Wearing Today - Part II

Uniqlo / A.P.C. / PAM Homage / Fossil / Zippo / Vsonic / Thorogood

Thorogood Heritage Cometh - Preview of the Thorogood Heritage 6" Plain Toe Boot

Well, color me impressed, Amazon and i-Parcel have both performed beyond expectations. My Thorogood Heritage which was forecasted to arrive on the 20th of January arrived today, a full five days early.

That however, is secondary to my impression of what arrived! Without further delay, allow me to present some quick-and-dirty pictures of Le Thorogood Heritage!

So here they are, in all their full glory, and oh my, do they live up to expectations. I've said that phrase quite a few times today, and with good reason! The first thing when you take these bad boys out the box is the fantastic smell of quality full-grain leather. The full-grain leather comes in a beautiful shade of brown and is substantial enough in terms of thickness. At the back of my mind, there is a constant chant going on, which goes something like this, 'Great value, great value, great value...', because it truly is.

There are a few minor niggles, such as the somewhat rough edges of the leather (leather cutters getting blunt over at the Thorogood factory?), and somewhat rough finishing where the stitching ends. These are the finer points of footwear no doubt, and the Thorogood Heritage isn't going to impress the shoe connoisseur. If however you're talking about the basics of a boot, Thorogood has those bases covered very well indeed.

There's just this feel about the boot, that it has been constructed to withstand some real harsh conditions. There weren't any structurally weak points observed, although we shall see if that changes with time.

If you're considering this boot as well, do read up on the numerous reviews over at Amazon before buying it. You'll need some advice on sizing as this boot does run 0.5-1 size big as compared to your sneaker sizing. I personally went for a US 8 D, when I'm normally a US 9. The fit is very snug as a result, especially regarding the width as it seems a little narrow for being a D. That's how I like my shoes so if you prefer some breathing room you might want to downsize by 0.5 instead.

Well, that wraps up the initial thoughts on the Thorogood Heritage! To put it in a single word, I'd say excellent! Thanks for reading, and come back soon for a full review and continued shoe porn!

Dope Shoes

In today's post, we shall be discussing about footwear! Back in early 2013, I bought a pair of Red Wing Heritage 9111's. Somehow, I never really got to wearing them.

They are a nice pair of boots, but being the college student that I am, I was of course perennially broke. Eventually I had to part with them as I had more pressing needs for cash than having it invested in a pair of boots.

I'm not a millionaire by any means now, but in the last two months I've had school vacations and I spent them slogging through a vacation job. I think I owe it to myself to buy a pair of boots to make up for the loss of my Red Wings!

Enter Thorogood Heritage.

I've found these while browsing Amazon (which I have been doing quite a bit of late). These boots are going for a little over 140 USD, a full 100 USD less than most of the Red Wing Heritage series. Thanks to AmazonGlobal, shipping is completely free too!

So what do you get for your money? For starters, these boots are made in the USA. It is truly a rarity to find footwear made in the USA going at these prices, when almost every shoe below $200 is these days made in some Asian sweatshop found in China or Vietnam. It also features Goodyear Welted construction, the same method which is used in Red Wing Shoes and many other quality footwear. These boots used to come with Vibram Christy outsoles but have since been replaced by Thorogood's proprietary MaxWear Wedge outsoles, which Thorogood claims will last 20-30% longer.

Also, the leather used in making these boots is supposedly said to come from the same tannery as the one Red Wing uses. That said, this is but a little rumor that I've came across so I'm not complaining if the leather is a little lacking as compared to a Red Wing.

While the above points doesn't exactly make the Thorogood Heritage a no-brainer, one has to admit that this boot is really good value for money. Without further hesitation, I snapped a pair up in US 8 after reading some reviews recommending going a size down on these.

It should be in my hands in about a weeks' time and I'm really stoked to start posting some pictures of evolution on them. If round toes are not your thing, Thorogood has a few other models in their Heritage line which are absolutely poisonous. Here's one which I simply fell in love with:

These Thorogood Lace-to-Toe Roofers in black are absolutely scrumptious and I would have actually bought them if only they qualified for free shipping from Amazon.

