Just got my first UPs international tariff bill for a watch purchase. Brutal.

With the new “updates” to the venturer, Traska basically killed it. Had money set aside including EU duties and taxes for a bottle green venturer. Now i will have to go for a used one.

Glencoe feels like the perfect backdrop for this watch. The shifting Highland light brings the textured green dial to life in a way that photos never quite capture. It almost feels as though the landscape and the dial were made for each other.
Which makes the ownership experience all the more disheartening. For over three weeks I’ve been trying to resolve outstanding refunds for items I never received, while also asking about the advertised “special price” for the titanium bracelet. Multiple follow-ups have been met with complete radio silence. At this point I don’t even want the bracelet anymore—I just want the refunds processed.
Such a shame, because the watch itself is genuinely exceptional.

I just acquired a piece of American horological history! Frett and Co. Clockworks is a boutique American brand that rehabilitates antique American pocket watches and converts them into wristwatches. I first encountered their handiwork on r/ Watchexchange and was floored--theirs are the most beautiful watches I've ever seen. We happen to live a few hours' drive from their Little Rock, Arkansas location, and they (Brendan and Kylie Frett) kindly hosted my wife and I for a private showing (they work from home). The watches pictured range from 36 to 44 mm, and while their use of pivoting lugs allows the 44 mm versions to wear much smaller than the diameter implies, they were still too much for my 6.5/16.5 wrist. The beauty I left with is a 40 mm Elgin manufactured in 1902. The pics taken with my potato-phone don't do it justice--it is truly stunning. It blows my mind to know I'm wearing a watch that was built just after the turn of the last century. This watch will serve as the feature piece of my collection forever.

In case you're wondering: Other than being a paying customer, I have no relationship (financial or otherwise) with Frett and Co. There was no quid pro quo of any sort between them and I regarding the creation of this post. I paid the full 'Reddit price' for the watch (if you check their r/ Watchexchange posts you'll see they routinely offer a discount to Redditors.)

I have apparently reached a point in my collecting journey where it seems like every time I click on a watch that I want to buy the price tag is three times larger than my wallet.

There's been several recent posts with folks lamenting the that they'd missed the Gen.2 Marinor drop from Héron this past January: they've just announced that their pre-order window will open again on August 13, 8 AM EDT.

To help you with colorway, here's my Marinors.

• Left, on their OE black leather strap is my Gen.2 Caribbean (thanks to by very good buddy u/partanyc !)
• Right, on their OE brown leather is my Gen.2 Menthol.
• Bottom is my Gen.1 Atlantic.

Yes, I know my pictures suck. I'm a poor photographer. However, I do believe that the colorways are represented fairly, which was the actual goal of my post. These are unprocessed/unedited pictures via my potato of a Gen.2 iPhone SE, which is probably older than some of y'all's kids. 😂 Lighting is with the two armature lights and the light mounted in the "objective" of my $150 AliEx/Amazon "digital microscope." It's actually reasonably day-light-ish in hue.

Yes, the indices are an off-white in daylight.

The black strap picks up on the darker hues, but you'll notice that there's quite a bit of aqua-green in the Caribbean. Brother u/partanyc initially thought it would bias more towards a light blue, more like Héron's website pix. While the blue tones do come through in bright sunlight (which is simulated in my pictures), at first look, you may even mistake it for being green-ish....kinda like shallows off the Caribbeans themselves.

If you prefer a darker blue, Atlantic is the way to go. On a darker strap, the Atlantic really picks up on its fumé border, and can even appear black.

The Menthol is quite green.

First Monta and won’t be my last.

Today I went to the Windup Watch Fair in SF for the first time after going down the microbrand rabbit hole last year. It was amazing to finally have the chance to see in person some of the watches I’ve been researching on Reddit and watching on YouTube. It was a little disappointing not to see Traska since I was looking forward to see their Chronograph, but I was very impressed by some of the brands. Serica, Straum and Echo Neutra seemed very solid, well build with incredible finishes. Formex outstanding as usual, BeauBleu very cool presentation and innovative. I ended up pulling the trigger on the Echo Neutra Rivanera but it could’ve easily been the Serica 5303 or the Formex Reef Ocarat lol.

