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| Joined: | Tue Apr 13th, 2010 |
| Location: | Georgia USA |
| Posts: | 132 |
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In every man's life, there's a moment of peace and grace. For some it might be seeing van gogh’s starry night for the first time, or seeing a child being born into this world. And for me, you can add this to the list.
as noted in a previous thread, I order #11 Vintage Blue Ha'i Q from Chris who went over the top in helping me through the process.
But before we go too much further - a little backstory:
When i decided to purchase a dive watch, I did two things. 1) read hundreds of threads and learn as much as I can about form, function, history, movements, etc and drool over thousands of photos! 2) instead of just buying one because I wanted one, I set a goal to reach before I pulled the trigger...more on this later.
decision process - a mental checklist
1) wow - stunning photos all over the place of watches that I could not afford so I set a reasonable range, not a hard set range but one that was flexible as I learned more about different watches. Unfortunately, some are just out of my ballpark - so said goodbye to Rolex, Omega, JLC, big name OEM's
2) learned real fast that Seiko is solid, durable, legendary and that almost everyone has a version, or two, or three, lol. No matter how good they are, didn't want this particular watch to be something that everyone has. maybe later
3) also learned about the "Ghost in the machine" and I get it, I really do. auto's have a life and soul and I respect that but need a grab and go watch for now.
focused on the boutiques and learned what they offered and again went thru a mental checklist and as you all know by now, immediately fell hard in love with the Vintage Blue Ha'i Q.
the blue dial just blew my doors off and paired with the orange minute hand, well that was just made an Auburn guy like me! Love the chapter ring, love the bezel to dial ratio, love the height to width ratio, and gotta tell ya, absolutely love the case back b-)
the packaging was super safe to keep all the goodies free from harm and you can tell Chris put thought into this and not just throw something together in a hurry to get the product out of the door. the case came packed with precut foam and extra straps (thank you) including black leather, orange rubber, black rubber and an extremely solid bracelet, and other fine material. I also have an orange zulu so I will be changing straps on a regular basis! (working on a custom brown strap with Dangerous9 straps, who is also great to work with)
Here's the cool part to me...naturally the shipping box was larger than the case so more foam was added on the side as padded protection, but not just any foam, Chris used the cool "pick" foam so if I wanted I could customize it and use it in the case. might be hokey to some, but little things like that are just cool to me.
remember I said I met my goal before I opened the box...well for the curious, it was a pushup routine that built up and varied sets and reps up to 100. So, yesterday morning I pounded out 110 pushups, then picked up the package from the post office before work.
Chris made the effort to go thru his inventory and open each box to check for the number I wanted, my wife's favorite number 11.
So now when I look down, I see a great watch that makes me feel good, too because I think of my wife and the fact I did something to earn the watch which makes it even more special to me.
Wanted to immediately test the BaliHa'i in the most extreme, hated, grueling and punishing tasks imaginable to men:
ran the dishes obstacle course flawlessly:
Totally dominated garbage duty:
And even the lume was put to the test in the laundry room:
okay, now on to the requisite "normal" shots:
