The Under £200ish Watch and occasional Opera Thread! Vol2

[Bobberoo]

Fair warms the cockles that does, another very generous offer from a regular, thank you all for keeping this thread going in the nicest of veins.

For myself I am not looking to change any of my watches for some time, huge work upheavals, an impending property purchase (when it finally actually bloody well happens) and later this year a holiday I've wanted to do for many years, all means I have decided to settle with my collection for the foreseeable future.

Carry on as you were all you lovely people.

[MrWideFit]

Currently waiting for a cinnamon brown leather strap to arrive in the post but this is the result of a new stainless steel case to replace the lightweight but cheap feeling resin with some new colour gel filters,

Should look great on the strap as a summer and holiday type watch

[nckr55]

After a detour / attempt to "go legit" with Seiko, Traska, Clemence - I'm back on the Chinese Explorer homages. Find them weirdly more satisfying,
A new couple for me, here. Probably have 1 too many but the 37mm San Martin SN021 (applied indices) is too nice to let go.

[blue_haddock]

nckr55 said:

After a detour / attempt to "go legit" with Seiko, Traska, Clemence - I'm back on the Chinese Explorer homages. Find them weirdly more satisfying,

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

[griffin dai]

jamesson said:

Has anyone bought a Hruodland watch? Saw one on Ali Express which looks nice. Spec looks OK. Circa £180 so well within thread budget.

Yes I’ve got the blue dial Hruodland Pilot Turbine. It’s a lovely watch, feels much more expensive than it is. The leather strap takes a few days to get nice and supple, feels a bit cheap at first. Mechanical wind, and a lovely display case back. I think I paid £93 for it in the summer sale. They’ve just released a white dial version

[griffin dai]

MrWideFit said:

Currently waiting for a cinnamon brown leather strap to arrive in the post but this is the result of a new stainless steel case to replace the lightweight but cheap feeling resin with some new colour gel filters,

Should look great on the strap as a summer and holiday type watch

Is that the skx version? I’m enjoying mine, the stainless kit just transforms the watch.

[Pebbles167]

blue_haddock said:

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

It's a fair point. If the design is original then there is little to separate Ali brands from a microbrand, in terms of quality and look at least. They're usually built in China, though some not, and regardless will have western staff who expect more money pushing the price up.

I suppose you opt to pay more and get behind a Microbrand for various reasons:

- supporting a smaller company
- consistent design language and evolution
- founders/staff are enthusiasts
- better customer service
- easier engagement with brand

Doesn't mean that Ali brands, such as San Martin and Watchdives don't have elements of this, but with many microbrands they'll tick all of these boxes.

I say many, because there are several "microbrands" out there pumping out really overpriced trash, claiming it's original with some sort of fake backstory. You see them pop up on Facebook groups with their bland generic mock ups (and usually do get flamed for it to be fair).

I'd take anything Chinese over these shysters, do your research to avoid them.

Everyone is in the game to make money, but some are more deserving of it than others.

[MrWideFit]

griffin dai said:

MrWideFit said:

Currently waiting for a cinnamon brown leather strap to arrive in the post but this is the result of a new stainless steel case to replace the lightweight but cheap feeling resin with some new colour gel filters,

Should look great on the strap as a summer and holiday type watch

Is that the skx version? I m enjoying mine, the stainless kit just transforms the watch.

Yes, it’s the satin stainless steel case, the weight of the empty stainless case was near double that of the complete resin one with module, faceplate etc

It was from your suggestion in the AE1200 thread i made to go through with buying it in fact,

Once this strap turns up i’ll post it complete but for now it’s just sat in the watch box waiting its turn

[samep]

MrWideFit said:

Currently waiting for a cinnamon brown leather strap to arrive in the post but this is the result of a new stainless steel case to replace the lightweight but cheap feeling resin with some new colour gel filters,

Should look great on the strap as a summer and holiday type watch

That looks fantastic. I hope you enjoy wearing it.

[Palmela]

blue_haddock said:

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

I'm pretty much thinking along the same lines.

As an aside, is there a view on how reliable the depth/water resistance of these Chinese watches is? Has anyone tested it?

[griffin dai]

MrWideFit said:

Yes, it s the satin stainless steel case, the weight of the empty stainless case was near double that of the complete resin one with module, faceplate etc

It was from your suggestion in the AE1200 thread i made to go through with buying it in fact,

Once this strap turns up i ll post it complete but for now it s just sat in the watch box waiting its turn

Brilliant! I’m glad I’ve finally contributed to the thread! Yeah they’re amazing quality, I wear mine daily now to work. The watch does everything I need, pretty much perfect, a bit blingy but I love it

[g4ry13]

blue_haddock said:

nckr55 said:

After a detour / attempt to "go legit" with Seiko, Traska, Clemence - I'm back on the Chinese Explorer homages. Find them weirdly more satisfying,

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

In the case of Tissot, they use Swiss movements which seem to come at a premium. It may be down to movement snobbery but the price is always a bit more than something from China.