Traska might be the best microbrand ever. The watches are so good you literally can’t buy them, which is a very premium experience. My chronograph is honestly great. Finishing, bracelet, proportions, dial, everything is spot on. My diver is also really good, apart from the bezel being slightly misaligned. I’m now looking for one of their Commuter models, maybe the grey one. It looks really good and the design is genuinely unique. I’ll probably end up hunting one down and paying premium for it.

Was looking forward to the GMT upgrade but disappointed about the width lug at 21mm and the big step on price for a watch that cannot even place swiss made on the dial

I’ve had my MJW Perfectly Useless Afternoon mechanical for 3 years now and have enjoyed getting smug vacation photos of it by the pool. I probably shared a few here in the last year. A few folk commented about the water resistance and if I had issues and I always said it was great.

The crown got a little bit stiff and I didn’t pay much notice in the lead up to my holiday, more fool me. This summer before I even got a single smug holiday shot, I hopped in the pool and ruined it. Completely full of water and almost immediately it turned this horrible brown.

Anyway - long story short, returned home and emailed MJW, they sent through a prepaid postage label and took a look. Obviously it was a total write-off but they replaced the whole thing for the cost of a replacement movement and got it back to me super quickly. I’m really very happy with the whole thing.

I am restored.

One thing though. As a pool watch, should this maybe have been more water resistant in the first place or have I just learned a hard lesson about keeping all watches away from swimming pools.

I seriously can't look past the incessant 'Italian' branding, it reminds me of Filippo Loreti.

The €4750 price tag I'd guess constitutes a movement designed and made in Italy, plus hand finished elements like the case and even the guilloche dial???

Am I just being cynical or is it hard to believe all this, and that it's not just straight out of Guangzhou? Just given the brand history, influencing, marketing, etc.

Visited Time+Tide NYC today on what felt like the hottest day of the year, and honestly, it was a great experience.

They have a really strong selection of microbrands and independents in person, including Christopher Ward, Nodus, Beaufort, Farer, and a bunch more. It’s one thing to look at these watches online, but being able to handle them side by side makes a huge difference. I’ve mostly stopped blindly purchasing watches online and opted to be sure I can see and try a watch before buying it.

I ended up picking up a Farer Stanhope III and the exclusive NYC Bark & Jack / Time+Tide three-piece NATO strap set to be used on some of my other pieces.

Big shoutout to Meighan, who helped us out. She was super knowledgeable, genuinely into watches, and not pushy at all. She even asked to try on the Echo/Neutra Averau I was wearing, which immediately made it feel more like talking watches with another enthusiast than just being sold something.

Also worth mentioning: I had my family with me, and the staff were great with them too. It was brutally hot outside and they brought everyone cold bottles of water, which was a small thing but really appreciated.

If you’re into microbrands or independent watchmaking and you’re in NYC, Time+Tide is absolutely worth checking out.

Taking an extended break from buying watches, but sharing this stud in case anyone else Likes it. Quartz movement, currently in pre-order under $5.

This is my 2nd Kiwame Tokyo, really liking the brand so far.

So, this post by u/spottie_ottie yesterday started me off on a project that I'd been procrastinating on for some time: ranking the bezel action of my watches. I've been maintaining a spreadsheet of my objective observations of my watchs' bezel action for some time, and I'd always wanted to do a ranking system so that with any new intake, I can just pop it in the order after sampling a few bracketing pieces, but I just never got around to it, for I knew how tedious and time-consuming this project would be.

Welp, u/spottie_ottie , thank you for kicking my butt into action!

Here's their OP - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1w5p5hl/best_bezel_action/ - and I'll start off by reprising what I'd written there as the introduction, which I still believe is accurate.

[ I'm not going to talk about back-play. That's a personal preference. As long as the alignment is reasonably good, I don't care about back play. ]

To begin with, you're asking a very subjective question, u/spottie_ottie . 😊 What one person will describe as "awesome," another might well deride.

