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| Joined: | Sun Feb 26th, 2006 |
| Location: | Oregon, USA |
| Posts: | 2897 |
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First thoughts,
I have only had this DC57 for a day now so I can’t speak for its long term amusement but my out of the box experience so far is worth some comments.
Firstly If I haven’t said it before I am a cheap bastard! It’s not easy for me to part with a sizeable chunk of my income for just one watch.
This is my Seamaster fund incarnate, not quite a Seamaster but It’s a 7750 chrono with day and date, pretty much the three things that make me interested in a watch!
I thought I had decided that I didn’t like lume dials but I do like white and silver dials so I decided I was being silly since a lume dial was just a white dial that glows in the dark!
With the lume dial dilemma solved I committed to buy it, now I just had to find one.
After another WIS purchased one around the holidays I was inspired to go searching for one again and as luck would have it there was one hiding in the for sale section on Timezone! Woo hoo!
I had to wait through the new years holiday and the extra holiday (prayed every night that no more ex presidents would die before my watch arrived) It finally got here safe and sound.
The best way I can describe this watch is unremarkable and flawless. I realize that the word unremarkable is not very flattering but the watch is a perfect example of balanced form and function with a flawless fit and finish. The case appears to be one piece including the bezel and is uniformly bead blasted to a perfect satin finish.
The signed screw down crown is deeply knurled and threads on and off easily. The pushers have a nice tight but moveable feel to them. The crown and chronograph pushers are finished to match the case. The Damasko website claims the case, crown, and pushers are “Ice-hardened to guaranteed 60 HRC or 710 Vickers”. Not being entirely up to speed in metallurgy I don’t know if that means a hill of beans but apparently it means it’s hard to scratch because I can’t tell that this watch is used at all and it was originally purchased in August 2005!
This is the first watch with flat sapphire and AR coating I have had, what a huge difference AR on flat sapphire makes! My experience with domed sapphire and AR didn’t impress me. Basically AR on domed sapphire just looks pretty and doesn’t do much else. The Damasko site says they are AR coated on both sides unless special ordered and this one appears to be AR coated on both sides.
The dial is simple and is a nice balance of form and function that leaves it not too busy and not too plain. The day and date font is a little bit small for my tastes but it’s legible and the size may have something to do with the offset position of the day and date on the dial. If I could change something on the dial I would add a black border around the day/date cutouts just to make the edge more defined. When fully charged with light the luminous dial will easily light your way to the bathroom at night and I guarantee that you don’t have anything brighter in your collection.
As I have come to expect from the 7750 the Damasko appears to be running inside of +-2sec in 24hrs. I will check it again in a couple more days to see just how close it really is as the error grows to a measurable size.
In terms of attention to detail this is the most perfect watch I own and since it is also one of the most expensive ones I own it should be! I’m not a one watch kind of person so I can’t say it’s the only watch I will ever need but It will be hard to knock this off my wrist for a while!
Technical specs:
Movement:
Valjoux 7750
self-winding, mechanical movement
25 jewels
28,800 bph
Shockproof according to DIN 8308
Anti-magnetic according to DIN 8309
DC57 functions:
Hour, minute, permanent small sweep second
Day/Date window with new, modified position
Chronograph: 12-hour counter and 30-minute counter on sub-dials, central 60-second counter
Case:
Stainless steel, nickel-free, bead-blasted
Ice-hardened to guaranteed 60 HRC or 710 Vickers
Integrated anti-magnetic inner cage, anti-magnetic to 80,000 A/m or 100 mT
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, AR coating on the underside only, on special request
Crystal gasket resistant to UV radiation
Solid screw back with O-ring Viton™ gasket
All gaskets made from Viton™ which offers a premium chemical resistance and which is superior to most other materials used in the watch industry
New patented crown and pusher system, crown stem and pusher shafts are machined with minimal tolerances and leave almost no gap between pusher/crown and case, but nevertheless do not scratch. Crown and pushers are also equipped with a permanent lubrication cell which eliminates friction.
Screw-down crown with protective shoulders
Crown, pushers, and tubes hardened to 60 HRC
Water resistant to 10 bars/100 metres according to DIN 8310
Crystal has a secure fit even in case of a sudden negative pressure
Dial:
Dial completely coated with luminous compound Luminova™ C1 (white) Numbers, hour markers, and triangle at 12 painted in matt black