# "... And I Shall Call You 'Blingy'..."



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

For years, I've sort of admired the Seiko movements with an alarm on a subdial. (As per my sig, I've had two Seiko quartz watches, both great designs, both well built, both holding up after 20+ years of frequent wearing.) I didn't rightly know how they worked until I noticed some on eBay, downloaded the manual, and realized how versatile the darned thing is. What's neat is that when the second (4 o'clock) crown is pushed in, the alarm dial shows local time. when you pull it out to the first detent, it beeps and rolls around to showing the time you set the alarm to. (You set it with the 7 o'clock button). You set the alarm dial's local time with the crown on the second detent. The chime is the same two-WEEE, two-WEEE that the H558 (and I'm sure many other Seikos) bleat out. Good to wake up to, my H558 woke me up for many an oh-dark-thirty-AM radio room watch or reconnaissance flight.

You already see it. Don't you. You can set the alarm dial to *any* local time. Voila, a dual time zone watch, and you weren't even asking for it.

Thing is, most every 7T32 watch they produce is either a super-sized diving bell (some with gawdadful -- and useless -- bezels), or a super aviation-aspiring ring-tailed lemur, or a techie looking panda cupcake tray. LOUD. (Stop laughing, you weren't expected to scroll down.)

This one came up, apparently out of an estate sale, "the wife said he hardly wore it," and the box (yep, box, papers, etc.) included a 7T92 manual, so the listing was incorrect. The seller's caseback photo clearly showed the model and serial number, dating it to 1991. Shipped price, $87 (someone bid it up to $120something, but apparently bailed).










(I'm saluting my fellow percussionist with the background.)

Yeah, it's pretty shiny (no swirlies on the clasp, hardly any marks anywhere, but in need of a case and bracelet cleaning regardless). The lume is strong, which for a 19 yo watch would suggest to me minimal outdoors time. In this closeup the shiny bezel really makes me cringe. But I like the subdued face and dials. All blending together.

Maybe the case would look better on some brown calfskin. *Suggestions welcome.* (I'm formulating an order from Roy of various things, feel free to link to his sales pages, or post pics of your own suggested bands.) I've already used the alarm, it gave me the ol' Two Minute Warning on another auction that I really, really didn't want to lose.... It worked, I got that one, too.

Yeeha, happy hump-day.


----------



## howie77 (Jun 21, 2009)

Whoa!! Going for gold! Love it, you've done good there David!

I may be alone here but I reckon keep the bracelet - with a watch like that it really warrants the full effect, and so the only thing you might want to go with that extraordinary find is that awesome 'tache!

Superb mate.

Howie


----------



## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

howie77 said:


> Whoa!! Going for gold! Love it, you've done good there David!
> 
> I may be alone here but I reckon keep the bracelet ....


You're not alone - it's part of the watch's 'blingy' appeal. :thumbsup:



David Spalding said:


> Thing is, most every 7T32 watch they produce is either a super-sized diving bell (some with gawdadful -- and useless -- bezels), or a super aviation-aspiring ring-tailed lemur, or a techie looking panda cupcake tray. *LOUD* ....


Not strictly 100% true, David. There are quite a few nice subtle-looking 7T32's.

I have a couple of the 7T32-7F80's, which resemble the Omega Speedmaster 'Date Reduced', and look quite classy.


















I suspect that the majority of the more 'blingy' O.T.T. case versions were designed specifically for the US market. :rofl2:


----------



## AbingtonLad (Sep 8, 2008)

Yowza! Do I like that!! :yes: :yes:

Surely it has to be Roy's sharkskin in dark brown with gold buckle? (strap 1325). A bit more bling can't do any harm at all...

Enjoy!


----------



## AbingtonLad (Sep 8, 2008)

Or FatBoy Alligator.

Or...


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> David Spalding said:
> 
> 
> > Thing is, most every 7T32 watch they produce is either a super-sized diving bell (some with gawdadful -- and useless -- bezels), or a super aviation-aspiring ring-tailed lemur, or a techie looking panda cupcake tray. *LOUD* ....
> ...


Indeed, that's what I would've chosen ... though I'm already awash in black-dial watches. I should've amended my statement to "most every 7T32 that comes up for auction (since I started looking) is O.T.T...." And of course, that's a subset, as well as what was retailed stateside. Thanks to you I'm widening my search and have my sights on a much more elegant incarnation of this watch. So this one may come up for sale soon after a cleaning and some wrist time. 

