Luxury Watch Blog

Today we have something different! A review on Watch Winders! Enjoy!

After endless hours of internet scouring and discussion with a fellow watch enthusiast I finally bought a Watch Winder. My collection of auto watches had grown to 5. So I definitely needed a winder to keep them all up and running. But I couldn’t bring myself to buying an Orbita or any other quality (and costly) winder. My previous watch purchases have left me rather baron in the wallet. Plus the wife has me under probation till further notice.

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I was very impressed with the bracelet. I don’t notice the extra weight of the solid links, but they still do an excellent job of balancing out the weight of the case. To me, the links are also the perfect size. They are smaller than some I’ve tried on which feel jagged or segmented, but still large enough that I don’t worry about their mechanical strength. Because each link hinges in the middle, the bracelet can fold flat on itself with no minimum radius, meaning it can be forced flat (if taken off and put in a pocket for instance) without any damage

I’m also a big fan of the brushed finish. While I did like the brushed/polished combination of the Aquaracer Alarm I also tried on, I think it would have seemed a little fussy on the smaller links of the F1.

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We managed to get our hands on the new Bertolucci FASCINO! Here is a watch review

About The Watch

The Bertolucci FASCINO arrived in a beautiful gift box with all the proper tags and papers. Bertolucci seems to be riding into style with the new FASCINO. This watch retails from $5,900 to $6,400! We got it at GoldWatches.com

First Impressions

Once you open the box, the solid 18k gold watch hits your eye with its size and with the boldness of the dial design. You don’t open the box to find an undersized small watch. You get visually smacked, which is a great first impression. When you lift the watch out of its box and feel it’s’ weight, you feel this is a straightforward, solid 18k gold watch.

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The second worry free reason is that my particular model has a stainless steel bracelet with a wet suit extension capability and a two release button mechanism that won’t open the clasp unless both buttons are depressed simultaneously. The bracelet is solidly constructed and is beautifully designed. Both the fold over extension and the wet suit extension fit nicely within the clasp without extending on to the bracelet links. I know of other bracelets that the fold over linkage extends into the bracelet links and leaves score marks on the links after a time.

I would say that the next best to the PO bracelet is the Breitling Professional II bracelet followed by the Rolex, but that’s just my opinion. The PO range also have rubber and leather straps available, but I don’t think they look as nice as the SS bracelet. I suppose that one could always buy a PO of their choice with the SS bracelet and order the strap later. This would be a lot cheaper than doing it the other way round I would think. The only possible gripe I might have with the SS bracelet on the PO is the lack of finite adjustment inside the clasp. Omega have not chosen this option and have half size links that can be removed for resizing smaller. I believe that Omega have done this by design and not accident to minimize the use of spring-bars in their bracelet and by doing so reduce the chances of the bracelet separating without warning. I had this happen to me on another watch with a bracelet while I was parking my car. The bracelet on my PO has really strong sleeve pins connecting the links and the clasp. These have to be removed by a special tool. The only springbars are the two attaching the bracelet to the lugs of the watch. Even these are a real job to remove unless one has the right tool and the technique as they are very strong springs! I tried to remove the bracelet from the lugs with a cheap spring-bar remover tool and ended up bending the tool!

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VS

CASE & CRYSTAL

As you can see from the case dimensions, both watches are fairly similar in size. Compared to the 45.5mm PO, I think the 42mm version makes for more of an “apples to apples” comparison with the SD.

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For me, a dive watch needs to be able to swim, body surf, snorkel, golf, camp, get sweated on, do yard work, and etc. It will be worn in both salt and fresh water… as often as possible. It will also go to work with me every day and it will sometimes give power point presentations to my CEO. It will wear jackets and ties as well as jeans, t-shirts, and sandals. I fully expect this watch to get scratches and dings and to do some serious damage to all of the door-jams in my life. I am PADI certified, but I haven’t been scuba diving in 10 years. I might pick it back up again at some point in the future. However, I certainly don’t foresee a situation where I’ll test the 1000M depth rating of this watch or use the HEV. If I do, something probably went horribly wrong and I’ll have more on my mind than how cool my dive watch is. I do snorkel a couple of times a year. OK, now that you now a bit about me and my preferences, onto the watch.

