JBird's Watches - Part 1: A RELIC from Days Gone By -- a JUNKet Gift Review

JBird7986

10 months ago

So, inspired by my @Aurelian and @thorhodes-imposed #1wc review of @accutron's U-Boat (found here: https://www.watchcrunch.com/JBird7986/reviews/u-boat-capsoil-review-38670) I decided to start a series of reviews of my own watches. I'm going to try to do them in as close as I can to my own chronological order of acquisition, and I hope you’ll join me on my journey. I honestly don't remember when I got this watch. It must have been in the 1994-1997 timeframe though, as by 1999, I'd moved on in my watches.

Relic was launched as a fashion watch brand in 1990 by the Fossil Group, itself founded in 1984. It was never a luxury good, but their watches were popular for a time in the mid-1990s. This particular example came into my possession through my parents, both physicians, who obtained it as a thank-you gift for attending a drug-company junket to promote Novent and Advair Diskus, a pair of medications put out by GlaxoSmithKline. The drug company had their drug logos placed onto the caseback to remind the folks that they gave the watches to why they had received them.

It's a cheap quartz watch, made of base metal with a stainless steel caseback. It's very small, as well. The crystal is mineral glass, the lume is utter junk, and there's really nothing redeeming about the watch other than the fact that it tells the time. The bracelet is cheap folded metal with a stamped clasp, and its design seems to be a poor knock-off of TAG Heuer's Link, which was a popular watch at the time. As a quartz piece, it's accurate, however, so I have to give the movement that at least.

Bottom line -- I haven't worn this watch in years and don't expect to do so ever again. That's why it sits in its box buried in my closet, only to be dragged out every so often when I clean through my junk. The watch deserves its low rating.