haha some of you are just showing off (love that 7c43)!
Here is a true beater, a watch I intended to post about as "The Seiko I Love to Hate". It was the first ebay purchase I made, my first watch purchase after (re)discovering Seikos, the topic of my first post on the old forum, and it stands for everything I respect about Seiko:
I give you the V743-8090, SJW031P1. I was busy discovering the vast landscape of eBay while trying to find my first Seiko of my new era, an emotional grail - a 7a28 7049 - when I found this. I think the seller was a sly fox, as it had a spiel about selling off his collection, only two mediocre images, both of which made the dial look black. What did I know, I was just starting.
When I got it I was bit surprised: its small, the dial is OD green, it was on some cheap used black crocograin strap, and the crown! Aiyiyi:
This shot doesnt show the amount of distortion of the crown, it seriously looks like he pounded nails with it. But oh, well, it runs, lets see how it goes.
As my only regular watch it clearly started as my daily wearer. Given the fact it wasnt pristine it was easy to wear it without concern which is exactly what you need from a beater. I have small wrists and it was certainly inconspicuous and comfortable, and I found some rubber 'bracelet' straps from Stella that I really liked.
Grudgingly the watch started to impress me: a 200m rating, a domed crystal, screw down crown, day/date, drilled lugs, nicely detailed... So its a Pulsar movement (closely related to, if not a, 7n?) and a little plain looking but that seems to me to be in keeping: unostentatious, robust, practical.
I have since fallen for fancier flashier watches with all sort of alluring promises to keep +/-15 secs a year, or show GMT, or show off their 1/20th secs chrono register, but if I had to go live in a hut in Antarctica for 6 months tomorrow and had 30 secs to pick a watch, I bet I would regret not picking this one...
