Copy that

This isn't the Breitling Top Time Deus Ex Machina (although it looks like one)

indeed, nor is this

although that is my Yamaha SR500 in the background

and this isn't the back of a Breitling Deus

The Breitling however looks like this

The Breitling Top Time Deus above is a rare watch now and while it was originally listed for something like $4,500 it soon sold out and we who like it now have to pay upwards of $18,000 to have one.

To me this is absurd and beyond the actual reasonable cost of the watch.

When makers do this I think immediately of Rolex, exclusivity (meaning excluding me or you) and King Wang. To me this leads to people having watches which they don't actually wear in daily life, leave in a box and just pull out to go to events. These people are quite often insufferable and fuss about "mind the watch" ... This is the exact antithesis of what is portrayed in the Breitling advertising.

Really, that surfer chick is going to wear her leather strap into the ocean ...

However watches shouldn't just be virtue or wealth signalling for the well heeled wanker, some of us are pure enthusiasts. Heck even Swatch recognises this with their Moon Swatch range. Watches are made to wear; and if you're afraid to wear it then, frankly, you're a wanker. Watches are not investment instruments.

So, like they say in the military when they understand what's been said: "Copy that" this is a copy, indeed this copy I previously blogged about has arrived.

I'm the sort of person who doesn't mind a Chinese Homage (because copy is apparently such a dirty word) as I've previously written about here and here. In particular I wrote the following in that piece about my Pagani:

People react strongly about watches which are copies (to be blunt) or homages (to be pretending its something else). Setting aside the fully hand made watch by a craftsman in his workshop, pretty much all modern watches are "reproductions". When seen from the view that; they are designed in CAD, then a machine produces the parts from a file (and in some cases does a lot of the assembly too). From this perspective  a maker (say) Rolex just reproduces watches from a design.

I'm looking at my PD-1701 and seeing that others have (by measurement) done a reproduction of this but at a price which can be purchased by anyone who loves the look and design. The real thing that differentiates it is the logo and copyright.

While the PD-1701 is not finished to the microscopic examination of the case and the mechaquartz movement is not a hand made highly complex mechanical one. Most owners of the Omega would probably not know that you had swapped out their mechanical movement until they went to wind it, for they don't actually see the movement in daily life with the watch. Few if any owners would have taken the case back off in the 1960's to see.

Thus these Homages or reproductions are really just enriching our lives (those of us who aren't uber wealthy or willing to make sacrifices to get the originals) with being able to enjoy the essential parts of the watch - how it looks and how it functions - at a much more affordable price. I suspect this desire to be 'exclusive' (meaning exclude you from my club) is what's really hurt in people when they find out "its a copy"

As you can see above, I tried the Cadisen "homage" (that first link) but had to send the watch back due to a manufacturing defect. The experience led me to try the Sugess but when it arrived it was as lackluster as I'd expected. 

Obviously the Breitling is superior in every way (visual presentation and mechanical execution) neither of the Homages stacked up. Most of all what I like about the Breitling is the generous amount of paint applied to the hands and the almost metallic sheen of the white dial. Contrast and colour. Its beautiful. Indeed if you look again up at the copy watch its similar.

However soon AliExpress discovered my penchant and as I wrote back on the 14th of Sept a copy of the Breitling Deus (not even pretending to be a homage) was presented to me as "we think you'd like this". Not being a Quartz Snob (how could I be, after so many decades with Seiko Quartz watches) how could I resist? So I didn't.

So what did I think of the copy? 

It looks exactly like it should, but in the AliExpress auction they omitted to describe the watch properly. For instance, the sub dials. The one which should be the elapsed minute counter of the chrono is apparently simply a stupid hour counter (which seems not to be linked in any way to the actual hour hand), and the other is functional. 

However amusingly the subdial coloured yellow, which should be the running seconds hand is actually the Chronograph elapsed minutes counter. The pusher buttons function nicely and the reset operation of the chrono is a lovely smooth electronic watch operation.

Well I'll put in this video round up

Some points:

• the supplied strap was vinyl (and crap if thick) 
• lug width is 22mm and I had a nice burgundy red leather one lying around, so I put that on it pretty fast
• the watch is light, which means despite how big it is, its not as fatiguing to wear all day (which I did today)
• the box it comes in is humble, but given the $50 price surprisingly good
• the watch is clearly not machined from steel (didn't claim to be either), but is metal. Probably cast brass and then plated 

I mentioned light, so here it is compared to my Seiko SRPE 

Would I have bought it knowing all this?

