Review of AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane Automatic Pilot Watch

Model # AVI-4016-02

Brand/Model:  AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane

Movement:  Chinese automatic

Material:  stainless steel case, leather strap

Complications:  date display

Price:  MSRP:  $520 USD

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

When a representative from the AVI-8 watch company contacted me about doing a review on one of their watches, I was quite excited.  What’s this?  A watch company that has a wide range of nifty looking watches that I have never heard of?  Great, bring it on! 

AVI-8 is a British company that sells a lot of their watches in the UK, but also has distribution in the U.S.  Their watches can also be found at a considerable discount off MSRP at Amazon.

The AVI-8 web site is well done, the range of pilot watches and chronographs they produce is impressive, with styles that are their own; there aren’t really any homage-type pieces in their collection, which is refreshing.  They make both quartz and automatic watches and I was interested in reviewing one of their popular Hawker Hurricane automatics.

This model is named after the Hawker Hurricane airplane, which was the first monoplane fighter to enter service into the Royal Airforce (RAF) in Britain according to an information card included with the watch.  Powered by a Rolls Royce engine, the Hurricane was the first RAF fighter to exceed 300 mph.

While the AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane watch doesn’t go 300 mph, it does hold its own on your wrist.  Starting with a brushed stainless steel case that measures a healthy 46mm without the large knurled crown, the Hawker Hurricane does make a statement when worn.  The big crown enables easy setting and winding and is embossed with the AVI-8 bulls eye logo.

The watch measures 50.8mm including the crown.  Lug width is 22mm, case thickness is 13mm.  While this watch is ‘large’ by most people’s standards, it is in keeping with the trend toward 45mm and larger watches.  More importantly, it really doesn’t look clownish on the wrist, which is a testament to its overall subdued style, as there are no garish touches that so many other watches have these days.  In a word, it’s ‘clean.’

The caseback is a screw down display type with a polished stainless steel outer edge.  The movement is really nothing special to look at; it’s undecorated and the rotor is not signed or stylized in any way, so what’s the point of putting a display back on this watch?  It would be much nicer if AVI-8 installed a solid caseback instead, emblazoned with a graphic of a Hawker Hurricane fighter.

The Hawker Hurricane pilot automatic is factory rated for a modest 50 meters of water resistance.

Overall fit and finish on this piece is good, with no unduly sharp edges on the case or dirt or other discrepancies noted on the dial under an 8X loupe exam.  One of the plates on the movement had some discoloration or smudging on it, but it didn’t affect the movement’s performance.

The dial is quite interesting on this watch.  The field of the dial has a textured, slightly pebbly black finish with an overlayed chapter ring that has the luminous minute and hour markers on it, with a luminous triangle with a dot on either side located at the 12 position.

At the 3 position is a rather small round date window ringed in silver.  The date window is a tad bit too small, as it almost obscures part of the date wheel, especially when the date is in double digits.  A larger date window is required here.  The date wheel itself is black on white and alignment within the small porthole is good.  Quickset date action through the crown works fine.

The hour and minute hands are semi-sword style and are black with inset lume.  The seconds subdial located at the 9 position (making this watch in popular parlance a ‘nine-eater’) is surrounded by a screwed down silver frame, adding a bit of flair to the dial.  The subseconds dial has small arabics every 10 minutes, with hash marks for the rest of the dial.  The seconds hand is black with inset lume.

All the lume on this watch is green colored in normal light, which at first I wasn’t too crazy about.  I like lume on a watch, but sometimes if it’s too greenish in daylight, it detracts from the overall look of the piece.  I’ve grown accustomed to the green lume on the Hawker Hurricane and in the dark, the lume quality is acceptable.

The rest of the dial is nice and clean, with ‘AVI-8’ and ‘Hawker Hurricane’ under the 12 position and ‘automatic’ above the 6 position.  The balance of the dial is slightly off-kilter due to the large subseconds dial on the left and the small date window on the right, but it’s not a major distraction and actually helps give this watch its own sense of style.

Capping the dial is a flat mineral crystal set perfectly into the case, with no distortion or defects noted.

Inside the Hawker Hurricane is a Chinese automatic movement, a DG-3809-3D, which AVI-8 tells me is a ‘modified Seagull movement.’  Beating at 21,600 bph, the movement hacks and manually winds.  Setting, winding and overall operation of the movement has been fine.  Accuracy has averaged about +10 seconds/24 hours (even better on the wrist), which is completely acceptable for this movement type.  Power reserve is a very fine 49 hours. 

I still have reservations on the long-term durability and reliability of Chinese-made automatic movements, but so far, the one in this Hawker Hurricane has acquitted itself quite well.

One pleasant surprise with the AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane is the quality of the leather strap that comes on the watch.  It’s a smooth dark brown leather with white contrast stitching, not really padded, but quite thick.  Many times thick straps are too unwieldy, but this one has enough give to make it properly hug your wrist, even with the large size of the watch itself.

The strap is signed on the inside and has a brushed stainless steel buckle signed with the AVI-8 name.  Two keepers, one fixed and one floating keep everything in check. The strap measures 22mm at the lugs and tapers slightly to about 21mm at the buckle.  The end of the strap is squared off with rounded edges, which is a nice touch.  The strap also doesn’t have any offensive odors to it.  Sometimes, cheaper leather straps smell like a wet dog, but this strap is a quality piece that compliments the watch well.

Presentation is another strong point with the Hawker Hurricane.  A white cardboard outer box with a brown padded and stitched leather-like inner box with a snap tab closure contains the watch.  Inside this padded box is the watch, hang tag, watch pillow, instruction manual, warranty card (a two-year warranty is standard) and the Hawker Hurricane info. card mentioned earlier.

The way the box is designed, the top half lays practically flat when opened, so you could use it as a small jewelry box or watch holder on a dresser top if desired.  At last, a watch box that can be used for something useful instead of being relegated to a dark closet shelf.

Overall, the AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane is a smartly styled affordable (when bought at a discount) pilot watch that certainly has its own unique look.  It wears surprisingly well for its size and has enough flair to keep up in today’s frenetic world.  Props to AVI-8 (pun intended?) for coming up with watches that have interesting designs, good quality and nice features in the crowded watch world.

Pros: a watch that has its own design style, large crown makes operation easy, nice quality leather strap, easy to read dial and hands

Cons:  modest water resistance, a solid caseback is preferred, date window too small, case size still too large for some

Verdict:  stylish and bold but not brash, this Hawker Hurricane automatic pilot watch shows that AVI-8 is serious about bringing an affordable alternative to the crowded field of ‘me-too’ homage watches and other look-alikes.  Cheers! to the company for making a pilot watch that stands on its own.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Excelsior!

-Marc

Review of Crepas Cayman 3000 Automatic Diver

Model # Crepas Cayman 3000

Brand/Model:  Crepas Cayman 3000

Movement:  Swiss automatic, top grade

Material:  stainless steel case and bracelet

Complications:  none

Price:  MSRP:  approx. $1,030 USD plus shipping

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

I like dive watches.  I really like dive watches.  So when Crepas introduced the Cayman 3000 in 2013, I started to look into the brand and the watch and liked what I saw. 

I wanted to apologize in advance for the reflections in the pictures, as the domed crystal, although it is anti-reflective coated, is a hard one to photograph and the fully polished case doesn’t help, either.  I did my best and trust me, it’s a stunner of a watch.

Crepas is an acronym for Compañía Relojera Especializada para Actividades Subacuaticás (Specialized Watch Company for Underwater Activities) based in southern Spain.  The company slogan is ‘technical watches for extreme divers.’

Their watches (at least the Cayman to the best of my knowledge) are assembled in Germany with top grade Swiss ETA automatic movements.  While not cheap by ‘boutique’ watch standards, the company only makes automatic dive watches in limited quantities (299 total pieces for the Cayman 3000), so quality and exclusivity are all but assured.  And when you think about it, $1,000 USD for a true 3000 meter dive watch with a Swiss engine is not by any means an unfair price.

Crepas watches can only be ordered through the company’s web site and you’ll probably have to wait a bit, as they produce a certain number of pieces at a time and wait until they have enough orders to do a production run. 

I waited about two months after my order for delivery, which was totally acceptable and the order process was smooth.  Communication via email was satisfactory and I was incredibly impressed with the speed with which my watch was delivered once it was shipped.  It came from Spain in about three days and I was able to track its progress the entire way.  Nice.

Crepas does not make any watches larger than 45mm, which is still on the large side for many people.  I have thin wrists and 45mm is my upper limit, but the Cayman fits me well.  This watch starts with a fully polished 316L all stainless steel case measuring 43mm without the signed screwdown crown; 48mm crown inclusive.  The bezel diameter is 44.5mm.  It’s nice to see my measurements match up with those shown on the Crepas web site for the Cayman.

Total thickness of the Cayman including the 4.6mm domed sapphire crystal is 19.9mm, but remember that includes the domed part of the crystal.  Crepas lists the case thickness without the crystal at 16.9mm.  Lugs are 22mm.  The overall heft of the watch is what one would expect for a 3000 meter diver.

Despite its large dimensions, the Cayman wears well and doesn’t feel too top-heavy, as some thick dive watches do.  Don’t be scared off by its size, the Cayman is a wearable, usable watch.

An automatic helium escape valve is located on the left side of the case at the 9 position.

The caseback is of course screwed down and very robust, with the Crepas logo (a propeller) rendered in sapphire with blue SuperLuminova.  A very unique and cool touch, albeit a bit impractical.

Overall quality and finishing of the watch is superb, although I would prefer a partially brushed case instead of the full polish.  It doesn’t look bad fully polished, but I always think tool watches look better a bit more subdued.  Also, some sort of crown guard would be a nice addition.

The bezel is a 120-click unidirectional design with a sapphire coated and fully lumed black insert.  Bezel action is tight with no backlash and it rotates with a satisfying click.

The cleanliness and functionality of the dial is part of what appealed to me about the Cayman.  The dial is pure gloss black, thanks in part to being a ceramic overlay with applied markers.  The hands are simple polished and faceted pieces with lume and the seconds hand is a simple straight piece with a lumed arrow-style tip. 

Rectangular markers are used at each five minute mark, with the quarter hour markers larger than the others.  Small hash marks make up the remaining minutes markers.  The dial looks superb, is easy to read and of course, the lume is superb (blue SuperLuminova BG W9).

The Crepas logo and name are under the 12 marker, with ‘Cayman 3000’, ‘3000 meters’ and ‘(9900 ft)’ located above the six marker.  This wording seems a bit redundant, as it would be cleaner to just have the name ‘Cayman’ without the ‘3000’, but it’s not a big deal.

The Cayman is also highly anti-magnetic, rated at 70,000 A/m.  The gaskets for the case and crystal are Viton and Tefzel.  Again, these specs speak of a quality piece.

The dial is capped by the nifty 4.6mm domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the inside.  No distortion or defects are noted on the dial or crystal, it’s a flawless presentation.

The Cayman 3000 is factory rated for an amazing 3000 meters of water resistance (300 atm) and Crepas includes a printout of the prototype of the Cayman having achieved a water resistance of 400 bar, which is greater than the rated 3000 meter depth.  Crepas says each Cayman is individually tested at 250 atm so you can be assured of its water-tightness.  Why they don’t test it to the 300 atm rating is a bit puzzling, but are you really going to go that deep?

Inside the Cayman beats the venerable ETA 2824-2 Swiss Made automatic movement, this one in ‘top grade’ fashion (better finishing of the movement).  Although you can’t see the nicer movement because the caseback is not a display type, it’s good to know that Crepas spends the extra dollars to equip the Cayman with a very high-quality movement. 

The movement hacks and manual winds and has performed as expected.  The watch winds and sets fine and has ran at about +5/24 hours with an acceptable 41.25 hour power reserve.

The stainless steel bracelet that comes with the Cayman is a true ‘beads of rice’ design, with seven individual pieces of steel on each link.  The beads of rice are polished, with the outer links being brushed, with all links being solid along with solid end links. 

The bracelet comes with two clasps; a continuous link butterfly clasp and a standard signed foldover stamped steel clasp with safety lock.  Both clasps have machined deployants and the foldover clasp also has a machined diver extension. 

I installed the foldover clasp, because it has four microadjustments on it, while the butterfly clasp has no microadjustment.

The links are held together with a rod that has a screwhead on one end, with a small screw on the other end, so you need to have two screwdrivers to remove the rod and therefore the link.  This method is always a bit cumbersome, but Crepas includes a set of quality screwdrivers for this task, as well as extra spring bars in a small vial.

The bracelet is continuous width, measuring 22mm at the lugs and at the clasp.  Crepas also includes a rather thick black nylon NATO style two-piece strap with polished buckle.  A leather strap is an option and I believe a rubber strap is also available.

Presentation is quite nice, with a large outer cardboard box with removable lid and an inner black plastic box with pushbutton opening.  Crepas includes the watch, bracelet, two clasps as described above, a black two-piece nylon strap and buckle, the extra spring bars, two precision screwdrivers, warranty information, instruction manual, the prototype pressure readout and a polishing cloth.  No complaints with the presentation, as it is very complete.

