Orient Bambino Beads Of Rice

[Magdalen Dano]

WhenI buy a mechanical watch, I know what I'm getting into: I have no illusions of quartz-like accuracy. I have a phone. You have a phone. We all have a phone. If what I'm buying is not a straight-up certified chronometer, I hope merely for reasonably good timekeeping and to be spared the sinking feeling that arises when one senses he's purchased a lemon.

But every once in a while, a watch sneaks up with such impressive accuracy that I won't shut up about it. This happened the other day when I broke out an old friend, my Grand Seiko SBGM221, from its safety-deposit-box-sized cell.

Some weeks ago, around the time Jack, Stephen, and I made plans to sit down and talk about Grand Seiko on HODINKEE Radio, I happened to purchase a new bracelet for my GMT. Warmer days were on the horizon, a vaccine was rolling out. Seeing daylight widen and leather-strap season wane, a sense of guilt crept in. I hadn't gotten my GS into the rotation much this fall and winter. A pity, because I absolutely love this watch. Putting my Grand Seiko on a brand-new beads-of-rice bracelet not only changed up its look and made me as excited as the day I bought it, but it also made the watch my daily wear once again.

Setting the time to the second, I checked back a few days later with the HODINKEE app, and by gosh if it wasn't moving in lockstep with the digital depiction of an analog watch in the app. A full week later, same. Ten days later, it was off by a single second. Now bear in mind that all Grand Seiko claims on its website for the cal. 9S66 ticking inside my watch is "+5 to -3 seconds per day (when static) / +10 to -1 seconds per day (normal usage accuracy)." If that's not underpromising and overdelivering, I don't know what is.

This is merely one watch owner's purely anecdotal report of impressive accuracy from his Grand Seiko watch, but it's having these kinds of positive experiences with watches that makes me love them. And as the world gradually re-opens, it's a tiny way I can be sure I'm enjoying every second.

After eyeing them online for months and months, I picked up a blue gilt Aquascaphe Classic at the 2022 San Francisco WindUp Watch Fair. I originally bought it on their blue tropic rubber strap, though I later picked up their beads of rice bracelet for it too. (You can see the bracelet below, on my MR01.) I most often wear it on an Herms single tour I pilfered from my Apple Watch.

I love how much this dial pops. The bracelet is very comfortable, and the on-the-fly size-adjust feature of the clasp is great. It also came with two very comfortable FKM rubber straps and a decent NATO.

Like with other AliExpress brands, what Seestern lacks in originality they (at least somewhat) make up for in quality-per-dollar. Their Grand Seiko homage has a decent-looking 62GS-esque case with an NH35 inside. I wrote a bit about it on WatchCrunch.

I have a vintage A829-6040 "Rotocall" which I adore. Like the black square, these watches flew on many Shuttle missions, including on the wrist of Sally Ride, the first lesbian (and first American woman) in space. Its unusual bezel is how you switch modes.

Much like Casio, Swatches primarily occupy a nostalgic place in my collection. I have a Clearly Gent, their recent re-issue of arguably the most iconic Swatch of all time and the one that screams the 80s to me in the loudest, clearest voice.

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