How do you grade the watches when reviewing it?

I use my experience against other watches and try to imagine what others expectations might be.

I love my Seikos, and while it is a high quality watch, it is not as high quality as my Ball, which is not as high as my Oris, which is not as high as my Longines or Omega. Does that mean I give it a 1? No, but I certainly don’t give it a 5. A Seiko w/o QC issues probably gets a 3 for quality. Dial is probably also a 3 as is the movement. Wearability usually goes up for Seiko divers. Design is completely subjective.

So, really good watches, that I own and love come out around a 3 average because they are as expected.

But how can u grade a 3 to a 500£ seiko diver in terms of quality comparing it to the Omega? Which is 15 times more expensive. Logically for an Omega to be a 5 on the same scale where Seiko is a 3 - Omega should be at least 40 times better quality than seiko. Is it though?

I am one with engineering background, so my answer might be methodical.

A) is everything aligned perfectly

B) does all moving part do so smoothly

C) how much time lost/gain per week

D) is it easy to operate all functions

E) how does it feel on the wrist

F) does it go with your lifestyle and attires

G) is it unique to your collection

H) if applicable, how was customer service?

You are doing a value rating, and you are not considering diminishing returns. A $1000 watch is not twice as good as a $500 watch. How does your piece compare to others that are priced similarly, and how does it compare to more expensive and less expensive pieces? If it is of higher quality that more expensive pieces, it’s probably a 5. If it is as expected at that price point, it’s probably a 3.

Looking at my Tissot PRX vs my Hamilton Khaki Field, I’d rate my Khaki as a 3 in quality and finishing, but my PRX as a 4. They are similarly priced, but the finishing of the Tissot is well above its price point whereas the Khaki is as expected.

How does your Vostok compare to a Seiko 5 diver? Seiko ProSpex? Casio Duro?

I took a look at your review, and I’m not trying to criticize you, but am responding to your post. Please take what I am saying as a “different perspective”. You can draw your own conclusion. That said, you ranked the wearability as a 5, but had this to say in your review:

“It wear bigger than it is, and the crown is quite big too. Hopefully with a nato strap it will wear smaller, because I am mot sure it looks good on me.”

Maybe I’m considering purchasing the watch and I see that it’s super wearable based on your review, only to find out that it a chunky square and uncomfortable. Maybe you feel strongly that despite it being big, with a non tapering bracelet that you aren’t planning on keeping on the strap, that it will still wear well. Is it really a 5?

It’s your opinion, one man’s trash is another one’s treasure. Don’t worry about it.

Your review and point scaling is just as valid as their comments/responses, as long as they’re civil.

No offence taken, I am trying to improve my scoring scale and understand how it’s done or how it is being done here. I get the point about the comprison of your Khaki and Tissot and I like it, it is quite clear to me, however you are comparing two watches of the same price point and give one a 4, is your PRX almost as good as the Omega that has a 5? I get your point and what you did there with two of your watches is exactly what I think should be done when scoring, but in that case I guess we have to always tell when rating a watch which one we compare it to so people can understand the POV from which we rate.

You are completely right about this part! I would say my 5 in terms of wearability was considering it is a big watch and I have a small wrist, so me buying a watch not my size is not a fault of the watch but mine, and lower the score because I have a skinny wrist seems wrong to me. As for a 130$ watch I believe it has an okay bracelet, and if we consider that the money mostly went into the movement and waterproofness + a beautiful dial = I would say the bracelet is an A quality. I am aure someone with bigger wrist would wear that much better! That was my reasoning

Guess that’s the ultimate truth, although it means there is 0 point in scoring watches hahaha

Sounds like a good scale to me, the only point I am not so sure about is the wrist part, in the end, we all have different wrist and wht feels weird to me may not do so to you

The comparison to a different watch wouldn’t change the rating. The more experience with different watches gives that understanding. You could throw in my three Seikos, and G-Shock into that category as watches costing between $450 and $650. The Hamilton will always be a three. It was “as expected” at that price point. Two of my Seikos and the G-Shock would also be a three while the Tissot and one Seiko would be a 4.

Even if I compare it to my Omega, it’s still a 3. I have an expectation and it met my expectation. It’s just easier to compare it to other watches at a similar price point if you don’t have much hands on experience.

How often i enjoy wearing them.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Or in modern terms…give zero Fracks about what others think

The thing is, when comparing to an Omega which is a 5, it means that it exceeded all you expectations enormously? Because otherwise it would be a 3? And I may sound weird, but if I have to pay 6000£ for a watch, I would have quite high expectations as it is a lot of money (maybe it is just my poor or pragmatic POV), and if my expectations were high because I paid a lot of money for it that it has to be a 3? And for it to be a 5 it would have to be some insanely unique dial or some level of finishing like in AP or JLC? I have never had anythinf besides a few rolexes in my hand so it’s hard to judge, I am just imagining a situation.