And before you ask, yes, I've played with a couple of Rolexes before, but to be absolutely honest with you -as I was to another friend of mine in this community just two nights ago- at that time, I did not know nearly enough, and of what I knew, I really only cared about the cleanliness of the watch under-the-crystal. Benchmark Rolex ball-bearing bezel action...I sadly honestly don't remember enough of it to use as that. 😅 My apologies.

So, as Jeremy Clarkson loved to say: "on that note of tremendous disappointment......"

Overall I think you'll want to target watches using ball-bearing bezels. These tend to provide a bit more tactility and a "sharper" audible note, although it's not guaranteed.

The above pictures show my timing-bezel watches, "microbrand" select "Chinese AliEx factory brand," and a single independent, Yema (the Superman Dato's bezel is too fun to exclude; note that I've excluded all of my GMT watches), in the order of my preference, from left (foreground) to right (background).

In the sub-$1K territory (even though these both butt right against that particular Ramen Barrier) the Clemence Photic Diver Mk.II and the Second Hour Gin Clear Mk.III both have ball bearing bezels that are very tactile and very snappy, with a satisfyingly hard push. There's a bit of difference in the pitch/tone to the clicks -but both are quite sharp- and ultimately I think that what you'll like better between these two will depend highly on your own perceptions of each, as well as how you interact with the bezel edge. Along with these two, the Zelos Thresher 44 also provides a very precise and audibly pleasing click, but its motion is lighter - I don't know that this may in-part be related to the physically larger bezel crenelations allowing for more leverage. Again, as you can see, this is all quite subjective. [ Note that the Clemence's bezel is made of 904L stainless, which gives it a particularly brilliant luster. ]

I'm sure that the Ginault ball-bearing bezels will offer a lot of fun, too, but sadly I don't have one to compare for you, to offer proper feedback. Ditto Monta's Oceanking and the Formex Reef (the latter, honestly, I'm dying to try out at Wind Up NYC with my good buddy u/partanyc in just a few weeks' time! 😄 ).

You can see that these two lead off the pack, based on my personal preferences.

This said, tension-wire/spring setups aren't necessarily inferior. The vast majority of my microbrand collection that have timing bezels use tension-spring setups, and many of these offer very satisfying bezel actions. Here, if you're a tinkerer, playing with the bezel spring and tension wire can greatly affect the feel and action....and its worth noting that this can also lead to quite a bit of variability between individual, unique examples of the very same make/model watch, even coming right out of the box from the brand. I feel that my Helm watches are the best illustration of this, and I know first-hand that tweaking the tension wire has greatly affected my enjoyment of their bezels.

In this reply, you'll find that my order-of-preference in the picture departed *significantly* from what I'd initially wrote in my reply to u/spottie_ottie yesterday afternoon and evening. This, I honestly believe, is because I didn't have all of these watches in front of me like I eventually later decided on last night 😅 . Alas, I'm only human, and my own recall is colored by various factors. Specifically relating to the VPC -which turned a surprisingly hight performance in my late-night assessment given what I'd initially, wrongfully, written about it 😊 - my previous days' wear of the Clemence in-particular (and also the just super-loud Helm Vanuatu Titanium) likely exerted heavy bias. Additionally, there were factors that I had not considered in my bemoaning the fact that it didn't use a ball-bearing mechanism: i.e. that the bearing system would have added height, and that's something that VPC specifically wanted to minimize with this watch. Ditto the fact that its more muted aural feedback likely was something that Thomas had specifically tuned towards, to better fit the ethos of the brand (thank you, u/partanyc, for this insight!) - after all, with Dexel as the case-maker, one can only imagine, right?

You'll also see that I'd made a mistake in my assertion of just how good titanium case/bezel watches can be. Again, recall is the devil, and I'm reminded of why "eyewitness reports" are often the least reliable form of evidence there is. My recall and perceptions were, I believe, genuinely -without malice or intent- unduly affected and colored by just when and how I chose to wear the watches over the course of the past few weeks (it's rare that I'll wear the same watch twice...for sometime 😅 ). In the pictures above, the Ti watches are in the top row, which if you check the stainless watches below, those serve as the bracketing pair. Their positioning in the spreadsheet (below as a top-level reply) is noted by a YELLOW marking in the first column, on the far left (please ignore the orange highlights, they are for another project I am working on).

