Watches with huge discounts

[pessimal]

Wife showed me this watch this morning,

https://www.watches2u.com/watches/edward-east/edw5...

If it isn't on sale any more the current price is £59 down from £525.

While I like the look of it, I'm suspicious of pieces with 90% discounts, so is it as naff as I think it is, or is this actually a decent deal?

[trickywoo]

It says its a Japanese automatic movement and 100m water resistant so £59 is a fair enough price.

I'd certainly not drop £500 on one but if you can have a look at it and you like it why not at just under £60?

[Lorne]

I'd suggest it's 100% chinese and a name purloined from something that sounds english and establishment. At £59 though it's remarkably good value for money and it does look nice. And give them their fair dues, the chinese are making some decent stuff.

Edit, don't get it wet though as I can guarantee it hasn't been pressure tested to 100m. And other than the watch flooding itself, the strap will fall apart if its wetted as I suspect its made from reconstituted genuine cow skin.

Edited by Lorne on Friday 19th April 09:55

[pessimal]

You surprised me, it's not getting the sagging off I expected!

That or a parnis for similar money?

[Slushbox]

They are around £99 on Amazon.

Watch retailers often dump three year old+ models into the mail-order market at ludicrous discount prices, which shows how equally ludicrous the original RRP was.

I have a couple of decent 2016 Swiss made Wenger/Victorinox watches from the USA, dumped at $40 last month, still with the original $300 swing tags on them.

Edward East died in 1697, so this looks like an Asian branding bitsa. :-)

Think the only rule is: if you like it at the price, then why not?

[ZesPak]

If you ever see real Victorinox watches at these prices, please buy all of them.

[yoshisdad]

ZesPak said:

If you ever see real Victorinox watches at these prices, please buy all of them.

[anonymous-user]

There are very cheap watches with that movement all over Wish.com

[liner33]

Yep Guanqin make a few similar ones for not a lot of money , pretty good for the price some of them

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/GUANQIN-2...

[Seight_Returns]

Watches2u flash sales often have some good stuff.

Some G-Shock's I quite fancy in the current one at process that look very good.

[anonymous-user]

I think it’s a generic Chinese watch with a pretend tourbillon (the open circle down the bottom showing the movement)

Ali express has loads of variations on this watch and movement all with different names and different brands. They’re possibly all made in the same factory.

They’re all around 40 usd.

https://m.aliexpress.com/wholesale/tourbillon.html...

They won’t be great watches and certainly NOT worth the original prices but if you like it and it’s 30-40 quid then why not?

Going on aliexpress and searching for “tourbillon” will show many variations on this style.

If you don’t know aliexpress is a Chinese website selling all sorts of inexpensive stuff from Chinese factories, I’ve never used them but I know others on here have for things like cheap but powerful torches etc.

A tourbillon is an intricate but very expensive function on a watch.

“In a tourbillon the escapement and balance wheel are mounted in a rotating cage, in order to negate the effects of gravity when the timepiece (thus the escapement) is stuck in a certain position. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/escapement assembly at a slow rate (typically about one revolution per minute), the tourbillon averages out positional errors.“

So it’s unlikely that the tourbillon on these watches are real.

If you search for “tourbillon” on amazon you’ll also see loads of watches similar to this, I think they’re just the same as the Ali express ones.

[lostkiwi]

El stovey said:

So it’s unlikely that the tourbillon on these watches are real.

Some of those in your link do have working tourbillon. Look at the ones priced at the top end. I think you'll find they are functional tourbillons.

[anonymous-user]

lostkiwi said:

El stovey said:

So it’s unlikely that the tourbillon on these watches are real.

Some of those in your link do have working tourbillon. Look at the ones priced at the top end. I think you'll find they are functional tourbillons.

I know there’s was that seagull (possibly) with the tourbillon. It was big news in here when the Chinese tourbillon first appeared about 10 years ago.

They were still quite expensive and ugly looking though.

Are there cheap ones now?

[lostkiwi]

El stovey said:

lostkiwi said:

El stovey said:

So it’s unlikely that the tourbillon on these watches are real.

Some of those in your link do have working tourbillon. Look at the ones priced at the top end. I think you'll find they are functional tourbillons.

I know there’s was that seagull (possibly) with the tourbillon. It was big news in here when the Chinese tourbillon first appeared about 10 years ago.

They were still quite expensive and ugly looking though.

Are there cheap ones now?

It would appear so (and yes it was Seagull originally).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ablogtowatch.com/...

(And that article is 6 years old).

[mikeveal]

Cheapest real tourby you linked was £253(reduced to price). Frankly that's quite amazing for a tourby, you just have to be able to withstand its looks!

Edited by mikeveal on Tuesday 7th May 14:42

[lostkiwi]

mikeveal said:

Cheapest real tourby you linked was £253(reduced to price). Frankly that's quite amazing for a tourby, you just have to be able to withstand its looks!

Edited by mikeveal on Tuesday 7th May 14:42

It's almost worth getting one!

[So]

I notice they also sell Krug Baumen, so everything must be legit.

[pessimal]

how can you tell which ones are real and which ones arnt?

its kinda got my interest piqued

[So]

pessimal said:

how can you tell which ones are real and which ones arnt?

its kinda got my interest piqued

If anyone offers you a fake Krug Baumen don't buy it.

[mikeveal]

pessimal said:

how can you tell which ones are real and which ones arnt?

its kinda got my interest piqued

In a genuine tourby, the cage containing the escapement rotates.

See these images of the same watch:


Identify the cage holding the escapement. There are three blued screws holding a silver bridge.
In the first image, the middle blued screw is at about 2 o'clock, in the second it's about 10 o'clock. So the escapement has rotated. It's a tourby.

This watch is advertised as a tourby, but obviously isn't:

It's an open heart. You can see the balance through a hole in the dial. but you should see that the balance is fixed in position by the obvious bridge.

This one is much harder to spot:


Looks like the escapement could be in a rotating cage. More images are needed...



Well the balance and escapement have definitely rotated. But look at those big fat pillars (last image) fixing the bridges to the metal back plate. That's a lot of weight, one of the things that makes tourby design and manufacture so difficult is that the weight of the rotating escapement must be kept very low. If this thing is a tourby, it must rotate very slowly and use a lot of power. Look at it, the whole back plate, side walls, bridges etc. are all tied together. Hell of a weight!

But then again if it is a tourby, its £80.
Conclusion: I don't know for sure. Anyone got one?
(Oh, that's not a flyback minute hand either. Pity)