Rado Voyager

Time to review another vintage piece, this time it is a Rado.

The Voyager has been a Rado model that has been around for a long time.

Strangely enough it is one of those models which has had different variations released along the years yet hardly any concrete info of it can be found online.

I have tried reading about it, to find out more of the story behind this piece but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Just some back info on what shot Rado into “stardom”. Back in 1962, Rado produced the world’s first scratch-proof watch, the DiaStar, since then Rado set an industry standard in scratch proof watches and is still a market leader in scratch proof watches. Rado today still produces fine Swiss luxury timepieces, with multiple styles, having tough, sporty and timeless classic pieces as well.

Today we talk about the Voyager, which sounds somewhat like dive or boat watch or perhaps even to space, in reference to the term, “To voyage”.

As the golden age of space travel as set in the sixties, when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Voyager is the name of a model line by Rado, this particular model was around from the late 1960s towards the end of 1980s.

At the beginning, it was just one of many models. It did later it became s.th. like an entrance class model which was marketed for the Fareast markets.

There are countless variations of this piece. All have automatic day/date movements. This model was somewhat like a mass produced model, for the everyday man. There were literally tons of these watches by the end of the 1980s. The Voyager was in my own opinion and this may be true, was the most produced piece in their range.

With the never ending variations, the Voyager was more than just a model but an entire product range of one type of model.
For an everyday watch, it was a practical model and better yet, Swiss made and automatic as well.

For a piece which seems to be selling really well, it was a surprise it ended production.
Though if you think about it, it probably happened due to the Quartz Crisis back in the day.
So what did Rado tell me about my piece, they said

“Yours is from 1982 or later, inside should be an ETA 2836-2 automatic movement with day/date, as the first three digits of the reference number(636.xxxx.x). This movement came 1982. Snap on backs were usual at that time at Rado. From what I can see, it is completely authentic.

The water resistance is always a problem at vintage watches. If you want to have it waterproof, you need new gaskets for the back and crown and a hydrostatic test to be sure. That´s expensive. If you want to wear it regularly, you should have it serviced(cleaning, oiling, adjusting) by a good watchmaker.

Hope this helps. Enjoy it and wear it in health!”
 
I was ecstatic to know that I have yet another original vintage piece in my possession. Plus the last bit from their staff was kind of quirky, wear it in health!

For now this piece is kept in my collection, it is not a piece that I wear frequently as it is too small for my wrist, nonetheless it is a lovely piece that I love admiring.

If only they made the back case transparent or see through, that would have been brilliant.

As this was a widely produced piece, its price is somewhat challenging to discuss. What factors encompasses a Voyager worthy of a mentioning.

It all comes down to the same few factors for every piece I guess? The rarity, condition and current market demand. As we speak, there isn’t really a hype or excitement surrounding vintage Rado pieces except maybe the old DiaStars. Then again in about 10 years, the picture may be totally different?

You may come across many Rados online, especially on eBay. If you think it suits you and the price is right, why not go for it.

This is a nice piece to have for anyone beginning a collection. It isn’t something really fancy or pricy.

I see it as a quintessential piece that perhaps set the tone for automatic watches back in the 1960s, it was an everyday watch. It was somewhat like what our Seikos are today.

Below are some pics of my Rado, it is still in a fairly good condition.

The automatic movement works well and it can run well.


Condition perhaps 7.5-8 out of 10. There are some signs of wear on the face and some visible scratches

 

 

 

Seiko Criteria, Chronograph.

Let’s talk about Seiko today. The game changer, the Japanese power house!

Seiko almost wiped off the existence of automatic watches back in the day. Aptly known as the ‘Quartz Crisis’ in Switzerland and the ‘Quartz Revolution’ outside of Switzerland. The invention of the Seiko Quartz watch changed watch history forever in terms of Horology. The world’s first quartz watch was released by Seiko, call the Quartz ASTRON.

From then on Seiko has never looked back, developing so many other interesting timepieces like the Seiko Kinetic as well.

Today I won’t go into deal on how fantastic Seiko has been over the years.

