What spec did you fail to notice?
You know the drill: you liked a watch online, looked at the spec, all was fine, pondered a bit over it, and then pulled the trigger. A little later your new toy arrives, you unpack, and FFS, you had failed to notice X!
So, what was X in your case?
I had quite a few Xs, here are a couple:
- my first purchase on Ali was the depicted (from product listing) Corgeut/Parnis. What was the problem? You can see it in the pic if you look closely enough: the hour hand. In a type-B flieger the thing is supposed to point to the hour circle, and this goes well over it. Once it is on your wrist the issue screams at you, and I pretty much immediately bought a flieger without that issue.
- yesterday my new SanMartin dress watch arrived; not an homage, it's SM's own design, looked as beautiful in real life as on the website, if not better, but: the thing weighs a ton, well, slightly less, but still 176g. This info was there, on the listing, but that this would be an issue had not crossed my mind, until I held it in my hand.
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Balthazar
UK-based German expat. Likes cheap watches. Not bothered about brands.
Member since
Last active: 4 hrs ago
If buying from Ali you should expect more than a few X's. more like A-Z's.
As long as it's not glaring, like a missing hand or misprinted dial you're doing OK.
Can't expect <100 dollar watches to have the attention to detail of much more expensive one.
If buying from Ali you should expect more than a few X's. more like A-Z's.
As long as it's not glaring, like a missing hand or misprinted dial you're doing OK.
Can't expect <100 dollar watches to have the attention to detail of much more expensive one.
Well, the SanMartin is >$250 and is very well put together etc. I was not talking about QC issues - I had so far no QC issues yet with Ali. My point here is just parts of the spec/design I did not like, that were present on the website for all to see, but that just failed to pull my attention.
San Martin makes nicenice watches.I like some weight in my watches but 176g for a dress watch is a bit of overkill. I assume it's on a bracelet.
San Martin makes nicenice watches.I like some weight in my watches but 176g for a dress watch is a bit of overkill. I assume it's on a bracelet.
it does come on bracelet, but the watch itself is heavy. Not sure why - I have the same movement (a pt5000) in another watch that is a lot lighter. Apparently they were trying to please the "I want a substantial watch" crowd, perhaps because their customer base buys divers.
It comes with a spare nato strap which would lighten the load, but this is a bracelet watch. I still have to take out a bunch of links anyway, that'll reduce the weight a little.
But all this moan aside: it didn't occur to me that weight would potentially be an issue for watches other than Invicta Hockeypucks and the finest from Hublot. Lesson learned, another thing to be concerned about.
I bought a Brew retromatic with the NH35 movement (they offered some of the different colors with a Sellita movement). it was advertised as 10.5mm thick, but that must have been the Sellita versions because I measured mine at 11.5mm (different caseback). That doesn’t sound too bad except it was 11.5mm thick through the whole case, just one big slab of metal. I couldn’t do it
Watch topic aside, I never buy anything from ali, taobao of sort. I dont even have any accounts on those platform. The information being collected and monitored along the transaction can potentially do a lot more harm than good, just my 2 cents 🙌🏼
I bought a Citizen chrono, but the chrono seconds hand only ticks once per second ☹️
Usually buying one that's too big for me. I mean I check the diameter and lug width, but until very recently I always forgot to check the lug to lug. I've made that mistake to many times