Tired of your old watch: Change the strap

Unlike some crazy watch collectors who have several watches, most people normally have one beater watch which they wear everyday. Many don't even use a watch any more. However, if you do wear watches, there is an easy way to change the look and feel immediately : just by changing the strap. All you need is a new strap and some tools.

That's what I did with my old Sekonda watch. It is a Rolex GMT Master homage with a Pepsi (blue and red) bezel powered by a Miyota quartz movement. 

I bought a blue, red and white Nato strap - Royal Air Force colours, on eBay. I hoped that it would match the colours of the Pepsi bezel. Used the strap spring bar remover tool to remove the strap pins and replaced the bracelet with the new strap.

Now I have a watch that looks and feels totally different. The Nato strap feel much more comfortable as compared to the stainless steel bracelet.

What do you think?

The Royal Enfield Continental GT [Video]

From Ace Cafe, London to Madras Café, Chennai. Nice video.

The specs of this Indian "Cafe racer":

• 535cc air cooled four-stroke engine/ 30bhp/ five-speed transmission
• Pirelli tyres
• Brakes: Single front disc and Brembo caliper
• Price is around £5,199.

Caludon Castle and St George

The answer to "Where in Coventry 3?" post is Caludon Castle in Caludon Castle park in Wyken. The park is supposed to have once belonged to Lady Godiva.

Also I just found out that it is related to St George (of the St George and the Dragon fame and the patron saint of England).

Anyway, here are some more pics:

My kids enjoying themselves at the park

Artist Pete Urmston's impression of what the Castle once looked like in the 16th Century

Related Links:

Did St George come from Coventry and what and where was the dragon?

Trip to the highlands 2013 - 3: Isle of Skye

Around this time last year, we were driving around the Scottish highlands. We drove from the Great Glen Water Park, South Laggan to the Isle of Skye, a distance of around 101 miles. One of the best drives I have ever gone for in my life. Here are some pictures from our trip:

It was a long journey and even started snowing on the way but the weather improved when we reached the Island.

At Portree,

The Harbour

After eating lunch, we took the scenic route to Struan on the Western side of the island. We only passed about 3 cars on the way and sometimes we were the only car for miles around.

No cars around for miles

At Struan

On the way back, we took the ferry to the mainland.

Swatch Irony Filamento Multicolore ladies watch

This nice Swatch Irony Aluminium FILAMENTO MULTICOLORE REF. YSS1006 ladies watch is from their 2004 Spring/Summer collection.

The name comes from it's unique strap made up of seven different coloured leather straps with a metal jewellery clasp. The strap is attached to an aluminium case and bezel. The bezel frames the silver coloured sunbrushed dial. The numbers are absent; Instead there are colourful indices. Silver hour and minute hands show the time.

The aluminium case measures  Ø 25mm T : 8mm H : 28.7mm. The watch is water resistant to 3 bar or 30m.

The quartz watch is available on the Swatch site for £57.00
The watch uses the 377 (SR626SW) batteries.

Where in Coventry 3

How well do you know Coventry? This is my 3rd edition of Where in Coventry

Came across these ruins in a park. Can anybody guess where this is?

A hint: The place is related to Lady Godiva.

If you can't guess, don't worry - answers coming up soon.

ANSWER: Caludon Castle ruins

Swatch Irony Chrono - Freezing Rain

Here is my latest eBay find - a vintage Swatch watch from their Spring/summer 2000 collection, which means that this watch is more than 13 years old. Wonder what I was doing then?

Anyway, this is from the Swatch Irony Chrono series and the model is called Freezing Rain (YCS4006AG). It was priced at £120.42 when it came out. I found out that it is quite hard to find now  but I bought it dirt cheap and I am too ashamed to mention the price here.

Did I say "dirt cheap" - I am not sure where the seller found it but it was covered with muck and it took me a lot of elbow grease plus soap and water to get rid of the dirt stuck in the various crevices.  The watch also had some bad scratches on the plastic crystal and did not work when I received it.

The watch case as well as the wrist band is made of aluminium and very light weight at only 62 gms. The watch case has a width of 40mm and is 12.5mm thick.

It is powered by a quartz ETA movement with a date at the 4 o clock position on the dial.

A change of batteries revealed that the watch did work but there was some problem with the chronograph function - it did start and stop but could not be reset (back to 0). I wanted to open up the case but discovered a major drawback of Swatch watches - opening up Swatch watches is a major project involving breaking the crystal and the crown as well. Quite annoying but I guess I would have to live with the malfunctioning chronograph.

I used Polywatch scratch remover to polish off the scratches on the crystal and apart from some tiny pit marks which are bit too deep, the crystal looks great.

I am quite impressed with the quality of images as well - they were taken using my Nokia Lumia 900 using the Macro mode.