The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

[Seiko7A38]

Wearing this blingy RACER J39908-70 this morning. The green strap, that it came fitted with (a couple of years ago), is a 20mm squeezed to fit the 19mm lug width. I'd long since made a mental note to myself to find something better.

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In fact, I already had something better up my sleeve, so to speak, which I'd momentarily forgotten about. Back in January this year, I'd bought a couple of different coloured vintage 19mm Barington Ostrich straps (two of which I'd already fitted to other RACER J39908-70's). It took but a minute to rectify my oversight. Better shade of green ?

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[Seiko7A38]

I've been wearing this decent second-string stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J today, while I've been busy keyboard bashing. I had intended to take the wrist shot this morning, but first had to put my camera battery on charge for a few hours.

Story of my life lately (apart from replacing watch batteries). I thought I'd put my camera battery on charge overnight. Came downstairs this morning to find I'd forgotten to switch on the plug socket. Anyway, here's one of my better, mint condition stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J's to start the week.

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Speaking of 'better', I couldn't quite decide between these two wrist shots, so here's another:

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[Seiko7A38]

Wearing this NOS Orient J39001-70 on this bright sunny morning - topical for a couple of reasons. Of more anon here.

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[NakkDry]

Finally received this 7A38-727A! From July 1988.
A black 7A28 incoming! Staying on the lookout of a model from May 1988.

[Seiko7A38]

Thanks for posting that wrist shot of your 7A38-727A, Mat. I prefer the photo you uploaded to Instagram yesterday.

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[NakkDry]

Indeed, that one is blurry. I'll take better ones once I clean the dial from small dusts.

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[Seiko7A38]

As I hadn't worn it in a long time and I'd mentioned it in this thread yesterday, I dug out and dusted off this old but firm favourite from my collection of Orient J39 'divers'. The ex-Wimstore 'freebee', a J39701-70 in mint almost NOS condition which the Austrian vendor generously but foolishly supplied free of charge, bar the cost of postage. It came fitted with a leather strap, which I replaced with a NOS Seiko p/n G1410S bracelet (that I customized with an Orient clasp).

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[Seiko7A38]

The Orient J39x01 'divers' came in three different case and bracelet finishes: all stainless steel; two-tone stainless and gunmetal two-tone. At least I've yet to encounter a gold-tone or black chrome plated variant. There were 6 different dial colours used, so the number of permutations can result in some odd combinations. They certainly don't come any stranger than Gunmetal and Champagne. Afternoon swap for my NOS J39601-70. It doesn't see the light of day often.

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[Seiko7A38]

Readers may have guessed how fond I am of these Orient J39 divers. Here's another NOS J39701-70 from my collection. Coincidentally, I bought this one at the same time as the previous NOS J39601-70, from the same Italian eBay seller.

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[NakkDry]

Huge collection that you have. These are cool divers, I love this case shape!

My 7A38-727A on the wrist today, no surprises (I cleaned the dust on the dial and its silvery variations look really nice) :

[Seiko7A38]

Afternoon swap for my white dialed Orient J39701-70 with the 1985 Indianapolis 500 logo. This isn't the one I fabricated a couple of weeks ago, but my first near mint example - the long term 'grail watch', that took me over 7½ years to find.

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[jamesam]

Afternoon swap for my white dialed Orient J39701-70 with the 1985 Indianapolis 500 logo.

One of my favorites of the watches in your WRUW posts.

The Orient J39x01 'divers' came in three different case and bracelet finishes: all stainless steel; two-tone stainless and gunmetal two-tone. At least I've yet to encounter a gold-tone or black chrome plated variant. There were 6 different dial colours used, so the number of permutations can result in some odd combinations. They certainly don't come any stranger than Gunmetal and Champagne. Afternoon swap for my NOS J39601-70. It doesn't see the light of day often.

I really don't mind the combination so much. ALTHOUGH, I do think the champagne dial of the Orient J39 would look better paired with a different shade of gunmetal, like the one on my 7A38-7250 SAA080J shown below. Which I would actually describe as more of a light bronze (because I see more brownish tones than grayish tones, and I don't think of gunmetal as being brownish).

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[Seiko7A38]

Jim. The coating colour of your 7A38-7250 SAA080J is unusual and off the top of my head, I'd say probably unique. Most gunmetal coloured coatings used on Seiko watches are much darker. Try googling images on the 7A38-725A for example.

The most commonly seen dial colour on gunmetal two-tone Orient J39601-70's is this almost black, with gold printing, as also found in the two-tone J39001-70 and stainless J39701-70. This is my very first Orient J39 'Diver' which I bought from German collector Kurt, off the old Network54 SCWF, 11½ years ago in February 2010 - and started my 'little' collection.

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[Seiko7A38]

.... can result in some odd combinations. They certainly don't come any stranger than Gunmetal and Champagne.

On second thoughts, perhaps they do. How about Gunmetal two-tone and Taupe with Gold dial printing ? Another of my Orient J39601-70's. Surely one of the most ill-considered dial colour combinations ever. Not only difficult to read at the best of times, but almost bl**dy impossible to photograph, due to the near complete lack of contrast. I gave up trying.

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[Seiko7A38]

The last of my Orient J39 'Divers' (for this week). I've saved this very dark blue dialed J39701-70 for SATurday morning.

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This is a Bangladesh Air Force issued watch which came with its returned equipment tag (eBay seller's photo):

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These watches appear to have been specified by the BAF requisitioner, because they differ from the normal 'civilian' version of the dark blue dialed J39701-70 in having day and date wheels with black backgrounds, rather than white.

[jamesam]

And I thought I favored the Indy 500 model with white dial...but the one with the dark blue dial is just stunning.

My Seiko model SGE507 from 2010.

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[Seiko7A38]

Here's a more or less 'as received' shot of my newest incoming Seiko 7A38. While not exactly 'a grail', this Brazilian market variant had been missing from my collection for many years: a ZFM 7A38-7075 fitted with the correct locally produced IND. BRAS. p/n A102 bracelet, which arrived this morning. I'm currently writing it up in this other thread.

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[Seiko7A38]

I got this almost mint 7A38-7070 SAA031J out of my collection box this morning, to compare with my recently acquired ZFM 7A38-7075. This later production example uses the same white painted hour and minute hands as the ZFM variant.

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This watch has been in my collection for just over 10 years. I purchased it back in July 2011, winning a UK eBay auction, that can only be described as an extremely fortuitous 'Fuzzy Photo' gamble. These were the seller's two images.

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It turned out to be in rather better condition than I could ever have expected.

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Checking my records, I paid £155 at the time. Nowadays, you'd be lucky to find a similar example for three times that.

[Seiko7A38]

Afternoon swap for one of my better examples of 7A38-7070 SAA031J, with the early production 'polished edge' hands.

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[Seiko7A38]

Thought I'd wear one of these for a change today. Kamatz 517000 Panda (NOS condition but aftermarket leather strap).

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