Going to come at it from the other side. I find it off putting when brands try to manufacture and sell “identity”, to reinforce consumption by selling the customer their own self-image. Tudor does that too, but marketing people all go to the same schools and come up with the same crap most of the time.

I don’t want people think anything of me because of the watch I wear, based on the marketing and public perception of that brand. I’d rather hear “that’s a nice watch” and not “that a nice X!” and be put in a pigeonhole based on what I wear, other than it looks nice and I wear it confidently. If that makes sense.

I got that : ) but I could not resist the joke.

I see people here are already saying what I was about to say, which is why stop there, keep hammering!!

You have an opportunity to replace the case and the bezel assembly and anything else you want. However, once you get the parts, consider getting a watchmaker or fellow enthusiast involved to rebuild the watch. You’ll also need a few pieces of equipment, and while not expensive, they can add up quickly, making one mod too costly

also, the movement may not have taken kindly to all the shocks, so see if it still runs within spec

Local man vandalizes watch. Complains it’s fake. News at 11.

Bremont uses an ETA with a GMT module, which is, like all of its clones, a caller GMT. You can find plenty of GMT travelers for the money. I don’t mind ETA movements, the point is that GMT here is has a lot of competition out there

I handled a few of their watches, and they made good impression on me, they have charm, but between ETA movement and the price tag edging on Tudor territory they make little sense to me. And their new CEO knows that. Expect cheaper new models and new in-house GMT later this year

“We have Sinn at home” 🤣

They are sufficiently different to stand apart, while being quite similar, so there is inevitable comparison and “hatred of small differences”. Damasko always looked to me like Sinn minimalism pushed even farther. I can see how people that like Sinn may like Damasko as even more Sinn than Sinn

Now that’s a watch with some chest hair

While boxes are nice, beautiful even, they are objectively useless, unless one perhaps keeps the watch in it. But then how many watches can be kept in boxes and readily accessible? Two, three? The shelf space runs out fast. So what I realized is that these boxes almost comedically suggest this is the only, or one of the few watches I own! To which I smirk, and put the box in the closet to never see the light again. From commercial standpoint luxury box had become an expectation. From a practical standpoint for collectors they had become a nuisance.

Maybe moving to Apple packaging strategy could be a compromise? A box that is beautiful and luxurious, and yet entirely of paper and cardboard?

However, designing and manufacturing such box would not be any cheaper than a wooden one, considering labor and custom manufacturing equipment, but the environmental impact would obviously be much smaller. Let’s hope the industry trend to move away from leather in watch straps picked up by some luxury brands will spread to wasteful packaging too.

As for Orion packaging, the box vs pouch argument is moot to me. Nobody will pass a good watch even if it’s shipped in a paper bag (as long as it’s well packaged 😅). Nobody will buy a watch for its box.