The Crepas Cayman 3000 represents a top quality, well engineered automatic dive watch that is very exclusive given its small production run.  The watch looks stunning, feels great and performs as it should, with plenty of its own style to send other wannabe divers running for cover.  My introduction to Crepas by way of the Cayman has been very favorable and I’m hoping that Crepas will continue to produce more unique, solidly built divers for collectors and enthusiasts alike.

Pros: clean, functional look, top quality movement, high quality throughout, great lume, nice real beads of rice bracelet  

Cons:  no crown guards, a bit heavy/thick/large for some, high polish case a bit much

Verdict:  a true dive watch for those who dive and a great looking dive watch for those who don’t, the Cayman delivers it all at a competitive price with top quality and unique looks.  Well played!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Excelsior!

-Marc

Review of Longines Master Collection Triple Date/Moonphase/Chronograph

Model # L2.673.4.78.3

Brand/Model:  Longines Master Collection

Movement:  Swiss automatic

Material:  stainless steel case, alligator strap

Complications:  month/day/date display, 24 hour indicator, chronograph timing in one-second increments up to 12 hours, moonphase

Price:  MSRP:  $3,050 USD

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

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not a ‘fancy watch’ kind of guy.  While I can certainly appreciate dressier watches, I usually find that if I buy a dress watch, I usually end up wearing it very infrequently.  But I do think that any serious watch collector needs at least one or two dress-type watches in their collection and for me, this Longines Master Collection triple date/moonphase/chronograph fills that ‘dress’ spot in my collection.

I’ve always been attracted to the complication of a triple date watch (a watch that displays the month, day and date).  There are further variations of this style, including a year display and perpetual complications that are very expensive, but for me, the triple date complication is plenty.  Add to this a real moonphase display and a 12-hour chronograph, wrap it up in a 40mm case and make it look really classy and you have the Longines Master Collection timepiece being reviewed here.

Longines makes quite a few variations within their Master Collection, but all of the watches have a dressier bent to them, with bracelet, strap and gold models all available, with varying degrees of complexity.  Longines makes two sizes of the watch I’m reviewing here, the 40mm version I have as well as a 42mm model.  The dial layout, functions, etc. are exactly the same between the two sizes.

For brevity’s sake and ease of typing, I will abbreviate the Longines Master Collection triple date/moonphase/chronograph as ‘TDMC’ for the remainder of this review.

The Longines TDMC begins with a highly polished stainless steel case devoid of any complex angles or cuts.  The case measures 40mm without the signed non-screwdown crown; 42.3mm with the crown included.  A polished rounded bezel is part of the case along with smooth polished chronograph pushers.  Lug width is 21mm, case thickness is 14.6mm.

The caseback is a display type, with the sapphire crystal exposing the nicely decorated Longines Cal. L678 automatic movement, replete with a beautifully rendered and signed rotor.  The caseback is a ‘pressure fitted’ type, which is a fancy way of saying it snaps on.  I guess a fancy watch needs some fancy superlatives.

The Longines TDMC is factory rated for a very modest 30 meters of water resistance, which is fine, because I cannot see anyone swimming or even showering with this fine watch.

Where the Longines TDMC really shines is with the highly detailed, complex but not unusable dial.  The silver ‘barleycorn’ dial is finely textured and is almost a silver-white in color.  The finely crafted semi-sword style hour and minute hands are blued steel and they look terrific against the texturing of the dial.  The long central seconds hand is the seconds hand for the chronograph.

The black painted arabics are presented in the perfect font and despite this watch having so many complications, the dial remains easy to read and easy to use.  Minimal dial printing also helps greatly in making this watch easier to read.  At the three position, there are the words ‘Longines’ and ‘Automatic’ with the Longines wing logo between the two words.  Subtle and unobtrusive.

A dished chapter ring serves as the minute track for the watch, with arabics every five minutes and hash marks in-between those markers.  Just inside the chapter ring is the circular date ring, with its numbers painted on the dial.  A half-moon central hand circles clockwise around the dial semi-enclosing or almost underlining the current date.  It works well and is easy to see.

The subdial at the 12 position is the 30-minute totalizer for the chronograph.  This subdial also contains the rectangular windows for the day (on the left) and month (on the right), both centered in the subdial.  The wheels for the day and month are black on white and centered perfectly in their respective windows.

The subdial at the 9 position has two hands, one being the watch’s seconds hand and the other, longer hand, being the 24-hour or a.m./p.m. indicator.  The seconds hand is sometimes hard to see running because it is so small; I almost think Longines could have made the seconds hand the longer of the two hands in this subdial.  A small quibble, but something to take note of regardless.

