There’s nothing wrong with quartz. Say it with me…
As soon as I finished the Big Date quartz build I started working on a build for Seiko VH31. I used a variation of the Pilot 36 for the dial but reversed the colours. I considered lume for a minute but I really liked the skeleton handset look so I stripped the old paint off them and finished the hands in a matt black. I tried to give the seconds hand a floating look so I painted it white then added a black tip to create the effect. This helps mask the quartz tick even though this movement has a sweeping seconds which ticks 4 times a second as opposed to a standard quartz which is 1 tick per second.
The case is a lovely 36mm brushed one with a screw down crown and is rated to 20 BAR. The crown screws in with quality beyond its price and the crystal is a lovely flat sapphire one.
For a bit of fun I called this one Flight VH31 which is a little nod to the pilot style and the movement. The strap was just something I had laying around and it provided a nice surface for the engraving. The orange stripe, while adding some interest, feels out of place here. I’m on the lookout for a nice rivet pilot strap in black grainy leather.
I normally engrave on the caseback but with this one I really wanted to show off the quartz movement and the spacer so I used a sapphire exhibition. I matched the movement spacer colour to the stepping motor colour because why not. 🙂 Most manufacturers hide the quartz movements which is a shame because there are some nice looking ones out there. The VH31 isn’t the prettiest but along with the coloured movement spacer I think it desrves to be shown off.