You bet your arse I would. The watch face, hands and the splash of colour on the tachymeter is streets better than the Sugess and the Cadisen and the watch is a much closer nod to the original Breitling. Anyone who buys the Sugess or Cadisen and doesn't think they are buying what amounts to a copy is bonkers.

I'm laughing all the way with this watch, not least because its foibles make it funnier than I'd expected. I bet my copy gets more wrist time than most genuine Top Time Deus watches do.

I'm loving it.

BTW, for those misguided or just as yet uneducated:

Deus means God and is not pronounced like the word Deuce (as I hear some Americans saying). Also Machina is said more like the movie Ex Machina (which I recommend if you want to hear Americans who can say Latin words correctly)

Win Win

King Wang Likes to Watch

As well as being about a purchase made and the weeks of anticipation in wait, this is a small rant about Wangers. This is perhaps a continuation of an idea I started here about social media and people who can't think but follow; magical thinkers (you know, wankers and narcissists).

Its been only a week since I ordered a watch on Ali which I'm keen to get, so this leads me to wonder how Wangers who buy into the Rolex dream can wait for 2 years for a watch that costs in the tens of thousands (not just the tens).

While looking around AliExpress I ended up getting "suggested" this watch by Ali

So its a quartz (not a mechanical) and sure looks like a direct copy of the Breitling Top Time to me.

Which makes me wonder about how the people who buy into Rolex feel about waiting for years "for the call" to say "your watch is now available. I mean sure Rolex is a quality brand, but is it in any way worth that cost (and I don't just mean the money)?

Let me be clear here: this watch is not a homage, it is a blatant knock-off and (for emphasis) I am not promoting or encouraging you to buy this; thus there is no link nor promotion of this watch here.

I also expect this watch to be complete shite, but even still, how could I resist. I mean if it actually presents OK and if it actually has a functioning chronograph mechanism ... I'm no calibre snob, so even though its quartz its worth examining. Not least because I don't know of any quartz movements which actually have a 30 minute sub dial counter (most have 60 minutes which makes reading the subdial vexing to say the least).

However it underscores why I like Chinese Watches and why I am personally against Rolex as a brand. Now, to be clear I don't care if others buy Rolex, people can do what they want, but my point is this:

When does it become somehow acceptable to force people to "prove their brand loyalty by making purchases of stuff they don't want, just so they can be put in the waiting list for what they do want. Lets forget about the fact that one has to pay tens of thousands for a watch of which the same quality could be had from a Chinese watch for one one hundredth of the price.

This video is worth watching:

I can only describe this fascination with Rolex as King Wang (or the Emperors New Clothes).

To me the King is Dead, long live the King ... King Wang 

...(chants go up of King Wang King Wang kingwangkingwangkingwankingwanking )

CADISEN DEUS homage

So, after much deliberation between the Sugess and the CADISEN versions of this watch I put my money down on the CADISEN.

For me the deciding factors were:

• smaller size case (51mm is actually wider than my 6.5" wrist)
• the pushers
• the chronograph seconds hand

I was concerned about the more subdued colour scheme, but I'll get back to that.

Smaller size, I couldn't conscion having a watch which is actually lug to lug wider than my actual wrist, its farcical. One day people will look back at the trend of watches and consider it like  Flairs or Safari Suits. If I had a 9" wrist maybe.

The pushers. The CADISEN has a different choice of Chronograph "stop/start" and "reset" pushers which are actually also found on a Breitling watch;

and frankly I find the "traditional" pushers to be like Chrome versions of Prawns Eyes.

Lastly I thought that the "lightening bolt" Chrono second hand of the Sugess was not my bag. I'll come back to that.

So with my expectations laid out I'd like to review the watch and give my The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

In a word the good is the specifications and component list

• fit and size was exactly as I expected
• hand alignment on the dial was perfect
• colour coding of the hands (time in yellow, chrono in orange) worked as expected
• the two sub dial ST1901 movement was everything I'd expected of it
• it came with the Swan neck regulator (the latest adaptation on the ST19xx)
• case finishing was as good as any proper commercial watch (so not like Baltany or Pagani)
• Crystal and AR (inside only) was excellent
• weight was good

You can see here that the weight of the CADISEN is very comparable to the weight of my Seiko SRPE. Note the annotations to the image of the CADISEN, I'll come back to that.

