[ringoism]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Managed to snag an Invicta Pro Diver with an automatic Seiko NH35 movement from Amazon for Rs.4k which I think is a great deal to get me started in the world of automatics. It's this one:

But now I am thinking of cancelling this as I am not sure about the spares availability and service here in India. Is it a good idea to buy this in India?

What decent, Japanese-machined automatic watch are you going to buy for 4,000???!!! Don't cancel!

India is a good place to be as far as it concerns watch repairing - in the major metros and even in some smaller towns you can find mechanics who still know how to service mechanical watches for comparatively little money. The NH35 is a great machine, I think derived from and sharing some parts with older Seiko automatics, but with hacking/handwinding... Invicta makes some decent stuff at a very attractive price point. I've got the same watch, I wouldn't hesitate at all.

Also have a Seiko SRP318 Coutura with similar machine that I bought as a defect - new but in non-working condition... an old Muslim mechanic down in Chandni Chowk got it up and going for me for around rs350.

-Eric

As for other Invicta's, I bought this awhile ago second-hand and only now have started to appreciate it for what it is:

Sapphire (a.k.a. "Flame Fusion") crystal, Swiss (quartz) machine, screw-on back, 100M rating, crown guard, very legible figures, "Tritnite" lume (which maybe sounds better than it actually is), a hefty case and quality leather strap.

Absolute minimalism in terms of design/function (no date even) but all the basic elements of a great watch are there. This is something you could wear and beat on daily for years and it would probably stand the test of time, so to speak.

-Eric

Originally Posted by ringoism

I think derived from and sharing some parts with older Seiko automatics, but with hacking/handwinding...

More correctly, it is a Seiko-made machine but that part number sold to non-Seiko OEM's to power their respective watches. Great movement.

-Eric

[Tapish]

So the straps arrived from Aliexpress in about 45 days. The strap looks good and sturdy. That said, it does have a plasticky feel to it which I hope will go away with time. Amazon US has a 4* rating on the EACHE brand.

I have had a look at Hirsch in US and may order one of those later this year.

Originally Posted by Tapish

Hi everyone,

I changed the leather strap sometime last year since it had worn out and got a steel bracelet. I now wish to get a good leather strap again. Was looking at this nice brown one from Aliexpress for about 12$ https://www.aliexpress.com/item/EACH...1-c6d8aacaa657

Any other suggestions?

Tapish

[isldhn]

Originally Posted by penpavan

Its a beautiful one. Can you tell me model name/number?

Hey thanks buddy. Glad you liked it. Its the Formula 1, model number- CAZ1010.BA0842.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Tapish

So the straps arrived from Aliexpress in about 45 days. The strap looks good and sturdy. That said, it does have a plasticky feel to it which I hope will go away with time. Amazon US has a 4* rating on the EACHE brand.

Your Alpinist looks good on the leather strap. The stock strap is so bad that I suppose all owners are compelled to change it to a better alternative.

I have also picked up 2 Eache straps, and found them to be pretty decent for the price. However, have not installed them on any of my watches yet. My Alpinist is currently on the Strapcode Oyster bracelet. Gives it a nice sporty look and feel.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by JVH

The shop I normally go to is located on Kamaraj road. Praveen Watch Shop is the name. From M.G. road towards Commercial street, don't take left towards the commercial street. Go straight from the street entrance and about 60-70 meters ahead, you will find it on the right side. Its not exactly on the main road but slightly inside but you won't miss it from the main road. Ask for Shaikh Mohammed. He is pretty honest and reliable guy. Good in his job too. I don't mind leaving my expensive pieces with him.

Finally visited this guy to get my watch's backlight fixed and the battery replaced. Quick and efficient service! No mucking around, was straightforward and sorted.

Thanks man!

[mav2000]

Love the alpinist. Also will order a few of those watch bands for myself as well. Got one from Barton bands today, but am unable to change out the existing steel bracelet myself. Will visit the showroom on Monday and get it done.

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

I am not aware of any Indian brands which manufacture and sell respectable watch straps - at least, matching the quality that you get from entry level brands like Barton in the USA.

Of course, there are several local brands that do make watch straps, but to my knowledge, they are mostly cheap ones with poor quality.

Apart from looks, a good strap is an insurance policy - cheap straps / spring pins must've been the cause of a lot of good watches getting lost.

I've been buying straps for years from Chandni Chowk (Delhi) watch market... dozens of wholesalers there, most, in my experience, willing to humor the odd fellow who only wants a few straps.