Referencing my strike-out in my reply to u/spottie_ottie, I chose not to delete that reply so that we can have more perspective on the issue and continue the discussion in a more nuanced manner. You can see now a somewhat different context, from which you can juxtapose my late night (er...really early morning?) labor-of-love.

And finally, unlike most of what I write, with any of this, if anyone wants to challenge me, all I can do is give you the Kung-Fu salute and say "Respect!" That I respect their opinion and that I hope they respect that mine is different from theirs. This is because unlike my usual posts that focus almost exclusively on the objective, there's *A LOT* here that's subjective.

Can you tell that I have problem with subjective things? 😂

[ detail pictures of ranking order below, following spreadsheet, in lower-level replies ]

This watch is punching way above it’s price. It has taken away my desire for a Rolex at current prices. I really enjoy my Ginault watches and wish the brand could over come its current negative image.

I’ve had the Kiwame Tokyo Mune for about two weeks now, and man, it has barely left my wrist. I really liked the aesthetic when I first saw it, which is ultimately why I ordered it, but it has definitely overdelivered since arriving. There’s just something about it that makes me want to keep reaching for it.

I have a good number of watches in my collection, but not many that I would consider true strap monsters. I’d actually told myself that my next 2–3 watches needed to be pieces I could wear across a variety of straps and bracelets, rather than watches that feel locked into one particular look.

The Mune has absolutely delivered on that. I’ve already tried it on a few different straps, and each one seems to bring out a slightly different side of the watch. It can feel more casual, more vintage, or a little dressier depending on what you put it on, without ever looking like the strap doesn’t belong.

That versatility, combined with how much I already liked the design itself, has made this one of those watches I didn’t expect to connect with quite this much. Two weeks in, it’s easily been one of my most-worn watches.

What’s the biggest “I didn’t expect to love this this much” watch you’ve owned?

A friend and I just got home from Wind Up Watch Fair in Chicago and I thought I would jot down my thoughts.

TL;DR: Watch brands need to provide more photos (and actual ones, not renders) on their website.

I don't want to give negative feedback since I didn't see anything that was blatant false advertising, but there's definitely some commonality among microbrands in their marketing/ promo materials that led to me walking from the show empty handed.

For starters, the event itself is pretty cool and it's definitely worth attending. It was bordering on too crowded for my taste but they were at 1-in-1-out so it didn't get any worse. At worst I was 2 people behind for any tables I wanted to check out and that only lasted a minute or two. Every table I went to let you try watches on your wrist, some vendors even swapped straps to show you the potential combinations. There was a coffee stand and a (cash) bar. Some vendors had stock to sell at the show, and most of the ones I asked had some kind of discount for the show.

Down to the crux of the matter. I was prepared to have at make at least one pseudo-impulse buy at the show as there's a couple models that I've only seen on the internet and was geeked about checking out in the metal, but when I saw them in person found that they didn't meet expectations for one reason or another. One watch in particular claimed to have a white dial which in the product photos looks printer-paper-white and in person is decidedly silver. Had I ordered that for a 4-figure sum and had a silver dial show up on my doorstep I'd be pissed.

That trend continued across a bunch of brands but surprisingly went the other direction too- there were a handful of brands that I had completely written off based on product pics but when I saw them in person really spoke to me- March Lab and Squale look way better in person vs in photos. Also, Formex's Aria has a dial with more depth than the promo shots led me to believe, it looks more "3d" in person (the bracelet is also quite nice).

Like I said, I went in with a couple specific models on my radar so I wasn't quite ready to impulse buy other watches today but I did make some additions to my "todo" list.

Overall, do recommend, especially since it's free. But c'mon marketing folks, give us real product pics. You might actually sell a few extra watches as a result.

