My quest for a dress watch

I have been wearing my faithfull USD9, regular, super low-end Casio watch for the past three years. It's entirely black and made of almost entirely plastic. The illumination is the old fashioned green light, activated by pressing a button on the side of the rubber casing. During these three years, I've been wearing this watch to most of western europe and China. It has been working remarkably well for a watch of such a low price. Earlier this year, I had to replace the strap because it is tearing. Other than this, there wasn't any servicing. The battery is getting low now. I can tell because the digits are slightly faint.



For the past month, I have been itching to get a dress watch. The vanity in me decided that I have been looking too frugal wearing the Casio to everywhere, even my office. There starts my exciting quest for a new dress watch...

At first, I my attention was drawn to the automatic models from Swatch. All of them uses the ETA 2842 movement. This is movement keeps time and performed good considering the price. Quite a number of models are skeleton watches. In my opinion, if 90 percent of the dial is skeleton, it is distracting and does not fulfil my expectation of being able to tell the time by a glance. There is however, a quite dressy and low profile model. It is the Noir De Noir in the Irony range. The model is YAS402. It is released in 1999, Swatch Spring Summer Collection. The dial is black. The original strap is black leather too. The watch looks a bit monotonous. The crystal is made of Hesalite (acrylic) like material. It has the same properties as a Hesalite in the sense that scratches can be polished out. The dial is black and the hour marks are straight bars. The hands are similar to the Omega Seamasters (sharp pointy). I like this hand design. The casing is made of steel and the diameter is 37mm. The price of this watch is about USD120. This watch does not attract me fatally but it does has certain qualities that I like. The see-through back with the "Swatch Irony" logo on the rotor is kind of cute too. However, the other watches that I look at later on pushed this watch to the fringe.


Swatch Irony Automatic


ETA 2842 movement


The crown is unsigned


Swatch signed buckle



The next dress watch that caught my eye was the Longines Conquest (model L1.611.4.75.2) [link]. It is a replica of an old model. The traditional, simple, nostalgic and effective design appeals to me. I know there are tons of watches like this on auction sites. I'm not going to consider those because I want something that works straight away. I don't have time to send a watch in for servicing and wait. I managed to talk to the sales person and actually held the watch in my hands. The built was pretty good. I asked the sales person what is the material of the crystal. He didn't know exactly what the material it is but he said it is not scratch resistant. Any scratches can be polished away, "just don't expect it to look like new afterwards", is what he said. Being a curious person, I went on to the Net and forums, and found out that the material is actually Hesalite. This material was popular in the 60s because it doesn't break into hundreds of pieces when after a heavy blow. Similar material was used in the first moon watch because it's very dangerous to have glass breaking into hundreds of tiny pieces in space. However, in normal day to day use, Hesalite is considered not ideal, especially on a watch with a recommended price of almost USD1000. Any scratches on a USD1000 watch will definitely upset the owner, no matter how historically correct the replica is.

I also did some researching on the movement of this watch. Longines call it "Longines L633". In actual fact, it is base on ETA 2824/2. A reliable but common movement used by many luxury brands, including Ball, Oris, Tag Heuer, Hamilton, Zeno, and so on. The ETA 2824/2 can be made into different finishes. The finishing will dictact the final price. I read that it can be sourced for as low as USD29 a piece in wholesale. So, what Longines did to this common base movement to warrant such a high premium in the price they charge? The most obvious is probably the Longines logo on the rotor. I was told that brand names that source movement from ETA may refinish, lube, or modify certain parts. This kind of extra work, if any, is not documented. What goes on in the transformation from ETA 2824/2 to Longines L633 to warrant such a price tag? It may very well be that the only work is to put a logo on the rotor and fit the movement into the watch. Who knows? It is therefore, base on blind faith that Longines, or any luxury brand that uses ETA and charge a high price, did something valuable to the base movement to warrant the premium.



The next watch to caught my eye is the Ball Fireman [link]. This watch is of military design. The dial is simple and effective. One selling point for a Ball watch is that it uses a special illumination material on the dial. It is called microgas and it is much brighter than the typical lume. Ball claims it to last for 25 years. The design of this watch is simple. The case is made of stainless steel. Available in 32mm, 40mm, 43mm diameter. It has an embossed train on the back. The crystal is sapphire (anti-reflective convex), scratch resistant, and almost as hard as diamond. It is water resistant to 100m. The specification also says it is shock resistant to 5000G and anti-magnetic to 4800A/m. I later found out that 4800A/m is actually a very low figure for anti-magnetism. I really have no complain at all about the built of this watch.

The movement is, again, the ETA 2824/2. Ball didn't assign its own number to this movement. Well, at least Ball is straight forward in this regard. The price is close to USD700. If you look at the built of the watch you will see that it is more heavily built than the Longines. At a lower price than Longines, it represents a better value. Of course, Logines is more dressy and the Ball is leaning slightly towards sport or active. This is a watch to be shortlisted.