Quality-wise most of them have been bad, but then again, most of them cost Rs10-20... with predictable lifespans.

To an extent, "you get what you pay for" but that said, a lot of the branded stuff is just WAY more expensive than it should be considering the raw materials. There are guys out there handcrafting custom straps for $200+ each, which I guess makes some sense of you're wearing a $6,000 Panerai or something, but paying even $30 for one mass-produced in a Chinese sweatshop and sold to whichever "brand" at $1 wholesale... I dunno 'bout the efficacy of that.

As for me, this last time I finally came across what I think are some decent ones in CC:






No branding, so just requires some legwork and a good eye. From what I can see:

Material is soft / supple and not excessive thin "veneers", clasps are heavy-gauge and appear thickly plated, the stitching, if you zoom in, is evenly spaced and seemingly of good material. So let's see how they hold up!

I've been buying the cheapies from this particular vendor for a long time - He had this lone box of good ones among dozens of the usual on his shelves. When (if?) the shop name comes to mind I'll post it here, right now my visiting cards are fifteen hundred km's away and my 50-year-old mass-storage unit isn't co-operating!

Bottom line: sometimes, you get what you pay for... these cost ten times the standard Indian straps and about a tenth of a Barton - i.e., rs125... I suspect they're closer in quality to the latter than the former, and am hoping they'll be good for a couple years' daily use anyway.

Might add that for sports watches, if you're talking about silicone, there may be less quality difference between cheap stuff and the OE's - Haven't used them heavily for long, but thus far the ones I got in CC seem to be very pliable, strong, and comfy, with decent clasps, for very little money.

Now if I could just find a good source of NATO's - one guy there, an export supplier, can do them in his factory - all kinds of materials available - but I need to order minimum 200 pieces... of any one color/style (maybe sells 'em to Barton!!!)!

-Eric

[ringoism]

I never liked G-Shocks, never “got it”: From what I'd seen, just big, ugly, chunky plastic watches that weren't actually as cheap to buy as they looked. I was more oriented to the classics, or modern renditions of military “field” watches, anything unique / funky in Japanese/Swiss, or lately, being in the hills, “ABC” trekking watches from Suunto/Casio/Highgear.


So how is it I end up with one of these in my “rotation” lately?




Well, what is it about boys and gleaming metal in whatever form...???

I was always into watches. As a kid I would save up some allowance money and go down to the local flea market to look for whichever old windup struck my fancy there, most commanding under $10 I suppose. My first job in high school was at a Hamilton factory outlet, this was in the very early years of some kind of relationship with Swatch, which far from being a global conglomerate, at the time were themselves producer only of very cheap, throwaway fashion watches of extremely poor materials and dubious aesthetic qualities. Hamilton was hooked up with Bulova at the time as I recall, but almost nothing mechanical was left by then; so I sold everything from the hideous $30 Swatches to seven-foot-tall grandfather clocks. As for my personal timepiece, eventually I graduated (quite literally, as mine was a high school graduation gift) from second-hand castoffs to a very handsome, slim, rectangular, glittery-white-dialed Hamilton quartz.

The Hamilton sadly met its demise in the washing machine within a couple years, where it astonishingly, completely fell apart – I could hardly believe it. I suppose this is the time when my first Casio – a new model at that time – came in - a Casio F91W.



This one was not going to be destroyed by anything as mild as a wash cycle; I used and abused it for several years. I find it astonishing that a watch that good can still be had brand-new all over the planet for something like $10 U.S. - probably about the same as it cost in 1991 - it must be just about the longest-running and best deal in timekeeping ever. At some point mine was put away in a drawer, having got all scratched up and perhaps with a broken band (weak points perhaps, but for $10 you can't have the world), and was basically forgotten, though I vaguely remember years later finding it again, still working though I'd never changed the battery. God only knows where it is now...


Getting to G's, I still don't see why they need to be quite as bulky as they are, still figure practically speaking that despite being advantageously toughened they probably (disadvantageously) get whacked on doorframes and other solid objects about three times as often as a slimmer watch would. Still realize that any decent stainless-steel watch of half the thickness, with a Sapphire glass and screw-down crown will probably hold up just about as well in any rough use you could throw at it. Still hate the expensive, often uncomfortable proprietary straps Casio insists on using. Still don't see why anyone in their right mind would pay several times the usual price for a particular G just because it came in some limited-production color (as if it costs Casio a bunch to load the injection-molding equipment with some blue beads for a day instead of green or black ones). Some of it is all just kinda stupid hype to me still...


