Pre-built configuration for Sea Fighter Type II day/date
The survey will only take a minute or two and will help decide the final configuration for one version of the pre-built Sea Fighters. There will be another survey featuring the OCN dial later on.
If you wish to leave an e-mail address you will be entered in a drawing for a free Mk II watch (any one that we have in stock at the time of the drawing)…. 
One entry per person 
Status Update
I hope that everyone is having a pleasant holiday season. I scaled back my holiday plans in order to continue working on watch orders, which are currently behind schedule. In order to focus on watches orders placed this week will be scheduled and e-mail notifications sent out next week after the 1st.
I am replying to e-mails but those that I don’t get to by the evening of the 29th will be take care of after the 1st of January.
Vantage customers:
* The Swiss Made Vantages have been delivered. Half of the bracelets have been completed and I am currently waiting on a shipment date for the first half. I won’t hear from the manufacturer until after the 1st of January. In the mean time the watches are being checked. I still expect at this point to begin shipments of the pre-built and custom Vantages in January. The exact date will be determined by the delivery date of the bracelets which the large majority of the pre-orders requested.
Sea Fighter customers:
* The cases at last word were undergoing their final quality assurance review. All of the dials, movements, and other related components are in stock and being checked so that they can be sent to Switzerland for assembly as soon as the cases arrive. The 2836 movements were delivered at the end of November (almost 3 months late) but at least they are here. At this point I expect be able to begin shipments of custom Sea Fighters and to ship the components for the pre-built Sea Fighters to Switzerland for assembly by the beginning of February. An e-mail summary to the same effect will go out shortly.
Custom watch orders with delivery dates before December 31st
* I am currently working on these orders as well as a number of orders scheduled for January 5th. I expect to be able to ship most if not all of the watches scheduled for delivery prior to December 31st by this Saturday.
Please note that our office will not be closed from December 30th through January 1st. If there is anything urgent please call me at 484-683-1875
Sea Fighter
The custom ordering page is up and running! Delivery begins in February of 2008. The 2824s that we need for this model are in stock and the 2836 movements, including the current delay from ETA, are due in at the end of October. Given the current backlog, the introduction of the Vantage and the holiday season it seemd prudent to start shipping custom Sea Fighters in February rather than try to pack the schedule with another watch before the end of the year. The Swiss Made versions however will begin shipping before the end of the year. The date version based on the Bundesmarine diver should be ready by the end of the year. The day/date watches will largely depend upon how close to November that the movements actually arrive. The Swiss Made Sea Fighters will be available in three versions, not counting the different insert styles. The pre-ordering page for these watches will go live as soon as I can produce some mock-ups of what the watches will look like.
The pricing, as you will notice, is different from the past. The day/date version of the Sea Fighter is $50 more expensive than the date only version. This is because the 2836 is the first hightly decorated movement that we will be using. The rotor features cote de Geneve and the bridges on the movement are all decorated. The 2824 will be upgraded in 2009 to feature the same decoration but for the next year or so the 2824 has a standard decoration. Ignoring the cosmetic differences both movements are Elabore grade, plated in Rhodium, and feature upgraded Incabloc shock protection as usual. To try to keep things “simple” the surcharge for the 2836 is actually grouped together with the day/date dials. Since the crown is at 4 o’clock on the Sea Fighter the date and day/date wheels had to be custom printed at some expense. For the time being there is only one option for the date and day/date watches.
Pre-order customers will get a $95 discount on their orders. The pre-order discount is higher than in the past because the Sea Fighter, like the Vantage, is being lauched at the new price levels. The pre-order discount offer will end either November 1st (when the new pricing goes into effect) or after we receive 45 pre-orders, whichever comes first.
This project has been in the making for the better part of a year now. I hope that you enjoy my take on this vintage design.
Movements are here!
Big sigh of relief! ETA delivered my 2824-2 movements earlier this week. I will finally be able to send components again to Switzerland for assembly of Blackwaters and begin offering pre-built Stingrays in about two month’s time. Much of the industry is currently “on vacation” for another two weeks or so. There are a few companies, like ETA, that don’t formally observe the summer break but the vast majority of firms are practically shut down for 2-4 weeks each summer.
The pre-order of the Sea Fighter and the Vantage will open in a few days to a week from now. I am working on the ordering pages at the moment and now that the movements are here a huge varible in the production schedule for the next couple of months has finally been removed. The Vantage should begin shipping around the end of October. The photos that will be posted in a few days of the 1016 homage will actually be temporarily using the older Stick and Ball handset and not the new hands as they aren’t ready at this time. The Sea Fighter, initially shipping as a pre-built homage to the Blancpain BUND diver using a 2824, should begin delivery before the end of the year. A 2836-2 version of the Sea Fighter should be available around January of 2008.
Mk II Sea Fighter
Announcing the first image of our third dive watch, the Mk II Sea Fighter.
For more information please see our site.
To learn more about the inspiration for this watch I recommend Konrad Knirim’s “Military Timepieces”.
Sea Fighter announcement postponed until next week
Sorry to be such a tease about this but parts for the watch keep coming in on time so rather than cause confusion by putting out a picture of a incomplete pre-production mock-up I should be able to post a pic of a complete mock-up next week. The custom made hands are in and the crowns are supposed to be here the beginning of next week. In addition I have to ship a number of customer orders before I leave for Basel so this will allow me to focus on completing orders. Hopefully this will mean that I will have time to do a proper announcement next week.
February 28th: Stingray and other news
Sorry I haven’t posted pictures yet of the 12-3-6-9 dial and the new hands yet. I have been busy working on the Stingray ordering page and trying to get it functional so that pre-order customers can begin working on their options. I hope to have this up later this week but we’ll see. A lot of new artwork had to be produced for the new dials and hands that will be available.
I will be closing the pre-order option very very soon. I don’t want to take as many pre-orders as I did last time with the Blackwater which I think contributed to a lot of the communication problems. At the same time I want to keep the number of pre-orders lower in order to minimize the impact it will have on customer service levels. Currently I have enough orders to keep me busy pretty much all summer since I also have to leave capacity to deliver our other watches and products.
In the next 2 weeks or so I hope to announce our next watch….the Sea Fighter. Its a diver with a crown at 4 o’clock based on the BUND diver introduced in the mid-70s. This watch is meant to fill in the gap that the Seiko watches used to occupy in our line-up. I had meant to announce this earlier but pushed it off to wait for the hands which arrived sooner than expected. I look forward to hearing your feedback on our latest offering. The launch of this product will scheduled and handled slightly differently than previous models in order to minimize its impact on our capacity.