Review of Getat Pilot Manual Wind

Model # Getat Pilot

At a Glance:

Brand /Model:  Getat Pilot

Movement:  Asian 6498 manual wind

Material:  stainless steel case, leather strap

Complications:  none

Price:  about $100 USD depending on options

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

The ‘pilot’ style watch is certainly one of the most popular and ubiquitous types on the market today, with a myriad of variations to choose from:  manual wind, automatic, sub seconds, center seconds, different dial colors, case finishes, etc.  The choices are almost as endless as are the price points, running from sub-$100 pieces up to $500 or more.

When a fellow WIS turned me onto Getat Watch Company via email, I became intrigued with what Getat was offering.  Not only does this enterprising start-up in the Far East offer a good selection of pilot style and other watches, they offer the ability for customers to customize their watches from a menu of options.  I love this approach and it was too good for me to pass up, so I took the plunge.

I was particularly smitten with the grey dial pilot that Getat offers.  I love grey dials on watches and it certainly isn’t a color you see every day offered on a watch.  I had the choice from several different movement finishes (standard, PVD/gun metal or skeleton); a 6497 ‘9’ eater or 6498 ‘6’ eater ‘Asian Unitas’ movement; brushed, polished or combination case finish; several handsets to choose from, along with choosing the color of the leather strap, the color of the stitching on the strap and even the stitch style (choice of two).  In a word, Nifty!

I went with the grey dial 6498 ‘6’ eater with the PVD/gun metal finish, California blue hands, a fully brushed case and a seal brown strap with blue stitching.  I felt the blue accents on the strap would play off the blue hands, which look great against the grey dial.  The blued screws of the movement also help pull this entire color scheme together. 

The overall fit and finish of this watch is superb, especially for the price point.  The build is clean and devoid of dust, dirt, fingerprints, etc.  Under an 8x loupe, no glaring defects were noticed, other than a couple of very tiny dots on the dial and one blued screwhead on the movement that could be cleaner.  Again, this is entirely in keeping with the price point of this watch and I’ve seen more flaws in watches that cost hundreds of dollars more.

The crown is large, substantial and even screws down, quite a rarity for a manual wind watch.  The 17-jewel Asian Unitas movement keeps great time (every watch that Getat sends out is checked for accuracy and timing in six positions before shipment) with a long power reserve of nearly 50 hours on a full wind.  Winding action is smooth and consistent and the crown functions perfectly.   Over 24 hours, dial up, it runs at -7.

The quality of the finish on the movement is nice and the gun metal finish, in a word, is cool.  The skeleton version of the movement is also pretty radical looking, but I felt it wasn’t quite appropriate for this watch.  The back is a screw down display type devoid of any markings or printing whatsoever.  Ditto for the dial.  If you want clean and sterile, this is the watch for you! 

The shade of grey on the dial is perfect, with the subdial @ 6 having a circular pattern to it.  The ‘60’ on the subdial is printed in red, all the other markings on the dial are in black or luminous material.

The 316L stainless steel case measures 46.5mm without the diamond-style crown, 51.8mm including the crown.  The crown itself measures an impressive 9.5mm in diameter.  Lug width is 24mm.  Lug-tip to lug-tip is 55.4mm.  Case thickness is 14.6mm.  The watch has a nice heft to it and a balanced, jewel-like feel. 

The crystal is a heavy domed mineral, a sapphire upgrade for this model was not offered.  I do wish the crystal had some sort of anti-reflective coating on it.  The dial measures 37.6mm with what is referred to as ‘Swiss Superlume’ material.  The hand set I chose has what is called ‘Japan Luminous’.  Regardless of where the lume came from, the markers, arabics and hands all glow evenly and brightly.

There is no water resistance rating specified for this watch.  While it does have a screw down case back and a screw down crown, one would assume there is at least a marginal degree of water resistance, like 5 atm or something.  As I don’t get my watches wet, I’m not worried, but to be on the safe side, if you get one, try and keep it dry.

The handmade strap is genuine leather, 4.5mm thick, but fairly flexible.  It measures 80/130mm with two oversized floating keepers.  I removed one keeper because for me, two were not needed.  The Pre-V Panny-style buckle is finished to match the case, with my watch, it is brushed.  The buckle measures a substantial 35.7mm at its widest point and has a long screw that secures the buckle through the hole in the strap. 

Getat claims to be using a new strap maker with ‘better hand skill’ especially on the edges.  The stitching is robust and is of waxed thread and is available in 12 colors. 

The watch was shipped in a non-descript padded black box.  It would be nice if Getat would supply a fancier wooden box or something that would enhance the special custom order aspect of these watches.  I would even pay extra for a plaque stating this watch was custom-crafted for me.

Navigating the Getat web site to choose your custom options is fairly straight-forward, but it can be a bit confusing at times as all options are not available with all watch styles.

Some options are no-cost selections, such as the case finish, while others are price upgrades, like the PVD finish on the movement.  The options are reasonably priced, as my watch fully optioned to my specs and including shipping totaled up to a very affordable $100 USD even.  In my opinion, this watch has quality that equals pilot watches costing two to four times as much.

A word about Getat the company and Tat, the fellow who runs the place.  If you’re in a hurry for a watch and get all antsy when your emails are not answered within five minutes, you probably won’t want to place an order. 

My watch, after an initial order glitch on Getat’s end, took about four weeks to arrive as well.  The watch was shipped with the wrong color strap and I contacted Getat about the error.  Tat corrected the problem by sending out the correct strap to me with no questions asked.  All emails I ever sent to him were answered accurately and it due time, usually in about two to three days, sometimes a tad longer.  I have a feeling he is inundated with orders and is doing his best to keep up.  As long as he continues to provide such quality pieces for such great prices, I would be more than willing to wait four or more weeks, especially for a custom-produced watch that is uniquely my own.

Pros:  custom-produced pilot watch where you choose your options, superb overall quality, great lume, cool movement finish

Cons:  a sapphire crystal upgrade would be nice or at least some anti-reflective coating, water resistance rating not specified, presentation nothing special for such a unique piece, watch too sterile for some?

Verdict:  great custom watch concept at a very reasonable price, excellent quality and workmanship.  More customization is the future with watches and Getat is helping to lead the way!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Excelsior,

-Marc

UPDATE!

I really was impressed with my Getat pilot, but I sold it about six months after purchase.  The watch is rather large and for some reason, I always seem to sell my Unitas-style 6498 powered watches.  In the end, it was perhaps a bit too sterile for me, but the price vs. quality could not be beat.

-MCV, 7-21-11

Review of Invicta Stealth GMT

Model # 6516

At a Glance:

Brand/Model:  Invicta Stealth GMT

Movement:  Swiss Quartz

Material:  black ion plate stainless steel, leather strap

Complications:  date display, independently adjustable third/GMT hand

Price:  MSRP:  $425 USD (fantasy); Street price:  $125 USD

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

Well, you’re either going to love this watch or hate it, no two ways about it!  This Invicta model also comes in a polished stainless steel case that is not as stealthy as well as a blingy rose-gold finish.  Other finishes and combinations have also been seen for sale.

I know these stealth styles are highly impractical, because their design makes it very hard to tell the time, since most everything on the dial is of the same or similar color, but I do think they look cool, so in this instance, I’m willing to put form ahead of function.

This Invicta stealth GMT sports a black ion plated case that is shiny black, which looks nifty, but is a magnet for fingerprints and skin oils.  This model is also a ‘lefty’ crown, which is supposed to be designed for left-handed WISes who wear their watches on their right wrist.  But of course, any lefty watch can be worn on the left wrist by non-left-handed people who just want something a bit different.  That’s the category I fit into.