I was at BJ's (US warehouse club store) and lo and behold they had a Seiko with a current incarnation of this movement ... MSRP US$359, store price $159 or so. But again, with a loud tachy bezel and high contrast face design. I like how this one has consistent numbering on all 3 subdials, and the circular face decoration echoed in the subdials.



AbingtonLad said:


> Surely it has to be Roy's sharkskin in dark brown with gold buckle? (strap 1325). A bit more bling can't do any harm at all...


Thanks for pointing that out, I'd overlooked it. Alas, looks like Roy only has it in black and blue at present.


----------



## Thian (Nov 23, 2008)

Yes, keep it stock! here is my early 90s Seiko Leganza chrono bling model and love it! I have the air diver ti version matching style too!


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

This movement really got around. It got into the French Yema line (which Seiko bought in 1988(?)).


----------



## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

David Spalding said:


> This movement really got around. It got into the French Yema line (which Seiko bought in 1988(?)).


It certainly did, David.









Apart from the Yema Y182's (and Seiko's own version of the Y182's) ....

The ubiquitous 7T32 (probably re-named / re-branded) calibre was also used by Orient:

See my brief mention of them in this thread: http://www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=52124&view=findpost&p=535290

And Seiko themselves certainly used the 7T32 movement in hundreds of their own designs.

Searches on Seiko's Oz database on 7T32-*6*xxx an 7T32-*7*xxx *both* return in excess of *500 lines of data*. :shocking:

(That compares with 310 lines of data, in total, for the whole of the 7A38-xxxx range.)

Oh, mustn't forget the earlier 7T32-5xxx series. There were quite a few variants of the two basic case designs.

Some of them were pretty blingy too.


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Thian said:


>


Yowza. I like that actually. Seiko IMVHO often gets the balance of steel and gold, black and white, elegant dials with slim hands, right much more often than wrong. Compare with Invicta and others. Blech. Some of their designers must be using Crayola crayons to draw their specs.

Blingy is growing on me ... her monotone (sort of) gold on gold on gold dial (using patterns and finishes for differentiation) makes it rather easy to read in certain lighting.

And the lume ... the hands almost exactly match my 7S26, so the two of them (side by side last night) were like twins.


----------



## AlexC1981 (Jul 26, 2009)

I would try it on tan leather with matching or no thread. There's no way I could pull off that much gold!


----------



## owain (Mar 7, 2009)

A couple of interesting chrono's there!

I do like the look of the first one, and I'd definitely keep the bracelet. However I don't think I could wear a gold watch just yet!


----------



## Disco You (Jun 22, 2010)

Ahh! My eyes! I'm very sorry but that OP really isn't to my taste. The face on Thian's watch is quite nice, but the bracelet looks a bit cheap too.


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Disco You said:


> Ahh! My eyes! I'm very sorry but that OP really isn't to my taste. The face on Thian's watch is quite nice, but the bracelet looks a bit cheap too.


Thank you. Your opinion has been acked and piped to /dev/nul/.


----------



## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

There was a PROPER blingy (limited edition) 7T32 - made in *solid 18ct gold*, David.

It was the 7T32-6C70 - model SDW162J - and actually quite tasteful and understated ....



SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> Not strictly 100% true, David. There are quite a few nice subtle-looking 7T32's.












Some discussion about it, on the old SCWF, last October: http://www.network54.com/Forum/78440/message/1256150970/Seiko+Model+Numbers

And what made me think of this ? :lookaround:

I was surfing the Bay, and accidentally came across eBay item # 320563126162.

Apologies for posting a live auction number







- but nobody in their right mind is going to pay .... :shocking:


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

I think I saw that and immediately thought, "Good lord, if you're going to ask that much, at LEAST clean and polish the case, fix the crystal."

That Ltd Ed is nice, I might've seen one with a dial like that recently.

BTW, I've tested with both Blingy and my Y182, if you leave the chronograph running after a few hours (6 or so, the time it takes me to sleep) the function stops and resets. Confirmed that it happens irregardless of stopping or starting the alarm function. Darn, I kind of like my Y182 with the major sweep second hand going.


----------



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

I think I saw that and immediately thought, "Good lord, if you're going to ask that much, at LEAST clean and polish the case, fix the crystal."

That Ltd Ed is nice, I might've seen one with a dial like that recently.

BTW, I've tested with both Blingy and my Y182, if you leave the chronograph running after a few hours (6 or so, the time it takes me to sleep) the function stops and resets. Confirmed that it happens irregardless of stopping or starting the alarm function. Darn, I kind of like my Y182 with the major sweep second hand going.


----------

