The Promaster has been getting a lot of love this month. The bracelet is incredibly comfortable, it’s the automatic grab for any day by the water and the blue fits my summer vibes.

The Sea-Gull 1963 Is a great timepiece, and deserves a quick history lesson, because this watch gets misunderstood constantly. In 1961, the Swiss company Venus needed money to develop new movements. They sold their entire Cal.175 chronograph production line, a caliber which equipped some of the best chronos of that time — machinery, tooling, blueprints — to the Tianjin Watch Factory in China. Legally. Commercially. Venus got the capital. Tianjin got the know-how. Tianjin improved the movement (19 jewels instead of 17, anti-shock, higher beat rate), built watches around it for the Chinese Air Force, and delivered the first 1,400 pieces to pilots in 1966. That's the Sea-Gull 1963. Not a fake. Not a replica. A military chronograph built on legitimately purchased Swiss machinery. The key detail: the ST19 uses a column-wheel chronograph mechanism. The same architecture used in quality Swiss pieces of the 1940s and '50s. The same feature that Swiss brands today charge thousands extra to offer. The Sea-Gull has it by original design. Venus hardly exists. Sea-Gull just celebrated its 70th anniversary. At $200-800 depending on the version, it's the most honest value proposition in mechanical chronographs. Column-wheel movement, real military history, Swiss DNA, fraction of the Swiss price. Does anyone here own one? 👇

The SQ G, helping out with some repairs this morning.

Get those credit cards ready ya’ll! https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/buzz-aldrins-watches-are-coming-to-auction