quick review of the Baltany MilSubmarner (S3075AB)

Straight up: this watch is in the upper tier of Chinese made watches and its good value for money. No matter what I say after this, if this is your first watch you'll be very pleased. If perhaps you've bought other watches then this may not compare well. Sure its well ahead of Pagani, but maybe not Sugess and Seestern (at similar prices).

So, as is my 'want' I've removed the (very nice but not my preference) black two part strap and fitted one of my well worn (comfortable) leather straps.

Classic style, stainless steel body, Seiko NH36 movment, screw down crown, sapphire crystal, for US$150 its a lot of watch for a little price.

The specs from the Baltany site (I'm not sponsored nor supported by them, so go look that up if you're keen) suggest:

Specifications:

Model:S203075AB MilSubmariner Homage Watch

Movement:Seiko NH38 Automatic

Case:316L Stainless Steel

Case Diameter:39mm (not including crown)

Bezel:120 gears (chuckles, clicks) One-way Rotation,Aluminum

Dial:Black,With Retro Lumin

Dial Diameter:29mm

Lug to Lug:47.5mm

Thickness:13.8mm (including glass)

Glass:Sapphire Crystal,AR Coating

Hands:Silver,With Luminous

Luminous:Retro Swiss Super-LumiNova Lumin

Crown:Screw-in,Stainless Steel

Caseback:Screw-in, 316L Stainless Steel, Sterile (chuckles, "sterile")

Strap:Genuine Leather(S203075A) / 316L Steel Bracelet(S203075B)

Strap Width:20mm

Buckle:316L Stainless Steel

Waterproof:200M(20Bar)

Weight:About 84g(style A)/155g(style B)

Warranty:2 Years

Myself the combination of 2 years warranty and the simplicity of buying it through Baltany made the AliExpress possible saving barely worth it. So I bought direct.

The watch alone (no spring bars either) came to 71.6g on my scale, however with the straps I'm sure that's right (cos I checked).

While handling the watch without straps I noted that the watch feels sharp  (not uncommon with low end Chinese watches). Meaning the edges feel like they are not properly finished (for human contact), or at the very least are finished without attention to detail. Instead they are just deburred and cleaned up after machining the (around 90degree edges of the case) so the nobody gets actually cut.

To show you what I mean, lets compare to my Seestern (thoughts on that here and in that also a link to my earlier "review" of it) on the left.

The macro shots tell the difference between "hard and unfinished" edges on the Baltany (right hand side) and the rounding of corners on Seestern (left). This is most evident in the lugs, but its everywhere.

Comparison

Since its hard to look at something in isolation (we're always comparing things in our mind unconsciously) why not make it explicit and compare this to the Seestern (a watch I already own that's at a similar price point) which as you can see I also have. That they're both similar in size and are both "nod's" to another watch it makes sense to me.

Both are very similar at first glance and both whare a lot of commonality in specs (like weight) so lets look at that. I guess firstly I'll say that I prefer the nicer subtle crown guards of this version (over the homage of later model by Addiesdive (review)), and the actual crown does not protrude from the case as far as the Addiesdive does.

So the Seestern has the same movement but has a custom date wheel that is lumed.
Movement: Seiko NH35A Automatic with custom made date wheel (lumed)
Of course the Baltany is homaging a watch which has no date, so that's neither here nor there, but it does speak to the commitment that Seestern has put into the quality of this watch.
Lug to Lug: 46.20 mm, 47.5mm
Height: 13.5 mm, 13.8mm 

So since this about the Baltany I'll couch everything in comparative terms to that. Both watches feel very similar on and I can't fault the Baltany or score more to the Seestern there, I do prefer the operation of the Baltany and the face (dial) of Baltany is easier to read than the Seestern because of its "dot dot dash" design language and much more clearly identifiable and easy to see hands.

The lack of bling on the dial of the Baltany makes it appealing, but somehow feels less "dimensional" to me than the Seestern. The matte black of the Baltany is indeed deep and helps the contrast but the applied markers and the nice anthracite sheen of the Seestern is worth mentioning.

Both watch cases are slightly  smaller than the bezel, which makes grasping and turning the bezel easier

The Baltanys bezel is like a flat coin with the edge slightly protruding from the case side, while the Seestern (upper image) is more like a cylinder that fits within the case that has a machined bit that protrudes past it. I notice that it sure looks to be gathering gunk in there (and yet its barely been worn, unlike the Seestern. Perhaps even here you can see the differences in the finishing of the underside edge of the watch.

