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Jack Archer and the WITC team. Cool things become uncool tomorrow, but having a lifestyle of being cool lives forever.

I refer whereisthecool.com

Maratac Zulu Strap

In the voluntary membership that i entered into for the past 3 years, it has been in the WIS club to which i have came to known the various side tracks u can do aside from pulling a trigger on a new watch to join the precious collection. One of which where i am going to talk about today the fun habit of changing straps. And one of the popular choices aside from the basic bracelet, rubber or leather is nylon strap. And one of the popular brands aroung is the the nylon ZULU strap from Maratac. What is it? Why is it popular? What makes it different? These were the lingering questions running through my head and here are what I have known so far.

Searching through the web for a site for Maratac does not exist. Instead, you get retailers and delears of the products from Maratac. Thus I do not know what the company is about aside from that they produce military accessories like flashlights, knives and other tools and of course watch strap. The one the I am going to write about is the popular single piece zulu strap.

Composition of the strap is basically a nylon webbing that has been sized to the length of a watch and fitted with a buckle and strap keepers.

The nylon webbing itself is both flexible, comfortable and tough. The strap holes and ends are sonic welded. The buckle and strap keepers are stitched which ensures functionality under rough conditions. The buckle and strap keepers are made of stainless steel with brushed finishing and about 5mm thick.

By the look of the strap alone, its not your average way of a watch strap design, its all in one piece, has holes for the spring bar. And so, simple as it really looks, I just want to give a step by step installation procedure for dummies.

After removing the existing straps on your watch, install back the spring bars on the watch as simply shown on the picture below.

Slip the strap through the top spring bar....

Then slide past the other spring bar now covering the case back with the strap. If you have noticed, I placed a transparent tape on the case back just to protect it from any scratches it may get from the strap, but never have heard any reports of damages from other users but just to be safe so they say.

and you are set...

Nylon straps are a good alternative straps from steel (because it is more rugged looking and matches well with your jeans), rubber (because it doesn't get brittle and more comfortable) and leather (because it is more durable and makes you look younger of thats what you want and like leather, it gives more emphasis and complement on looks of the watch).

Maratac, good job!

Pulsar PS2004 Automatic Watch

Pulsar, who's history goes way back and now handle by the biggest watch brand in Japan, Seiko, hast its offering for this year which is their open heart collection which from my observation quite relatively new to this brand. The watch I am going to give some thought about is the PS2004 model which is the two toned silver gold dress watch.




The case is all stainless steel with polished finish in almost all views. The bezel or top of the case has a elegant gold bolt trim lining the shiny ring. The over all case width is 44mm and 46mm including the crown. The crown is likewise finished in gold color with adequate crown guards the complement it. Basically this is one of the selling points of this watch for me due to the big size of the case and the simple and elegant design in overall case design with a hint of sporty feel to it. The exhibition screw down case back also brings sporty feature giving a water resistance of 100m.



The dial on this watch is the primary feature that it can boast. It has an on-dial aperture display showing the balance wheel of the movement. For mechanical lovers, this is one sure delight. aside from the exhibition case back showing the rotor and other movement gears, the owner has another reason to keep looking at the watch longer that one should aside from looking at the time. Not so many watches on this price level can offer this feature and thus making this watch different from the rest. This version has a white dial face with gold hour indices and chapter ring display the 5min interval time.



The hands are plated in gold with hour and min hands with luminous paint for viewing on low light conditions. The design of the hands are elegant and simple, quite right for what this watch is made for.

The watch is equipped with the 21 jewel Pulsar Y674 calibre. For the Seiko purists out there like myself, you can easily spot the resemblance to the bulletproof 7S26 movement. And by resemblance and similarity, I'd conclude the movement is reliable and tough as nails too. The rotor is cladded in grey with Pulsar markings that defines it from the other shiny steel parts and gears of the movement. From a few days of use, the accuracy shows a +15 sec/day accuracy which is a decent result from the movement's accepted tolerance. Further improvement is always a choice through regulating the movement. The case back says the movement is made in Malaysia with serial numbers for the finished assembly.



