Swatch Sistem51
Discussion
Has anyone else picked one of these up yet? I had a wander over to the Swatch store on Oxford Street on Friday and they had a fair bit of stock, so I bagged one of the Black models (there are four different colours). I used to have Quartz Swatches when I was younger, around 15 years ago, so was intrigued when they announced an automatic model.
They idea behind it was that Swatch wanted to make their first automatic watch with the same number of parts as the original Quartz Swatch. This happened to be 51 parts, hence the SISTEM51 branding. The movement is made entirely by an robotic process which has kept the costs down (in the UK the watch costs £108 which is hugely impressive for an auto).
The movement has a substantial 90 hour power reserve. Swatch also say that it is maintenance free which might raise some eyebrows (the instruction manual certainly doesn't allude to a service period). On paper it's an impressive little piece of kit.
My impressions so far are that it's the usual plastic Swatch casing and leatherette strap. The case itself scratches easily as you'd expect (and yes, I've managed to mark it in the few days I've had it). The strap felt a bit bulky at first and wouldn't fit to my wrist too well when I first put it on, but it quickly moulds into shape and is comfortable now after a couple of days use.
Onto the fun stuff now - the movement. The rotor is noisy, but has an endearing 'whizz' noise to it. Interestingly, the rotor seems to sit as an outer ring rather than the usual inner pendulum design. The movement is quite noisy and operates at 3Hz - the second hand sweep is very similar to that of my Seiko SKX007 (which has the Seiko 5 movement). The Seiko movement is probably the one to compare it to, and the SISTEM51 trumps it with the hefty power reserve and the ability to wind it with the crown.
Onto the pictures. It's a big watch - I've compared it to my Seamaster (41mm face) which also sits proud from your wrist. The case does seem excessively big, so I'd imagine that Swatch would be able to fit the movement into smaller models eventually.
Overall, it's an interesting watch. The case won't be able to take the abuse of wearing it daily, but fair play to Swatch for designing an auto movement with some impressive specs and being able to sell it for such a reasonable price.
They idea behind it was that Swatch wanted to make their first automatic watch with the same number of parts as the original Quartz Swatch. This happened to be 51 parts, hence the SISTEM51 branding. The movement is made entirely by an robotic process which has kept the costs down (in the UK the watch costs £108 which is hugely impressive for an auto).
The movement has a substantial 90 hour power reserve. Swatch also say that it is maintenance free which might raise some eyebrows (the instruction manual certainly doesn't allude to a service period). On paper it's an impressive little piece of kit.
My impressions so far are that it's the usual plastic Swatch casing and leatherette strap. The case itself scratches easily as you'd expect (and yes, I've managed to mark it in the few days I've had it). The strap felt a bit bulky at first and wouldn't fit to my wrist too well when I first put it on, but it quickly moulds into shape and is comfortable now after a couple of days use.
Onto the fun stuff now - the movement. The rotor is noisy, but has an endearing 'whizz' noise to it. Interestingly, the rotor seems to sit as an outer ring rather than the usual inner pendulum design. The movement is quite noisy and operates at 3Hz - the second hand sweep is very similar to that of my Seiko SKX007 (which has the Seiko 5 movement). The Seiko movement is probably the one to compare it to, and the SISTEM51 trumps it with the hefty power reserve and the ability to wind it with the crown.
Onto the pictures. It's a big watch - I've compared it to my Seamaster (41mm face) which also sits proud from your wrist. The case does seem excessively big, so I'd imagine that Swatch would be able to fit the movement into smaller models eventually.
Overall, it's an interesting watch. The case won't be able to take the abuse of wearing it daily, but fair play to Swatch for designing an auto movement with some impressive specs and being able to sell it for such a reasonable price.
Edited by NickXX on Tuesday 12th August 21:41
TimLambert7 said:
Certainly an interesting piece but it does nothing for me and £108 doesn't seem too cheap!
Despite being plastic, does it feel of quality?
I think the point is that this watch is both interesting and different, e.g. uses only 51 parts, the first completely automated assembly process, long 90hour power reserve etc. I agree that the style is "different" but you can't argue that it hasn't got interest/historical (1st model to use this assembly) relevance.Despite being plastic, does it feel of quality?
They must have just been released - I was at the Westfield store a couple of weeks ago and they hadn't got them then.
alfa aficionado said:
TimLambert7 said:
Certainly an interesting piece but it does nothing for me and £108 doesn't seem too cheap!
Despite being plastic, does it feel of quality?
I think the point is that this watch is both interesting and different, e.g. uses only 51 parts, the first completely automated assembly process, long 90hour power reserve etc. I agree that the style is "different" but you can't argue that it hasn't got interest/historical (1st model to use this assembly) relevance.Despite being plastic, does it feel of quality?
The 90 hour power reserve is quite an achievement.
I got one of the Sistem 51 blacks too, from a technical point of view I find it much more interesting than silicon hairsprings, Co-Axial escapements etc. ( I have watches with these attributes too ) but the biggest plus for me was putting it on the Witschi tester to find it ran to chronometer accuracy in every position, for £108 it's a steal IMO
Good grief, that's much larger than I'd thought from the pictures. The colour schemes were already questionable (the black is OK except the psychedelic movement, the others are just garish), but the size is excessive; not only the diameter but also the thickness.
I'd guess the service interval is mute not because it doesn't need servicing but the cost would far exceed that of a new watch, and the heat sealed case is harder to open than an iThing. That said it could last ten to twenty years, getting gradually less accurate before a catastrophic failure occurred, so it's not bad value. Just not to my taste.
I'd guess the service interval is mute not because it doesn't need servicing but the cost would far exceed that of a new watch, and the heat sealed case is harder to open than an iThing. That said it could last ten to twenty years, getting gradually less accurate before a catastrophic failure occurred, so it's not bad value. Just not to my taste.
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