W/NW Let's see some wristwatches! (II)

There are reissues and I love them, but there is nothing like the originals.

Both are from 1960s.

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Cool Timex Marlin :)
 
You have to be impressed with what the Chinese are doing of late both with camera lenses and as it turns out - with watches.

I recently stumbled across the brand Parnis - a Chinese watch brand sold exclusively on the internet. The interesting thing is that they still make many models with traditional Swiss style, mechanical movements - both hand wound and self winding. The cost usually runs to between $100 and $150 US (less for manually wound versions and a little more for those with the Sapphire crystal glass option). Many also have a transparent rear closure to make the internal movement visible when removed from the wrist. The watches are often styled on (but not copies of) watch designs by Swiss, Italian etc companies like IWC Shaffhausen, Panerei etc. Surprisingly, the reviews I have read are pretty good especially for their low price as while they are clearly not collectibles worth thousands they seem to be solidly and skillfully made and suited to day to day use by those with a champagne taste and a beer budget. If you look at some of the enlarged photos below you can see the internals are not the super polished jewels like Swiss collectibles but you would not expect them to be. Nevertheless they are far from being poor quality.

I have just bought a rather nice looking pilots style watch and am awaiting its arrival.

The following were downloaded from the internet for demonstration purposes.

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parnis-mens-ortugal-style-automatic-watch-seagull-movement_05.jpg


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Having said the above just to prove I am not totally a cheap ass :^) I should add that the following (or a model very like it) is my favorite watch. It was my dads old watch which he gave me as a gift. It is in rose gold and is beautiful though given its personal significance to me, I am too scared of losing it to wear it often.

Inge-LS-RG-852.jpg
 
You have to be impressed with what the Chinese are doing of late both with camera lenses and as it turns out - with watches.

I recently stumbled across the brand Parnis - a Chinese watch brand sold exclusively on the internet..

Peter you've strike...gold...
like coffee grower in S America, there should have a 'fair trade agreement', that you should pay 'more' for these kind of level of quality...:D

My Parnis, gmt, 40mm, ceremic bezel, sappire crystal, Chinese Minzu automatic movement...

photo
by
taipei metro

American Amazon sells Parnis and one other Chinese brand 'Phoibos' at a higher price point and quality, check out youtube for the review...and of course for those allergic to the word 'Chinese Made', Please stay away from Parnis, 'I am a Professional here'
 
Peter you've strike...gold...
like coffee grower in S America, there should have a 'fair trade agreement', that you should pay 'more' for these kind of level of quality...:D

My Parnis, gmt, 40mm, ceremic bezel, sappire crystal, Chinese Minzu automatic movement...

photo
by
taipei metro

American Amazon sells Parnis and one other Chinese brand 'Phoibos' at a higher price point and quality, check out youtube for the review...and of course for those allergic to the word 'Chinese Made', Please stay away from Parnis, 'I am a Professional here'

I agree they make fine watches. I was so amazed I spent several days just scanning the internet on and off to look at their range. I think another is definitely on the cards for me. Your Parnis looks terrific but I already have a somewhat similar diving watch so next time I think I will go for a fully automatic mechanical watch (i.e. self winding) with a sapphire crystal. Possibly this one is an option which looks more or less loosely styled on the IWC "Big Pilot" and I love the look of its timeless classic style.

new-44mm-parnis-blue-dial-luminous-marks-6497-movement-hand-winding-mens-watch.jpg
 
I'm really happy that large watches are now popular -- enables me to get the interesting small watches for a good price!

Huber Nautica, 1930's German, with a new strap from FinWatchStraps out of Finland:


Huber Nautica
by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
My occasionally worn LL Bean wristwatch went missing in our recent move.
I just won an auction for this vintage model from a noted photo manufacturer:

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Please pardon the poor quality of the eBay image.

Chris
 
been getting into Horology again and bought 2 watches this year after owning only 2 the past 5 years.
Untitled by e Dieta, on Flickr

have one more coming and if I like it, then I will start saving for my dream watch.


Seiko Prospex 200m Titanium Dive Watch
Built like a tank, light as a feather

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I've read that that watch is very light due to its titanium case, seriously interested on getting one too but might settle with the SKX013 first as I like smaller watches
 
Here's an odd one -- the watch itself is a 7-jewel Elgin pendant watch, circa 1915. When I bought this watch many years ago, it came with this conversion clamp setup that transformed it into a wrist watch. However, it had one of those super-thin metal expandable bands that basically cut the circulation off your wrist. So I brought it to my jeweler at the time and he fashioned a set of lugs in 14k so that they could accept a standard 14mm wide strap. He also added the little loop on one of the lugs so I could a safety chain with it.

The strap still isn't quite right for me, as it has a taper, but that's easily remedied. The nice thing about this setup is that you can remove the pendant watch and swap it out for another if you wanted. The Elgin is about 30mm wide, but the holder can accommodate a pendant/pocket watch up to about 35mm. A nice solution for pendant watches that aren't particularly useful nowadays.


Elgin Pendant13
by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
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