Alright then, that about sums up today's post. Thank you for reading and you can expect to look forward to more shoe porn in the coming weeks!

2013 - The Year in Review

The year of 2013 is almost coming to an, and with 2014 dawning upon us in a matter of days from now, I think that a look at what happened in 2013 would make for a nice post.

What a year it has been; we've been through the inception of the The Watch Post, its near closure during the August period, and of course, a whole lot of watch-related content such as arrivals, departures and reviews.

This year, The Watch Post has seen the arrival of the Steinhart Ocean Two, the Kemmner Turtle, the Getat Luminor homage, a submariner homage, as well as a Seiko SNDC87P2. A few of these arrivals have for better or worse, departed the stable, and they are the Seiko SKX009, the Steinhart Ocean Two and the submariner homage, which I just sold off last week. It was quite nice, but sadly it never saw much wrist time and therefore I've let it go.

I want to give a big thank you to all readers of The Watch Post, for all the support you have shown, be it in the form of an email, a comment or simply just having passed by and deciding to read a post or two, thank you so much for passing by.

So what lies ahead in 2014? I did mention in a previous post that my love for watches is not quite what it once was, and that I would be bringing more non-watch related content into this blog. That still remains true, but at the same time I promise that there will still be quite a lot about watches as my interest has seen a small rekindling in the months of November and December.

I've managed to successfully go through the ordeal of ordering a watch from Getat in 2013, and managed to receive it in good order. Today it remains as one of my favourite watches. I think I may just order another another one from him as I think they are worth the trouble, in spite of the growing consensus on various fora that Getat is becoming increasingly unreliable. That's one thing you might want to look forward to in terms of updates next year!

As this post comes to a close, I'd like to thank you all readers again. Wishing everyone happy holidays and a happy New Year!

Catching Up - Covering Releases in my Absence

Welcome to another update on The Watch Post and today we shall be catching up on some rather exciting releases in the watch community in my months absent. I've been rather inactive since August and in the short few months that I've laid low, some rather brilliant watches have finally come to fruition. Today, we shall be looking exactly what we have been missing out in the last few months.

Let's start off with the offerings that Timefactors have put forth this year. It's been a very exciting year from Timefactors indeed, with the release of some five different models of watches alone this year. Eddie Platts of Timefactors is well known for deliberating a rather long time before each release, therefore the fact that we have seen five releases from him this year is a very rare occurrence indeed.

We shall start off with the Precista PRS-82. If you may recall, I did cover this watch before in one of my previous posts which can be found here.

(Pictures credit of various members from TZ-UK)

Inspired by military issue British dive watches of the 80's, the Precista PRS-82 features new old stock ETA 2781 movements, the PRS-82 exudes a vintage charm which is further accentuated by the use of vintage colored lume. Eddie usually interprets his homage watches with a twist of modern; a domed sapphire crystal in this instance. It measures in at 40mm in diameter and 47mm lug to lug, a nice size that stays faithful to its roots. I think Eddie hit the ball out the park here, this watch looks very retro which makes it quite a unique piece, excellent release overall. The PRS-82 goes for GBP 380 and can be found here. We move on to their next release, the PRS-21 Dreadnought Voyager GMT.

(Pictures credit of various members from TZ-UK)

I wrote about the upcoming release of the PRS-21 Dreadnought Voyager GMT here some months ago and yes, the GMT iteration of the Dreadnought was finally released in November! Of course, it's too late to get a brand new one from the Timefactors website itself now, it sold out within minutes of release for both the first and second batch. If you wish to pick one up you would have to scour watch forums for one now, just like you would the PRS-2 Dreadnought.

This is the watch everyone has been waiting for, having been in the making almost since the original was released. Featuring an ETA 2893 of Elaboré grade, anti-magnetic protection, and weighing in at over 250 grams, this watch is a complete beast, be it in terms of specs or in weight. I don't quite agree with the bright orange color of the hand outlines as it doesn't look quite as nice as the yellow of the original Dreadnought but well, that's how it was decided upon. Unfortunately, there is no longer any of it in stock but just for the record it can be found here, retailing for GBP 875, a marked increase in price over the original (GBP 475).