The bracelet is stainless steel with hollow and folded links with a fold-lock clasp. It has a brushed finish accented with gold tones in the middle. From a personal view, the watch would look great on a pair of 22mm brown leather straps. Neat!



Overall, the watch is decent and pretty "in" with the current watch designs of today with is big size case considering it's supposed to be a dress watch. It combined the toughness of a sports watch, elegance of a dress watch and traditional mechanical art of the open heart dial displaying "Pulse" of the heart. Good job Pulsar.

Many thanks to Ariel Adams (ablogtoread.com and hourtimeshow.com) and Pulsar for giving me a chance to review and shed my thoughts on this beautiful time piece.

My Horological Opinion and Advice

I have been wearing a watch since the the time my brain was able to develop storage memory. I am not a doctor and not any scientist so far but I have never had a memory of having a naked wrist aside from taking a bath, sleeping or just lazying it up in the house. And so therefore this thoughts are from the mind of a practical wristwatch user with upscale interest in anything involved in horology in the hopes to help anybody that might need such information. I try to make it as simple as reading time.

For me, there are only two types of watches as I based it from how the watch is regulated to tell time, Which is a mechanical or a quartz watch.

Mechanical watches are mainly composed of gears, screws and springs in its movement or the engine of the WATCH. Mostly these watches are similar in looks to that of a quartz watch but the components inside are still that of century old technologies with improvements over the period of time. These type of watches are less accurate than quartz watches and are more expensive in selling price and maintenance costs. And aside from that, these watches are not grab and go pieces, there is a consistent effort from the owner as to powering the watch, setting the time quite often, sending it to service more often and all other tasks needed to own and use one. Which is why some dubbed as romantic for the owner since mechanicals require or better yet need you to live. Its power source comes from you by winding it or wearing it which is the case of automatics, and the frequent resetting of time due to its inaccuracy effects after a month or so. Which is why this romance is often accepted by watch enthusiasts and collectors like myself. Its like we are wearing a watch that has a personality and dependence to you, which shall I say creates more attachment to your relationship with it. Crazy though but its not sick at least.

Quartz watches on the other hand are quite new if you'd compare it to the mechanicals. The first commercially sold quartz wristwatch was available on December 24, 1969 by Seiko. It was the horological technology that really changed the watch industry and took the norm of majority. It changed how everyone then perceived the watch up to this day. These watches are in majority powered by batteries. Though many advancements have already come for the past decade which came from the technology driven land of Japan. Seiko, the pioneer of the quartz wristwatch has its popular kinetic watch, which generates power from the movement of your wrist stored in a capacitor or rechargeable battery and regulates the watch through a quartz crystal for better accuracy. Citizen, does also have their Eco-Drive which gets power from solar energy or any light for that matter as they say and of course house a quartz crystal too that regulates the watch.

So the next practical question is, which is better? Well of course with everything considered, I'd say its the battery powered quartz watch. Why, because mechanicals are inaccurate, needs maintenance and constant attention and more expensive. Kinetics are accurate, but it still needs more service and maintenance, its a lot costly to replace the capacitor or rechargeable battery and more expensive. Eco-Drives are far better and should come close second to battery operated ones. But, does being better mean that it should be the type of watch that you should buy? In common sense yes, but some of us are crazy like me would not use this as the overall basis. Therefore if we have simply defined the types of watches, we can defined three types of people who wear watches. And these people are defined as to why they wear these timepieces. I call em the 3 F's. Function, Fashion and Fun.

Function are those who use a watch to primarily tell time. It could be military, security, professionals, divers, sportsmen which value the accuracy, durability and usability of a timepiece. Therefore these market should go for quartz time pieces that come at bang for the buck price. A seiko, citizen, casio or a timex would always fit the bill.

Fashion are for those whose primary objective is that these watches are part of their full fashion get-up. They sport whatever is new, and whatever style is in. May it be quartz or mechanical, depends on the purchasing power.

Then there are those for fun. Well not necessarily fun as a joke, but as a passion or a hobby. This is where enthusiasts and WIS (watch idiot savants) belong. They normally purchase a lot of watches over time that are more that what they need. Majority of which get mechanicals and some quartzes depending on the popularity or rarity of the watch.