Hahaha so true, this is also going to be the dawn of our society, but that’s a conversation for a different chat😂

Sounds good!

I never said my Omega was a 5, but they are known to be of higher quality than more expensive watches, as is JLC. You can have a Vostok that is a 5. Especially if you can’t get anything like that at that cost.

That said, why did you give it a 5 for wearability? What about the watch made it insanely comfortable to wear?

That is true and that's where the subjective portion comes in

I have answered you about the wearability in the other comment:) I saw you rated your Omega in one of our first comments, sorry if I misinterpreted

Missed your comment on wearability.

Let me ask this question. What would have to be different for you to give a watch a 4 or lower?

The most important thing for me is value for money. I hate to be ripped of, and also cant stand the feeling of buyers remorse, when discovering a better spec watch for simular price and in simular style that I bought.

Funnily, I recently started to compare every new purchase to the chinese specials avalaible (pagani, steeldive,san martin etc...)

These brands are the proof that it is possible to offer a quality watch for a reasonable price.

If a watch costs more than a 100, and doesent have sapphire and proper water resistance, I REALLY have to like it to justify the purchase. This grading sistem of mine kills many watches of my list unfortunatelly (Seiko is the most painful to let go) but right now, Im just not willing to spend so much money, only for brand and heritage.

Great question! As I understand wearability, it is how the watch fits and also includes the strap, so I think the first part is VERY subjectuve and changes from person to person, for example I have very long arms and thin too, so there is technically enough space for a big watch but it looks ridiculous, and someone with shorter arms and thicker wrists can rock this 41mm and be just as happy as I am. So give anything lower than 5 in my opinion is pointless as the category is very subjective. As for the strap, as I sad, it weights a lot, full steel, 3 micro adjustments, good clasp, sits tight, and considering it’s a watch with a very low price (70$ just two years ago) I think the stap is great. But, ofc it is not good for me personally because its wide and looks like some jewellery bracelet hahaha

If we are talking about all the scorings, I would say I would not give a 5 if it wouldn’t have manual winding as well as automatic winding, for me it’s class and super useful. I generally wouldn’t give a 5 to quartz watches as I, personally, do not think there is any art in making the a quartz watch. There is something magical in winding a watch, knowing dozens of springs will start moving in a moment and make a watch do it’s job.

I feel you so much Patrik, I guess it’s our eastern mentality, or it’s because we are young and can’t just spend money on anything we like and that’s why we want to find “the best” watch.

Although I feel like if we compare new purchases to Chinese brands, we won’t buy any watches but Chinese… hahaha I have a PD in my Aliexpress cart, the crono similsr to one you have, and the price with the coupons and coins is 30€ and 43€ for an automatic crono! We are talking sapphire glass, 100m wr, chronograph with date complication, great sizing in below 40mm and overall great looking watches.. It is just impossible to beat in my opinion, just 30€ its insane…

Oh sorry you haven’t bought the chrono yet, right? I am also looking at the explorer yo have, in ice mint dial, how was your time wearing it, do you recommend it?

No I havent bought a chrono, only bought the explorer recently. It is a great watch, very comfortable due to the size and thickness. It is the v2 edition, with the seiko nh34 I think. Works great, keeps accurate time, and I took many showers and have washed many dishes with the watch on, and it passed all the tests beautifully.😁

I would definitely reccomend it if your looking for an affordable, classy but still tooly mid size auto.

Everyone rates everything 5/5 on here, even if there are flaws, I’d suggest you just grade honestly and you’ll be fine.

As an owner, if you love it, that’s all that matters. As a reviewer that’s a bit trickier.

There is no logic to reviews here and strictly in the eye of the owner, which has a built in purchaser bias, as well as recency bias. That’s why just about every watch is five stars.

I think so too

That is a good way! That’s how I would do that too

Don't worry about the grading, just write a nice text. Someone who can't be bothered reading isn't going to get the info but that's their loss.

People will tell you, when it has flaws you cannot give it 5/5. I tend to disagree with that, 5/5 is feasible even if there are flaws. I think that if something cannot be imroved without severely jeopardising other aspects (including the price point), there is some logic to giving it 5/5. In general you can't know if it could have been done better for the same price, but if there is nothing out there that does it better for the price without making a compromise elsewhere then I can see why one would give it 5 stars.

Otherwise every watch over 9mm thick, everything would be better if every watch was 9mm thick like a Patek Philippe Nautilus, is top heavy and half the watches out there get at most 2 stars in wearability. Same goes for bracelets, if you grade everything against the solidity of Rolex Oyster and the comfort of their Jubilee then most stuff is going to look bad.... even if it is more than adequate. You obviously can't expect a Rolex quality bracelet on a Vostok, that doesn't mean there is something wrong with the Vostok. At least in my opinion...