The One With The Flashbacks
Some familiar watches this week!
The Precursor
This week’s newsletter might feel like one of those lazy sitcom episodes where they flashback to scenes from previous episodes. Admittedly, there are a number of watches from previous newsletters, so I apologise to any frequent readers with a good memory. I’ve tried to include new details wherever possible for anyone who chooses to stick around!
Editor's note: I’m told the video of last week’s Baby Morpho didn’t work in the newsletter for some reason, so I strongly encourage you to watch a video of the dial in action by clicking here. It’s a genuine spectacle.
Otsuka Lotec No. 6
I recently took a Lotec on consignment from a friend of a friend in Japan, so I thought I’d briefly feature it again for those who weren’t following the newsletter when I sold mine in June. If you haven’t read the full article, please click on the newsletter link below, as I won’t be doing the typical overview of the watch itself today.
What I did want to touch on today was the fact that the Lotec No. 6 was just nominated for an award at the 2024 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève! It’s essentially the Academy Awards for watches, so I’m sure Jiro Katayama and his incredibly small team are absolutely delighted to have even been nominated. Good luck to them!
As you probably already know, every two to three months a lottery takes place to determine who is going to be offered the chance to buy a Lotec. Around 80 are made each year, and given its popularity in Japan, your odds of winning the Lotec lottery are probably not too many orders of magnitude away from your odds of winning an actual lottery. Lotec recently started asking winners to tick a box on the payment form stating they won’t sell their Lotec for at least a year after purchase. This is don’t seem to be sticking to, which is a good thing for anyone living in the West as the other requirements for participating in the lottery are:
Currently living in Japan
Must use a credit card issued by a Japanese Bank
One entry per person/household
All winners are thoroughly checked before being told they’ve won, in a bid to stop people from trying to game the system with multiple credit cards or addresses.
Even on a 6.5-inch wrist, the 42mm-wide case doesn’t look overly large thanks to its razor-thin, short lugs.
It’s already listed on the website if anyone is interested. It’s on consignment, but I’m sure I can find some wiggle room on the price, especially if you’re able to pay in a way that reduces the transaction fees (Wise.com or Bank Wire, for example).
Citizen Campanola 6704-T009988 Triple Perpetual Calendar
Hopefully, any previous readers will immediately recognise this unmistakable Campanola Perpetual Triple Calendar design. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote at length about how incredibly overlooked the Campanola line is, and I included the blue version (which sold within minutes!) of this silver beast. The specifications and overall details are identical, so I won’t bore you with the same information again. Click below to read the article in full if you haven’t seen it before – the spiral universe year display is worth getting to know, as it has a hidden feature!
Aside from the obvious colour difference between the two, the finishing techniques are wildly different too. The aforementioned blue 6704 Campanola opted for a lacquer dial with flecks of titanium to create a starscape, whereas this silver model features a purely metallic finish. Lacquer versus metal might seem like an easy win for the lacquer dial, but the loinger you look, the more visually impressive the metal dial becomes. I’m by no means a metal-finishing expert, but there are at least six different metalworking techniques on display:
Brushing
Sunburst
Engraving
Polishing
Relief Striping
Azurage
Definitely not a dial you’d get bored of looking at.
This 6704 Campanola comes on the original stainless steel bracelet, which is somewhat unusual as most 6704 watches come on leather straps. I suppose the steel on steel look demanded one more “on steel”? I’m here for it.
Available in good condition (a couple of bumps and scratches on the case, the dial and crystal are clean), with box and papers.
Seiko SARY008
Seiko loves to drop random, unmarketed, dressy-looking watches onto the JDM. They often do it in incredibly limited numbers without any fanfare, making them pseudo-limited edition and very hard to track down. The SARY008 is a great example of that.
It features a guilloché-textured inner circle with tight concentric circles around the outer dial. But the indices on this watch deserve all of the credit. As shown in the picture above, they do a wonderful job of flicking between dead matte and fully illuminated as the light catches them. Remarkably, given the price point, they have a zaratsu polish quality about them!
Available on the website now and in unworn condition, with full box and papers.
Seiko SARW013 Urushi Black Lacquer
The Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree produces a toxic sap. The sap can be harvested, heat-treated, applied and then cured for 24 hours to form a hard, polymerised, and shiny surface. The toxic irritant in the sap is called urushiol which is exactly why the aforementioned process gives us Urushi lacquer; a hardened lacquer found on tableware as far back as 7000 BC in Japan. In the 1400s, it was even used to make samurai armour more resistant to slashing attacks!
There is but a single Urushi lacquer artist whom Seiko has entrusted with producing these lacquered dials: Mr Isshu Tamura. He paints and inspects every dial himself in an extraordinarily painstaking process that involves adding layer after layer of lacquer by hand. If you’re interested you can read Seiko’s article about the process and Mr Isshu Tamura. To describe this dial as black is unfair; it’s the richest, sleekest black you’ve ever seen on a watch.
Available on the website now and in great condition, without box and papers.
Custom Watch with Seiko’s NH71 Gold Skeletonised Movement
A lot of people got in touch about making a few more “Black Waves”, so I decided to make five more before moving on to two new custom watch projects. Four of the five sold almost instantly, but one remains.
I hope to get both new projects out before the end of 2024, so watch this space.
Featuring an 18k gold-plated, textured dial, the etched sun and clouds reveal the gold-plated surface beneath, while black “Seigaiha” waves cover the bottom half of the dial. A subtle, snow-covered Mt Fuji can be seen to the left of the pinion.
A golden, skeletonised Seiko NH71 movement powers the watch, regulated to +/- 5 seconds per day, averaged across three positions.
Available on the website now and in unworn condition.
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