That feeling is back!!

Its been almost two years since my last purchase (Rolex Sub) and this dry spell was really depressing for me. Finally I have not one, but two watches incoming as I type, all thanks to my (and Bio's) birthday thats around the corner :)

Will be taking lots of pics and perhaps a review too. So excited!!

Spotted in the wild - Rolex

Well, not really :P , but was on the way to work when Bio noticed the guy in front of us on the bike had a jacket on with 'Rolex' written on it. Thought it'll be fun to share it here :)

Omega serial number and year list

I had been looking for this for sometime now. I was curious to know which year my Seamaster was assembled in (2006). I had e-mailed Omega a couple of years back but they replied saying that they couldn't provide info on it for "security reasons". Click on the link below to access the page:

Game on!

It was another day at work, nothing eventful really, until I got a call from my brother-in-law. He managed to get four passes for the IPL semi-final match between Mumbai Indian (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Though I am not too much into cricket, I really like watching these 20 overs a side matches and since neither Bio or I have seen an IPL match live in a stadium, we agreed instantly. Also there seats were one the best ones in the stadium and it was pretty close to where the players were sitting, so that was even better. So it was my brother-in-law, my dad, Bio and myself. Both, my brother-in-law and my dad are huge cricket fans, so I guess they were much more excited about it than us.

Since this is a watch related blog rather than a sports website, I'll keep it short and simple. We arrived at the stadium about 45 minutes early and after going through a number of security checks ( I think there were 5 of them), made out way to our seats. The players of both teams were still doing their warm-up exercises at this point and It was fun to spot your favourite players in person.

Thought I'd snap a quick wrist shot at the entrance

Players doing their warm-up exercises

Soon enough the cheerleaders were out entertaining the crowd and we happened to have seats right behind them :)


The stadium was almost full and the atmosphere was electrifying as this is a country of cricket lovers. Also, since the match was being played in Mumbai, there was a LOT of cheering for the home team. A guy in front of us tried to get the attention of any player on the field that was closest to us, but couldn't. There was also a Mexican wave from time to time which got a lil too much in the end and most of the people didn't bother about it by that time. I think we even got to be on TV when the ball was smashed in the area right where we were seated. You have to really watch out for hits like these. A kid sitting close to us narrowly avoided being hit by the ball that came our way. He was lucky that it only grazed his left arm.

My fav batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar on strike :)

Time for another quick wrist shot!

All in all, the experience was better than what I had expected. It turned out to be a great match which went on till the very last over and we (MI) won by 4 wickets :)

Blast from the past

The other day, my parents were busy doing some spring cleaning while I was coping with a mild hangover from a company party the previous night. I didn't really expect to have a productive day, until my dad found this (apologies for the quality of the pics as they have been taken from my phone's camera)-

I couldn't believe it, my old Swatch! This watch had been given to me by my brother in law about 7 years ago. Bio got one too, but he lost his. It was a huge deal for me even at that time as it was my first Swiss watch. Even though I wasn't into watches at the time, I knew Swiss watches were something to be desired. This one had certainly taken a beating over the years it went missing. The strap was literally in pieces and the crystal full of scratches. I was happy to find that the battery hadn't leaked and as far as I could tell, a simple battery change would put the watch back in action.

One thing that bothered me was that the lugs had these extruding parts (sorry, just cant think of a better word) in between them which meant that I couldn't fix a regular strap on it. I know, I know, I should have waited and ordered an original Swatch strap for it, but I was just to excited and wanted to put a NATO on it, so I decided to get rid of them. Arming myself with a pair of pliers and a Swiss knife, I managed to do a decent job in removing them without any damage to the watch.

Unfortunately the NATO I had lying around was not only a size or two too large, but I realized that there just isn't enough space between the body and the spring bar to put one through it. The strap was just too thick for it :(
So finally I had to make do with a thin leather strap, which looks OK, but hey, at least I can wear it on my wrist again :)

Finally a trip to my watch guy and about Rs.200 ($4-5) later, it sprung back to life - everything working perfectly! To think, just a few days ago, I was wishing I had Swatch in my collection, then this one came back to me :)

Trip to Malaysia

Sorry for the long absence, but things took a while to settle down after I got married. To add to it, there was a lot of additional work that had come in, which kept me longer in the office. Thankfully CF was there to look over the blog, add posts and reply to the comments :)
Anyway, my wife and I had gone on a 8 day trip to Malaysia for out honeymoon, which was generously sponsored by my sister's husband, who had promised my wife (then girlfriend) a honeymoon whenever we decided to tie the knot!

