Recently was me and wifey's birthday month, as well as our 12th year of courtship+marriage that fell on the same month.
12 years represent a complete circle of bliss and of course a watch will best commemorate our union. The ladies love this mushy significant meaningful talk (resistance is futile) and we went watch shopping.
I ended up with my first ever Grand Seiko and a GMT watch….
My first impression of this GS was that it’s a well made watch with amazing hands and case polishing. Did not like the original brown strap, thus changed it to a black alligator strap with cream color stitching to match the dial color. Initially wanted a Hi-Beat but it does not come with GMT, retailer says earliest by July but I’m very happy with the GMT Auto.
Now for my favorite part, wifey wants to have a watch to match my watch but she did not fancy the Seiko. She wants us to wear a ‘couple watch’, and in the back of my mind I figured that the only two watches that I’ve gotten which she does not have is the AP and Lange. So we made our way downtown and checked out the offerings from Lange. Not her taste, she calls it Apek.
However at the AP boutique, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the offerings. I had a chance to try on the new APROO 42mm novelties; however even at 42mm it is too bulky on my wrist (like wearing a Bangle, I think Sir DP Kong made this catch phrase). I feel that it’s because of the watch thickness that made wearing the 42mm AP ROO on small wrist look weird.
What caught my attention was the diver in ceramic. I was lost for words; it’s so beautiful and the rubber strap is so comfortable. It is a piece that looks much better in real life then on photos but no discount is given and full retail price is expected for this model.
The ceramic diver is a piece that I’m definitely keen but willing to wait for some sort of discount before pulling the trigger. Even at 42mm, I felt it wore perfectly. The watch thinner profile and black color made such a big difference in terms of fit on a small wrist. (mine’s 6.3”)
Photo not mine, extracted from Hodinkee. Just to show how this ceramic diver looks like.
As for wifey, she tried a 37mm white dial RO but she did not like it due to dial color not matching my blue dial AP. She then tried a black dial 15400 and it was definitely a shitty fit on ladies’ wrist due to the 41mm size. End of the day, we were very fortunate that the SA had one piece of the watch below:-
The AP RO 15202 (aka Jumbo).
She loved it and resizing the bracelet was done almost immediately.
The fit, finish and styling of the Jumbo is definitely at a higher level as compared to the 15400. When I placed the two watches together it felt like ‘Beauty & The Beast.’ The Jumbo is so much more refine from the dial to the case and bracelet.
However I still prefer my 15400 due to several factors like the more robust 3120 movement and equally beautiful, the quick set date function (hassle free if watch needs resetting), a watch with more wrist presents compared to the Jumbo.
And finally a group photo of mine and hers
Sorry for the sub par photos, was excited to share and will try to take better ones in better lighting conditions, soon....