It’s now 2025, so let’s take a quick look at what happened to the watch box in 2024. A few slots opened up with the sale of some of my G-SHOCKs, so of course I felt the need to fill those slots!

What’s Out: Four nice G-SHOCKs that weren’t getting worn, so off to new owners they go! The super MIPs display of the GBD-200UU-9, the GW-7900B along with it’s new light grey bezel and strap, the GA-2100 “CasiOak”, with black dial black hands black case (“triple black”), and the rare GW-M5610BC-1JF. Legibility suffers on all these negative display watches, with the possible exception of the GBD-200UU-9’s MIPs, but even that watch simply didn’t get any attention from me. My disinterest is someone else’s benefit: the new owners are all very happy!

What’s New In: Just one G-SHOCK, a few homages, a couple builds, and more modifications. Oh, and a wall clock! I added a GA-2000-5A, a model of G-SHOCK I really like, this is my third. A great dial and easy to read, and the buttons are big and easy to push. The strap articulates more than what is normal on a G-SHOCK, and it has the “Carbon Core Guard”, making it really light.

Then I picked up a “GADA” (Go Anywhere, Do Anything) homage to the Rolex “Air King”, a Pagani Design PD1692. The dial is a very deep black, and it’s just a nice little change-of-pace piece.

The Cadisen Aqua Diver is an homage to the Helm Komodo, and I’ve written about it before. Great dial, even better hands, without the heft, price, and waiting list of the original.

The Heimdallr homage to the Seiko MM300 was a stellar pickup, the monobloc case is a winner and gives the watch a big presence, and the shark logo on the dial is icing on the cake.

Seiko Aliexpress Builds! First, the Seiko Samurai / King Turtle “mashup”. I combined the “grenade” dial and day/date NH36 movement of a King Turtle, with the case and hands of a Samurai, making the watch that I wanted. Same concept with the Seiko SKX007 build, adding a domed sapphire crystal, sloping bezel insert, and semi-skeletonized orange hands. Finally, the Steeldive SD1975 (Seiko “Tuna” homage) got more modifications, as I replaced the orange dial with a black “pyramid” pattern dial, a new black chapter ring, and white/orange hands. All the parts came from Aliexpress.