So I guess i have just pretty summed up what is all about to know about what is it about watches and who wears em. So which are you?

Orient Diver Watch Mako XL CEM7500

Orient Watches will be celebrating their 60th year on July 13th 2010. A company having those years of experience in watchmaking is quite unknown to the normal watch user, except if you are talking to WIS like me. But I'm not gonna talk about the 60th anniversary edition watch, we are here look at new diver model OEM7500 or otherwise named as Mako XL, Big Mako, New Mako or hogrider.

This model was released about early half of 2009 or that was the time I first saw it in watch forums. This belongs to Orient's diving sports category alongside the mako and the ISO rated 300M diver. So here's my take.

The case of the watch is a combination of polished and brushed finish stainless steel. It's 44.5mm wide which is bigger that its older brother mako to which I can say was one of the reasons I got this one. That size and finish really held on to me and just stuck on my wrist from the moment that sales lady made me try for size. It's big, but it doesn't shout loud. It's not a thick watch to with respect to the ratio of how big the case is, that is why it just sits firmly to your wrist, like a baby firmly sleeping in Dad's arms. The bezel is likewise well done. That improved big numbers on the insert and the grip for 60 click diver feel. Bad though is it has no lume pip on the 60. Well this is not an ISO rated diver though, I myself am also not a diver by any certification available, so I guess it did not bother me. The 200m WR i guess won't be really for open diving or saturated diving, just for casual swimming by the pool or beach. As they said, this is a cocktail or desk diver.

Movement is from the highly dependable and efficient 46943. I believe came from the 7000 series movement from Seiko way back in 60s, its the "if it ain't broken, why fixed it" movement. And I like it that way, its like having an old dependable VW beetle in your driveway but its just been built off the shop floor. A touch of heritage and history but still new for you to make your own.  Absolutley digg it. The movement is the basic automatic winding system with no handwinding or hacking. It has the easy quick-day function through the push of the tiny button on the 2 o'clock marker.

Casebacks. I personally love casebacks. When eyeing or trying out a watch, the caseback is the next thing I'd look at after studying the dial, the hands, bezel and everything in front. I don't know why but something in the caseback makes me feel like looking on the engine of the car, especially for clear casebacks. So for this watch, it has that nice and elegent Orient Automatic Emblem that is just perfect for the brand. It shows also the model number and case numbers but unfortunately, it doesn't have serial numbers like Seiko where you can refer when the watch was produced. Its also a screw down caseback as customary for diver style watches.

The dial on this model is black, though it comes with the bright blue and orange but those colors on watches aren't just for me. Its just either black, white or grey/silver. Well the dial is quite decent and formal, it has big hour markers with that nice Orient Emblem and that 'Automatic' and 'Water Resist' font just makes it somewhat grand. The lume though is the weakest thing on this watch. I mean, my 14 year old Seiko shines brighter than this one.

The hands are quite unique. I haven't seen this kind of arrow shaped hands in any Orient watches and in any other diver watch brands for that matter. It's definitely Orients own arrow head. The second hand has that classic look with the lume pip on the near end. But yes again, lume really sucks, so if it really bothers you, have them relumed.

The bracelet if the watch is one of its high points. It's like buffed biceps to complement and buffed chest with six pack. Its 22mm all throughout. A double push button lock clasp with that nice Orient emblem. Gotta love that emblem.

Overall, its definitley a dress/cocktail/desk diver considering the lack of true ISO diver's rating. But aside from that, its a definite beauty with superb quality craftmanship and design that is uniquely Orient that you can't deny any wrist time for years and years to come.

Nautica Chronograph Watch N17541G

Okay okay so I was never a fan of designer watches...watches from designer brands that would be known for selling other items such as clothes, apparel, or cars or food or anything for that matter aside from watches. And these brands don't even produce any timepieces, just designs em on the outside and probably puts a label on the face and lets the watch experts do the building. So you can't actually expect new watch innovations from these guys, except that they partner with a big watch brand.



