"CONFESSIONS OF A WATCH GEEK" OR "EVERYBODY'S GOT A DORK SIDE" . . . . I MENTIONED ABOUT A YEAR AGO THAT I'VE ALWAYS BEEN INTO SEIKO DIVER'S WATCHES . . . . WELL, OVER THE LAST TEN MONTHS OR SO IT'S BECOME SOMETHING OF AN ADDICTION . . . . SCOURING THE NET, LOOKING FOR GOOD EXAMPLES OF THIRTY AND FORTY YEAR OLD CLASSIC SEIKOS . . . . I'VE ALSO ENTERED INTO 'MODDING' THE LITTLE FUCKERS . . . . TOLD YOU I WAS A GEEK !!!

Both of the watches below started life as bog stock Seiko SKX007's, the typical, timeless and classic diver's piece that is still in production now, thirty plus years after it's introduction, after having worn nothing but Quartz examples since 1980, I never thought I'd be wearing and loving automatic watches again, but I am, and loving it, I used to have four watches in total and only one that I wore 24/7/365, now I'm 'rotating' over a dozen out of 33 I've collected, what the fuck is that . . . . in many ways the auto is akin to the relationship between a panhead or knuckle and a current series twin cam, the latter is the state of the art extension of the former, all tricked up with all the modern internals, still looks incredibly similar but in the final analysis, they lack the feeling and the soul of the original, just watching the smooth, fluid sweep of the automatic's second hand is a real trip for me.

While I haven't actually built them, the design concepts for both are all mine, the twenty year old dials, the handsets from four different watches, the bezel inserts, the chapter rings with the minute markings outside the dial, the custom made anti-reflective coating, double domed crystals and the selection of bracelets and bands all came from my purdy li'l hayed . . . . there ain't another watch in the world remotely like either of these, not one, entirely and completely individual, while my bikes mightn't be anything radically different from the rest, these little jiggers are indeed a couple of primo examples of one off original customs. Remember, I ain't no millionaire, these are fairly cheap Jappy watches, but they're bulletproof and utterly reliable. Like I said, I'm a geek and always have been . . . . too much shit to love and not enough time to do it all in, model soldiers to motorcycles, life's a box of chocolates

ABOVE, THE BOG STANDARD, OUT OF THE BOX SEIKO SKX007 AUTO DIVER.

MY FIRST MODDED EXAMPLE . . . . 'THE FISH BOWL'

NUMBER TWO, ARRIVED FROM MY WATCHSMITH THIS MORNING . . . . 'THE ORANGE WHIP'