Another Merkur on Fluco nooshoos...

...and, again, thanks to Holben's for a short classic smooth no-stitch leather strap. Just right to keep interest on the dial.

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What do you think of the watch? I keep seeing a similar Mercury with a salmon dial that looks really nice.

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It's a very budget watch...with a lot of style and a perfectly workable Chinese standard/Tongji mechanical movement. Mine easily keeps good enough time for non-critical day-to-day wear.

Is it a $500 watch? No. Is it good value at its price point: Oh yeah, I think certainly.

I wouldn't recommend it for daily wear in adverse conditions, but for office wear (especially in a rotation) or evening, sure. Perfect for that.

And, yup, the salmon dial version is a real looker, too. I'm thinking of getting the black dial...

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Sorry, can't tell from the discussion: What is the brand/model? Cool dial.

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pdxwatch1

Sorry, can't tell from the discussion: What is the brand/model? Cool dial.

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Thanks. The salmon dial is nice. May be a dumb question, but how can it be a mechanical watch and only $99?

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The Chinese standard/Tongji movement is one of the most ubiquitous watch movements in the world.

For decades, in fact, it was the centrally mandated movement produced by all but three watch factories in the country. And for good reason--it made repair and upkeep easy as movement parts from one factory were very much mostly directly swappable for parts from elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_standard_movement

http://chinesewatchwiki.net/Chinese_Standard_Movement (more details here.)

Although it's true that the Tongji quality had declined some since the 70s and 80s, companies like Merkur are modifying the manufacture and QC to meet better standards again.

The movement design itself is decent--all depends on QC and assembly.

There's a great discussion in this Watchuseek thread. https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/merkur-vintage-style-three-handers-using-tongji-chinese-standard-movement.5370922/