Viewed from above the Baltany AR is working better than the Seestern and the dial and hands of the Baltany are superior in readability

The case design is "different" but its a matter of taste

I copied the half of the Seestern dial, ran a contrast filter and over laid it onto the Baltany for making the subtle differences clearer.. 

We see that; the crown sticks out less (which the back of my hand made clear from the get go) and the actual visible area of the  dial and bezel is the same, however the Seestern bezel is just that bit smaller than the Baltany .. this makes the watch feel more compact and combined with the better finishing the Seestern feels that bit more "premium" than the Baltany.

Speaking of premium, the Seestern has a very nice caseback which is "engraved" and shows the ocean, the Japanese heritage and the Starfish (which is what Seestern means in German)

 

A point worth noting here is the case of the Baltany is sharp where the strap fits. Its a bit tight and that case edge there is just as sharp as everwhere else, meaning that some of the straps you may fit will be scuffed badly by that edge. I have some nice leather NATO straps and you have to remove the spring bars to change the strap or the sharp edge will skin the polish off the strap in a straight line as you pull it through.

Not nice. At this point I prefer the design and level of finish of the Seestern but the operation feel of the Baltany ... dunno ... hard call depends if you're a bracelet only or rubber strap user. Ultimately I really can't abide the bad "finishing" of the product.

Note that Baltany has opted to go with "genuine" in the case back opening style, its Rolex. If you're doing to do any servicing (or even just regulating) the watch then the usual  case back opener won't work on the Baltany.

The Lume

However the lume on the Baltany sucks because they decided to make it look like an aged vintage watch (with no other signs of wear and tear). Fellas this is for wankers.  Perhaps the original when it was new had yellowed lume (I doubt it)

Its hard to represent with the camera what the eye sees, but I'll do my best to present the differences, please note that the Seestern was not running time 

basically the lume became almost invisible to the camera by about an hour but I could still see both, its just that the Baltany was a lot dimmer.

This reflects what I know with the Seestern; that by 4am its still clearly visible while the Baltany isn't. 

So if you you buy the Baltany its not a watch that has good lume (even though they propably spent a pretty penny on that).

A quick video tour to cap off this review....

Seeing something in a picture is not the same as holding it in your hand; but hopefully this video of the Baltany Submariner Homage helps. 

These days I buy a watch to see if its how it seems. Its a beautiful watch, great value for money and met my expectations; its just I'm not sure if I like it or not.

The Box

OMG ... the box ... I can't forget the box. I have little doubt there are some out there someone has their favourite lubricant in hand waiting to hear about the box it came in ... I'd hate to disappoint.

So the box is actually a very nice presentation and provides over and above the box itsself a very nice little faux leather case for the watch (one can't just put it in the sock drawer, and of course one must pack it in this for flights to Jamacia (where naturally you'd be hoping to see a lovely  Ursula Andress jogging along the beach towards you).

As well as this (and the usual paperwork and colour matched plastic card contained in that envelope) it also ships with a nice pair of tools. The usual spring bar tool (high quality with red 'safety' end covers) and a small jewellers screw driver (which perplexes me somewhat).

Conclusions

Well its odd, for while I prefer the feel of the bezel, the nice black of anodised aluminium over the shiny annoying reflection inducing polished ceramic bezel of the Seestern I've not yet taken to this watch. I lean towards the Seestern for its nicer appearance, better lume better finishing and little touches (like the crown and the caseback). 

The more I wear it the less I like their faux aged lume because it jars with pristine reality of a new watch, nothing else looks aged and so it ends up just making the watch harder to read in lower contrast light and have crap lume to boot.

I wonder if I'll send it back?

CVT rebuild time (again)

So my dash let me know that it was CVT belt inspection time again and so I pulled the covers off and then removed the front (half of the front) sheave to have a look. This setup has been in place for quite a while as this (link) was my last belt and CVT rebuild. I strongly recommend that you go read that too (if you haven't already) as that contains a bunch of other helpful information too.

note the bolts inserted into the rear  (secondary) sheave to "de-tension the spring" which is a needed thing if you haven't done this before and don't have a manual.