I continued looking and the next watch to caught my attention was the Tag Heuer Carrera Automatic (model WV211A.FC6203) [link]. This watch, again, has clean and effective design. It has this simplicity elegance. With a leather strap it looks very pleasant indeed. As oppose to the previous two watches, this watch has a see-through Sapphire crystal back. This is very cute indeed. The crystal is made of Sapphire. The diameter is 39mm. The casing is polished steel and it is water resistant to 50 meter.

The movement is "TagHeuer Calibre 5". Upon further digging, the base movement is again ETA 2824/2. The price of this watch is almost USD1450. Again, I'm puzzled why this watch, which I think cost roughly the same to make as the Longines, is much more expensive. Upon further digging, I think it boils down to the brand name and the buyer is paying for celebrity endorsement and glossy magazine advertisements. I decided not to short list this watch. The only rational and logical reason for buying this is to satisfy one's ego.

And my quest continues...

I later on learned that Sandoz is a very value buy [link]. It uses, yes, you guess it, the ETA movement. A model with the ETA 2824/2 movement, Sapphire crystal, water resistant to 30 meter and steel bracelet costs about USD229. The only problem being I think the design is a bit old fashioned for me. This is very good value but I decided not to short list this watch because of asthetic reason.



The next watch that caugt my attention is very special indeed. It has a special place in my heart. It is the Stowa Antea [link]. Stowa is a German brand. It is only sold on the Internet. The design of this watch is very clean, simple, and effective. It is plain yet special. It has a see through back with elaborate carving on the rim. The casing is stainless steel 316L, polished, and the diameter is 39mm. There are various add on options too. For example, you can change the hands to blue, you can change some screws in the movement to blue, and you can even purchase a chronometer certified movement. Of course, these options will add on to the base price.

The movement of this watch, again, is the ETA 2824/2. Stowa has been forthright about this. There is no shame about this. ETA 2824/2 is a reliable movement. It's a more honorable thing to do than to pass the movement off as something else. It is also a more honorable thing to do than to build in-house but shoddy movements. The price of this watch is EUR299 (about USD380). This watch is added to my short list.



The search continues and the next watch to caught my attention is the Victorinox Airboss Mach 5 GMT watch [link]. This watch has an additional hand. This additional hand is a 24 hour hand. It points to the hour in the another time zone. The inner bezel has city names. To know the time in a city, just align the city name to the arrow at 12 o'clock and read where the 24 hour hand is pointing. Very interesting and potentially useful. Especially for timing when an important announcement is going to be made in another financial centre.

The build quality of Victorinox feels good. I especially like their leather strap. It looks lush. It has a see-through back. Water resist to 100 meter and has Sapphire crystal. The diameter of this watch is approximately 39mm-40mm.

Victorinox however, put little information on their official Web site. Basic information like the diameter is omitted. Movement model number is also not specified. I did some digging and found out that the movement is again an ETA. In this case, it is ETA 2893/2. The movement alone is said to cost about USD150++. The price of the watch is about USD900. The price is a bit steep. I was told that I could get Hamilton Khaki GMT for less. However, I don't like the look of the Hamilton. I decided not to add this Victorinox automatic GMT to my list partly because the look is more complex and the watch draws attention to itself. The other reason is the higher price.



I found out that Victorinox actually has quite a number of beautifully and effectively designed watches. For example the "Infantry 2nd Time Zone" in the "Classic" range is a beauty [link]. This is a quartz watch that supports a 2nd time zone. The 24 hour hand can be adjusted independently of the 12 hour hand. However, the 12 hour hand can not be independently adjusted. This means it is less convenient to adjust the time when crossing time zones as you can only move the minute hand to adjust the hour. The build feels solid and the leather is thick and lush. The crystal is "hardened mineral". This material is not as hard as Sapphire. Water resistant is up to 100 meter. The price is also quite reasonable at around USD260.

Again, not much detail is given on the official Web site. I had to write in to them to enquire about the movement model. It turned out to be a Ronda 515.24H. Ronda is another Swiss movement manufacturer. From what I gathered, the cost of Ronda quartz movements range from USD10 to USD15. This watch is in my short list. If you noticed, I have been looking at mechanical watches before this. This is the first quartz watch in my list. Even if I don't get a Victorinox this time around, I will most likely get one in the future.

At this point, I'm starting to feel that I spent too much time and energy on watch hunting. It is time to make a decision. Which watch represents good value for money and looks less frugal than my USD9 Casio? Which watch is effective, reliable, and durable? In the end I chose Swatch. I changed the strap from black to embossed dark brown to get rid of the monotonous look. Besides, I really like brown leather. Also, for an ETA movement, the parts are readily available should replacement be required. It should last me for a long time if it is serviced on-time. I think this represents excellent value at the price point.



The entire Swatch package. No fancy watch box. It is the usual translucent plastic Swatch box.