Post by Knight Watchman on Sept 11, 2007 0:06:07 GMT -5
It's here!
The package arrived about an hour after making my post about Chinese watches being half-oiled and twice-dirty pieces of junk! ;D
Did any one really think that a $10 Chinese watch was going to change my mind?
It is too soon for pictures of my own or accuracy results just yet; not sure I will ever even have the motivation to do so.
Just some initial observations:
1. The genuine leather band is better than what came with 95% of my Russian watches; worth about $6 by itself. That's one plus.
2. Lume- what lume? After highly charging and turning off the lights, the lume was just about non-existent. As good as a Seiko Monster..... about three weeks after charging.
3. The case- what can you expect for $10? Not even close to my Sea-Gull 1963 ($125 high-end Chinese junk). The surfaces were shiny and unscratched, but the finish? Looking at reflections in the shiny surfaces of the case revealed ripples and dimples and other optical distortions indicating a cheaply formed irregular surface.
4. Winding the watch- stiff and rough
5. Action of the retrograde fly-back seconds indicators- smooth and fun to watch. As Max mentioned: perfectly synced to the main seconds hand. A second plus.
6. Decorations on movement - None
7. Operation of GMT (2nd time zone)- After pulling the crown out, turning the crown in one direction turns the main hands and GMT hands forward in unison. Hands can not be turned counter-clockwise. Turning the crown the other way just advances the GMT hands without the main hands; don't move the hands too far or you will have to go all the way around again. The latter function (GMT time set) became intermittent after the first few minutes of playing with it.
8. Overall look- very nice and classy hands and indexes. If only they were attached to a real watch.
Advice:
Buy this watch. Take off the strap and save as a spare for one of your Russian Vostok watches. Worth $6. Enjoy and experience the operation of a retrograde fly-back watch normally costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. Price of demo- $4. There, you just got your money's worth. After demo is over, place watch without strap in appropriate watch box:
The package arrived about an hour after making my post about Chinese watches being half-oiled and twice-dirty pieces of junk! ;D
Did any one really think that a $10 Chinese watch was going to change my mind?
It is too soon for pictures of my own or accuracy results just yet; not sure I will ever even have the motivation to do so.
Just some initial observations:
1. The genuine leather band is better than what came with 95% of my Russian watches; worth about $6 by itself. That's one plus.
2. Lume- what lume? After highly charging and turning off the lights, the lume was just about non-existent. As good as a Seiko Monster..... about three weeks after charging.
3. The case- what can you expect for $10? Not even close to my Sea-Gull 1963 ($125 high-end Chinese junk). The surfaces were shiny and unscratched, but the finish? Looking at reflections in the shiny surfaces of the case revealed ripples and dimples and other optical distortions indicating a cheaply formed irregular surface.
4. Winding the watch- stiff and rough
5. Action of the retrograde fly-back seconds indicators- smooth and fun to watch. As Max mentioned: perfectly synced to the main seconds hand. A second plus.
6. Decorations on movement - None
7. Operation of GMT (2nd time zone)- After pulling the crown out, turning the crown in one direction turns the main hands and GMT hands forward in unison. Hands can not be turned counter-clockwise. Turning the crown the other way just advances the GMT hands without the main hands; don't move the hands too far or you will have to go all the way around again. The latter function (GMT time set) became intermittent after the first few minutes of playing with it.
8. Overall look- very nice and classy hands and indexes. If only they were attached to a real watch.
Advice:
Buy this watch. Take off the strap and save as a spare for one of your Russian Vostok watches. Worth $6. Enjoy and experience the operation of a retrograde fly-back watch normally costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. Price of demo- $4. There, you just got your money's worth. After demo is over, place watch without strap in appropriate watch box: