Review of Momo Design Pilot Series Automatic

Model # MD097-RB-01BK

Brand/Model:  Momo Design Automatic Pilot Series
Movement:  Swiss automatic
Material:  satin finish stainless steel with black ion-plate stainless steel bezel; rubber strap
Complications:  date display
Price:  MSRP:  $1,995 USD; Street Price:  $500 to $900 USD

Plenty of photos follow the review.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Momo Design is similar to the Porsche Design studio.  Two well-known and well-regarded companies that design various items on contract for retail sale around the world.  Momo is perhaps best known for accessory steering wheels for cars, but has branched out into alloy wheels for cars, tuning accessories, racing equipment and the like.

Regarding watches, the Momo Design studio has quite a range of both quartz and automatic timepieces that exemplify the Momo Design credo; that would be modern, clean designs that are stylish, functional and unique.

I have been interested in acquiring a Momo Design watch for quite some time and when this Pilot Series automatic came along at the right price, I took the proverbial plunge and emerged with this piece in my hot little hands.  I don’t know who assembles these watches for Momo Design, the movement is Swiss, but the watch is marked ‘Made in Italy.’  Fit and finish is top-notch.

This Momo Design automatic appealed to me because of its square shape and super clean, modern appearance.  The case measures 40mm square around the bezel without the slim, signed screwdown crown (43.4mm across crown inclusive) and 44mm in height from the inside of the lugs (51mm lug tip to lug tip).  Thickness is 13.5mm.

The case is beautifully crafted in satin finish stainless steel that looks similar to titanium, with its light grey tone.  The square bezel is black ion-plated stainless steel, as is the crown.  The caseback is held in place by four fine screws and is a display type, showing off the workings of the Swiss ETA automatic movement with Momo-signed rotor.  The watch sports a modest water resistance rating of just 50 meters, so swimming is not advised with this piece.

The dial is a great flat black color and is highly legible due to minimal printing and great contrast.  The word ‘automatico’ is a great and cool touch.

The dial has a square raised chapter ring that has the markers and arabics on it, spaced at five minute increments, with arabics at 12, 3, 6 and 9.  On the side of the chapter ring, there are small arabics marking each five minute increment (05, 10, etc.)  On the dial itself, there are screened minute marks, with larger marks at each five minute mark.  This layout may sound busy, but trust me, it is not and makes this watch a pleasure to look at.

The hands are silver with red tips, with two-pieces of inset lume in each hand.  The seconds hand is red.  The quickset date window at the 3 position features a fairly small frameless window with a black on white date wheel. 

The hour and minute hands, along with the arabics and markers on the top side of the chapter ring and the markers on the dial are all luminous.  Lume quality is superb and looks super cool.

The dial is protected by a slightly curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on it.  The crystal does have some of the anti-reflective purple tint to it and is a fingerprint magnet.  This is unfortunate because the satin finish case hides fingerprints.  The crystal is beveled slightly on the edge and is fit into the case evenly.  Due to the curvature of the crystal and the anti-reflective coating, it is hard to get a clean dial photograph of this watch.

Inside this Momo Design automatic is the ubiquitous Swiss ETA 2824-2 25-jewel automatic movement that hacks and manually winds.  Performance has been very good, achieving 41-3/4 hours power reserve and a superb +1 second/24 hours timekeeping stat.  The watch winds, sets and runs perfectly.  The crown is rather thin, but has plenty of fluting on it for an easy grip.  It screws down smoothly and is signed with the Momo logo.

While I’m not a fan of rubber straps, the rubber strap on this Momo Design Pilot Series is in keeping with the overall svelte design of the watch.  The strap is thin, flexible and smooth, with mild grooves on the topside and is tastefully signed on both sides.  The strap fits in perfectly flush at the lugs for an integrated look and feel. 

The clasp is satin finish stainless steel and is a butterfly design with a machined deployant.  The free end of the strap is held in place by the stainless keeper on the clasp and by the single floating keeper on the strap.  The stainless keeper is signed.

This clasp does not have a pushbutton release on it and this is usually a bone of contention with me.  But since there is a free end of the strap to grab onto and pull gently, the clasp is easy to open, so I give this one a pass.  The strap is 22mm at the lugs and tapers to 19.8mm at the clasp.

A note about the strap…I tried to fit a leather strap on this watch and due to the placement of the springbar holes (fairly far towards the case on the inside of the lugs) and the rounded inside corners of the lugs where they meet the case, I was unable to do so.  I’m sure you could find a leather strap somewhere that would fit, but in most cases, you will probably not be able to replace the leather strap with something else.  I have learned to live with the rubber and being the only watch in my collection with a rubber strap, I actually enjoy this one.

