Our Fratelli Tales collection shares a number of the fantastic and fascinating backstories of our readers around the globe. Right this moment, we communicate with Robert Eames, who’s an fanatic for all types of watches and has an enchanting backstory. One classic Seiko has explicit resonance with him.
Fratello reader Robert Eames wrote in after a narrative we revealed on the Seiko 5 that I took with me to Asia. Due to Rob for sharing some particulars of his lifelong ardour for Seiko watches.
Rob is a humble man however somebody who has had an extremely fascinating life. This consists of engaged on naval vessels retrieving the NASA Columbia mission rocket boosters, which seems like a brilliant cool job! I spoke with Rob, and due to his beneficiant enter, we’ve got the next story.
Getting his first Seiko as a commencement present
Henry Black (HB): Rob, inform me about your first Seiko.
Robert Eames (RB): Your First Seiko could possibly be the identify of an everyday column right here. Watches that shared adventures are the most effective, and others that marked a interval in life and commencement items are all significant. My first Seiko was a highschool commencement present and my first first rate watch. It was a 1975 7009-8100 with a navy-blue dial, a bracelet, and a faceted crystal. I used to be sporting it within the Polaroid shot from prep faculty on commencement day at Hebron Academy in 1976, the 12 months I acquired the watch.
We didn’t do wrist photographs then; in any other case, the Seiko can be evident. The 12 months I graduated from the academy was not 12 months for jobs. I had registered with the varsity’s placement workplace and bought a name from Anker Rasmussen, saying he was the operations supervisor with United House Boosters at Kennedy House Middle. I used to be on a aircraft two days later for the beginning of an awesome job journey.
Pushing the bounds with a Seiko
HB: What occurred to this watch?
RE: I wore that look ahead to 4 years of maritime academy coaching, then my first job out of faculty at Kennedy House Middle, after which for a number of years in Boulder, Colorado, the place I fell into aggressive biking. One critical crash in 1985 whereas I used to be alone on a coaching experience modified every part.
I had ended up in Boulder, Colorado, trying to ski in winter and experience bikes in summer season. Street bikes have been every part, and I cherished using at excessive altitudes. I by no means had a difficulty with that watch regardless of the abuse it took on my wrist throughout lengthy rides, beneath the cuff of ski jackets, and on high-altitude hikes. I at all times wore it in all places.
It served a function just for time within the mountains, however I missed it when it wasn’t on my wrist. Then got here the day it accompanied me on its final experience. I used to be fairly banged up from the crash, and my bike had a scratch or two, in all probability from the police loading it right into a automobile to take it again to their workplaces for safekeeping. The watch, nonetheless, was destroyed. There was no changing it on the time. Native outlets couldn’t discover one, and I purchased a Seiko Sports activities 100 quartz diver that died after the second battery substitute. That they had assured me it was high quality to swim with, nevertheless it wasn’t.
Walrod Gulch Path 412 “The Wall” — Picture: MTB Mission
A dance with demise at “The Wall”
HB: This sounds prefer it’s going someplace dangerous… What occurred?
RE: I’d simply gotten up off the saddle to go up a steep hill often called The Wall, and my entrance wheel got here off. I remembered nothing. There was a helicopter flight to an emergency hospital, and I wakened 20 hours later with over 400 multilayer closures on the appropriate facet of my face and jaw. The surgeon was a miracle employee. Helmets weren’t a factor, however I’d purchased an early one for winter rides as a result of it supplied heat, and it was in all probability the explanation I didn’t die. My watch, nonetheless, was smashed to items. Inexplicably, my bike was high quality. The very first thing I mentioned once I got here to was, “The place’s my bike?” Then I requested about my watch. What was left if it was in a plastic bag, battered and lacking elements of the bracelet, crystal, and fingers.
A life filled with adventures with a trusty Seiko
HB: Oh, wow, this seems like a horrible accident. What occurred subsequent?
RE: They requested me who was president, and I mentioned Reagan. He wasn’t. I’d suffered a critical concussion. Years later, when eBay occurred, I discovered one other 7009-8100 in NOS situation. It’s not my nicest or favourite, nevertheless it’s a reminder of a few of my historical past. I’ve to say the quick-set day-date spoiled me for a lot of of my future vintage-watch experiences.
In 1981, I graduated with a BS in Nautical Science on the Maine Maritime Academy and handed my Coast Guard license exams first attempt, shocking many. Solely 10 out of 60 classmates handed on the primary attempt after they revised lots of the examination questions that 12 months. My job in Florida was not excessive profile, however I used to be second mate on one of many vessels that retrieved the spent rocket boosters from the primary three launches of the House Shuttle program. We have been a little bit of a dream come true for public relations, so I met a number of VIPs and astronauts and gave excursions of the ship’s bridge. In fact, there have been Omega Speedmasters and watches from different manufacturers on others’ wrists, however my Seiko’s funky faceted crystal attracted consideration and began conversations.
Time spent with NASA and an Omega Speedmaster
RE: That was why I needed to exchange my first Seiko. It was completely worn when it met its finish. The watch didn’t save my life, nevertheless it was a significant a part of an awesome interval in it. Everybody ought to personal a Seiko early on. I’ve over 20 now and simply purchased a Seiko Champion 850 Alpinist in a stainless case, which had been on my record for many years as a grail watch. I at all times thought the dial had a grand sector-type design and typography. It’s wonderful how ’60s and ’70s Seiko watches with no service historical past however lives effectively lived proceed to maintain good time.
