Most Disappointing Purchase?

Omega Speedmaster '57 (first gen)

• Absolutely gorgeous!  But...
• 52mm lug-to-lug
• Male end links so protrudes even further
• 16mm thickness!

Totally unwearable!!!

It's like this gal, Nykki, I used to hang out with in NYC in my younger days.  The most gorgeous gal I ever laid eyes on, but after a few hours of hanging out with her, I'd be like, "I wanna shoot myself."  Would make excuses and take off.  Then, a couple of days later, I'd be sitting there, thinking about her looks, and I'd call her up to hang out again, which would result in, "I wanna shoot myself."  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Believe it or not this is a really easy one for me - I have quite a few watches so one would think this could be a hard question to answer - Nope - very easy.

The worst experience I've had also revolves around the bracelet.

Brand: Ollech & Wajs

Model: Ocean Graph (Tribute to 1968 Ocean Graph)

I paid US$1,835 for this watch purchased directly from the brand and it was brand new.

What I received was a solid well-made watch with the worst, clearly Chinese-made, BOR bracelet that was worse than many Aliexpress bracelets. 

The bracelet had screwed in links which generally is a mark of quality. Not in this case. The screws fell apart as I tried to unscrew them from the links. This was not operator error either - I have literally fitted hundreds of bracelets of all types: pin/collar, cotter pin, screwed in links, etc.

In addition to the sh&%ty screwed in links, the bracelet was poorly made and full of sharp edges.

Absolutely unacceptable for a watch that was almost $2k.

I have never purchased another O&W and would never recommend them to any collector.

I guess the only O&W I would consider purchasing would be a proper vintage model.

Here's the model I purchased:

Moral of the story - just because it looks good in the picture doesn't mean it will be when you have it in hand in the metal.

I purchased a really nice RIOS1931 blue alligator strap and fitted that to the watch - I know - why did I put an alligator strap on a dive watch - just because...it's looks awesome on the blue gator.

Beautiful watch. Sounds similar to my story. I am still contemplating finding a rubber strap.

Definitely - the tropic rubber straps look great on Zodiac SSW. 

Here are some examples:

The biggest let down so far for me is the Dissing Mk9 (yes I know the name is a little silly). I’ve been interested in this brand for a while they’re manufactured by one of my favourite watch shops I’ve heard some good things and thought this one looked nice. I wanted a green watch and bit the bullet and bought it. It came in a nice leather roll with a couple of alternate straps and I think it all looked great. It came on a bracelet which I switched out for the NATO and it didn’t feel right tried the rubber band and had the same problem. I’m hoping I’ll get used to it as I like the look of it but it isn’t comfortable and that’s been disappointing. 

I bought my Corniche about four years ago, and I was initially excited when I received it, but soon the utter disappointment swept me away from wearing it.

I heard about the brand when visiting a clothing store, and the man who mentioned it seemed to know his watches so I trusted his judgement. The designs were clean, very refined and it was very affordable for a watch that looked so much like the likes of the 5070 from Patek.

After a very short honeymoon phase, I soon realised that something was very off. First, the weight. It is oddly light although not in titanium and the strap feels very cheap - Hirsch does much better for quite cheap. Then, the click of the pusher of the chronograph feels like it will break at some point. Finally, it does not really have its singularity and is just an homage piece. There is nothing wrong with that at all, but it is not for me and I would have liked to at least something of their own trademark on the hands for instance, or perhap a twist on one of the sub-dials to detach themselves from Patek. 

It is a nice shade of green, I’ll give you that.

this… it’s an odd beast. I struggle to understand Seiko-hype, and now when I cross the picket line, and get a classic model, it’s incredibly disappointing. I think it looks too narrow because of the 20mm lug length, and due to the thickness it’s quite an odd wear as a result. Thin and fat? Wide and long? I’ve had to put it on a well worn strap to make it comfortable. The movement is noisy as it winds - it’s louder than my Timex Marlin reissued Miyota and my vintage Orient diver combined. It is not particularly remarkable in any way, so I think it’s probably priced about right at the price I got it for (which is far less than what I see these on sale for) but I doubt will actually increase in value too much (nor should it). I should be happy a 1965 auto can keep decent time, but I have Swiss ones from the same era that also do it, and don’t sound like an angry wasp.

Found a wrist shot of the O&W on the blue gator strap...I thought it came out alright.

My most disappointing purchase was the Starking Lambda homage. 

The main part of the disappointment was just in myself, failing to spot that the homage to Nomos's power reserve was not a power reserve, just smoke and mirrors. It was in the listing if you looked closely, and I did not. I was being an idiot.

The second disappointment was the mesh it came with. I had expected it to be bad and already ordered a replacement strap before the watch arrived, and that's the strap in the pic. Still, that original mesh was uncomfortable bordering unwearable, and nigh impossible to manipulate in length.

The third disappointment was the movement. Well, it is a 28,800 in-house movement, but it rattled like a tambourine in an Abba song. The concept of "in-house" is over-rated.

The looks were also a let-down, albeit only slightly. This was supposed to ooze blueness like the Pacific on a sunny day. Instead, in most lighting conditions it looks black, at best a very dark blue - and you need full on sunshine to make this thing actually bling.

The watch wasn't a lot of money, so there was a lot of "you get what you pay for", but still...

In my case it has to be the #smiths  Expedition and, as a collateral damage, the Smiths Everest. In this case it was not that much about the watches, the first one being kind of a reissue and the later a direct design copy, but because of the awful bully like behavior of the owner of #timefactors. 