Precista did come up with the PRS-68 Smiths diver, the PRS-30 and the PRS-20C as well this year but the two I covered above were what I thought to be the highlights of Precista this year.

Moving on, we shall cover two releases from Dagaz; the Thunderbolt and the Aurora.

(Pictures credit of various members from WUS)

Let's start with the Dagaz Thunderbolt, which can be bought here. It goes for USD 375, which is tremendous value, considering the specs of the watch (Miyota 9015, double-dome sapphire, solid end links), plus the fact that it's on a bracelet! This is really a massive effort on Jake B's part on how he manages to balance quality and price. You will struggle to find any watch with similar specs going around this price range.

Of course, a watch is more than just its specs. Being impressively specced may not guarantee a watch looks nice. Fortunately, the Dagaz Thunderbolt does look as good aesthetically as its specs look on paper! Taking with it some Sinn-ish vibes, such as the H-link bracelet and visual cues from military field watches, the Dagaz Thunderbolt looks good indeed. I think the dial might have been better off without the tinge of red in the form of the logo and text but that's just me.

We arrive at the final watch in focus today, the Dagaz Aurora.

(Pictures credit of various members from WUS)

The Dagaz Aurora can be found here retailing for USD 495. This puts it quite a bit behind the Thunderbolt in terms of value for money but it's still a competitive price compared to other microbrand offerings. Like the Thunderbolt, the Miyota 9015 can be found ticking inside this watch. The Aurora is similarly impressive in terms of specs, double-dome sapphire crystal, solid end link bracelet with H-links.

While the Thunderbolt draws parallels with Sinn and military field watches, the Aurora does so with Doxa. The case shape does take inspiration from Doxa dive watches. Meanwhile, Jake B has added his own splash of color to the Aurora in the form of a colored ring consisting of red and white, reminiscent of roulette wheels. The Dagaz logo is not working for me as it a little small, leaving large empty spaces like as though something is lacking in the top area of the dial. Other than that qualm of mine, I do think that the Dagaz Aurora is a fine watch indeed.

So that wraps up today's update, thank you for reading as always, I hope you've enjoyed this post and be sure to come back to The Watch Post soon for more!

OMEGA Seamaster Bullhead - Love at First Sight

I've never traditionally embedded videos of watch presentations in this blog, but we shall have to do away with tradition today. I've seen a good number of presentation videos before, showcasing fancy contraptions such as tourbillons and minute repeaters but I never really felt compelled to post them here, impressive as they were. Today instead I choose to present a video of the OMEGA Seamaster Bullhead. Granted, it's not anything fancy at all if you were to compare it to something from HYT or MB&F, but still it remains as one of the slickest watch presentation videos I've seen; slick enough to deserve a place on The Watch Post. Enjoy the video and stay tuned for more updates, and as always thank you for reading!

A Diminishing Interest

Dear readers, it's been too long. The last post was made towards the end of August, and unfortunately, it wasn't even a watch related post. I shall have to further extend my apologies today as this post will not be breaking the trend.

I've been busy, but that hasn't been the main reason for the lack of posts lately; that would largely be due to a waning interest I have in watches. Perhaps it was a passing fad, although fad may not be the right word to use as it did keep me occupied for quite a number of months. So there we have it, the reason for the lack of updates.

What lies ahead for The Watch Post? I will keep updating it from time to time, perhaps with some content that isn't related to watches for now. We shall see if my interest in watches rekindles, because that is certainly a possibility. The Watch Post was never solely about watches, although the name may imply it to be so! If we go back a bit, you'll see I made a post here which shows some of the other things this blog encompasses.

I'd like to thank all readers for your continued support, please continue visiting The Watch Post, you never know what you might find here in the coming months. It might even be about watches!

A Short Hiatus

The Watch Post will be going on a short hiatus till the later part of September due to a recent spate of projects/exams in school.

In the meantime, for your reading pleasure, check out some of the reviews which I've done in the past:

Seiko SKX009
Kemmner Turtle
Getat Luminor Homage

Do come back to check for new activity in about a month's time. Thank you everybody for the support so far!

