Відео

IMHO this watch would be perfect with the chapter ring and the whole textured dial. For a flat crystal chapter ring is a must have.

Why not just change the strap?

👍

I recently bought a Damasko DC-72 (with green chrono hands). I am delighted. Thank you Damasko. On my timegrapher, I measured its accuracy to range between 0 spd and 1 spd amongst the six positions. The hands are perfectly aligned. There is no disruptive 'jump' of the second hand when engaging the chronograph. Under the watchmaker loupe, the dial and hands are immaculate, without a nick or speck of dust. I awoke last night at 3am; the lume on the hands and indices were clearly glowing and visible in the darkness of my bedroom. The surface hardened finish on its stainless steel case gives it the appearance of sandblasted titanium - grey and without any sparkle. This is perfectly finished and colored as a 'field watch' or 'tool watch'. The watch is rated for 10 ATM / 100 meters water resistance. The crown is screw down. I read from Damasko's website that the chronograph pushers can be activated under water - this is rare for chronographs. I can 'feel' the bushing (gaskets) on the crown and pushers - suggesting confirmation of its water proofness. The best part of the chronograph is that, when the chrono is not activated, the chrono is almost non-existent ... there are no sub-dials, since the chrono hands are center stacked. This German-made watch clearly upholds the principles and promise of 'German engineering'. The watch is foremost an instrument of function (tool watch). It is made with high grade stainless steel with a surface hardening treatment. The crystal is sapphire, and protected with a bezel that guards the edge of the crystal. The crown is large and properly knurled - giving an easy and positive grip (purchase) when winding. The self-winding rotor obviates any attention from the daily wearer. The dial is clean, without any script, save for the manufacturer ("Damasko"). The hands are pronounced. I can read the time with a brief flick of my wrist and fleeting gaze of my eyes; this is rare for a chronograph, which usually has a dial cluttered with sub-dials. The leather watch strap has a nice thread stitching that has a green finishing thread that compliments the green of the chronograph hands. The underside of the strap has a rubber surface adhered to the leather; this should give the leather some protection against sweat off my wrist. I have added two third-party watch straps. One is a thick suede leather strap with a butterfly deployant strap; this is for style and convenience of daily fitting. The other is a rubber strap with pin/buckle; this is for heavy sports and swimming. I have a watch collection, including various styles and brands. This Damasko 'field watch', with very capable '100m swimming' and rugged construction, it has become one of my most frequent daily watches. I have since sold my Tudor BlackBay 58 in preference for the Damasko.

Hello James, thank you for the review. Can you please tell us what is your wrist size?

I have no watches into 5 figures………but close. And I have several Quartz watches. They are beauties. My TAG chronograph Glass Box in 39 mm is (with Bracelet ) is around $7K. At a tenth of the price, I wear my Zelos Mako lll , a true GMT & 300 M diver to boot. I often “Schwartzcoph” and wear both! Thanks for another fine vid James!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this video absolutely spot on!

I have a bunch of watches, quartz and mechanical, and for me it's not so much about one being better than the other, they just have different strengths. For chronographs, quartz is the way to go unless you want to spend real money, and of course quartz has the accuracy and longevity. But mechanical has more charm, more soul, so I generally prefer it. As for grab and go, I usually have 2 or 3 running watches at any given time, so that's not really an issue. Most of my collection is in another room, and the quartz watches have their crowns pulled to save the batteries, so it's not really any faster to get a quartz ready. One little trick is when I lay up a quartz, I pull the crown when the seconds hand is on 12, that way I can jump directly to setting it next time I pull it out.

OK, I'm going to say it, I'm not a fan of drilled lugs. In my experience drilled lugs just give the ham fisted an opportunity to show their skills, I'd prefer a scratch on the inside of the lugs personally. Bulova smooth sweep quartz are the ones I've kept, just cool.

I do not buy quartz or chronographs or GMT watches. I have some Eco drive Citizens and Bulovas which I almost never wear. I do not sell watches so they will sit in my watch boxes until the bitter end....