You can buy a Cronos (or other Chinese brand) with an Sw200 (or other Swiss movement) which does bump up the price.

When it comes to Citizen and Seiko then it's a bit more like-for-like.

[WayOutWest]

g4ry13 said:

blue_haddock said:

nckr55 said:

After a detour / attempt to "go legit" with Seiko, Traska, Clemence - I'm back on the Chinese Explorer homages. Find them weirdly more satisfying,

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

In the case of Tissot, they use Swiss movements which seem to come at a premium. It may be down to movement snobbery but the price is always a bit more than something from China.

You can buy a Cronos (or other Chinese brand) with an Sw200 (or other Swiss movement) which does bump up the price.

When it comes to Citizen and Seiko then it's a bit more like-for-like.

I knew Citizen were making some of their mid tier (£200-£400) dive watches in China, but now Seiko is seemingly making £470 RRP Prospex line watches in China, and it isn't always very transparent when looking at what retailers put on their websites:

[early_911]

An Ali special - £150 - 38mm, automatic, sapphire crystal from Octopus Kraken. Couldn't justify an ORIS big crown. I really, really like it. If you are vaguely intrigued, here's rubbish vid I did about it on a bored Sunday afternoon https://youtu.be/jy43plkRVfo?si=NPAs-k7xTe2dY-jQ

[r159]

blue_haddock said:

nckr55 said:

After a detour / attempt to "go legit" with Seiko, Traska, Clemence - I'm back on the Chinese Explorer homages. Find them weirdly more satisfying,

I was thinking about this over the weekend and mentioned it on a facebook watch goup i'm in.

I'm no longer seeing mid tier watches as good value, by this i mean the £200 to say £500ish range.

The chinese aliexpress brands like san martion, cronos, tandorio etc offer such a fantastic spec for the money now that the likes of seiko, tissot, citizen along with a lot of microbrands dont offer anything more for often two or three times the price.

This is even more valid now that the aliX brands are now moving away from just straight homages into original designs.

This is why I’ve gone to second hand, paying thread money for a mid tier watch. I’ve just got a Casio Gulfmaster GWN-1000 from Japan for well less than £200, sourced a new strap and case cover in the uk (supplied were ok but nicer with new) I really wanted one when they came out about 10 years ago but they were £4-500…

[BrokenSkunk]

Time for a Skunk update methinks.

There's a few weeks work here, or rather a few hours spread out over a few weeks. Last time I posted I was making a tight fitting bracket for the BMW crown and pinion final drive unit. I don't have a picture to share, but the bracket is finished and the fit is tight, it's not an interference fit, but there's no wobble so I'm happy.

Next on the agenda was to put on my big boy pants, swallow a mahoosive brave pill and stop dancing around the handbag of the inevitable. Up until this point everything I've done can be re-done by bolting and rivetting bits back on. You can't fix a bent chassis like that.



This is the sum total of bent bits that I have chopped out of the chassis so far. The coke can is there for scale. That lot has not been taken out in one go. It's a case of remove a bit, make a new bit, weld in the new bit. Chop, fabricate weld. I can not tell you how scared I was to take an angle grinder to the chassis.

The first bit to come out was the bottom chassis rail. A 25mm square tube into which loads of acceleration and suspension forces are transmitted. It runs left to right at the rear of the chassis and was bent from the middle to the passenger side.

Here is the gap in the chassis, note the vertical clamped in place to keep the chassis dimensionally stable whilst some wally waves an angle grinder at it.



I'm not happy that there's enough triangulation on this rear chassis rail. It's bent, so I feel vindicated in thinking this. But I can see that it isn't really possible to add triangulation tubing. Not if I want to put the seats back in. It's an either/or situation. So I need to make the replacement tube stronger than the original.

Now the tubes I'm replacing are either 25mm or 20mm square. The tubes have 2.5mm thick walls. Hmmn.

If this tube is 25mm square, and has 2.5mm walls, then the internal size should be 25mm-2*2.5mm = 20mm. A quick check and the small tube 20mm tubing I have slides snugly into the 25mm tubing. Woohoo! Time for another picture; behold:



This is the 25mm tube cut to fit back in where I've just chopped out the bent bit. You'll see some slots cut in the tube and a couple of allen keys poking out. It expands:

Now you should be able to see my cunning plan. Offer the unexpanded piece up to the gap in the chassis, slide the tubes out and weld it in. The inner tubes stiffen the whole shebang and transfer the loads away from the joins.
This also gives my welds a 2.5mm backing, If I was just welding two 2.5mm thick bits of steel together I might only manage a half to three quarters weld penetration. i.e. my weld could only go 1/2 way through the material). If you melt all the way through, you'll just blow a hole in the metal.
Now my weld can go all the way through the outer tube and part of the way through the inner.