Before I go further, I have to say the people we encountered in Malaysia were quite friendly, which is a big plus while one's on vacation. Even while bargaining (which is something I'm not comfortable with, but my wife, being a true Indian, loves doing!), it was always pleasant and fun. So I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's thinking of making a trip there.
My watch for the trip was the Omega Seamaster 'Great White'. I had planned on spending a lot of time in the pool or on the beach and possibly diving (in Langkawi), so I needed something made for jumping into the pool and general swimming. The choice was between the Orange Monster and the Seamaster, but I chose the Omega over the Seiko since the OM had accompanied me on my trip to Thailand in Feb, this year (for my bachelor party) and it was only fair that I owed a trip to the Omega.
KL was next after Langkawi and fortunately, we were staying in a hotel (Prince Hotel) which was a 10 min walk from the famous Petronas Twin Towers. It was also very close to 'Bukit Bintang' which is a great place to bar hop since the street is lined with pubs on either side.
The first day in KL, we visited the Suria Kuala Lumpur City Center or KLCC, which is a large mall at the base of the Petronas and houses a lot of luxury brands like Loius Vuitton, Bulgari, Cartier, Rolex, Piaget, etc. Although most of the stuff is high end and expensive, it was a nice place to visit and plus the food court was quite decent. It also gave me a chance to take some photographs of the watch showrooms!: (Apologies for the crappy pics, but I had just an old point and shoot with me at the time and the quality isn't the best)

(Strangely, there wasn't an Omega showroom. I was hoping to check it out)

We had planned on visiting the twin towers the next day and found out that the tickets go on sale everyday at precisely 8:30am.
While in Langkawi, we had got chatting with a friendly British couple who, apart from buying us a free round of drinks, had just been to KL and advised us to get up really early if we ever planned on visiting the Petrona towers. Keeping that in mind I had decided to get to the ticketing window an hour in advance so that I could beat the rush. Little did I know what was in store. I reached the ticketing office at 7:40am, only to find a long beeline to the counter already. Apparently, the best time to reach the counter is between 6:30, which I found out only after I reached the counter, to be told that the passes to the observation deck (86th floor) were already sold out and only the sky bridge passes were available (41st floor). Although I wasn't very pleased, I decided to get the sky bridge passes (10 Ringgit each).

Here are a quick wrist shot while I was up there:


Genting Highlands was the last destination in Malaysia. We were there for 2 nights and were at the Casino floor both nights. The Casinos are quite large and have separate section for non-smokers, which was a huge relief since the smoke in the other areas was really starting to hurt my eyes. We were lucky overall, with a combined winning of 2000 Ringgits or Rs30,800 ($666) which enabled us to shop for my family at the airport dutyfree! I was also able to buy a nice wallet for my dad (Mont Blanc) which I knew he'd really like, but couldn't ever bring himself to spending so much on a wallet. Every time I see him enjoying his new wallet, makes it more than worthwhile :)
Overall the trip was fantastic and we had a great time together! I'm just waiting for the next occasion I get some time off from work (probably close to October) so that I can take another vacation and post another trip report ;)

Watches in movies - do they have any influence on you?

So the other day I was watching Constantine on TV and noticed a simple looking watch on Keanu Reeves' wrist. Later in the movie, they zoomed in on it and you can clearly see its an Oris, the Modern Classic to be exact.

(images taken from watch-id.com)

I have seen this watch online a few times while browsing different watch sites, but never really looked closely. However, today Bio and I were both actually searched for it and read about the specs and the price (its discontinued now). For a while, a part of me wanted to get one. So clearly, watching the watch in the movie had an affect on both of us (it was the same with the movie Inception too) :D

Later I realized that personally, it really doesn't matter who's wearing the watch. I think it looks nice when paired up with the rest of the character's wardrobe. I guess that has way more influence on me than if I just see a pic of it online.