I am going to talk about a Seiko I own. So this is my first ever Seiko. A Seiko is somewhat a watch for the everyday man and here in Singapore I see a Seiko or Citizen on the wrist on the average man on the street. Well growing up no one in my family really cared much about timepieces and we had really basic watches on our wrist, just to tell the time. The first ever watch I had as a kid was probably a digital Casio watch.

Well since then, I have come a long way. I have had a deep interest in Horology and in the arts of fine watch making. Though Seiko may not fall into the category  of fine watch making. It definitely deserves a place in Horology history for their contributions to the Horological world.

The watch at hand is the limited edition Seiko Criteria SNDG13P1, number 2041 out of 3600.


Below are the specifications of this timepiece

 

Quartz movement.
Calibre: 7T92.
Black ion-plated stainless steel case.
Blue ion-plated stainless steel unidirectional rotating bezel and inner ring with tachymeter.
Black ion-plated stainless steel bracelet.
Three-fold clasp with push button release.
Screw case back.
Blue dial with luminous hands and indexes.
Date calendar display at 4 o'clock position. 1/20 second chronograph, up to 12 hours.
Sapphire crystal glass.
Water resistant to 100 meters.
 

Visually the piece looks amazing, I feel the colours of the dial and the bezel match together very well. That metallic shine makes this piece stand out more as compare to the other similar models which are not limited edition. The Black ion-plated steel bracelet gives sort of a gun metal finish colour which once again I find visually stunning. So aesthetically the colours are nice and vivid. There is a nice extra touch with the blue dial having luminous hands and indexes.

For the technical side, the Calibre 7T92 has the sub dial at the 6 o’clock has the hour and minute hands that track the chronograph elapsed time up to twelve hours. The sub dial at the 12 o’clock is the 1/20 second indicator. The interesting this is that the second hand does not measure the time but is used to measure the second for the chronograph movement. Where else, the sub dial at the 9 o’clock is actually the one which shows the seconds for the time.

On the bezel there are Arabic markings and seconds hands in multiple of fives.

Inside on the dial there are more markings for the Tachymeter function.

This is a nice weighty piece, as for me I like big heavy pieces that has a little more weight on the wrist.

The steel bracelet does surely add more weight on this piece. Making it a little bulky and stand out slightly more.

So overall this is a nice piece with great chronograph and
 tachymeter functions.

With stark colours to make it shine, it has a nice sporty feel like an aviator or motor GP watch.

This can be worn both with your suit to work or for a game of golf.

Take a look and judge for yourself.

Valjoux, who?

One of the first movements that I began to hear a lot when I was reading up on timepieces and how many automatic watches ran was the term “Valjoux”.

It is one of the names I have heard many times and is a movement used in my timepieces, usually for chronograph movements.

Valjoux was a fabled movement maker and was part of the behemoth ASUAG group known today as Swatch Group.

The piece de resistance of the Valjoux movement is none other than the ETA 7750.

How this movement was conceived tells an interesting tale. At that time, Valjoux was a leader in the manual wind chronographs.

It had already produced the manual wind Valjoux 7733 movement which doing amicably well. In the 1970s, they wanted to spearhead a development of a new movement, one which would be reliable and cost effective. This movement is also acclaimed to be the first to have been designed with the aid of a computer back in the seventies.

Sadly it was short lived, it did sell well in the beginning with an estimated of around hundred thousand pieces in 1974. In the following year, production stopped and this movement went bust. At that time, the demand was so low that supplies lasted well into the eighties. Imagine if your Grandad or dad actually bought those pieces when nobody actually wanted them, they would have gotten them at a steal. Today you would be seating on a ‘goldmine’, as the demand for automatic timepieces were somewhat resurrected, so the ETA 7750, somewhat like the phoenix rose from the ashes. (Thankfully the people of ASUAG kept the dies and equipment so they could restart production seamlessly).

Thanks to its ingenious design, this was both durable and economical to produce, along with great support from Swatch Group the 7750 became the most movement in the Swiss automatic chronograph movement. It could be said to be the most successful automatic chronograph movement, perhaps period.

Here are some of the brands out that which use this fantastic movement in the timepieces; Breitling, Cyma, Hamilton, IWC, Mido, Omega & Panerai to name a few.