I’m on my second stint of watch collecting. Stint 1 ran from 2007-2012. My views then very much followed what was on trend, so my collection was full collectible vintage from recognised brands. But what come with that was an air of snobbery and I’d turn my nose up to certain (perceived) lesser brands. Also I followed trend about the movements. So, was it lemania, valjoix, eta, in-house, high-frequency, running-fork. And I just wasn’t interested in a ticking quartz. Stint 2. 2023 onwards… I must admit I’m starting with a much different budget and thus mindset. I kinda feel like I’ve been there and done that, so have little desire to chase the next in-vogue thing. Rolex just bores me (done that with a Dweller 16600), and so I’ve done buying into the hype albeit I do accept they are bombproof. So now as long as the piece has a reliable and proven movement, (so Seiko NH/VK is perfect), then I’m much more interested in aesthetics. This is where AliE has come in and in a relatively short space I’ve bought around 40 pieces, each one no less researched, and each one satisfying my desire for a certain design aesthetic. I’ve taken no less joy from this brief stint to first time around. Perhaps more? I’m not having to worry about damage, servicing costs or security. I think I’m almost done too, and financially I’m not too deep so not having to think about flipping to finance the next want or need.

‘Received wisdom’ can plague any hobby eg all Seikos are great, everyone should own a Speedy, or all Aliexpress watch are rubbish - none of which is true. Regularly reconsidering your preferences, your needs, how you live, will inform your watch choices better, and everyone’s tastes change over time anyway. Hype and influencers detract from making the right choice for YOU. There’s no such thing as a perfect watch and I would venture that grails are an artificial construct also. Having said all that, a hobby must be fun, otherwise why are doing it? So, you can also over-think. If you’re not wearing any watch, quartz or otherwise, for an extended period, change the strap, change the strap again. If you still don’t wear it, consider selling it. Put it in plain sight for a month or two. If you still don’t wear it, sell it. Make room for future fun.

I have a grab-and-go Longines hydroconquest quartz diver which I wear at the weekends when I'm working physically around the house, or out-and-about elsewhere. Looking at a phone is simply too much effort when mowing lawns or waterblasting. It's soul-less but it's very accurate and (off the basic heavy metal bracelet) it's unobtrusive. Solar would be better but a battery change comes with a change of gaskets and a pressure test every 24 months so I know it's up to being submerged etc. I expect most people don't service their mechanical watches - I haven't as yet - so it's likely that a trusted & maybe not so soul-less quartz that bears some battle scars is more likely to be a family heirloom than a non-luxury mechanical watch. You might think a NH35 movement, Sellita, or a Miyota 9-series will be around in 2044, as well as people to service or replace them - I'm not so sure.

It is my opinion. I do that very thing. That how I can change watches two to three times a day without setting them. I do own mechanical watches but I keep them for special occasions in order to tie memories to them. Sounds odd but then again so I am I. Take care James!

I buy what I like the look of. I enjoy accuracy and quartz gives that in spades. 1/4 of my collection is quartz and I wear them often. Not liking a piece because it’s quartz just seems childish tbh! Folk have drank the coolaid of mechanical watch trumpets, smacks of snobbery. Something the watch industry thrives on. 🙄

UA-cam & life in general is full of people just repeating false information .

For many years, I didn't want a quartz watch having been given mechanical watches as a child. Then a few years ago I went cycling on a rough path for about thirty miles, and when I got home the mechanical watch was broken. I looked into shock resistance watches and realised quartz was the answer, since then I've always had a G-Shock and I've found I really like having watches ready to go and keeping excellent time. Now I have an Oceanus, a metal Casioak and three vh31 AliExpress watches, they're brilliant and I enjoy them just as much as my mechanical watches. I don't agree wih people who say ¨don't waste money on cheap watches, save for one luxury watch¨ for many of us who don't have unlimited funds there can be a lot more fun and less stress buying cheaper watches, but only if that is what we enjoy wearing.

Interesting thoughts , like you I have a few quartz watches in my collection , bought not because they were quartz but because I liked the price and style . I rarely wear them , if I change over a watch it’s part of the fun to start up an automatic and set it up . The quartz watch I use most is my Animal Ti diver from years ago , it’s the literal beater , I gets shoved down post holes and splattered with pant . Does the job though .

My opinion on quartz watches is similar. I tried out a couple solar quartz watches for “grab and go”, which I justified by saying at least they don’t need a battery, but I never ended up wearing them and sold them off. Now my opinion is the only Quartz in my collection is from the mighty Casio. I have about 6 of them, analog and digital and I think Casio is really the kings of quartz. I am considering rethinking this opinion regarding mecaquartz movements because I have had 2 bad experiences lately with vintage mechanical chronographs and I would like some more affordable options besides ST19 based watches.

