Fifty Fathoms Homage - Seiko 5 Mod

[mrjnam]

I'm a Rolex guy, but I've always liked the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, but never enough to actually buy one. I also wanted a daily beater and a watch with a shark mesh bracelet, so I picked up this modded Seiko SNZH57 from green69442 and the bracelet separately from yourbandstand. The watch was $345 and the bracelet was $50 and I'm really happy with it.

The dial is my favorite part about this watch, it's flawlessly done and beautiful.

The case is 42mm without the crown, but sits larger and thicker on the wrist than a regular 42mm.

The crown is not screw down, so not really a diver.

The crystal is domed so it distorts at extreme angles, but slightly less than Panerai domed crystals. This is my least favorite part about this watch.

The shark mesh bracelet didn't come with the watch, but it's well-made, size adjustable, and opens and closes well. The width of the bracelet seems huge because it's 22mm with no tapering, like Rolex bracelets do.

This Seiko automatic movement does not allow manual winding, it only winds by movement, but it takes only a couple of shakes for it to start going, unlike other automatics. Keeps great time.

That's it, pretty nice for a sub-$500 beater diver I think.

[Dan Pierce]

Great looking FFF mod! Hard to beat the value of these Seiko's.

Being an addicted modder I did the FFF with a bit of a twist. Decided to go blue and use the SKX diver for the base since this one would be used while diving. And it's passed the 55 Fathoms pressure test.
dP

[raky]

Nice! I had one for a few months... I got several compliments on it. Have since sold it but do miss it from time to time.

[mrjnam]

Both are beauties, guys. Dan, did yours pass the test without a screw down crown? Raky, that really looks like a Blancpain!

[Psmith]

Nice

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by mrjnam

Both are beauties, guys. Dan, did yours pass the test without a screw down crown? Raky, that really looks like a Blancpain!

My FFF mod is based on the ISO rated SKX 007 case. It has a screw down crown @ 4:00. So it's made to dive and that's just what it will do.
dP

[ssultan]

Very cool...I'm a big fan of the SKX007/009 series myself. I'm slowly moving away from my gshocks for rough duty to the SKX as I find it equally rugged yet with a design I can pull off more easily at work.

[francis]

I dropped my beloved skx on the floor from about 3 feet. It stopped working. I have never owned a G Shock but not sure it would stop working from the same trauma. ...