Chad the Watch Guy explains to laymen like me what the water “resistance” on your watch actually means.

200 meters or greater is a dive watch, a strong water resistant watch, wear it in the ocean, wear it to dive etc. 100 meters is a swim watch, pool, minor water related activities. 30 meters is a repair watch, wear it in the water and get it repaired. Most watches fall into one of these three brackets, choose the type that best suits your activities.

The Leak Mystic (mistake) [Chad the Watch Guy]

Jason here. I’ll be helping out the Wrist Watch Review with some posts in the upcoming weeks/months. I’m not nearly as big a watch whore as John, since, like they say about real whores, you gotta get’m while they’re young.

So I’ll start my now-sure-to-be-short tenure here with the topic of “Swiss Made” watches. What does it take to get a label of “Swiss” or have “Swiss Movement”? Apparently, not a whole lot.

What is interesting and an eye opener is how the requirement for the watch movement and case needs only to reach 50% of total value and the watch is still deemed Swiss.

What does SWISS MADE mean? [WatchingHorology]

David McCready got into the watch business by accident. His father, a renowned engineer who built some of the first microwave systems, was an inveterate collector of arcane electronics. One day, when McCready was a boy, the son of a jeweler accidentally rang the wrong doorbell. McCready answered and the man peeked in and was amazed at the equipment that filled the McCready’s house. The jeweler’s son followed in McCready’s father’s footsteps and became and expert in electronics. McCready followed in the jeweler’s footsteps — at the age of 13 McCready took up the loupe and watch knife. The rest, as they say, is history.

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This, the end of our Poor Man’s GMT round-up, is fraught with horror. The Aeromatic 1912 GMT is a quartz watch. It’s nice, it has a big face, but the ticking hand makes me slightly nauseous. Can I put off my horror long enough to write about it? Sure.
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Like a good torch song sung by an unknown pro, the Davosa Pares Chronograph reminds you that a good thing done well can make you feel warm and tingly even if it’s not a genuine Billie Holiday opus.
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Good news for manufacturers of pocket watch movements – the big watch craze is still alive and kicking, as evidenced by the Davosa Outback Automatic. Running a 2824-2 ETA movement with Glucydur balance and Incabloc schock absorber, this 48mm beast seems big enough to replace a hubcap on a Hummer.
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The Outback, sold in the US by David McCready of d.freemont watches, has a standard date at 3 o’clock, large non-illuminated numerals at 6, 9, and 12 and brightly lumed hands. Initial impressions are good and upon close inspection this sapphire be-crystaled diver stands up to scrutiny.

This watch is rated to 100M, a claim we wouldn’t suggest testing with the standard black leather band. Clearly Davosa is trying to keep costs, and price, down on these pieces, so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. However, a metal band or nylon band option would be nice, which I’m sure Mr. McCready could supply in a pinch. One nice, if odd feature – a screw down bezel lock. Upon taking this thing out of the box, I figured the roughly knurled knob at 9 o’clock was designed to all for helium escape or some such nonsense. After turning the bezel a bit, I discovered it was a bit tight. Finally, I realized that the knob acted as a bezel parking break and I was essentially burning out the pads thanks to my effusive turning. Mea culpa.

The movement is nothing spectacular, although the second hand, the tip dipped in blaze orange paint, moves smoothly and the watch lost only 5-10 seconds per day. The styling is extremely sparse, with Davosa’s starburst logo below the twelve and AUTOMATIC at 6 o’clock. The watch, which is assembled in Switzerland, is sourced from a number of places, including Germany, but the high gloss inner seconds ring and attractive hour pips points to a careful hand and a unique stylist.

The Outback is no beater. It is large, it is clunky, and it is heavy. The crowns are carefully protected by two sloped case lugs and the unsigned band is attractive in an Indiana Jones sort of way.

One slight issue with the minute hand lume appeared after careful examination. There was a slight unevenness to the lume, leading to a marbled effect in the middle of the second hand. Was this a limited error? No telling. However, that was the only point of contention.

This watch, made for mens’ men, or ladies’ ladies, for that matter, who don’t want to rock a Panerai. For a starter piece to a big and tall collection, this 14mm thick monster with the almost 50mm width is a great choice.

Quality: 3/5
Style: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

— John

We’ve thus far been pleased with the small selection of Davosa pieces we received here at the Watch Cave. Unfortunately, and, in a way, fortunately, the Davosa 160.394.56 aka the Mecanique, was the weakest piece of the bunch, which says a lot about Davosa as a whole.
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In a recent publication, it was said of a particular brand of watches known for its aviation and extreme sport timepieces “if you can die doing it, this company makes a watch for it.” That statement, and company, is a topic of conversation for another story. But to riff on that line a bit, if you can kill someone doing it, then Chase-Durer makes a watch for it. The fine folks at Chase-Durer will probably cringe at such a crass statement, but looking at their inventory, one thing cannot be denied: these are serious pieces of equipment for people involved in serious missions. Jet fighter aces, Special Forces demolition experts, and bomber pilots are just some of the serious professionals who wear Chase-Durer timepieces.

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A hot little number from Nubeo.

Two fundamental elements of the timepiece create the essence of the black jellyfish. These elements are the bezel and the strap. In them, we have merged two materials of conflicting natures as if they were one.
The body of the bezel is made of stainless steel that in a second process is covered with rubber. In the upper part of the bezel are inlaid the twelve numbers of the hours. These numbers are large and their top part respects the spherical shape of the bezel, being slightly lower in order to protect them from bumps and scratches. For the elaboration of this piece it was necessary to develop a new technology in the process of rubber injection that up to now had not been possible in the manufacturing of bezels of this type.

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Hello, All.

We’ll we’re back online after a MASSIVE server failure. We’ve lost quite a bit of our content, but we’re aiming to be up and running after the holiday.

When a man and a watchmaker love each other very much, they get together and make beautiful watches. That’s exactly what happened in the Netherlands. Willem Kamerman and Till Lottermann wanted to create a system for creating and selling excellent, high-end dress watches on-line. Thus, Blancier was born.
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The Nooka Zoo is like the Nooka Zot’s sensible older brother. Sure, this watch likes to rebel, but it stays within the bounds of reason and propriety and offers a perfect role-model for other small-run, classic watches to strive towards emulating.
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The biggest piece of vaporware since Windows Longhorn has finally hit the street: the Fossil Wrist PDA. Yes, it’s here, dropping mad science on all you geeks out there.

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Rarely does something come along that forces you to rethink old ways of doing things. Think about it… what piece of design or engineering, in the past, say, ten years, has really caused you to reconsider the ruling paradigm?

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