Man, did I have a great Thanksgiving!

DIGGER27

In Memory Of
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
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Alabama, by way of Detroit, Tampa Bay, Alabama and
I am so happy I just needed to write this up and tell somebody about my fantastic Thanksgiving.
Long one, just feel like riffing and writing this morning so if you don't want to read it all there are a few nice pictures below.
Otherwise, come along on my journey if you like.

The wife and I took her aunt to a casino yesterday, we figured a little fun and the buffet would be decent enough to get our turkey and fixings...but I ended up eating everything but turkey for some reason.
Anyway, I got into automatic watches a couple of years ago and I am slowly building my collection.
Nothing really expensive but I am enjoying wearing them, changing bands and switching around between them plus a few Casios and a several others I have gathered up over the years.
I am still a Timex fan, too, I have had many in my life and they have all served me well even though I eventually beat them all to hell and back.
I love the different looks and about 2 years ago I became fascinated by the different automatic movements out there...for you watch guys I currently own an SNGZ Seiko with a non hacking, hand winding 7s36 movement and an Orient Mako 2 USA with a more advanced F6922 movement.
I am looking for a decent deal on some great looking watch with a Seiko hackable NH35 movement and I also would love to see how well a Citizen Miyota 8215 movement would fit into my world.
All of these are basic workhorse automatic movements, one day I might move up into the much higher quality Swiss movements but I am not there...yet.
So a week ago last Tuesday I am looking at several YouTube video about watches, which I enjoy doing daily, and Marc from Island Watch pops up with a preview vid about 10 of the 150 watches he is going to be putting in his yearly Black Friday sale starting on Thanksgiving day.
He shows me one that I absolutely fell in love with, a Spinnaker Cahill model 200m diver with a textured black dial and beautiful orange lume and orange accents on the dial and even on the stiches on the supple, water resistant and supposedly very comfortable supplied soft leather band.
IP black coated case and Super Luminova all around, even on the bezel, completes this great looking package...plus that Miyota 8215 movement I want to experience.
Only a mineral crystal, not saphire, and no hacking but you can't have everything.
I am going to call this my Halloween watch...maybe my pumpkin watch.
Spinnaker is one of the larger microbrands that sells watches and theirs all have a nautical connection.
Evidently the Cahill line pays tribute to noted Scuba pioneer James Cahill. Cahill, who was born in Salem, Massachusetts was the first scuba diver to dive the waters off New England

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Not sure I am into the bright orange Nato strap but they throw it in for free so, whatever.

Spinnaker usually sells this watch for a ridiculous $350 list on their site but you can usually get discounts and I noticed they recently had a few of this model on a closeout sale for $159 for a short time so some crazy mark-ups in the watch world out there.
Average price on this thing out there from what I can tell is about $250 or so but look on EBay and watch reseller sites and this model runs from about $180 up to one crazy place trying to get over $500 for this exact same watch.
I'd like to meet anyone that spends $500 for this watch...I got plenty of bridges for sale they can choose from.

Island Watch usually has them for $299 not including discounts but 2 of the Cahill models he carries are going to be on a super sale for $135 while they last.
That's a price I can live with.
The sale starts on Thanksgiving at 12 pm my time when the sale prices go live and I planned on being right there on my phone in the casino at noon to get one but I was travelling with 2 women that made me late so I was still driving on the freeway to the casino at 11:55am.
Screw it, I pulled off the freeway into a gas station parking lot, I was not going to miss this deal.
I logged in with my phone in the car and snagged one, I had no idea how many Marc had in stock but I assumed both of these models would clear out fast at this price and I was not going to take any chances.
Turns out I was right, I checked back just a couple hours later while we were at the casino and I see my watch model now shows it is already out of stock.
So is the other Cahill model he had in this sale.

I am thrilled, can't wait to get the thing so now my second goal of the day is to not just to lose no money playing the slots but to come home with an extra $135 to pay for the watch.
I have the dough but winning the money to completely pay for the thing would be even sweeter.
I was having a pretty good time, I lost a little over the next few hours but not too bad, actually, within an hour after I got there I had already won more than enough to pay for the watch including $10 free play the casino gave me that I put into 2 lucky machines that let me build that tenner into a little over $300 in about 1/2 hour of playing.
I could have stopped right there, should have stopped right there but what the heck was I supposed to do, stop playing and let everyone else in the place have fun while I watch?
Nah, so I kept on playing hoping for the best.
About 4 hours later we were getting hungry so I play one more machine before we head off to the buffet.
By this time I had lost the $300 I won plus about $150 of my own bankroll I brought with me.
Things were not exactly going to plan but hope springs eternal.
I pick one more slot to play, a Quick Hit machine.
You can play anywhere from 50 cents up to $2 max get on this thing but the line hits aren't great most of the time, the real money is getting a lot of the quick hit symbols to win one of the 5 progressives.
3 quick hits gets you your money back, 4 gets you back about 5 times your bet and 5 through 9 of them gets you one of the progressives that start at about $20 for five and then go higher as you gather them up.
There is one quick hit symbol on the first line of this 5 reel game, two on the second, three one the middle line, two on the fourth and one on the fifth.
That's 9 total, not easy to get the higher amounts to line up but I was sitting next to a lady once that got all 9 and won $11,000...boy was she happy.
So it can happen.
You have to play max bet, $2, to have a chance to get those progressives, you will win if you don't but the payouts aren't anywhere close to those progressive amounts.
Not my favorite machine and $2 is a bit more than I am comfortable betting but fortune favors the bold so max bet is.
I would like to tell you I had a feeling about this machine but I didn't, I was just hoping lightning would strike...and then it did.
I wasn't playing this thing for even 5 minutes when I hit that button and I see nothing in the first reel but the rest of the reels lined up nicely.
2-3-2 and 1 quick hit on the last reel.
I got 8 out of 9 of those suckers, I had no idea what I won and I knew it was a lot but I didn't really look at or notice what all those progressives were paying on the upper end except the top one which was about $7,100 at the time.
I look up at the progressives and see a big WINNER flashing on the level right below the top award but I couldn't see the number below it.
I kept looking and finally it went away for a second and I see that I won over $2,100 so...yea!