Whereas at NASA, I bought an introduction to chronographs from engineers and a few astronauts. My trusty Seiko bought a each day test from the ship’s chronometer and held its personal at +6–8 seconds a day. If I have been on the bridge whereas at sea, I might use a sextant to shoot a midday web site to double-check our location together with satellite tv for pc navigation. The Seiko took some ribbing from some for the faceted crystal, nevertheless it held up effectively regardless of the copious numbers of metal railings and watertight hip ports. Nobody on board wore a Speedmaster, nevertheless it was my unique grail watch, and years later, I purchased a 1982 Speedmaster 145.012 with the field and papers to commemorate my time there. I used to be there for 3 missions and was prepared for the subsequent journey.
Utilizing a Seiko with a naval sextant
HB: Did you discover the Seiko helpful in your work?
RE: I used the Seiko whereas honing my abilities utilizing a sextant throughout these years. My dad was additionally a graduate of the identical faculty in 1943. He attended as an alternative choice to the draft. He had two sextants he used whereas crossing the Atlantic and again seven occasions as a chief mate throughout WWII plus one journey to the Solomon Islands.
Whereas on the academy, all of us frolicked aboard working service provider ships for at the very least 90 days as a cadet in coaching. I labored on a 1,300-foot absolutely automated ultra-large crude provider known as the TT Stuyvesant. We did the run from Valdez, Alaska to Puerto Armuelles, Panama twice. Prince William Sound was wonderful, with too many whales and orcas to rely. Whereas in Panama the second time, Captain Franklin P. Liberty organized for me to board one other American vessel and undergo the Panama Canal. That was fairly an expertise. I disembarked in San Francisco after the fun of going beneath the Golden Gate Bridge on the most important vessel to enter the bay on the time.
Aboard the UTC Liberty
HB: Rob, inform me a bit extra about your naval profession. Retrieving rocket boosters seems like fascinating work!
RE: Properly, the UTC (United Applied sciences Company) Liberty was my first beginning as a licensed deck officer. I sailed as second mate beneath Captain James Bond — no lie. This picture exhibits the vessel throughout a coaching mission with the frustum of the rocket booster being introduced in and introduced aboard. There have been parachutes to cope with first, although. The booster proven was 140 toes lengthy, and a diver would go down with an air hose and pump it with sufficient air for the booster to rise and topple. There was a small cherry-picker crane that hooked it up for the journey again to Port Canaveral, by means of the locks to the Banana River, and again to dwelling base at Hangar AF at Kennedy House Middle. UTC used us for public relations. We had an awesome prepare dinner within the galley and hosted lunches on board for VIPs and astronauts and such.
A lifetime of journey and the UTC Liberty
HB: So, it seems like a interval of nice journey for you, Rob.
RE: Properly, between House Shuttle missions, the ships did some freelance work. I used to be lucky to be employed simply in time for a particular naval operation laying cable off the coast of Andros Island within the Bahamas for 3 months. We had the ship fitted to hold and lay cable and went north to my hometown in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to put the cable. Whereas there, I went with the captain to the police division to hold out some crucial safety clearance. My dad, who had grow to be a veterinarian after the warfare, was a well known determine in our small city, in order that created a little bit of a buzz. Then, it was off to Andros, the place the planes flew overhead at evening with no gentle and dropped bales and bundles of unlawful substances on the island.
There was a small US Navy base, and we have been instructed to not depart the bottom property. We made enjoyable for ourselves after we weren’t laying cable for what seemed like a navigational test system for submarines (it was categorized, and that’s sort of a guess). There was lots of standing on the helm and controlling the 176-foot ship with twin diesel throttles in honest seas. However there was additionally nice snorkeling off the pier we docked at and first rate spearfishing, and conchs have been plentiful. A favourite watch reminiscence was a shipmate pointing to my watch and signaling to take it off and tuck it in my trunks because the shiny steel was attracting six-foot barracudas whereas we have been within the water. They give the impression of being quite a bit greater underwater.
An fanatic’s journey
RE: I additionally went again to high school in Colorado for graphic design and paid my dues in promoting, then as a designer turned artistic with Levi Strauss & Co. For my last act, I shifted gears into interior-space planning with a deal with kitchen and toilet design. I’ve lived in some particular locations and now retired and trying to go full circle to be nearer to household and outdated buddies.
I’ve different watches and am an avid collector of classic. I like 34mm three-handers. Nivada Antarctic fashions are favorites, and Aashdin Billimoria featured 20+ in his guide for Nivada. I even have a tender spot for early Omega Seamaster fashions, EPSA Compressor-cased watches, sports activities watches, dive watches, chronographs, and others in my roughly 200-watch assortment. My most up-to-date discover is a 34mm 1974 Rolex Date 1500 with a Sigma dial. I put that watch on a 78350-A solid-link Oyster bracelet from 1976.
HB: Thanks, Rob, for sharing your fantastic story with us right here on Fratello!
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