Review of Getat Luminor Panerai Homage

As promised in the last post, here is the review of the Getat Luminor homage which I received recently! Before we start, here are the specifications of my build again:

- Case Style: 44mm Luminor
- Dial: Sterile black dial

- Buckle Style: Pre-V

- Case Option: Brushed steel

- Dial Lume: Super-LumiNova C3

- Crystal Material: Sapphire

- Hands Color: Black with white seconds

- Hands Lume: Super-LumiNova C3

- Movement: Normal stainless steel

- Stitch Color: White

- Strap Option: Vintage wooden brown

I later changed the buckle for the premium style buckle as you will see in the pictures later. Allow me to also show you the timeline of events again.

21st June - Order placed, invoice received and paid for immediately

10th July - Tracking number received

23rd July - Tracking number starts working, status: "Item has been posted and is being processed."

24th July - Status: "The item is being processed for departure from Hong Kong."

25th July - Status: "The item left Hong Kong for its destination."

31st July - Status: "The item arrived at its destination country."

2nd August - Status: "Item was delivered."

From order to delivery, it took exactly six weeks for the watch to reach me. This is within the expected range of ordering from Getat, so I wasn't exactly lucky or unlucky. There are some lucky few who receive their orders in as fast as three weeks,  and unfortunately, some unlucky people who had to wait for as long as three months to receive their watches. As you can see, it's very much a luck of the draw thing.

If you do not have the patience of waiting months for your watch, all is not lost as there are a number of other sellers out there offering the same watch basically. Jackson Tse or Manbushijie (make sure to sign up to enjoy lower prices!) are reliable sellers who have the added benefit of being more responsive to your emails, unlike Getat, but keep in mind that neither of them will offer nearly as many customization options as Getat does. If you want customization, you'll have to wait.

As mentioned, this watch is an homage. It takes all of its aesthetic cues from the Luminor line of watches from Panerai. Some people are definitely going to have an issue with this but this is not what we are here for today!

Before we get on with the review, here are some things about the price to take notice of. Inclusive of the 10% summer sale which Getat was having for the month of June, I paid US$126 for the watch and later made a further payment of US$9 to Getat for the premium buckle, for a total of US$135. My conjecture is that the margins made on each watch is not very high, so there will be a certain amount of suspect QC especially when you consider that this is a custom job. You will be disappointed if you go nitpicking on a Getat watch with a loupe.

Now, onto the watch itself. The case which I ordered was a Luminor style stainless steel in a brushed finishing. It feels solid and has quite a good amount of heft to it. A surprisingly good quality case overall. For just an extra US$18, one can upgrade from mineral to sapphire crystal; a choice I took without having to think. The crystal is also slightly domed although there doesn't seem to be any form of AR coating on the crystal, but it does not really bother me.

Panerai is of course well-known for the sandwich dial, which is basically a dial split into two layers; top and bottom. The sandwich dial is present on the Getat, and is unique in that it is negatively textured; a fresh and refreshing departure from the usual textured dial.

Flipping it over to the back, you can see the nicely decorated Sea-Gull ST36 movement through the mineral crystal display back, beating away at 21600 BPH. There seem to be some who have gotten Hangzhou 9000 movements in their watches, but as far as I could see, I've identified mine to be a Sea-Gull ST36 movement. I came across a guide here which may be of help to you in identifying whether your movement is a Sea-Gull or a Hangzhou.

The movement is nicely adorned with blued screws (most probably chemically treated), swan neck regulator (although for decoration only as the screw isn't even touching the adjustment lever and is too short to actually work), Panerai-esque bridges, and Geneva Stripes which was of course, applied in China. I'm not complaining though, it is a pretty movement and I have no qualms at all that the decorations were applied by machine.

Further observation needs to be done to determine the accuracy at the moment, although it has kept time to the minute within a 24-hour span (It's hard to keep track of accuracy when the smallest division is five minutes!).

* Update *

Timekeeping has been absolutely fantastic so far, this watch seems to be losing one second every 24 hours! On a full wind which equates to a 57 hour power reserve, this watch lost just 3 seconds, simply fantastic!

We come to the crown guard, persistently an area of weakness for Luminor homages. The crown guard snaps back with a nice amount of tension but I can't foretell whether the amount of tension will remain tight and firm with frequent usage. When flipped out, the lever is quite floppy as many others have experienced. I'm fine with it personally as long as it's firm while locked in place. The dial moves a little when the crown is pulled out to time set mode, it is of no real issue to me but it serves to remind of the sometimes suspect QC that homage dealers are capable of.