You should also see some holes drilled in the outer tube. These are for plug welds. I'll be welding the inner and outer tubes together at these points to further stiffen things up.


And here is the replacement tubing welded in place.


I then spent another shed session filing that diagonal bracing to be parallel to the new chassis rail. I used a 3mm thick file, then slid a bit of 3mm thick plate into the gap and welded it all up. Don't have a photo of that. Sorry.

All of that work went on over Christmas, since then Mrs. Broken has successfully filled my mundane task list and mostly kept me out of the shed. Until yesterday. I still didn't get a whole day in the shed, I had to nip off to teach eskimo rolls (kayaking) to Scouts in a local swimming pool.

Yesterdays efforts were chopping out the old mount for the BMW final drive,chopping out a torque tube ad fabbing up some replacement square tube. First things first, I had to use an angle finder to work out how to cut the new piece. To get the angle finder in, I had to grind the old weld flat.


No, I couldn't get the 4" angle grinder in and yes I could have used a bd file, but where's the fun in that?

Marking up the new tube with the angle finder.


Lots of careful cutting with a hacksaw, and quite a lot of filing to get a precise fit.


I wasn't prepared to hold the phone in one hand whilst chopping the chassis up with an angle grinder in the other hand, so no photos of that.
But here is what was left when I chopped out the broken torque tube.


I'm not sure if you can make it out but there are two concentric round tubes here. The inner one is acting as a stop for a bearing (still in place). The outer is the torque tube I need to replace. Bugger wasn't expetcing that.I need to remove the outer round tube flush to those powder coated square tubes. I also need to leave that inner round tube in situ.

Most of the cut was done very carefully with the grinder. Then I swapped to a junior hacksaw. Look carefully at this photo and you'll see that the outer tube is starting to peel away. Need to be careful of that pointy bit looks sharp.

Here's the finished cut. Inner tube undamaged, outer tube removed. And yes, that pointy bit was bloody sharp. One slip of the saw has given me a half inch long full skin depth gash on my little finger. It's currently rather sore. But shed first aid (a bit of folded kitchen roll held over the cut with electrical tape and swearing) let me keep going.


And to close what must be one of my longest ever posts, here is a photo of the next new tube ready to be welded in. Placement of this one is critical as the final drive bracket will attach to this tube. Get it wrong and at best the prop will run at an angle. At worst it will be impossible to assemble the rear swingarm.

Look closely and you'll see where the old tube was removed, you can see where the weld has squared the normally rounded tube corners. The new one doesn't go back in exactly the same place as the final drive bracket is different.

I didn't get to weld it in, it was 7.30pm last night, time to cook some dinner, I was starting to bleed through the improvised bandage and there was no way I was going to get that bandaged hand into my TIG gloves anyway!

To be continued...
and continued..
and continued..

Edited by BrokenSkunk on Monday 19th January 19:14

Edited by BrokenSkunk on Monday 19th January 19:16

[wombleh]

I watched Interstellar over xmas and been lusting after a hamilton murph ever since. Got a miltado ml08 as a cheaper option to see if I like it and test the size, good job really as the 38mm is too small for my tastes. £50 and aliexpress croc strap was £20, sweeping vh31 quartz movement, decent quality. Still would like an original but this is a nice stand in.

Edited by wombleh on Tuesday 20th January 07:33

[g4ry13]

I bit the bullet on a Watchdives BB54 homage tonight. I wanted to get it from Watchdives direct and now they're out of stock so I went to Aliexpress after someone on Reddit scared me that it may not come back in stock if they discontinue the colour.

I've not really messed around with watches much. I'd quite like to try a Jubilee bracelet at some point. Lug width is 20mm, are there any good bracelets around? I see there's some on ebay / Amazon although imagine quality is a bit hit and miss. The clasps also look pretty rubbish. I saw unclestraps mentioned - they're a bit pricey for the watch.

[blue_haddock]

Palmela said:

I'm pretty much thinking along the same lines.

As an aside, is there a view on how reliable the depth/water resistance of these Chinese watches is? Has anyone tested it?

In my limited experience I would say take the water resistance with caution.

A few years ago on holiday I used my heimdallr. Frogman watch in the pool, nothing crazy just a splash around really.ans when I got out there was moisture inside.

After that experience I now only desk dice withy watches and use a gshock for pool duties

[craigthecoupe]

Excellent Skunk update! thanks for that. Nice neat work, I wish my welds looked half as good.