This watch was a present from my dear mother-in-law. She and my father-in-law visited the Philippines and came back with lots of presents for the family.

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I’m pretty sure my MIL loves me; I’m just not so sure she’d spend $2000+ for a Rolex Oyster Perpetual DateJust for me. Heck, even I wouldn’t spend $2000+ on a watch for me. So I’m going to assume this is a replica. Despite being a replica, this watch is actually more accurate than my Seiko SKZ211J (aka “big chunky watch”) which is a bit fast. This Rolex has an automatic movement that hacks (hands stop when you pull the crown out) and is hand-windable. The second photo even shows the laser-etched crown logo at the six-o’clock position. Not too bad!

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This watch is my second eBay watch purchase. I had such a good transaction with the seller of my “big chunky watch” that I decided to get another one from him. This auction also had a “Best Offer” feature but my initial offer was rejected. The seller offered to accept my offer if I just increased it a bit.

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This is a Seiko SKXA55K. All Seiko movements are made in Japan. The “K” in the model number denotes a watch finished outside Japan. It uses Seiko’s ubiquitous 7S26 movement.

This watch was a present from Claire. Every time we look at watches in a mall, Claire always says, “Daddy, I wanna get you an orange watch!” It took a while but I finally found an orange watch I liked. This watch is an attention-getter and is my daily “desk-diver” watch.

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This watch is my first eBay watch purchase. When you lurk watch forums, you’ll often notice names of retailers (online and B&M) mentioned and peoples impressions with them. This seller was from Singapore and had positive reviews from the online watch community. This seller’s auction had a “Best Offer” option in addition to the usual bidding and “Buy it Now” options. So I decided to offer around 90% of the BIN price and my offer was accepted!

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This is a Seiko SKZ211J. The “J” in the model number denotes “Made in Japan”, but actually all Seiko movements are made in Japan but the watch may be finished outside Japan. This one was a rare find since most “J” models are destined for the Middle East and Asian markets. It’s seldom enough to find automatic Seikos in mall stores here, let alone a Seiko 5 Sports, let alone one made in Japan. The watch uses Seiko’s automatic 7S36 movement. The 7S36 adds a small modification and 2 extra jewels to Seiko’s ubiquitous 7S26 movement. For an in-depth explanation on the difference, have a look at this post from the Seiko Citizen Watch Forum mirror.

When Claire first saw me wearing it she said, “I like your big chunky watch, Daddy!” So now, this watch is affectionately known as the big, chunky watch.

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This one was a bit of an impulse buy from a mall jewelry store that was having a 60% off sale. Sixty-percent off MSRP is still bit of money but I was not to be stopped. I saw it. I wanted it. I got it.

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This is a Seiko Kinetic Auto Relay watch with a 5J22 movement. Like other Seiko Kinetics, this watch is self-winding but instead of winding a spring, it charges a capacitor that acts like a battery in a quartz watch.

The “Auto Relay” is quite interesting. Seiko Automatics and Kinetics rely on your arm movement to turn the rotor and keep the spring wound or capacitor charged; without this movement, the watch stops. To start it back up, just give the watch a few shakes. Most automatics will restart from the time it stopped. The Auto Relays, however, will return to the correct time. While the watch “sleeps” it maintains the correct time using an internal battery.

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This one was a gift from Anna. Back in the day, ESQ had a bunch of TV commercials featuring well-known celebrities endorsing this watch and saying their name. One TV spot had Canadian golfer Mike Weir wearing the watch and proudly proclaiming, “Mike Weir, Esquire!”. So I thought, hey, I wonder how “Vince Zalamea, Esquire!” would sound. It started off as a running joke between Anna and me until the day Anna got me this watch. Then I really had to say it out loud.

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This watch has a swiss quartz movement with a date window. I’m not sure if ESQ (a Movado company) makes its own movements or if it’s an ETA movement but I do know that it’s my most accurate watch by far.

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