From the first time I laid eyes on it, I knew I had fallen for the Seiko Alpinist SARB017. With it's beautiful green dial, the gold cathedral hands, and the inner rotating compass bezel, I imagined the day I would have it on my wrist.
Fast forward a few years and still the watch eluded me. A year more and it was discontinued. My heart sank as I saw the prices skyrocket to oblivion. And it was then I realized I would never have one, unless someone gave me one as a gift, or I happen to chance upon untold sums of wealth, both of which are unlikely to happen.
With a broken heart, I searched the interwebs for something to fill in the blank space in my heart. Time and again I failed until one day I had a brain fart. Why don't I make myself one.
With the advent of online shopping, I navigated through countless bytes of internet rubbish and spent hours on end searching for the cheapest watch parts I could find. After purchasing a cheap movement, a watch case, a generic white dial, and some watch hands, I set out to build my first watch. It was then I realized, I needed tools. Many hours later and many more days of waiting, I finally had all the tools and all the parts I needed to build my very first watch. And it was nothing like the Alpinist.
After destroying 2 movements and a set of watch hands, I have proven to myself that I am capable if making my own watch. The only problem is that it is nowhere near the quality and reliability of Seiko.
With my watchmaking skills improved and with budget to spare, I searched for more watch parts that would be a bit closer to the looks of the Alpinist.
Behold the first green watch I have ever made.
This is my first attempt to homage the now iconic and still out of reach Seiko Alpinist SARB017. I call this, "TUROD". Turod is a word that means, hill. A name fitting a watch I intend to use in the field much like Alpinist is a name fit for an explorer's watch.
Like the watch it is trying to be, TUROD has a green dial, cathedral style hands, sapphire crystal, legible hour and minute markers, screw down crown, but sadly, no compass bezel - A complication that is not easily replicated by a beginner watch maker that builds watches on the kitchen table after dinner.
The case is fairly generic. And by generic I mean spitting image of the Rolex Explorer case. Supposedly made of 316L stainless steel, it is shiny all over except for the back.
The crystal is supposedly sapphire, but I have no way of verifying this. However, I have not yet seen any scratches on the crystal.
Behind the sunburst green dial, that I modified to fit the case, beats a DG2813 Chinese movement, it keeps time just fine and it is just 1 jewel shy of the Alpinist's 23-jewel movement. Time will tell if it is as reliable as a Seiko movement.
The TUROD is no Alpinist, that much is certain, but it is a step in the right direction. In my quest to reach the height of the Alpinist is just beginning.
One might say, "Why not save your money and just buy one?". Well, that certainly is an option, but for what the Alpinist is, I don't think it's worth the moon and stars. I can make watches that I like for beach sands worth. 13 watches are, after all, more than 1.
I'm fairly certain I will find the dial, case and movement combination that will rival the Alpinist. In fact, I already have a dial, movement, and handset on hand. I'm just waiting on a watch case that has an internal rotating bezel and maybe I can finally put the Alpinist behind me and move on.
For now though, my heart is still captivated by the beauty of the Alpinist.
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