Nautica watches have been around but still considered quite new. I was aware of the brand Nautica when I had some shorts with its logo on it a few years back. I saw some watches on the malls for a year or so and find them interesting, as they portray a yachting sport kind of a watch. The model I will be talking about is the Nautica Men's Chronograph under model N17541G. Well here are the horological details:

Movement: As said on the caseback, its equipped with a japanese movement. Yes that is correct, we can be assured the powerhorse is something as reliable as a honda or a toyota.



Chronograph Function: It only reads minutes and seconds sans the milliseconds that we usually find on most chronograph quartz watches. The usual dial for such is occupied by a 24 hour dial seated at the right upper corner of the watch. The chrono pushers are big and very fitting for the watch size. The start/stop function has that clicking feel to alert you the start of the function. It does not have a lap time function though for continuous timing.



Dial: This is one of the design features of the watch that caught my attention. The layout is simple with the 3 rings sitting nicely on the black dial. The date window is also something original and unique as it sweeply opens up on the 4'o clock position with a crescent style opening showing other 2 days of the current date.



Hands: I especially love the hands on this one. It sports a skeleton style hands in white for the minute and hour hand. The second hand is a full white pin shaped hand that complements the whole face. The 3 rings for the chrono, second and 24 hour dials are read through a gauge meter style hands that are thick and short.

Case: It's in all stainless steel with a screw down caseback with a nice big Nautica logo. The case is a combination of polished and brushed finish that distinguished the smooth edges and accents of the whole design. Lug width though is only 20mm which is an understatement considering the 46mm diameter of the case.

Bezel: It rotates in 120 clicks with a formal black bezel insert with 5 min interval markers. The edge of the bezel though needs a little improvement as it somewhat queer to the rest of the case

Strap: This model comes with a leather strap. Quality of strap is average. The buckle though comes nicely with Nautica name on it and has that edgy design that fits nicely with the concept of the watch. Its belt-buckle style and would be perfect if it would have been in a deployment clasp style.







What got me to get this watch was aside from bargain price for the value of the watch, was it's looks. The only cons on this is the thin leather straps and the large grip holders on the bezel. Aside from that, everything looks, feels and works great. It has that classic look that you won't grow tired off after a few years down the road when big faced watches will go out of style. It can be easily be mistaken from another watch brand. You can wear it on the office, casual or parties. Its a keeper.

Off to the waves i guess.

Emotion and Commotion by Jeff Beck

"Mr. Jeff Beck!"....."Jeff Beck!!!"....."Jeeeeeeeeeeeffffffffffffff Bbbbbeeeeeeeeeccccccccckkkkkkkk!". As Mr. Bill Murray's introduction in 2007's Crossroads Guitar Festival sounded like there is no other need for words to add meaning to the guitar player. And repeating it three times depicts the volume of greatness. That is Mr. Jeff Beck.

And that english guitar god Beck just released a new record title "Emotion and Commotion". It carries 10 tracks with 4 tracks featuring powerful female voices of Joss Stone, Imelda May and Olivia Saf. The tracks offer a more behaved and subtle tones and tempo with originals and classic covers.

These are my favorite tracks...

Hammerhead...the track starts with a wah-ful riff that is soon to be joined by symphonic keys leading to the whole caravan in a louder smash of the track. You get instantly floored when this happens.  That beatful drive continues as lead by Beck's strat voice shouting, screaming, grunging it way till chorus and solo and as it ends.  This puts the gatorade on the album.

Lilac Wine...I am a big fan of the late Jeff Buckley, a name so similar to the legendary guitar hero featured.  Mr. Buckley has this purest voice ever to grace the rock scene.  He made anything rock divine.  With Jeff Beck's cover on this featuring Imelda May reminds us of how Jeff Buckley used to do it.  Unpolluted, silent and tearful song.  You could actually play this song on a fine dining restaurant and the seniors would appreciate it.  The chorus is sang by Beck through his strings, and the solo is like the rat pack in pick-ups...dreamy and blissful.

I Put a Spell on You...Featuring the lovely and talented Joss Stone, the bluesy tune sang with soul and force is undeniably puts the whole emotion and commotion in the album.  This pair cannot be replaced.  They have created a bridge from the past and future.  This is what music really is, what it was and how it should be in the future.  A timeless spell.

Well done Mr. Beck.