Now this leads me to talk about the case, and something I've not once seen mentioned (except in error) anywhere; be that Reddit or YouTube. Its almost like nobody reviewing these things has eye or knows what a watch looks like. The point is that on the lugs are protrusions that could be thought of as covers for drilled lugs or pins for attaching the strap. They are neither and are simply a feature of the case styling. You can see above how the positions of these faux lug pins are not inline with where the center of the spring bar is (see red circles and lines).

Most curious

The next thing about the case that I like, which is also not discussed anywhere, is the convex nature of the bezel. Its hard to be sure of that from the picture above, so this angle should make that pretty clear:

So both the upper and lower halves follow that same design cue. Combined with the screw down back (rather than the screw in back) it adds a really nice touch to the watch. You can again see the faux pins I mentioned on the lugs here

The crown is a good size (and needs to be for winding and feel of that) and operation is good. 

The Bad

So what could possibly be bad here? Basically the problem is that a good watch is not just the list of its specifications.

I'll declare up front that I do need readers (reading glasses) to see fine print, but outside in daylight I don't. I can read the time on every watch I have: except the CADISEN where I have to really give it a look.

Why? Well you can begin to see it in the picture above, and that is the hands. In an effort to put more lume area on the hands they've really taken up a lot of the width of the middle of the hand making seeing the hand (rather than the lume) difficult. 

This results in the hand edge being than half a millimeter per side of the lume patch on the CADISEN and you frequently just can't see the rest of the hand. Indeed its bloody hard in some lighting (especially indoor artificial light) where the colour of the lume (which isn't glowing) blends in with the colour of the face and all you can see is two stubby hands. So telling the hour from the minute becomes something of a small study. Further in low light your ability to see colours fades off slowly into the black and white (its a rods and cones thing) and so the use of colour as the "tool of contrast" gradually fades.

if you take a step back from the screen (or hold your phone further away) you'll see that the hour hand becomes a little harder to see. Adding in a little blur makes it worse. This massively increases the time taken to actually read the time (but who uses a watch for that?). For instance this shot of me just sitting on the couch. I had to actually know what time it was to verify, seeking the time would be harder, if the lights were dim then forget it.

If looking for alternatives, then as far as I know its only the Sugess, which is a closer copy of the size of the Breitling at least. However the Sugess fares only marginally better and both are crap compared to the Breitling Top Time Deus when it comes to contrast.

Not one reviewer has ever pointed this out. Basically I've found this all but negates the readability of the CADISEN everywhere except bright outdoor light. Driving in the evening is just "forget it". Contrast is important for readability. I'm sure if I ever get to hold a Breitling that it'll just pop.

Lastly the second hand on the CADISEN is so thin as to be lost on the dial, again I'm going to call this "lack of contrast" as my Phylida is entirely legible in all situations. Here I've photographed my Phylida beside my Pagani and despite being back lit (for reducing contrast) the hands stand out.

This is reflected in daily wear where the Phylida can be easily seen with the naked eye in a dim restaurant. Were I wearing the Deus in (say) a conference or a cinema, I'd not have a bloody chance.

Meanwhile outside in daylight the Phylida (with similar polished applied markers) just pops and sparkles in the light

The CADISEN not so much.

So if you want a watch that you can tell the time from at a glance, and maybe don't have perfect vision or are always in perfect lighting then the CADISEN is not your bag baby.

You'll notice I haven't even bothered with examining the performance of the lume ... that's because none of the watches featured here (except perhaps the Breitling) have any lume duration worth mentioning.

The Ugly

So this is where it gets bad, the mechanism for the Chronograph has problems right out of the box. Best described in this short video.

So basically what I believe is at work here is that  the pusher button is attached to a rod which slides though a tube (and I hope also a seal) and pushes on the lever that engages the chronograph.

This has manufacturing problems in the following ways:

1. the rod has a bullet shaped end
2. the rod is perhaps a little short
3. the rod is off axis by about half the width of the rod where it actually engages with the lever
4. the lever has a flat (but narrow) surface that needs to be pressed centrally while allowing for it to move laterally as part of its rocking.

I have another Chronograph with an ST190x movement in it (my Phylida) and its rod is flat and at a slightly better angle (for the needs of the lever). So basically unless this particular watch has the wrong type of end on the actuating rod then I believe this is a problem which is going to plague the CASIDEN watch of this type.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the good, the bad and the ugly. I am a bit sad that this hasn't worked out, but at the same time the discovery now (rather than a year or two later) of this issue has allowed me to dodge a bullet (so to speak).

While I'd really like to have liked this watch, and really it had so much going for it, I just can't.

So back it goes.

HTH