So it will stop before you over wind it? I was worried about that personally

Great video and everyone has different tastes, wrist sizes, use cases etc. I have around 100 watches now (and I won't part with any of them or would I trade them all in for that one expensive Omega or IWC as I like having different styles and colors!) and I'd say just less than half are quartz, with most being digital. Most are in rotation, some are just to have. I don't see the quartz as grab and go, though I have done that on occasion, but I see them as tools with different use purposes. Cheap Skmei g-shock copies for working in the garden or on the cars, Pagani chronos as 'nice looking' beaters and micro brand quartz watches that just look good, casio musdmasters and tide graphers for fishing/boating etc. I think I have watches from all the main chinese brands now and most of them bought on Ali. I've had no QC issues except for maybe 2 - a cheap Sanda that failed my water tests and a Steeldive that had a hair on the dial. The sanda was binned and the steeldive opened up and hair removed - hah I'm wearing it as I type this. I have another 5 watches coming from the latest 11/11....

Thank you for your review! Just ordered the Smurf version Cronos with PT5000 and with coupons it came to $192 Canadian dollars ($136 USD). I also decided to get the black version from Sugess V2 with St2130 movement $223 Canadian ($158 USD). I can’t wait to see how they compare to my San Martin SN0017 that I got for $160 Canadian ($113 USD)

Good topic James! I have commented on other channels regards to others opinions or comments and have referred to them as sheep 😅. Not going to get into a bun fight about it but classic examples are "Invicta watches are crap and they only make 50mm monstrosities or the Sub homage." Snarky or mickey take comments about Hublot, and this is just my opinion..... because Nico Leonard doesn't like them 😅. I could go on but I hope you get my point. Not trying to offend anyone but after many years of watching UA-cam watch content I have observed both snobbery and hypocrisy are alive and well on both sides of the microphone. 😂 Cheers.

Whenever I’m in too much of a rush in the morning, I just throw one of my autos on without winding & setting it. Then I set it when I have more time later in the day! It usually doesn’t need to be wound at that point.

I don't have a grab and go quartz watch. My phone has the time. If im so rushed, I'll put on my mechanical watch and set it later! I wear a watch for the look of it. My only quartz is a Seiko snda15 diver's chronograph, and so I wouldn't choose to wear it out of a sense of urgency, rather when I'm in the mood to enjoy it 🎉

What makes a watch “better”? I’ve watched your collection move from some very nice obtainable watches for the average ( what I’d see as average) enthusiasts/collector to watches that are outside my budget (which I consider average), what makes them better and better for who? If you mean better for you then great, may not be better for others. Opinions as they say are like a……. etc, as for the quartz grab and go thing, it sounds like you didn’t have the right one, I have 3 in my core collection of 15 watches, a Longines conquest VHP, Glycine combat chronograph and 41mm Seiko speedtimer solar quartz. These are my grab and go watches and I love them they all get wrist time. I didn’t buy them because they were quartz I bought them because I really liked them, hence they get worn a lot.

James, Great topic. I think it is spot on. I'm staring at a couple that I bought for grab and go that I don't choose them to wear. If I'm in a hurry I just grab yesterdays watch, or I take a minute to set the new watch. There are other categories of this topic like you need this type of watch in your collection like a flyers GMT, a chronograph or a dress watch, and they just don't fit into my life. They may be historically significant and are cool, but just not for me.

It sounds a bit like you don’t wear quartz watches because they are quartz. I imagine you have bought a quartz watch because you like the design and practicality of it. Because you don’t wear the watch may be more because you’re not in love with the design or function more than simply ‘because it’s quartz’. In any care. Not enjoying a watch because it is quartz is certainly a valid reason as well. Good topic.

Ive been thinking this for a while. People seem to get trained into liking or hating certain things. Without sinking too deep into evolutionary psychology, it has an underlying basis for fitting in with what everyone else is doing or thinking. Some people i think hate quartz because it's in vogue to do so. As a result every cheap ali watch comes with an nh35, which has a novelty about it that wears off pretty quick. It effectively makes these watches disposable. Until the vk's caught on recently, i dont think we realised just how many people dont care if their sub $100 watch has a quartz movement. Of coarse mechanical watches are awesome and there exists legitimately the purists out there that are just draw to them above all else, but i must admit as someone that likes innovation and design, i love my quartz pieces too! I have a scurfa and a nighthawk that have just as much personality to me as any of my autos, and way more than any nh35 homages ive bought. Just my 2 cents, thanks James 🤘

The problem is that you bought the wrong quartz watch. You should only buy any watch because you want to wear it, then if it happens to be quartz it is the perfect grab and go. It sounds like you never really liked the watch. It's the reason i don't own a single watch that 'every true watch collector ' should own.