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There is a lady sitting next to me that I assume was pouring money into the same exact machine for awhile, she looked a little pissed off.
Actually, she looked more upset than that, eventually she walked off in a huff soon after she saw me hit this jackpot.

I call the wife, who was sitting with her aunt looking at the big sharks swimming around the massive saltwater tank they have in the middle of the bar, the guys from the Tanked tv show designed and installed it.




This is one of the bigger tanks in the country, actually pretty impressive when you see large sized sharks, rays and other big fish swimming around in this 16,000 gallon aquarium.
They did a whole show about the installation of this 3 story high massive tank and a smaller one they installed next to the buffet line.

She says she is hungry and wants to eat, I say fine but I have to wait for the slot attendant to bring me my $2,100 I just won.
She goes silent, then she says we will be right there.
They meet me at the machine and we wait for my money...then we go eat.

After dinner we were not ready to leave just yet so I stuck a twenty in another machine near the buffet and won another $250 and I just played with that until we left.
Never even came close to touching that $2,100 I won earlier.

So a great and lucky day for me.
I realized I now easily had enough to buy some kind of really nice Swiss movement watch if I wanted to but like I said, can't really wrap my head around buying and owning an expensive watch like that right now.
Maybe someday but not today...even though now I could buy one with no guilt and a way less chance to get buyer's remorse.

Hope y'all had somewhere close to as great a Thanksgiving as I did...if not better!
 
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Really Really Nice Digger !!

Am I imagining it or did you not have a similar BIG WIN early last year or something?

always nice to get a W@ at the casino.. my biggest ever was $3,600 at 2 o'clock in the morning went I went downstairs to get a bottled water and sunk the change from a 20 into a 5 dollar slot..

Again.. Awesome Hit !!!
 
Really Really Nice Digger !!

Am I imagining it or did you not have a similar BIG WIN early last year or something?

always nice to get a W@ at the casino.. my biggest ever was $3,600 at 2 o'clock in the morning went I went downstairs to get a bottled water and sunk the change from a 20 into a 5 dollar slot..

Again.. Awesome Hit !!!

Thank yew!
Yea, I hit a Fu Nan Fu Nu jackpot earlier this year for over $4,400 on a $3.52 bet.
I had a $436 ticket I had fought hard for and I was walking back to my room after a long session just trying to get back to even, which I did.
I just wanted to burn off that $36 and see what would happen before I went to bed so I bet that $3.52 level which is again, a little higher than I usually play.
I am more of a buck to buck fifty better most of the time but again luck was with me.
In life, metal detecting and gambling never discount luck...it can show its face any time so you better be ready if and when it does.
 
Sweet win and watch Digger. I love my Seiko 5 automatic, 23 jewel. Wear it every day :)
 

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Sweet win and watch Digger. I love my Seiko 5 automatic, 23 jewel. Wear it every day :)

Love mine too, I got the black dial version with the black strap but I usually wear it on a black and red Blushark Nato.
A Dirty or Vintage Bond Nato strap, which I also have, also looks great on the black but especially great on your green dial version.
 

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Love mine too, I got the black dial version with the black strap but I usually wear it on a black and red Blushark Nato.
A Dirty or Vintage Bond Nato strap, which I also have, also looks great on the black but especially great on your green dial version.

Cool band, when the original wears out some day, I’ll get something like the nato ones :thumbsup:
 
Awesome hit on the machine, and nice watch!
I can appreciate good automatic watches as well, I've got a Hamilton Khaki Field automatic chrono day/date with a black dial from about 2004 that i really like!
Some of the new seikos are intriguing and with a nice band they look really sharp too.
 
Awesome hit on the machine, and nice watch!
I can appreciate good automatic watches as well, I've got a Hamilton Khaki Field automatic chrono day/date with a black dial from about 2004 that i really like!
Some of the new seikos are intriguing and with a nice band they look really sharp too.

Tanks!

Yea, you got THE field watch brand as far as I am concerned so I am a little jelly.
You can fall down the rabbit hole pretty easy in this timepiece thing if you don't "watch" yourself. :D


For watch people here is a real interesting vid about a Citizen watch that now holds the throne of the most accurate timepiece ever made so far in the entire history of clock making.
Accurate to within 1 second a year.
Amazingly designed and totally over engineered...a thing of beauty.
Quartz too, but not like any other quartz watch before it.

 
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Well, congratulations on all counts! I dont know why, but I read your ENTIRE post! :laughing::laughing: I now know more about watches and fish tanks and how the Quick Hit gambling machine works than I used to! You sure were in a typing mood werncha? :laughing:
 
Well, congratulations on all counts! I dont know why, but I read your ENTIRE post! :laughing::laughing: I now know more about watches and fish tanks and how the Quick Hit gambling machine works than I used to! You sure were in a typing mood werncha? :laughing:

Thanks mud, and you were warned.:yes:

Fact is, you hang with me and not only are you, (hopefully), entertained but maybe you learn a little something along the way, too.
 
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