I shall update this portion further after more rigorous usage has been observed regarding the crown lever but it is satisfactory for now. I should add that I wouldn't trust taking this watch anywhere near water as the crown guard assembly on these Panerai homages are to replicate the crown guard aesthetically, and not functionally.

I did mention my satisfaction with the lume on this watch in my previous post, although I left it to this review to determine the better of the two (as compared with the Kemmner Turtle). Fortunately, the C3 lume on my watch was applied clean and evenly, as some people had the misfortune of specks of dirt on the lume. It would seem that the Kemmner Turtle and the Getat are neck to neck in terms of lume intensity and longevity. Overall, the lume on Getat is very good; it wouldn't beat a Seiko Monster or SKX007/009, but doesn't lose by much too.

Moving over to the strap, I should add that this is an area where I was really pleased with. It is really thick and chunky, and the stitching is nothing short of fantastic. I really have to applaud Getat on the stitching, it is nice, clean and even. The strap has a good leather scent too, I can't find any fault with it really, good quality all-around! As you will see in the picture above, I opted for the premium buckle which is a monster of a buckle. Both strap and buckle really puts some additional weight on this watch. The buckle is screw-in type, and costs US$10 when paired with a strap/watch. This really puts some sellers of Panerai strap buckles to shame considering they sell similar buckles, only for US$30 or more.

+ Good overall build quality

+ Good lume

+ Nicely decorated movement

+ Excellent strap and buckle

+ Fantastic price

- Floppy crown lever

- Somewhat poor QC (Dial moves when crown pulled out issue)

- Waiting times

- Poor communication

The floppy crown lever and dial movement issue are minor to me, but I'll just put them as cons for the discerning buyer. There are some things one has to be ready for when buying from Chinese homage dealers; it may not always happen but be prepared for poor communication, long wait times and unfortunately from time to time, poor workmanship. 

Granted, $100+ is not a lot of money, but neither is it small change. It certainly is quite a lot to ask of potential buyers to expect the worst right from the moment payment is made. I myself wish that I could expect a certain guaranteed level of quality but sadly, this is just the way homage makers operate. Ordering from Getat is not an experience that everyone can tolerate, but if you can, then you are ready to make your foray into the homage scene!

In conclusion, I was fortunate enough to receive my watch in good order from Getat. The watch (less the service) has made me a satisfied customer of his and I foresee myself placing more orders with him, although the long waiting times and the sometimes shoddy build quality leave something to be desired. So that's it for the review of the Getat Luminor homage, thank you for reading!

Finally, the Arrival of Getat!

It wasn't five days ago I was still getting really riled up with our dear Getat. His lack of unresponsiveness and irresponsibility gives one the impression that he puts his watchmaking business behind everything else. Maybe he does, I don't know, but what I do know is that when Getat wishes to deliver, he can and will in a big way!

Of course, this drastic change in my impression of him has to have a reason behind; his watch was finally delivered today! Without further ado, enjoy these quick and dirty cell phone pictures!

A full review will come soon, meanwhile here are some initial impressions. Case is nicely machined and impressively finished with a nice brushed finishing all over. Caseback has a few rough edges, but they are nothing major. One of my initial concerns was that the crown guard would be really floppy, but I guess those worries can be put to rest as it is really nice and firm!

Moving on, the lume on this is really quite good! It is at the very least on par with the Kemmner Turtle, although I will have to conduct further observation to determine the better of the two. Lastly, let's get to the strap. It's thick and chunky, and although this isn't your Jules Verne or Ted Su strap, I think this strap will hold its own just fine. In a word, nice!

All this, for the price of a mid-range made-to-order strap. 

Getat is slow and unresponsive, his QC can be shoddy at times, and other times he would get orders done wrongly. Yet, when Getat wishes to deliver, he will impress you. Not forgetting that this watch costed all of US$131, let's just say I am really pleased with this watch. Final verdict, the wait was worth it.

So that's it, I hope you have enjoyed reading today's entry!