Caliber 8L35-00C0 Twenty-six jewels
Hacking movement and hand winding
Ceramic coated Titanium
Sapphire Crystal
After much deliberation, I am the proud owner of the Tuna Emperor. I ordered two sets (1 for my cousin) from Higuchi Katsu-san and managed to secure a price I cannot refuse. Coupled with the weakened JPY, it has never been more timely.
The presentation in a velvet lined exquisite box.
The monocoque case which can only be opened from the front of the watch. This makes the watch 100% watertight from case point of view.
The ceramic coated shroud held in place by 4 hexagonal allen screws.
A nice touch here - the "S" signed screw down crown.
This is the part I did not care about - the crown. In the normal 300m Tuna quartz, the crown is telescopic type and in this 1000m version, it is just a cap screw. I wonder why the designers left this detail out. But the saving grace is the crown screws in after 4.5 turns (which should be an overkill to keep the water out).
This picture was found on the internet and shows a beautiful shot of the 8L35A undecorated Grand Seiko type movement.
For safety purposes, I feel more secure with closed-loop system (the standard rubber stap is what I termed an "open-loop system) and hence William Jean's sharkskin mesh bracelet works perfectly (though sizing was initially a challenge). The matted PVD combi is great!
And finally, a wrist shot. My initial fear was the Tuna Emperor may look silly on my 6.25 wrist but that fear is unfounded, look at the balance of this massive watch on my puny wrist.
So is this Tuna Emperor worth the RRP of $5,000? For the built, finishing, movement and tradition, I would say yes but not so. Some may argue that 5grand can get a nice Swiss watch but that is where they separate the Seikoholic and the boys.