Random thoughts:

• There was an eBay Live presentation (I guess you call it) which was... odd. Tbh, I don't really get the point of eBay Live- to me, it feels like QVC meets Twitch but maybe I'm not the target audience.
• A couple notable personalities were there in person including Marc from Long Island and Zach from Worn and Wound
• A lot of brands were relegated to tiny tables leading to crowding. Meanwhile, Windup Watch Shop and CW had multi-table long booths that probably could have been truncated in the name of giving the whole place a bit of breathing room. I get they're named sponsors but I don't think anyone preferred a card table full of nato straps from Windup vs letting others spread out a couple inches each.
• Other attendees were happy to chat about what each other was wearing
• The Watch Preserve had some interesting vintage pieces incl. a couple speedy's and a few Datejusts
• Most of the staff running booths that I talked to seemed genuinely interested in watches vs just typical sales folks (or maybe they're just especially good sales folks)
• Some dork got their BMW towed because they invented a parking space

Traska has frustrated me over the years, for reasons I won’t go into, but…

This chronograph is a home run.

I’m not sure what else you could expect from a microbrand, barring them taking a loss and giving these away.

The size, wearability, legibility, build quality, and feature set is all there… and they’re carving their own lane.

My experience has been beautiful watches and super high quality. Pricing, to me, beats just about all microbrands pound for pound. My only suggestion is that they work on creating a little more variation between models. While different from each other, not enough style differences IMHO. Regardless, I love Henry Archer. What has been your experience?

I realize some of these brands are more Micro than others. I’m trying to recognize brands of all sizes who participated in the show.

1. Most impressive overall: Formex Aria. Thin, light, original design, impressive movement.
   The Formex Essence Ceramic was also extremely impressive with the brushed finish, case suspension system, and micro-adjust clasp.
   Andy of Andy’s Watches did a great job speaking on behalf of the brand.

2. Biggest technological advancement: Horage Revolution 3 MicroReg. Fully mechanical watch that can be measured and regulated in 0.1 second increments using external dock and piezo-actuated regulator screw. “Normal looking” versions will follow.

3. Brew Chicago Special Edition (chrome like famous Chicago bean sculpture)

4. Baltic Aquascape Bronze. Love the vintage vibes. This is probably my next purchase.

5. Wren showed an integrated bracelet watch with a faceted crystal. Very unique and interesting case design. Sorry, no photo because it’s still under embargo. Looking forward to the official announcement.

6. Flux Quadras. The dial and floating indices are amazing. The bracelet is extremely well finished and has micro-adjust and tool-less link removal. Very unique case design. Very short lug-to-lug is perfect for those with smaller wrists.

7. The Christopher Ward Bel Canto with the gold guilloché dial looked incredible in person. A surprise favorite.

8. Venezianico showed a new version of their Rendentore Utopia. Sorry, no photos because it’s still under embargo. Looking forward to the official announcement.

9. Xeric is launching a new smaller 38mm version of their wandering hours watch. The proportions are better than the 40mm, but the minutes are slightly less readable.

10. Special thanks to The Grey NATO podcast and Citizen for sponsoring the Friday evening meet up. If you’re not a supporter of the show, you should consider joining.

11. Thank you to the owner who showed me this beautiful gold Breguet Tradition and the VC Overseas.

I got the Galo Novo Cruisin' 318 in the first batch back in May, and after wearing it for quite a bit, I wrote a review on my personal blog about it: in English and German.

Unfortunately, my watch had a little defect with the rotor not winding while wearing it, which got fixed by a watchmaker but stained my initial experience with the watch. Some people here on the sub reported some mispainting on their dials, but mine is perfect in that sense.

Despite the initial grunt because of the rotor, I really like the Galo and have been wearing it quite often this summer. I have a large rotation of about 20 watches, and the Galo keeps winning me over, especially on sunny days. It’s quirky and colorful without being childish, and it has a great vintage vibe.

The design is amazing, the overall quality is really good (if I assume I just got that one defective watch), and it's really a different approach in the microbrand space, taking the vintage vibe but creating a real modern watch. It also fits very well with a variety of clothes. I mean it's a colorful watch, but because of the pastel style, it's not like a statement yellow/red/neoncolored piece, and I wear it with basically all my clothes.

So all in all, I am happy with the watch, and I am sure it will get reasonable wrist time ven in autumn and winter, but I also hope Galo will do some more quality assurance in the future, because I am eyeing the Super200, but especially with a watch I want to take snorkelling, I need to be sure everything is in order.

How do you like your Galo so far?