Presentation is nice, with a large black cardboard outer box with removable signed lid and a reasonably impressive inner box made of matte black plastic with chromed plastic hinges, signed on the top with a plastic embossed ‘Momo Design’ inset.  It all feels a bit too plasticky, but is still a presentable design.

The Momo Design Pilot Series automatic comes in several different variations using the same case shape (chronograph, skeleton dial, etc.)  This watch presents itself well, features top-quality fit and finish and has a timeless, clean design that will never go out of style.  If Euro-chic is your thing or you just like a clean, easy-to-read well-made watch that has a look all its own, this Momo Design automatic is definitely worth a look.

Pros:  clean, sleek design, great quality, square shape has style, Swiss automatic engine 

Cons:  no pushbutton release on clasp, due to case design, hard to fit aftermarket straps, modest water resistance rating

Verdict:  a cool, clean and comfortable watch with Italian panache and Swiss practicality.  You won’t see this one every day and it will still look great 20 years from now.  Bellissimo!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Excelsior!

-Marc

Review of H3 Tactical Field Ops

Model # H3.202351.09

Brand/Model:  H3 Tactical Field Ops
Movement:  Swiss quartz
Material:  black ion-plate stainless steel case, ‘digital camo’ print leather strap
Complications:  date display
Price:  MSRP:  $360 USD; Street Price:  $159 to $270 USD

 

Plenty of photos follow the review.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

I really don’t know very much about the H3 brand of watches other than that they contain Swiss movements and are made with tritium tube technology from MB Microtec of Switzerland.  The company claims to be the supplier of watches to the Swiss Army.  Tritium tubes continuously glow without needing any light to activate them and have a claimed useful life of 20 years or so.  Sometimes tritium tubes are referred to as a ‘permanent self-activated illumination system.’ 

This is the fifth tritium tube watch I have owned.  If you’re not familiar with this technology, it is handy to have in some circumstances (like being in a movie theater), but I tend to look at them as still being kind of gimmicky.  The glow is not nearly as bright as super luminova or similar applied glow-in-the-dark coatings.  The tritium tube glow is softer, which can be both a positive or negative, depending on the situation.

One nice thing about tritium tubes are the colors they are now available in, mainly green, orange and blue (plus others), which can all be used on watches and can add some interesting contrasts to a watch dial.  Another bit of information to know about tritium tube watches, since the tubes themselves are thicker when compared to standard watch hands with super luminova, the dials have to be set deeper into the case, especially if all three hands (or more) are equipped with a tritium tube.  A deeper dial is something not all people will appreciate.  It could also potentially make the watch case thicker, again, depending on how many tritium tubes are used in a particular watch’s construction.  There are also new flat tritium tubes being used by some watch companies which should make the dials less deep.

This H3 Tactical starts with a brushed stainless steel case that is black ion plated for a smooth, cool look.  The ion plate is evenly applied and so far has held up to abuse. 

The case measures 42mm without the screwdown crown, 45.7mm crown inclusive.  The case back is standard brushed stainless steel (not ion plated) and screws down.  Case thickness is 13.1mm, lug width is a nice standard 20mm, which makes it easier to find suitable replacement straps, which you may want to do to replace the rather garish ‘digital camo’ print overly thick leather strap that comes standard with this H3 model.

What drew me to this particular watch was its unique yellow-toned dial that is sort of yellow, but sort of tan, beige or khaki at times, too.  It was hard to photograph and the true yellowish tone of the dial didn’t really come through in the photos. 

The dial has printed black arabics from 01 to 12, with a smaller 13-24 hour military time inner track.  There are 12 horizontally installed tritium tubes on the outside of each arabic, the one at 12 is orange, the rest around the dial are green.

The hands are black with wide arrow pointer ends, the hour and minute hands both have one green tritium tube installed along with standard luminous material applied to the arrow ends.  The seconds hand is orange with an open arrow tip.  There are orange vertical hash marks between each five minute arabic, but due to the size of the horizontally installed tritium tubes, there are only two hash marks between each arabic and none at the bottom of the dial from the 05 to 07 markers, due to printing at the bottom edge of the dial.  It would be a bit hard to use this watch for various counting purposes due to this design.

The quickset date is located at 3 and has a white on black datewheel.  A flat sapphire crystal covers the dial and is surrounded by a black 120-click unidirectional bezel with a simple silver numbered insert with timing marks around the entire circumference of the bezel.  The bezel is fairly easy to turn, but has a large amount of slop or backlash on it when turned against its unidirectional rotation.  This means the bezel has to be tweaked to line it up at the top of the dial.  The simple insert also looks cheap and out of character on a watch with a retail of $360 USD.  Demerits here from me.

