take the dogs for a 5-mile walk, and they don't come back tired-- they come back rowdy and crazy, crashing into furniture and throwing shoes into the air. (And one of them is at least 12.)

IMHO-- and I don't have any San Martins, though I've looked at many and come close-- they had to do solar quartz or ST1901, there are a million speedy-like battery-quartz options. I think St. Martin will probably do a very nice job casing the seagull, and it will probably be very reliable. I have a Vertigo Pilot One with a Seagull, and it's been just stellar-- in a completely different league from my Alpha Paul Newman, which died in about 18 months.

Foxthemulder said:

The Speedmaster homage is doing great in pre orders (already 40 sold in a few days). The PRX homage is waay behind.

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1) It is probably not healthy that I am asking this question, but is this likely to be a situation where the only practical way to get one of these is on preorder? The panda BB chronograph retro seems to have sold out very quickly, came and went before I heard much chatter about it.

2) I wonder how much higher the purchase price is likely to be when these are listed for sale?

3) We know the downpayment is $109, but can we make any guesses about what the final cost of the watch will be?

Seems like some of the preorders from other micros/Chinese brands were the only avenue to ownership. When the watches became available for regular sale, they sold out very quickly.

I know I'm asking folks to predict the future. If the answer is, "Get professional help," I'll schedule an appointment with my psychiatrist.

Once a year or so, he comes out with some great one liners. One was, "I'm so sorry, maybe I wasn't listening carefully enough, but what is it you like about this girl again?" (I had nothing. Stopped chasing her, met my wife a year later.)

When I told him about my watch issues, and how they related to death anxiety: "Buying time, are we?"

Whoa! Yesterday morning, it was "Arrived at Destination Country Sorting Center" = no movement for a week.

The next minute, it's outside my door! No notification of impending delivery that day until it showed up!

Thoughts: Design, fit and finish are stunning. So far, this is a hit, really liking it.

This is the only bracelet I've ever had where the fine adjustment was more difficult than the bracelet adjustment! Love those screws instead of pins for the links, but be prepared to scratch the clasp and/or shred some fingernails getting the fine adjustment pin to budge. Tried for 25 minutes and failed, came back and wrestled with it for nearly an hour before getting it right.

The screws for the pusher locks are machined really nicely, doesn't seem like there's much chance of misthreading or having them stick open or closed.

It wears just a bit larger than I expected-- more like a 42/15 than a 41/14 but I have to say, it is definitely more readable than any other white or cream dial watch I own-- I have a 39-40mm cream dial that is harder to read.

Accuracy seems quite good so far-- was running +/- 0 for the first four hours until I started running the chrono. Let the chrono run for about five hours and it was -3 or -4, wound it before bed and left it dial up, and it's -1 or -2 now. So more variation than most of my 7750s, but still well within spec, at least so far. I have not checked the accuracy of the chrono yet, but resets perfectly to zero.