$589.99 for a watch you shouldn't even wear in the rain (10m water resistance) and comes with an acrylic crystal? You want how much? This is a wee bit crazy, even if the movement is in-house.
My wallet will remain closed - not just for the reasons stated alone. In my mind, a 24hr sweeping movement should display the "24" at the bottom of the dial, not at the top. This way, the hands move up as the sun rises, climb to the top at high-noon, and retreat down again as the sun sets. To me, this is the right implementation of a 24 timepiece. I'll look elsewhere to brands that implement this feature.
GhostwriterIt's not an in-house movement, it's just an ETA2893 with a Glycine stamped rotor, which somehow gives the brand the right to pretend it's an in-house.
Also I don't get the drill of the GMT models, the hours hand makes a revolution in 12 hours, but the dial is marked on 24hours. Wtf??
marker2037Correction, there are small 12 hours indexes, which are lost in the middle of the 24 arabic numerals which are, in the case of the GMT models, totally useless as the bezel already has 24h markers on it to be used with the GMT hand.
Thrift_First_Retail_LastSame reply as to marker2037: there's a 24h bezel for the GMT hand, making the 24h numerals on the indexes useless, as to be used properly with the GMT hand one needs to set the bezel according to the time difference. So basically it'll be very unlikely one is ever able to use the 24h numerals on the dial, be it to read the actual time or the GMT one. It just clutters the dial and makes confusion in time reading for 0 practical reason. In my opinion, only the Purist version makes sense with such a dial. But that's just me I guess.
AleskbWrong. The bezel on the GMT model is used for the GMT hand as a THIRD timezone. So you have your 12 hour markers for the hour and minute hands, the inner 24 hour markers for the GMT hand, and the bezel 24 hour markers for the alternate time zone for the GMT hand. You track the third time zone by rotating the bezel to where you're traveling to.
AleskbI wouldn't believe it's an ETA of any sort without cracking the case for a look. My Combat Sub was advertised on Massdrop as an ETA 2824 powered unit. When it completely died after a year's use, investigation by my watchmaker revealed a Sellita SW200. Cause of the failure? Occasional light hand-winding.. which some Sellita's just don't like.
GhostwriterSome of the high end watches that go for $200000 do not have much more water resistance so water resistance does not come into play concerning the quality of a watch
hoffman> water resistance does not come into play concerning the quality of a watch
Indeed, but it does come into play for overall flexibility of wear. My quality issues were more around what I've read lately about watches arriving with manufacturing defects, etc.
Cheers!
DrVegtaI can’t speak to your particular Sellita units. In my case, the hand winding mechanism was not properly manufactured, causing a premature failure of the movement. This happens sometimes- a web search will reveal that my circumstance, while not common, happens too often. The biggest issue I had with the whole ordeal was the fact that the watch was advertised as having an ETA movement, but inside was a Sellita 200. I realize the Sellita is not horrible, but it’s not really the equivalent of the ETA 2824.
Danlib1Can't speak for the newer models, but when I bought my DC-4 Purist about 18 months ago, it did come with an ETA2893. I'm pretty sure as it had the too regular hands misalignment issue seen on the 2893s. Overall I wasn't impressed with the built quality of the watch, found the 24h dial gimmicky and hard to read once the initial fun was gone (the hands misalignment didn't help), and I sold it. My review is here: https://smalltoysforgrownmen.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/glycine-airman-dc-4-gl0071-review/
GhostwriterI agree with the placement of 24 at the bottom of the dial. Glycine did so for a bit on i believe a hard to find Airman. Now they are all upside down.
APLJaKThanks for your thoughts on placement of the 24/zero hr marker.
When Thrift_First_Retail_Last said...
> Listen to this guy who thinks a 24 timer should have 12 at the top LOL!
...I didn't want to get into a non-constructive debate even though his/her/it's/zee comment seemed to be a personal dig at what was my preference. I would love to own a 24hr watch one day where the hands rise and fall with the rising and setting of the sun. I didn't feel that was worthy of a LOL! response. Oh well.
GhostwriterSeems like common sense to me. What do I know, I deal with precision measuring equipment day in and day out. I have my preferences and yes I think I'm right! :-)
Ghostwriter"12" at top, yes. And, in addition, the date window should be at the "24" position, so that that number is not printed (on dials with printed numbers for hours), but substituted by the opening.
Two reasons for that:
- the date would be at the position where the date change occurs
- the number "24" is omitted, because in the 24-hrs-system, the position can either mean 24 or zero.
Obviously, this would mean the use of a different date disk, but those exist (at least for other ETA-based movements).
Having said that, "The Chief" is a real fine watch, and I ordered. :-)
GhostwriterYou are right about the 24 hour sweep in principle, in that the natural sun cycle SHOULD have noon on top. Do keep in mind though, that this is an aviator DUAL time watch. I’m a long-haul pilot, and use the 24-hour sweep hand for GMT or Zulu time, the regular 12-hour Hand for home-time (calling wifie-time) and the outside bezel for local time at the port I’m slipping in. It works rather well, particularly seeing that my local Timezone is Australian Eastern time, which is GMT+ 10, (11 during Daylight savings) so when the 24-hour Hand is near the top, it is near noon when I’m home anyways;-)