The dial has minimal printing on it, with just the H3 Tactical logo and ‘100m/330 feet’ printed on the lower center.  Which brings up a curious point.  The dial says this watch is water resistant to 100 meters, while the case back says the watch is water resistant to 20 atm (200 meters).  A big discrepancy and important to someone who would want to actually use this watch for swimming or diving.  So which is it?  I have no idea, but for a company that makes a pricey, sports-oriented watch and supplies the Swiss Army, this discrepancy is unacceptable and calls into question the QC aspects of its manufacture.

The movement is Swiss quartz.  I have not cracked the back to see if it’s an ETA, Ronda, ISA or something else.  The watch keeps acceptable quartz time, running about +10 seconds a month.  The movement sets fine and the quickset date works fine.  The second hand does an approximate job of hitting the two hash marks between each arabic on the dial.

The strap is a 20mm genuine leather ‘digital camo’ print strap with greenish stitching on the top side, while the inside of the strap is plain light tan leather with off-white stitching.  The strap is almost a continuous width of 20mm from lug to buckle, tapering to just 19.4mm at the buckle. The buckle is black ion plate stainless steel and is signed ‘H3 Tactical.’  There are two keepers on the strap, one fixed and one floating. 

There are two problems with the strap.  First, you really have to like camo print to appreciate the strap.  If you don’t, you will think the strap is garish and looks kind of stupid on the watch.  Also, and this is a bigger problem, the strap is overly thick.  This fact, coupled with the rather cheap leather used to make the strap, makes it feel rubbery and very hard to use and insert the tang of the buckle through the rectangular holes in the strap.  The strap is also an XL size, so there’s too much strap that overhangs the other side and again, since it’s so thick, it makes the watch ungainly on the wrist.

Since I use this watch as a knock-around watch for yard or garage work, I have retained the stock strap, but I don’t think I’d be caught dead in public wearing this watch with what I consider to be a hideous looking strap.  That’s my opinion; if you like camo and drive a camo-patterned car, have a hut with camo on it or have a camo-decorated dinner service, great, you’ll love this strap.

The H3 Tactical is just an average watch with no real attributes that make is stand out in my opinion.  There are better constructed tritium tube watches on the market for the same price as this watch (ie:  Luminox).  If you get this watch for around $150 USD, you’ve done okay, but pay any more for it and it’s really not worth it.  H3 does have some better looking watches in their line up without camo straps, but their prices are too high in comparison to what else it out there.
 
Pros:  black ion-plate case, sapphire crystal, tritium tube illumination, unique dial color

Cons:  sloppy, cheap looking and feeling bezel, hideous camo strap, what’s the real water resistance rating?

Verdict:  great for working in the yard, but this watch won’t make it into my standard rotation

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Excelsior!

-Marc

Review of Hamilton Pan-Europ Automatic Chronograph

Model # H35 716 545

Brand/Model:  Hamilton Pan-Europ Automatic Chronograph
Movement:  Swiss automatic chronograph
Material:  stainless steel case, leather strap
Complications:  date display, chronograph timing in one-second increments up to 30 minutes
Price:  MSRP:  $1,971 USD

Plenty of photos follow the review.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Plenty has already been written and said about the re-issue of the Hamilton Pan-Europ automatic chronograph, and if you will indulge me, I will add my eight dollars and 43 cents worth.  This watch is a re-issue of Hamilton’s iconic Pan-Europ automatic chronograph from 1971, which has been heralded as the world’s first automatic mechanical chronograph.  I won’t go into the debate as to whether this is really true or not, but suffice to say that the original Pan-Europ is an important part of horological history and a pretty nifty looking watch to boot!

The re-issue captures many of the details of the 1971 original while updating the piece in keeping with the current trends in men’s watches, ie:  big.  Hamilton decided to celebrate its being a part of the Swatch Group since 1971 (40 years) by re-issuing the Pan-Europ in a limited edition of 1,971 pieces, all of which have been spoken for.

First off, I feel that Hamilton watches generally represent a great value, with outstanding build quality and nice details for prices that are lower than other brands.  The new Pan-Europ continues this tradition. 

The original Pan-Europ was a lefty crown with right-hand chronograph pushers because the movement was the famed Caliber 12 movement used by Heuer, Breitling and Hamilton.  The re-issue has a standard right side crown and pushers, but is faithful to the colors used in the original, primarily blue, white and red.  The mysterious number ‘703’ has been left off the dial of the new watch.  No one quite knows what this number referred to in the original, but it appeared on the dial and has been confounding watch enthusiasts ever since.