The case measures 45.5mm without the crown, 52.1mm with the crown.  Case lug tip to lug tip is 55.4mm.  The crown itself is large, clocking in at 9.8mm in diameter.  The crown is signed, non screw down and has a fixed lower crown guard which I originally thought was going to be a canteen-style locking device like I had on my Nautica lefty titanium, but it is not.  Case thickness is 12mm.  Lug width is 22mm.

The lugs do curve downwards fairly sharply, so even the thin-wristed among us (like me) should be able to wear this watch fairly comfortably despite its rather large size.

The case is all stainless steel and is signed on the right-hand side, but the case’s black finish helps disguise this rather garish tendency of Invicta to emblazon their name on all surfaces of a watch.   The case back is brushed stainless steel, screw down, and has a cool-looking radiant pattern embossed on it.  Water resistance is 100 meters.  The crystal is flat mineral.

The dial is the most interesting part of this watch and the part that invites the most controversy.  There is a lot going on here, but since it’s mostly monochromatic, it blends in.  If it was any other color, it would probably look goofy, busy and clown-like.  The hour markers are applied gun-metal rectangles with small engraved hour numbers on them to correspond to the GMT function of this watch.  The dial itself is black with a gun-metal Invicta logo, with ‘Swiss’ and water resistance lettering in grey on the left-hand side.

The independently adjustable GMT hand is black and has a skeleton tip.  The seconds hand is grey and also features a skeleton tip.  The hands themselves are gun-metal and are of a contemporary skeleton design with nifty squared off tips.  I’m not a big fan of skeleton hands, but these do look cool.  A black dished chapter ring encircles the entire dial with the standard 5, 10, 15, etc. hour markings, with hash marks for the remaining minutes.

The date window is the most interesting design element.  A wide-angle window that displays seven (!) dates, with all but the bottom date covered by a semi-transparent grey shield that is held in place by a skeleton gun-metal frame.  The frame has a visible gun-metal screw head holding it in place at the three o’clock position.  This is one detail they could have done without, as to me, it just makes the dial unnecessarily busy.  The visible date window at the 5 o’clock position is black on white; I think white on black would have looked better and would have kept with the stealth nature of this watch.  Of course, the date is quickset. 

Since this watch is a stealth model, there is no luminous material to be found anywhere, therefore, it does not glow in the dark.

Inside this watch clicks the trusty Swiss Ronda 515 quartz GMT movement that has an independently adjustable GMT hand for tracking time in another time zone.  This movement is pretty much the de facto quartz GMT movement these days and is also featured in the black Invicta mesh GMT I own.  Time keeping has been spot-on.

The seconds hand hits the minute markers perfectly for the first 30 seconds on the dial and is off by about one-half second on the remaining 30 seconds of the dial.  This doesn’t bother me too much, but it is worth noting since some people want to know.

The strap is a nice buffalo grain matte black leather with black stitching and reasonable padding.  The strap is 22mm at the lugs and tapers to about 20mm at the black signed buckle.  There is one fixed black metal keeper and one floating leather keeper.  I would have preferred two leather keepers, as it seems the metal one may be hard on the strap in terms of wear, but time will tell.

Overall fit and finish is quite superb on this model and I have to admit to being duly impressed with its initial quality.  Again, time will tell how things hold up and wear.

Presentation is typical Invicta big dopey rubberized inner yellow box with polishing cloth and big dopey outer yellow cardboard box.

I do like this stealth GMT better than the Wenger stealth model I owned, since to me the watch seems to engage me more and has a higher quality look to it.

Pros:  cool stealth looks, build quality seems great, independent GMT functionality, unique lefty crown

Cons:  size could be an issue for some (too large), hard to tell the time and actually use the GMT function, no luminous, metal keeper a bit bothersome

Verdict:  if black is your color and you want to get noticed at the summer lawn party, wear this stealth GMT, just don’t expect to actually be able to tell anyone what time it is

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Excelsior!

-Marc

UPDATE!

I sold this watch after a few months since it wasn’t getting very much wrist time.  It’s still a cool piece if you’re looking for a stealth model to add to your collection, though.