But people just seem to like them a lot, they're highly represented in the police and military, so I selectively picked up a few G's finally, thinking I might re-sell them after trying them awhile. The GA series is one of the most popular, so I started with a GA-110.



Okay, I'll get this out of the way first: Though it looks good, I hate it. Backlight (sexy, I guess, in red?) utterly useless for the hands, and non-existant for the LCD... What the heck??? No solar, so the battery goes down after a year or two, and it's always a risk re: waterproofing when removing and replacing the back. The auto-backlight feature can only be temporarily switched on for this reason, it reverts to manual – which hardly matters as it is only useful for those wanting to look at a red light, caring nothing for what time it is. In daylight, the watch looks good, but I'll be happy to be rid of it – these flaws are just unforgivable in a $100+ watch. It can only be selling on looks alone; I'm just not willing to pay for that, and I get irritated just thinking about it, everytime I think of putting it on again. Very bad call on Casio's part, especially as they had good backlighting on much cheaper watches thirty years ago.


After this, I picked up a very basic, classic (all plastic)-design DW9052 (U.S. Military issue) with Nylon strap, a GAS-100, a G-9300 Mudman (Japanese model with blackout display), and the GR8900. What these last three have in common is that they've got a stainless steel ring for the inner bezel vs. the aluminum or plastic of many/most other G's. I feel that SS may get nicked but not really dented the way “G” plastic sometimes does. They also are all Solar-powered, which I think is helpful if using the backlight a lot (all three of these also have the full-auto backlight feature) and/or in the case of Analog machines, which seem to use up batteries faster than full digitals.

Really liked the Mudman:



It's not too huge, the compass/moonphase/temp are sometimes useful... but I sold it off. For one thing, I did miss having the altitude function, for another, Casio's blackout displays are not very legible compared to Suunto's (my Suunto Observer is just so bright and distinct). Also, in truth, didn't find it all that comfortable on the wrist. Lastly, what I had was a rare piece with some enthusiast value and I didn't see the point in messing it up wearing it in my workshop, etc. Sold it to an old man... who seems to love it!


Also sold off the GAS-100 after wearing it a few times:



I think it's a great-looking watch, and it's got a strong and attractive auto-backlight. I might get another someday, but first of all it IS a little bulky, and secondly, the issue I have with most Analog-Digital displays is that the hands several times an hour restrict the digital “subdials” as they rotate around, always annoying when you want to check the date, worldtime or whatever and can't for as long as several minutes till the hands (especially the hour) get out of the way. Casio made some “duplex” superimposed double-LCD dispalys way back in the 1980's and they were a brilliant solution to this problem, though they are a little limiting in terms of dial design.


The DW9052:



A bit of an ugly duckling IMO, but consistently one of the best-selling G-shocks, they say. Absolutely bare-bones: No solar, no auto-backlight, a kind of scrunched-up look with smallish displays... but it's as tough as any other, more modestly sized (though still thick), and has field-proven creds, sometimes being issued by the U.S. Army itself. Battery probably would hold out as long as my F91's, while the nylon strap makes it look 100% better and is very comfortable. And the thing is lightweight and cheap; you can find them in like-new condition for $20 on Ebay U.S..


So lastly, the one I might keep for the long-run: the GR-8900.



All 8900's are not created equal, and while the standard ones come in a lot of interesting colors, etc, only the GR/GRX(?) (which adds a tidegraph/moonphase), are solar-powered, which I feel is quite important in a zero-maintenance, 100% reliable, year-by-year-strap-it-on-and-forget-it watch. Pretty much relegated to black/white, full blackout, or this black/stainless, which to its benefit works as an accessory to whatever color dress you may want to wear it with.


Everything on the display is always fully readable, the solar and auto-backlight are there, it's got the tough stainless bezel... I think the thing looks a little “robotic” and interesting... so neither overly conservative nor wild. You can pick them up in like-new condition for only a little more than the 9052, so basically it just ticks all the boxes. Yeah, I'm finding this on my wrist a lot lately... and probably am not going to want to let go of it unless I've got another on the way.

So in the end, just a good, basic, very functional watch that should go the distance... as with the .38 Special Smith&Wesson revolver issued to police for generations, it's just a simple, no frills, solid tool that will do the job - if not very glamorously, then reliably and not without a degree of aesthetic balance and proportion. I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder... but I have a temptation to call it "iconic".