The new Pan-Europ starts with a large 45.2mm stainless steel case in a classic cushion/tonneau shape that is polished and brushed.  There’s no mistaking this watch for the original, the new one is big!  The polished case back is secured by four screws and sports a large ‘1971’ along with individual serial numbers for the limited edition.  The crown screws down and is signed.  Case diameter with crown is 49.6mm.  Thickness is 14.5mm, with 22mm lugs.  Overall fit and finish is quite good.  The crown is nice and large and screws down.  The pushers have mild fluting on them, although they do not screw down.

What appeals so much about the Pan-Europ is its vivid blue dial, which can look darker blue in certain light or the perfect shade of medium blue in other light.  The blue rotating bezel is also a stunner.  The dial is offset by the white-rimmed subdials for the chronograph, which are slightly raised above the dial and jut out to the edge of the tachymeter chapter ring.  The subdials themselves are silver with red pointers. 

The subdial on the left is the watch seconds hand, the subdial on the right is the chronograph’s 30-minute totalizer.  The chronograph seconds hand is all red and is kept simple.  The main watch hands are silver stick-style with inset lume. 

The hands appear to be rather thin in relation to the overall size of the watch, so this can be somewhat jarring at times.  It’s not a major design fault, but their thinness doesn’t jive with the rest of the watch.  Silver applied markers with inset lume are set halfway into the chapter ring for a unique look.  Lume quality is fine, there’s just not a lot of lumed surfaces on the new Pan-Europ. 

Another cool touch is the retro ‘70s style font used for the printing on the dial.  The words ‘Hamilton’, ‘automatic’, ‘Pan-Europ’ and ‘Caliber H31’ appear on the dial and are properly sized so as not to be obtrusive or distracting.

A quickset date window is at the 6 position with a black on white date wheel.  A note about the quickset date.  Instead of operating through the crown like most do, this quickset is changed via a small flush pusher at the 10 position on the upper left side of the case.  My theory is that the modified Valjoux 7753 precluded a standard crown operated quickset, but I don’t know for sure.  You can use any small pointed object to set the date with the pusher, I prefer something made of plastic to avoid the possibility of scratching the case.

A very slightly domed sapphire crystal covers the dial.  A blue unidirectional 120-click bezel surrounds the dial and has clear, easy to read numbers on it.  The grooves cut into the side of the bezel are fairly widely spaced and not real deep and coupled with the polished sides, make the bezel a bit hard to turn at times.  But the bezel looks magnificent.  The watch is factory rated at 100 meters of water resistance.

Inside the new Pan-Europ is the Hamilton Caliber H31, which is a modified Valjoux 7753.  Hamilton installs a larger barrel for a claimed 60-hour power reserve.  During testing in my atelier, I achieved a good 58-hour power reserve, but not the claimed 60 hours.  Timekeeping has been excellent, running +1/24 hours.  Chronograph start, stop and reset are as expected, that is, crisp, positive and accurate.  The crown is nice and big and makes handwinding the Pan-Europ a pleasure.

The strap on the new Pan-Europ looks stunning and compliments the retro-aspect of this watch perfectly.  The strap is a thick, medium brown rally-style leather with a croc pattern embossed on it.  The strap is not as soft or supple as some Hamilton straps I have seen and although it is handmade, it feels pretty stiff and a bit low-grade.  It has a semi-gloss finish with white contrast stitching and measures 22mm at the lugs, tapering to about 20.3mm at the clasp. 

Speaking of the clasp, it is a first-class piece all the way; a pushbutton signed clasp with a beautiful polished and machined deployant that fits over the other end of the strap for a smoother feel and cleaner look while wearing, since the strap touches your skin and not the deployant.  Another benefit of this clasp design is the lack of any keepers; they are not needed because the end of the strap rides inside your wrist, not on the outside.

When the new Pan-Europ was released a few months ago, people eagerly waited to get their hands on it.  All 1971 pieces sold out quickly, but a month or two later, the inevitable flippers appeared and continue to do so sporadically, so finding one will take some effort, but shouldn’t prove too hard.  I think the size of the new piece puts off some enthusiasts; it is a large watch and can be ungainly from time to time.

Overall, Hamilton has created a fitting homage to its original Pan-Europ from 1971, suitably upgraded and updated for 21st century duty.  Large and in-charge with the Hamilton attributes that make this brand so appealing, the new Pan-Europ would be a worthy addition to any watch collection.
 
Pros:  stunning blue dial and bezel, overall fine build quality, two-register chrono good looks, a fitting tribute to the original, beautiful deployant clasp

Cons:  large size too big for some, thick, stiff leather strap, slight plastic look to parts of the dial, quickset date pushbutton a bit odd

Verdict:  buy it for looks, buy it for heritage, but make sure you wear it, because the new Hamilton Pan-Europ is too nice a watch to keep hidden away

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Excelsior!

-Marc