Xeric Regulator - the perils of buying off the internet

well I took a gamble on an internet (worse, Kickstarter) product and ... well ... as a friend said to me; "you wouldn't be the first to be disappointed in an internet purchase".

And disappointed I am.

Structure

Its impossible to go into anything (unless its for the first time) with no expectations (perhaps even then). So rather than just whinge I thought I'd explore the watch, clarify what Xeric had set up for expectation and then explore why my expectations weren't met. Well actually some were met, as soon after I'd committed to back the project I explored it in more detail and what I got was mostly what I expected. Where I was surprised was

• size,
• execution and 
• build quality.

The Regulator watch

If you go to their Kickstarter site you can see many things which tell you about the watch and what to expect. I'd suggest having a look there first if you don't know the project. Anyway, this is my watch:

It pretty much fits the expectation of the Silver Bullet, my first shock was how fukken big it was when I pulled it out of the box and saw it. IF I was to see this watch in the flesh I'd just have walked immediately. For instance this is it beside my Seiko SRPE 65K1 (which I already think of as a "large" watch). 

Lug to Lug on the Xeric Regulator is 51mm (vs 44mm on the SRPE and more than their claim of 48mm). The diameter is correct with spec at 42mm (vs 40mm on the SRPE). A minor point is that the mass is also a bit off because without the strap its 77.6g and with the strap its 90g ... but what's 5g

It is however also about 2mm thicker than the SRPE (which is 12mm) and so considerably thicker than claimed.

Now this is a ruler balanced on the Xeric, and you can see that difference (toothpick for reference is ~2mm thick and won't fit under).

This is not what anyone would call a sleek or slender in the "dress watch" category.

Dress watch you say? Well yes, if you read the kickstarter its pretty fukken obvious its not being pitched as a work watch or even simply a quirky watch, its pitched as a dress watch. Some examples

Looks pretty dressy to me ... but due to its extra size and thickness it isn't

My 1967 Sportsman however is:

and in profile you can see how much more slender the Sportsman is too ... as any good dress watch should be.

So if the intention is for a dress watch then really the Regulator is a fail. Unless you're into big and brash American Styled stuff ... like most of their cars. Some people do like the large and obscene things.

But unlike their pitch, for a gent with a slender wrist this thing stands out like dogs balls. Say, perhaps I've found the target audience?

However I digress ...  now my wrist size is 6.5 inch, and this is how it looks on the wrist.

and they visually suggested it would be like this on 6.25:

which when you look closely its not too far off the truth (given that the top of the lugs are outside the wrist), so I'm guilty of being taken in without being super critical. However it is the the thickness which makes it bulky and they are careful not to show that.

This is of course a peril of buying off the internet; you don't always get a good idea from pictures.

Getting into build quality and ability to execute their design concept Xeric made this statement in their Kickstarter:

The Regulator features raised and sunken elements to accentuate the simple timekeeping of each hand. A subtle AM/PM indicator ring is built into the 24-hour display, and the split seconds display is a nod to our signature Hemicycle© displays from past watch models.

So lets look at how they envisaged that (poached from their Kickstarter):

Quality of build

Now my first thought was that this was nice, however it actually not only fails in implementation, it fails in the accuracy of manufacture.

... as you can see here there is no sense of the light of shade as promised by the designer. Additionally it fails in production accuracy because you can see the circle isn't actually centred ... FFS ... All of this can be seen in this video (which contains further thoughts which I'll go into just below).

Then there's the LUME ... they claim this:

which is an imaginative CAD fantasy (or is lie more appropriate?), as its frankly the worst lume I've ever seen (yep, even worse than the SNK805 standard lume).

My video:

Prioritising Time

While it was clear from the outset reading the Kickstarter how this watch worked I thought that for a quirky dress watch I could cut it some slack for this fail.

But it remains worth mentioning; one of the things that's important in the choice for wearing a watch is knowing the time; and this starts with knowing the hour. Less so the minute and less so the second. This is why digital watches show the hour first. True the watch wording makes that clear but when you wear it you see this.

For instance there exists a group of watches called one handers, for exactly the sort of folk who are more interested in: "is it 4 yet?" rather than is it "23minutes past something yet". (although Americans do like their MM-DD-YY format so perhaps that's at work here?)

Two such examples are this one (a classic one hander)

where at a glance you can see its nearly 10 (and the chances are you'll know if thats AM or PM) or even better yet this variation with reversed importance in the hands:

where the glance shows nearly two and the minute hand clarifies how many minutes before 2 it is. There is nothing in the regulator design which means you have to put the minute hands 

In the meantime I've made a simple change to my SNK805 watch to make the Hour hand the first you see and the minute hand then handily clarifies where the obtuse hour hand is actually laying with respect to before or after the hour.

Which is perhaps less bold than you'd think because these hands are a copy of those used on a Citizen Diver (see my post here).

Now if one was going to do a "Bold Redesign" then one would perhaps consider this, but no, they just used an existing (well regarded) movement (a Miyota 82S7) and whacked a crazy case around it.

That there are graduations barely visible on the face of the Regulator and the lack of a clarifying orientation makes actually making sense of the time more challenging. They had the good sense to put markers for the hours (more so because its a 24 hour time) but nothing on the minutes, not even a 0 marker at the 12o'clock position. So to actually read the time (unless you're a minute by minute clock watcher) at a glance is vexed.

If you focus on minutes and don't really worry about the seconds and because you're always watching the clock acutely aware of the hour then baby this is your bag.

Conclusions

Given that

• this thing is more expensive than my Seiko SRPE (by about US$100) and
• that its partly made and fully assembled in China (nothing like that mentioned in the Kickstarter and perhaps explaining the poor quality control)
• it fails as a time keeping piece (because reading of the time at a glance is impossible)
• its a lump, so neither a rugged time piece like a divers nor a suitable dress watch

then this can only be described as a novelty item for King Wang watch heads. It is also overpriced KingWang.

I had hoped that it would compare more in size to my Sportsman than my SRPE, but it doesn't, meaning that it doesn't really have any function for me ... and I'm not really a collector of the bizarre and unusual.

Finally, if anyone wants to buy this thing, please reach out through the comments, which are fully moderated and I'll get back to you.

I will remove both this that above line when its sold.

So there you go ... they still have a few, but as of right now they're having trouble with the other colours not being "right" ... Made in China eh ...