There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Among other things, I learned that the humble, dinky Seiko 5 series has way more history than I imagined, dating back to the early 60s, and that '5' refers to the five features that Seiko thought a sporty watch should have (1. Magic lever winding system, 2. Day/date in a single window, 3. Water resistance, 4. Recessed crown at 4 o'clock, and 5. durable case and bracelet). Not quite the 5 features I would necessarily have picked, but well maybe that's why I don't run one of the most successful watch companies in the world.
Most interestingly, it seems that the 4 o'clock crown, which has become a Seiko trademark and appears in much more expensive Seikos, actually originates with the Seiko 5 series. So in a sense, every inexpensive Seiko 5 can trace its pedigree further back than many of Seiko's more modern and expensive watches!
I was in a nice boutique this past weekend and was wearing my new Turtle for the first time. All their sales staff asked to see it and were geeking out on it and lamenting the fact that their brand didn't offer more automatics.
If Tissot and Tag Heuer are the brands you start out thinking are good watches, and later learn they are not so good after all, then Seiko is the opposite. It is the brand you start out thinking makes cheap proletariat watches, and later learn actually make really really good stuff, some of which you can actually afford.