Bill LeBoeuf Jewellers takes great pride in providing our customers with a premium customer service experience and Barrie’s finest selection of watches, diamond and gemstone settings, including jewellery in platinum, white and yellow gold. Our in house custom jewellery designs range from engagement rings and wedding rings to diamond pendants and earrings. In addition, we are continuously updating our estate jewellery collection which includes watches by Rolex, Tag Heuer, Cartier and Breitling as well as many other premium brands.
Our on-site gemologist and goldsmith designers are highly knowledgeable and are available to share their years of experience with you. They will answer any questions you have about your existing piece or will assist you in finding or designing that unique gift.
Let us earn your trust. We have been doing that with our customers from the Barrie and surrounding area for the past 60 years and with the recent expansion of our on-line offerings, we are excited to be building customer loyalty all over Canada and the United States.
Seiko has roots in timekeeping dating back to 1881 when 21-year-old Kintaro Hattori set up a shop in Tokyo selling watches and clocks. A little over a decade later he set up a factory to produce his own clocks. Seiko has a history of innovation and technological achievement that rivals any of the traditional Swiss luxury watch manufacturers. The Seiko Prospex Titanium Diver SNR029J1 is a watch that showcases some of Seiko’s most innovative technology. Despite the immense variety of watches available, the vast majority can be classified into two categories: either automatic or quartz. Automatic watches run on mechanical energy generated by the movement of the wearer’s wrist which winds the mainspring then slowly, predictably releases power to the hands, through a series of gears to an oscillating balance wheel. Automatic watches don’t use an electric power source. They require cleaning/servicing every 5 to 10 years. An exceptionally well-tuned, high-end, fully adjusted, automatic watch can keep time with an accuracy of a few seconds per day. Quartz watches rely on a quartz crystal to keep time, which vibrates when an electric current is passed through it. In most quartz watches, the crystal will vibrate 32,768 times per second, which the circuit interprets to achieve an accuracy of +/- 1 second a day (often much better). The downside of quartz watches is that they need a battery or solar-charged capacitor to power the crystal and move the hands. The Grand Seiko “Spring Drive” movement takes the best aspects of both types of watches, using their “Tri-Synchro Regulator” technology.
Like an automatic watch, its power comes entirely by the motion of the wearer’s wrist in the form of stored spring power that is slowly released. However, instead of powering a traditional escapement/balance wheel releasing power through a series of wheels and gears to the hands; the mechanical energy is used to power a tiny generator producing continuous electric current. This current first powers a quartz crystal, keeping time much more precisely than any mechanical balance wheel oscillating 4000 times slower ever could. The watch then compares the frequency of the quartz crystal with that of the spring drive glide wheel and uses the remaining current to apply a frictionless electromagnetic brake on the wheel to regulate its speed. The brake keeps the wheel perpetually spinning at a precise rate as determined by the quartz crystal. No battery to replace, no rechargeable capacitor to fail as with every other quartz watch including solar-powered watches. You get the best of both worlds: the accuracy of a quartz watch with the convenience and reliability of an automatic watch.
There truly is no other watch in the world that even comes close to this level of ingenuity. Our latest estate watch comes from a Canadian authorized Seiko agent and was purchased in late January 2021. The Prospex diver is a serious watch. It comes with a water-resistance rating of 300 meters, a case size of 44.8mm diameter, and 15.8mm thick.
It is certainly a large watch, but the mostly titanium construction keeps the weight down to a manageable 160 grams. The thick rotating bezel is easy to grasp and simple to rotate, as is the oversized 8mm screw-down crown. A double-locking, foldover clasp is equipped with a cleverly integrated extension allowing 2.5mm to over 30mm of extra bracelet length.
A matt black dial is the epitome of legibility with thick hands and applied hour markers, all treated with Seiko’s proprietary luminous material that is equal or better than Super-LumiNova.
Instead of highly polishing frames for all the hour markers, Seiko has micro-etched the 12,3,6, and 9 markers. The resulting reflections display subtle dispersion of rainbow interference colours.
A sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective inner surface coating should keep the scratches at bay while providing perfect optics. This super hard crystal has been ground with a concave inner surface for better visibility at any angle underwater. A handy calendar and power scale display the 72-hour power reserve of the 5R65, 30 jewel movement.
The watch is in very good condition, showing small scuffs and scratches but remaining in original unpolished/refinished condition. There are a few tool marks on the edge of a couple of links from a previous bracelet length adjustment. This is not a grey market watch, it comes complete with its original packaging, booklets, endorsed warranty card, and even the original price tag of $7,800.00 CAD. This model is still being produced and is shown on the Seiko website but now it has a retail price of $9,000.00 CAD. Our price for this carefully worn Spring Drive Professional is $5,000.00 CAD. Stock #501-00120 e14617.
We are always looking to buy your estate pieces including brands such as Rolex, Cartier, Breitling, Tag Heuer, along with gold and diamond jewellery.
view our current estate collection
Learn more about the 4 Cs of diamond grading with this interactive tool and video explanation. You’ll soon understand how diamond quality is evaluated.