Belt looked good but I didn't waste any time gazing at it in situ because my first quick measurement of it showed it was close to tolerance.

So I put it flat on the bench and sure enough, it was close...

and so yep it was getting changed.

The astute may have noticed a crack in the belt between the callipers and so that is something that I'd be keeping an eye on anyway ... Indeed this belt has been on this bike since the above mentioned service and that was at about 100,000km on the bike Odo (actually I'm thinking more like 95,000 but meh).

So with now 162,332 on it I've replaced the belt and rebuilt the CVT with new weights. 100,000km on the belt and same weights, that's not bad (and I'd like to see you get that out of a chain and sprockets).

The Yamaha inspection interval is built into the dash (and you have to reset it when the service is done) at 20,000. This means I've done four prior inspections on this thing including this "inspection" at 130,000(ish)km for replacing a sealon the big end bearing. Everything was within spec so it all went back in. Now the guidance from the 2002 model was to "inspect" the belt but that changed in the 2007 manual to "replace" ... I'll assume this is because of inadequate skills in inspecting staff or just that at $100 it wasn't worth their while even inspecting. 

The weights

But I always disassemble the sheave, inspect everything; replace as needed. 

as you can see, some of the roller weights were starting to show flat spots, this is bad because then they become sliders, and that's another company. The sliding effect is not what was desired by the designers (although an after market one does this) who wanted those weights to roll (or at least I expect that was what they wanted). Once a flat spot has started then it is going to pretty much get stuck in that spot ...

...as it will  get "caught" on that by the pressure of rolling past the lower height. This is bad for a number of reasons (not least will be uneven pressure on the sheave parts). 

This seems like a good time to go back to the last time I did this (here). On that occasion I found that:

 

... except when I weighed them (on a scale that is only reading in grams) I found they were some 18g and some 17g ... when I weighed the bunch they were 143g (or 17.8g on average).
... Interestingly the Yamana ones were on average 19.37g (or 155g for the lot) which as a whole mass acting on the variator is about 12g heavier ... which will mean that it takes a higher RPM for the mass of these to overcome the spring (in the secondary sheave) and mean a higher RPM before the "front" is fully engaged..

This is something to think about so lets look at what the ones which I put in then weigh and what the ones I bought to replace them weigh:

During weighing the (now) old weights I had a few strange situations so I reweighed a second time. Interestingly the sum of all weights was basically identical and the new weights are very close to what the ones I'm replacing now started out as. 

Shouldn't be too surprising when you consider the shavings apparent in the sheave side. Also the new roller weights are now a different material than earlier, and aren't as dark, which I hope means they'll be somehow improved.

I don't know what the material is but I expect that its a polyurethane. I was tempted to rub some graphite into the surface to perhaps help with "sliding" but I read that there is an interaction between graphite and polyurethane as Google AI suggests:

Yes, graphite physically interacts with polyurethane when used as a filler to form a composite material, which modifies the polyurethane's physical properties. There is generally no significant chemical reaction between the two in standard preparations, but strong physical interactions (like adhesion and hydrogen bonding) are formed. 

 so I left it off for this first operation ... I'll inspect and report at the next 20,000 inspection.

So with it all cleaned 

I lubed the interior of the shaft and the nut and assembled it.

torquing the nut on  to the correct amount. The tool I have works nicely by just using the bike's weight and the lever of the arm onto the ground to hold the crank (cos that's what the nut is on) steady while you apply the right (160Nm) torque.

At this point I always start it and check that it operates well before I put the covers back on.

Oh, and I replaced the air filter that's over the rear sheave air intake ... 

Job done

The Irish Virus litmus test: are people really getting more stupid?

To me the answer is yes; this blog post serves to provide my reasoning.

Once upon a time in my IT career (it was the 90's) this meme (we didn't call them memes back then) came around:

We all laughed a lot, it was patently absurd ... it was unquestionable: nobody would be that stupid. Then I encountered this article in Ars Technica.

You fucking what now? You open a terminal (as administrator) and enter that string of text without even understanding it into the heart of your computer... breaching every defence it has and invite the invaders in through the tunnel you dug for them.

Fuck me, people are more stupid than I thought possible. So here I submit the remarks from "The Dadbod reacts" as my closing.

So it seems that we are indeed getting to live in the plot of Idiocracy....