Another of my thinking out loud videos.

I have a set of rules for buying watches (which gets revised from time to time), and as long as I am happy, I’m not fussed about what others think. That’s why I only leave positive comments. Because for me, saying something negative serves almost no purpose. You can have productive criticism but saying something nasty just for the sake of being nasty seems unnecessary. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Ya, that's sweet

How is the quality of spinnaker watches?

I fell into the grab-and-go trap very early on when I amassed dozens of department store Casios. I love the brand, they are a big reason I am into watches, but after owning a G-Shock with Tough Solar, all the other quartz watches in my collection sat neglected until their batteries ran down. I even tried getting into vintage Seiko quartz, and while they do enter the wrist rotation from time to time, I have learned grab-and-go for me is any of my watches because I like to be conscientious about what I put on and I like engaging with the watch as I select and put it on for a period of time.

it'd be really cool if you did more videos like this every once in a while where you just discuss your various thoughts on things in the hobby. Really liked the insight here!

Collecting watches is a fun activity to get into, trying a certain style and model in the wrist and then to decide if that model and style is for you or not, that is the funniest part for me, and I am thankful that chinese watches exist, thanks to chinese watches I´ve been able to try watches that I wouldn´t be able to check otherwise, and I don´t care what snobbish clowns may think, I only care about enjoying my hobby.

Hi James the great thing about watch collecting is your opinion will change over time and that's not too say that you are wrong but at that time in your watch journey that was your opinion. And when you ask for viewers opinions they are going to be different depending on where they are in the journey. I can see from your journey you have gone through all types of affordable watches and keep progressing through the watch styles and have moved up on the quality and prices (Christopher ward Oris iwc Tudor etc)this doesn't mean that the more affordable watches aren't good watches but your watch budget has got bigger. when you get to the higher end of watch collecting you will probably find that you will only wear three to five watches regularly and all of the other watches in your collection will just say in the box (that's what happened to me) great thought provoking video thanks John.

Never believe other people's opinions, especially those on social media. That's what they are 'opinions'. Take things with a pinch of salt and make your own mind up.

I have a $20,000 watches and I have $20 watches. I buy what I want and could care less what others think.

Other people’s thoughts don’t become mine, unless there’s evidence supporting their argument. The only way to find this evidence is to try something out. For example, I don’t buy AE clones because originality matters more to me than anything else. I know this because I’ve tried these clones and they always leave me cold and disappointed. Therefore, I only buy original watches within my price range. This opinion is shared by many others, but it ultimately came from personal experience.

Smart people have doubts, stupid people have strong opinions.

Well of course your next watch will be your favorite. I was surprised with your raves of CW that you let the watch go so quickly as you stated how perfect it was. I keep all my watches and don’t sell any of them. The problem with watch collecting is the next watch will be your favorite for about 2 weeks. My wife curtails my buying, that’s why I am still married

It's lovely. What price are you expecting?

It's a gorgeous watch and that little bit different in the looks, shame it's got to go, but if it's not getting worn it's an expensive ornament. We are fickle creatures, buying things, loving them and then moving them on. But this is part of collecting, enjoying a watch and then moving it on to enjoy another watch. We are such a crazy bunch and it's all part of the fun and discovery of this hobby. I'm in the process of shifting a few to release funds (always one with a missing box😤). Cheers James.

I totally get it. I have a few sentimental pieces (mostly gifts) that will never leave the collection. But my tastes and likes have shifted now and then, and I like to experience new types, styles and sizes.

I remember you buying this one, and I still love that dial and case shape. How does it look on a leather strap? Anyway, I admire your ability to sell so easily, I have sold watches, but I have to really dislike them and be 100% sure I'll never want it back and that doesn't happen often.

I believe, at the end of the day, you really don't like this as much as you say you do. You only think you do. Not a criticism, just an observation.

As a broke boy and actual enthusiast who wants watch’s prices to crater, AMZWATCH is a good choice.

I just got into watch collecting. I've loved watches since I was young but I never had anyone teach me or bring deeper into the world. AMZWATCH brought closer to a community and hobby I always wanted to get into more and that is incredibly meaningful to me !