I had a question about one of the end links of the Expedition not fitting well and all I got from the single person in charge of the company was nasty totally unacceptable messages I documented and exposed. 

Such an unacceptable experience made me sell both watches as when looking at them could not stop thinking of how I was treated. 

Ever since I have been warning people about this individual and individually owned company I used to praise and recommend.

I won't go into my own personal experience with the Eddy the clown as I call him, suffice to say, luckily we live on the other-side of the world from each other. If was to personally meet this man only one of us would be walking away from the conversation assisted  🤬 and that wouldn't be me 💯 I've never conversed with anyone as rude as this man when trying to purchase something, especially from his own business. The man has no common decency or respect for any potential customer. Never again, even if I was to receive one of his watches for free, I would either give it away or throw it in the bin where it belongs 👍

Yes, I thought of paying him a visit to know if he's really as tough in person as he's rude online. But some people are simply not worth wasting time. His own action speak louder than we can do. All I hope is people, and specially some YouTube channels, start pointing the risk of buying from him.

@marioap and @TonyXXX He’s that bad, huh?  I’ve been looking at a PRS-29A for a while now and was seriously considering attempting to get one, but with stories like these, I’m kind of scared to do that.

I have to agree here! I purchased a couple of Starking watches for myself when they unveiled the 28,800 bph movement. Well, let me just say that the Miyota stutter is nothing compared to the Starking leap! The movement would stall and then jump up to 5 seconds at a time. This was the purchase that made me realize there are times when the YouTube community leaps before really taking a good long look. When this movement first came out, everyone on YouTube was really talking it up as a hi beat movement anyone could afford, a great value, and I jumped on it. It wasn't until a bit later that reviews started appearing discussing the problems with the movement. Granted, the watches weren't expensive, but I did learn a lesson about taking YouTube watch reviews with a grain of salt. 😀

Frederique Constant slimline open heart; bought into the Youtube hype, from various channels, and actually on paper, this was a very attractive watch that I never connected with in person.  Even tried using a different strap to no avail, and eventually ended up selling it (thankfully for a profit).

Oris Aquis 🙄

It was the 1st lux watch I had ever purchased and when I received it, I was super bummed. It was so plain and boring. It didn't feel good on my wrist, and almost made me reconsider lux watches. I'm glad I kept going and trying others. Because of that experience I have no plans to ever own an Oris. It's simply not for me.

My response upon receipt....

Baltic BiCompax

I was an early adopter to the brand and was excited to pick it up. Lamentably, the experience with them killed my interest in the watch and with the brand. I might have purely been unlucky but having them send me a watch with a dead movement TWICE was a buzzkill. Moreover, when I paired the watch with the optional beads of rice bracelet, the endlinks didn’t fit flush to the case leaving a large unsightly gap. Again, I could have been the random winner of some lemons, but it definitely had me disappointed. #collecting 

Thanks for sharing, stories like that have stopped me from even considering Baltic. Sorry to see that happen.

PHOIBOS LEVIATHAN PY032A 
a very big ass watch thicc strap and quite heavy but the performance is superb tho

Most recent disappointment. It ran slow by 90+ seconds over 24 hours, way outside Seiko’s published spec, so back it went to Seiko. Now it runs OK but really, why didn’t you all regulate it in the factory? And as this is a limited US only edition, you would hope they took extra care but obviously they didn’t. So, very disappointing. 

Same brand, same story but the diver on an impulse buy.  They have no business charging what they do for these.  It is sitting in the box nearly unworn.  I'll likely give it away to a niece or nephew... something like that. I don't want to sell it to an enthusiast, even at a steep discount.

Thanks for this! I've had an Ollech & Wajs in my sights for a while but always hesitated. It's now off my list. 

My most disappointing purchase was Yema, specifically their $2,250 Yachtingraf Heritage. I loved its retro design and colorful dial, plus the yachting connection was great since I kinda follow that sport. When I got it, I was instantly put off by the 15.3mm thickness and the tall sides. It has the proportions of a cupcake. The Valjoux 7753 added further disappointment as the noise of the spinning rotor was distractingly loud, especially if you set it down on a table or desk. 

The worst part, however, was the super busy chapter ring around the dial perimeter. It's jammed full of numbers, with "10" at 12 o'clock, counting up to "M" at about 2:15, and then eventually going from "25" back to "3" at 5 o'clock and the pi symbol π a few minutes later. I was initially intrigued about this cryptic numbering so emailed Yema to find out how to use it, specifically the pi symbol. Their answer:  the markings are “mainly for aesthetic purpose. It makes the watch looks more complicated and thus makes it more eye catching too.”

Soooo...they are meaningless and thus the dial is meaninglessly cluttered? I sold it within a few weeks and will never again buy a Yema.

I wrote an entire article about it on Two Broke Watch Snobs, if you're interested in the full details of my disappointment...and some things I liked about it. 😕

Oh Seiko, how you always let us down with your QC. 

• They say all’s well that ends well and while this episode was frustrating and disappointing, it ended well. So.... In retrospect I probably should have just bought a different, far less expensive turtle but I bought that one while on vacation pretty much on impulse; I got taken in by the gray fade dial. And it was featured on a poster displayed inside the store. BTW, needed gray in the collection. 

Same here. I just sold my antique green version. Nice watch but I didn't bond with it.

Zelos Mako V3. 

Nice enough watch but never really bondef with it.

the Nomos Orion. This watch is so photogenic, I had wanted one so bad and it was my grail for a while. 

 

I tried so hard to like it, but at the end of the day it is just way to dressy for who I am. 

Gshock, have bought 3 and sold each one almost immediately, oversized and look like toys.