-Eric

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by ringoism

I never liked G-Shocks, never “got it”:

Nice collection of G Shocks there! I have historically been in the same boat, where I was always skeptical of G Shocks purely because of their huge size and disproportionate looks for an average Indian wrist (I still continue t find most of their models gigantic and unsuitable for myself). Till I came across the ubiquitous square G, i.e. the G Shock 5600, and its myriad variants, which are but perfect for the smaller wrist. It also happens to be among the cheapest in the G Shock range, currently retailing on Amazon etc for around INR 3.5 K or thereabouts.

This model has been a revelation for the two years that I have owned it, and has quickly become my most worn watch, be it for my workouts or around the house or at any other time when I don't feel like giving my mechanical watches a twirl. Once I started using the 5600, I quickly realised why the G Shock line has such a cult following. It is truly a "go anywhere do anything" kind of watch, in the most literal sense. And after beating it around for 2 years, it does not even have a scratch, save for some discolouration on the strap due to constant contact with the wrist.

The other model that I have always drooled over but haven't got around to pulling the trigger on has been the last generation Rangeman (the cheapest A-B-C watch in the G Shock line). Again, a trifle too big for my wrist, but a stunning watch nonetheless!

[Jeroen]

Nice write up on the Shocks. I have often looked at them. Every time I see an add for them, I think they look quite good and interesting. But when I find myself in a shop holding them and trying them the magic seems to disappear.

Jeroen

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Once I started using the 5600, I quickly realised why the G Shock line has such a cult following. It is truly a "go anywhere do anything" kind of watch, in the most literal sense.

The other model that I have always drooled over but haven't got around to pulling the trigger on has been the last generation Rangeman (the cheapest A-B-C watch in the G Shock line). Again, a trifle too big for my wrist, but a stunning watch nonetheless!

I'll probably try and pick up a 5600 solar variant at some point, probably red or white to brighten things up a bit.

The Rangeman IS big; the first one I saw in person (green with negative display) was on the wrist of a thin-wristed Himachali photographer up at Mardi (Rohtang road). He'd picked it up in Mumbai - in new condition with bullbars - for rs7,000, which is an absolute steal. At the time I thought it looked enormous on him, but I'm getting used to big watches by now and am hoping to find a good deal on one myself. Just missed a near-new green/black one on Watchuseek.com (US) - went for around rs8,300 equivalent. They seem to run 13,500-14-500 new in India, which is actually a very reasonable price by U.S. standards.

Riseman G-9200 is a good bit smaller and has altitude/barometer; Lacks the compass but a conventional mini-compass can be mounted on the strap easily enough. Problem being that they have collector value and cost nearly as much as the Rangeman in good shape.

-Eric

[Viraat13]

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

Once I started using the 5600, I quickly realised why the G Shock line has such a cult following. It is truly a "go anywhere do anything" kind of watch, in the most literal sense.

I totally agree. I bought mine after I read this article on Gear Patrol - https://gearpatrol.com/2018/06/13/g-...-5600e-review/

This watch has made me realise that a watch doesn't have to be expensive to have character!

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Viraat13

This watch has made me realise that a watch doesn't have to be expensive to have character!

Indeed not, and the 5600 is a great example of that. Love the classic square design and the wrist comfort that it provides.

Originally Posted by ringoism

Riseman G-9200 is a good bit smaller and has altitude/barometer; Lacks the compass but a conventional mini-compass can be mounted on the strap easily enough. Problem being that they have collector value and cost nearly as much as the Rangeman in good shape.

-Eric

Liked the Riseman as well, but I think that one is out of production? Hence, the higher prices in the used market I suppose. The thing with G Shocks is that even the bigger ones tend to melt on the wrist given their resin construction and consequent light weight. Before you know it, it becomes a second skin!

[SJM1214]

Originally Posted by SJM1214

I am a big G-Shock fan.

Originally Posted by SJM1214

One more G-shock(G750) gifted by my wife.

G shock GG-1000-1A3DR Mudmaster was attracting me from a very long time. Somehow, I was not able to convince myself to buy a fifth G shock watch for my self. HDFC's cashback points & Flipkart's amazing offer came to my rescue. I ended up buying this beauty.

[rrsteer]

I have a Suunto Ambit Peak 3, which was purchased in 2017 but hardly ever worn. I was always attracted more towards Garmin Fenix 3, but given the Fenix range retails for such an obnoxious amount, I bought the Suunto. As luck would have it, a month after I bought the Suunto, during Christmas sale Fenix 3 was available for almost 25% of the asking price in India on Amazon.com. A colleague happily purchased one for me and ever since the Suunto is lying unused.

My question are there used watch dealers in India? If yes, who are they?