Comments on: Looking for a Deal?

By: J.Peter

J.Peter — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:06:55 +0000

Well it looks like most of us feel the low-end Japanese models are better than the Russian models – and they are decent watches. For under $100 that’s a deal if you don’t want to pass it along to the next generation.

By: desben

desben — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:03:31 +0000

I vote for Seiko 5 as well. A lot of choices for under $50 on ebay from Singapore. They’re nice looking, tough, and reasonably accurate. I’ve had mine for 4 years now and it runs great (15 seconds fast a month if I leave it crown down at night and keep the power reserve fairly full).

By: nwillc

nwillc — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:00:51 +0000

I’ve a number of Vostok and Molnija automatics in the under $100USD range all purchased new. They are not partucularly acurate, +- a minute a day even, but they’ve not failed me after years of use. I don’t care much about acuracy myself… my mobile can cover that.

By: Marco

Marco — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:39:56 +0000

For those who do not know: Hamilton cases are made in China (ETA factory in Shenzhen). They’re good-looking, though.

By: Scott Cerullo

Scott Cerullo — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:51:30 +0000

MattR,
I bought my teenage son a really nice Invicta auto for his birthday. He loves it and he gets a lot of comments on it. It has some positional error and although I bought it new, I think the escapement, might be a little dirty from what I see on my timing machine, but overall for the money, it is OK. It has the Miyota movment in it. Be aware that I get a lot of these almost new Invictas in for service with the Jaapanese and Swiss movements. I just got one in today that was stopped. Basically brand new, with a dry and dirty movment. A regular service put them right, and they should hold up fine. BTW, I have seen brand new $1000 Swiss watches that have errors over 10 seconds. Unless it is a chronometer, that is not uncommon. If you are a serious watch person, you are better off with the affordability and quality of vintage. If you like the looks then Invictas are fine.

By: MattR

MattR — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:33:20 +0000

Does anyone have feedback on Invicta models with the Swiss Sellita or Japanese Miyota movements? These seem to be affordable, but I don’t know how they last.

By: J.Peter

J.Peter — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:30:56 +0000

Wenger Swiss Military watches are a pretty good step below Victorinox. Their cases and bracelets and made of cheaper materials. I haven’t seen any of their mechanical models but their quartz models have a cheap feel to them.

By: youngj

youngj — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:48:23 +0000

Any thoughts on Wengers?

By: wolf

wolf — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:41:54 +0000

I had a Seiko 5 I bought used in a pawnshop in ’73. I wore it for thirty years, never serviced it, it never failed to run, and I sold it for the same $25 I paid for it. It always kept quite good time, too.

By: Nick Diieso

Nick Diieso — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:20:27 +0000

I’ve had good fortune with the Seiko movements in my beater watches… My watchmaker has timed these to +- 10 seconds per day and some are even closer to COSC.