-MCV, 7-16-11

Review of Swiss Legend Worldtimer GMT & Swiss Legend Reserve Automatic

Model # SL-90013-77-BB (Worldtimer); SL-10012A-11 (Automatic)

At a Glance:

Brand/Model:  Swiss Legend Worldtimer GMT & Reserve Automatic

Movement:  Worldtimer:  Swiss quartz; Reserve:  Swiss automatic

Material:  stainless steel cases and bracelets

Complications:  Worldtimer:  date display, independently adjustable third/GMT hand; Reserve:  date display

Price:  Worldtimer street price:  $100 USD; Reserve street price:  $150 USD

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

These two Swiss Legends are the second and third examples of the brand I have owned.  Almost three years ago, I purchased the same GMT Worldtimer, but in a different color combination and ultimately sold it.  When you get this brand on sale (don’t pay attention to their fantasy retail prices) they seem to represent a good value along the lines of Invicta, that is, nicely finished cases and quality bracelets, sometimes over-the-top designs and decent movements.

This new Swiss Legend GMT Worldtimer is a big watch, measuring 45.2mm without the crowns, 14.3mm thick, with 24mm lugs.  All stainless steel construction with a screw down case back.  The case is polished and brushed and the main time setting crown screws down and is signed, being protected by two chunky crown guards.  The knurled crown @ 10 rotates the inner cities bezel in either direction.  Quickset date @ 3.  Overall fit and finish is quite good, although the press fit black bezel could be aligned a tad better.

What attracted me back to this watch for the second time was this particular model’s nifty color combination.  The dial is a vivid yellow, with an appealing iridescence in some artificial light.  The black outlined hands make this watch supremely legible.  The red second hand and black GMT hand with red tip complete the dial’s overall easy-to-read nature.

One quirky thing about the second hand is that the center of the hand, where is attaches to the pinion, is not painted red, but rather shows the natural brass color of the metal.  I at first thought this was a defect, but all models of this watch have the second hand look this way.  Why it isn’t painted all one color is a mystery to me. 

The black ion-plated bezel is non-rotating (I wish it rotated!) and has the numerals in-filled with white paint.  The two large arabics, the hour markers, the hour and minute hands and GMT hand tip are luminous, but the lume is a disappointment; it is so-so on the hands and almost non-existent on the markers and arabics.  I recall the lume on the first version of this watch I had being much better.

The crystal is slightly domed and is heavy mineral.  The watch is factory rated at 100 meters water resistance.

The quartz movement is keeping fine time and I believe it to be the trusty Ronda 515 GMT movement with independently adjustable GMT hand.  No complaints here.

The bracelet is solid link with screw pins, brushed and polished with solid end links and a push-button butterfly clasp.  Swiss Legend includes two half links which makes the possibility of at least an acceptable fit with the bracelet much more of a reality than if they didn’t include half links, owing to the non-microadjustment that is inherent with a butterfly clasp. 

Why do so many companies insist of putting these continuous link bracelets with butterfly clasp designs on their watches?  Who decided that this is a preferred system?  Give me a standard pushbutton clasp with a machined deployant and at least four microadjustment holes on the clasp and I’d be a much happier WIS.  Fortunately, I have been able to achieve a pretty good fit with this Swiss Legend GMT.

What really appeals to me about this watch in addition to its superior legibility is the overall clean and spacious layout of the dial.  The center of the dial is textured, but it doesn’t detract from the functionality of this watch.  There’s plenty of ‘white space’ and a nice long second hand and GMT hand.  Of course, the printing of the city names on the inner rotating bezel is quite small, but all worldtime watches exhibit this trait.  I just think the overall design with this model is superb and it helps make it a joy to wear.

Another thing Swiss Legend does with many of their models is to make the same design in many different color combinations.  This is a good move.  How many times have we all said “if only they made it in black, or red, or yellow, or gold, etc.?”  This GMT Worldtimer comes in blue, black, yellow, tan, silver, orange and red dials and in stainless, black ion plate and gold two-tone combos, if not more.  A flavor for everyone!

