This is an oversized remake in the style of military watches
Glycine used to make.
I liked the looks, the size, the legibility and that it concentrates on only telling the time. In addition it felt surprisingly comfortable for its size and it being somewhat oldfashioned was also an attraction.
It's a manual wind watch with a small second hand at the 9 position.
Very good indeed. The size helps, but the design itself is good too.
Legibility-wise, this is as good as it gets with large clear hands and numerals. The flat crystal is ideal for avioding reflections in sunlight and indoors. In darkness as well as dusk and dawn the luminousity is excellent. Tritium to ensure it never goes dark even after a long night and some light charged substance mixed in to give brighter light after you've come in from daylight to a darker place.
I don't have large wrists and have to use the innermost hole on the supplied strap, but in spite of this the watch does not feel too large to be comfortable. The wide strap in itself, together with the relatively modest mass makes for a good combination.
That said, I do wear it on my right wrist and the crown probably would dig into the hand on many who wear their watches on the left wrist.
The lugs sometimes hit things like table surfaces, but I don't see that as much of a problem. Somewhat surprisingly there hasn't been any problems for me in getting sleeves over the watch, but I guess that depends on the style of clothing.
This isn't the most rate stable mechanical watch I have, but the errors average out to make it very good indeed over a week or a longer period with an average of around -1 s/day .
This isn't to say it varies a lot from day to day, because it doesn't. It's practically always between -4s/day and +3 s/day .
The major factor doesn't seem to be attitude or my activities, it's clearly how often it's wound. If you use the 46 h power reserve and forget to wind it one evening, it'll be about 15 s slow the next morning and conversely if you wind it twice in a 24 h period it'll gain close to 10 s. So regular winding is essential if you want good accuracy. Which I think is as it should be, as one wouldn't want a manual wind watch unless one wanted to "take care" of it.
I very much like the overall design, both the shape of the case and the dial and hands.
The only text on the dial is the maker's name, the model name and in tiny print "Swiss made". Not cluttering the dial is good!
In short: There is no manual. But I like it that way, as it makes me feel like the maker assume I know what a watch is and how to treat it.
Well, that's not quite true, as the water depth rating is engraved on the back, so one could say that the manual is sort of built in.
The box is wooden, attractive, functional and sturdy.
Diameter: 48 mm Lug width: 24 mm Crown diameter: 9 mm Thickness: 10.95 mm Mass: 0.095 kg including the water proofed leather strap Mineral glass crystal 100 m water resistance Movement: ETA/UNITAS 6497, 21600 bph This is the version 3788.99ATP-LB9 with a glass back
This was a good buy for me. I've used the watch about as much as I thought I would, it's worked just fine and I like to use it.
I have my doubts about the usefulness of the glass back. There have been times when I literally (and I know what the word means) haven't seen the back and movement for a fortnight, even though I may have taken off the watch twice per day, so for me a plain steel back would probably have given better value. Probably I would have preferred to use the money that went to it on a sapphire crystal.
Document created 2001 Aug 16, last updated 2001 Oct 04 content reviewed 2003 Jan 08 by Urban