Pretty Carnival

First, let's get the branding issue out of the way. I have labelled this as Carnival, the watch itselfs says I&W Carnival, and the box it came in adds a further Hwguoji at the end, whatever that means.

Speaking of the box, like a Russian doll it comes in two boxes - a box inside a sleave inside a box inside another sleave.

The style of the dial is Junghans-inspired: a homage, if you like. It is not based on any particular model though, but it takes design elements from both the Junghans Max Bill and Junghans Meister ranges, combines them and adds a little twist. The relationship between minute markers and 5-minute markers is taken from the Max Bill, the hands and applied 3/6/9/12 markers are from the Meister, and that these markers are not rectangular but pointy is Carnival's own touch. As is the colour - Junghans does not do red, or even green, another colour option for the 506G.

The combination of the red dial (sometimes it looks more burgundy) and the sapphire crystal [or so I thought] works very well. As the watch catches and reflects the light we are faced with different shades of red depending on angles and light source.

This watch came on a red Nato, which in the current weather in the UK is very appropriate, but I ordered myself a burgundy leather strap as an alternative for when it gets colder. When buying on Ali, some dial colours can be ordered with a leather strap - I would suggest though to stick with the Nato and source leather straps from elsewhere.

The crown is unsigned, and on its first position operates both day and date. The day wheel has alternating Chinese/English weekdays, but you only see these on set-up. At night, the date window switched rather early, and the day window late. This might be a QC issue, or possibly a design flaw.

Specs:

• dial size 42mm
• thickness 12mm (I measured 12.5)
• movement: Miyota 8215 - but I saw some online reviews that claimed the 8205 instead; non-hacking, 21,600 beats
• crystal is specified as sapphire, but my diamond tester thinks otherwise
• see-through case back with tinted crystal:

• water-resistance 3atm

Price: I paid £65 at the "Carnival Factory Store"; in the mid-year sale starting tomorrow you should be able to get it for about 60.