I always appreciate a watch that has a 24-hour indicator, it makes it easier to set the date because you know where in the 24-hour cycle the movement is and also because it’s just a nice feature to have. 

The subdial at 6 is the chronograph 12-hour totalizer, with the upper half of this subdial cut-out to reveal the moonphase function, which is designed in fair detail in blue and gold.  I’ve never really used the moonphase on this watch because I don’t wear it everyday.  It is a true moonphase and the instructions tell you how to set the dial so the phase will display accurately.  It’s a cool function, but one I don’t bother with setting when I wear this watch.

All the subdial hands are also blued steel.  There is also no luminous on this watch, it does not glow in the dark, but with so many complications, it’s really not the type of watch you need to see in the dark anyway.  But having just the hour and minute hands luminous would add practicality to this piece.

Finally, covering this most interesting of dials is a slightly domed sapphire crystal.

One thing that always steered me away from complicated watches like this Longines are the degree of difficulty in setting the watch.  Some triple dates have pushers that set each complication and make the watch overly fussy or ungainly in appearance.  Well, Longines nailed the setting problem and I am happy to say this Longines TDMC is as easy to set as any other watch in my collection.

The majority of the settings are controlled through the crown.  In the closed position, the crown is used to manually wind the automatic movement if you choose to do so.  The crown is rather small, so it is a bit difficult to wind, but I will give Longines a pass here because a dressy watch like this would not look right if the crown was larger.

In the first click position, the crown when turned clockwise (away from you) adjusts the moonphase indicator.  When the crown is turned in the counterclockwise (towards you) position, the date hand is changed and when it reaches the end of the month (31), the month indicator also changes to the next month.

In the second click position, the crown turns the hour and minute hands for timesetting.

The day display is changed via the flush-mounted pusher at the 10 position on the upper left side of the case.  It’s best to use a rubber or plastic pointed tool to activate this pusher, so you don’t risk damaging the polished finish on the case.

Inside the Longines TDMC is the Longines Caliber L678 automatic movement, running in 25 jewels at 28,800 bph.  This movement is a base ETA Valjoux 7751, so it’s tried and true and runs strong.  In my testing, the Longines TDMC kept time at +4/24 hours and ran a fine 52.5 hours on a full wind.  The watch hacks and can be manually wound.  All the complications work flawlessly, from the calendar and moonphase setting to the functioning of the chronograph (start/stop/reset are all good).

The movement is wonderfully decorated, with a variety of Geneva stripes, perlage and high-polish parts all visible through the display back.

Also, I wanted to mention that there are other brands of high-end watches that feature this exact same movement, complication set and dial layout which cost considerably more than this model.  The fact that this Longines can be had at a lower price with the same features as these other brands is a strong reason to consider this watch if you’re looking at the triple date/moonphase/chronograph complication.

The Longines TDMC is available in both bracelet and strap versions.  I think this watch looks classier on the strap, with is a genuine alligator strap in a medium brown with white contrast stitching.  It’s moderately padded, fairly soft and flexible and feels good on the wrist.

The strap measures 21mm at the lugs and tapers to 17.8mm at the polished and signed triple safety folding clasp.  Two keepers are included, one fixed and one floating.

The clasp is a pushbutton release butterfly style with a nicely machined deployant.  Longines even includes a separate manual with the watch explaining how the clasp works and adjusts.  It’s a bit over the top, as there really is no secret to adjusting or using the clasp.

I will say that at least for me, the pushbuttons tend to dig into the bottom of my wrist a bit while wearing, which is a somewhat odd, since I do not have the strap adjusted on the tight side.

Presentation is standard Longines, with a cream colored outer box and a polished inner box with separate compartment for the documentation.  It’s a fine presentation that doesn’t need any improvement.

If you’re wanting a triple date, moonphase and/or chronograph watch that’s on the dressy side, you should definitely take a good look at the Longines TDMC.  It’s a fine watch that has the look and the features to occupy a coveted position in your collection without breaking the bank and you’ll be ready for your next dinner party or corporate event. 

Pros:  complicated, highly decorated reliable movement, great classy looks, strong value, useful complications

Cons:  crown too small to easily manual wind the watch, no lume, snap-on caseback

Verdict:  a real looker, the Longines Master Collection triple date/moonphase/chronograph represents a superb watch that’s loaded with features at a price that’s hard to beat.  Stroll into your next black-tie event with this baby on your wrist and you’ll play the part with panache.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Excelsior!

-Marc