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There is no denying that Rolex has a certain mystique that goes with its name, and until you own one it is hard to comprehend what it is. So I took the plunge, after reading tons of reviews and literature like this one that I am writing now, on most of the Rolex Professional Collection, such as the Submariner Date, the Explorer 2, the GMT Master 2, the Yacht Master 1and of course, the Sea-dweller. I finally settled for the legendary Sea-dweller (Oyster Perpetual Date, reference 16600, recommended retail price USD$5,350 at the time of this article, August 2007). I took into consideration factors such as the respect this watch commands among the dive watch fraternity, its incredible technical specifications and capability, the classic timeless cosmetic appeal, and also, the rich illustrious history behind it. It sure took me some time to come to this decision, but I have not regretted a single bit. I cannot begin to describe just how excited I felt when I first saw my Z-series Sea-dweller. There it was, sitting in the new design, large and heavy Rolex box. To side-track a little, in my opinion, this new design box that was introduced somewhere in the early 2005 is a huge improvement over the scrawny looking old wooden box that Rolex had been using for the past 20 to 30 years. I feel any Rolex watch sits much safer and look more secured in this huge solid box with a nice soft padded cream interior, compared to the old one. I am not sure what material it is made of, but it feels too heavy to be wood. Could be hardened plastic, I guess.

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Introduction

I like dive watches and in the very affordable department, besides a few Seikos, I recently acquired an Aristo diver. I thought it would be fun to do a side by side comparison of 2 surprisingly similar executions of the same marketing brief. Both these watches are rated at 200 mtrs, have unidirectional bezels with countdown markings and easily legible dials and hands. both lack a dive-suit extension on the bracelet. But of course, after market rubber is available everywhere so in theory you should be able to go scuba diving with either of these watches. But that is sort of like taking your Lexus SUV into the jungle. Most people don’t, but do enjoy driving it through a muddy patch on the driveway. Dive watches are like that, you’re fine in the pool, on the beach and in the shower and… you can clean your watch with shower gel and a sponge!

Comparisons like this are undeniably subjective, but I will seriously try to be fair and allocate plusses or minusses for the key attributes in each part of this review.

Contestants:

Seiko SKX009 Steel 200 Mtr Divewatch with unidirectional bezel and steel president bracelet

Aristo 4h13 Steel 200 Mtr Divewatch with unidirectional bezel and steel oyster bracelet

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The LM-3 is the third watch released by the Ocean7 Watch Company. For those unfamiliar with this new player in the watch world, Ocean7 was founded last year with the goal of designing and building world-class watches with the assistance and advice from enthusiasts worldwide. According to their website, their “mission is to provide innovative products in niche markets with the highest quality manufactured watches at prices that can be achieved only by selling direct to consumers over the Internet.” Their first watch was the LM-1 Limited Edition. Made in an edition size of 150, the LM-1 quickly found a strong following with it’s over the top styling and impressive build quality. Sadly the LM-1 L.E. has now sold out and will not be available in the future. Ocean7 offers two different lines, within it’s brand, to it’s customers. The first are watches in the LM series. The LM watches are always Swiss Made featuring custom designs. While the entry level line is the G series which offers lower priced models that still meet a high level of quality but may not be exclusive to the Ocean7 line up or Swiss made. The price of the LM-3 starts at $699.

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With Omega’s full line of watches, there are quite a few to choose from. I contemplated on getting another SMP but later decided I wanted to have something different. I finally zeroed-in on the Seamaster Aqua Terra, with its classic simple understated design, somewhat similar to the Rolex DateJust line. Of course, compared to the Rolex, Omegas are much more reasonably priced and can be debated as offering better value. The Aqua Terra also boasts of its CoAxial Escapement movement which Omega touts to be a more accurate movement because of its unique low friction design. By the way, similar to most of their other models, Aqua Terras are also offered with a quartz movement.

After researching the AT line quite extensively, the Railmaster Model (which is part of the Seamaster AT line) looked most appealing to me because of the even more simple no-nonsense “minimalist” design. Information I gathered says that the original Railmaster was actually the inspiration of the whole Aqua Terra line. The clean balanced look of the Railmaster with no date window looks like a larger version of the Rolex Explorer 1. Also in some respects, it is quite similar to my other relatively “simple” watch, the Rolex No-Date Submariner (another watch based on a 1950s classic design).

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