Presentation is standard Swiss Legend, a red vinyl box inside a white cardboard outer box.  Totally appropriate for this price point.
 
Pros:  very legible dial and hands, great wrist presence, useful GMT/Worldtime functionality, good fit and finish

Cons:  poor lume, continuous link bracelet with butterfly clasp could be a negative for some, wish the bezel would rotate, a bit large for some

Verdict:  a very nice watch for a good price, value all the way

Pictures follow the second review below.

________________________________________________________________________


The second Swiss Legend in this review is from their Reserve Series and is considered a dress watch, or at least I consider it as such.  What attracted me to this watch was the automatic movement, sapphire crystals and price, which was on sale.

This Reserve model has a fully polished all stainless steel case with a screw down display back.  Flat sapphire crystals are installed front and rear.  The bezel is stepped on this watch, but is formed as one piece with the case.  It would have imparted a much nicer look and more expensive feel to have an actual separate bezel that would be pressed into the case, instead of the somewhat cheap looking stepped design.  I guess they had to cut costs somewhere. 

Case measures 41.9mm without the signed screw down crown and curved crown guards, 13mm thick with 24mm lugs.  Factory water resistance is rated at 100 meters.

The dial is jet black with a gentle circular ‘record groove’ pattern on the outer edge where the markers and arabics are located.  The dial layout is superbly clean, with just the Swiss Legend name and logo and the word ‘automatic’ being present.  A quickset date is located @ 3. 

The hands are clean, simple and legible, as is the red-tipped second hand.  Applied markers and arabics are luminous, as are the hour and minute hands.  Contrary to the GMT Worldtimer reviewed above, the lume on this Reserve Series is superb.  It’s bright and fairly long lasting.

The movement is the much-discussed Claro CL888 ‘Swiss’ 18-jewel automatic.  The movement hacks and can be manually wound.  Power reserve is a fine 45 hours and time keeping has been -5 seconds per day, crown up, right out of the box.  I cannot complain. 

A lot of people dis this movement, but I have this movement in my Zodiac Oceanaire and in that watch and in this Swiss Legend, it has performed well.  This Swiss Legend has a nice smooth second hand sweep with no stuttering or hesitation (see timed exposure lume shot for the smoothness of the tick).  The rotor is signed ‘Swiss Legend.’  Although I do not like this movement as a whole now that some time has passed, the unit in this Swiss Legend is the best example of this caliber I have owned.

The bracelet is a similar design to the GMT Worldtimer, a brushed and polished solid link affair with solid end links, screw pins and a pushbutton butterfly clasp.  It was harder for me to get a good fit with this watch compared to the GMT Worldtimer, even though it also has half links.  I found that if I put both half links on one side of the bracelet instead of having one on each side, I was able to achieve a more comfortable fit for my thin wrist.  Why not just put a one full link on that side and dispense with the half links?  I tried that and the fit wasn’t right.

Currently, I am experimenting with wearing this watch on the stainless bracelet from my Zodiac V-Wolf and also investigating leather strap options as I think one of these possibilities may be the ultimate solution for me with this watch.  The inside of the lugs on the case could be polished and finished much nicer; this was discovered when I removed the stock bracelet and installed the Zodiac bracelet.

Presentation is the same as the GMT Worldtimer.  This watch also comes in a variety of dial colors including blue, red, yellow and silver.  This watch is also sometimes sold with a watch winder in lieu of the presentation box.
 
Pros:  Swiss automatic that hacks and manual winds, supremely clean dial layout, good lume, sporty and dressy at the same time, sapphire crystals

Cons:  perfect sizing hard to achieve with bracelet/butterfly clasp design, stepped one-piece bezel/case design could be executed better

Verdict:  strong value, nice dial design and overall good looks, a deal when bought on sale

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Excelsior!

-Marc

UPDATE!

I owned both of these watches for several months and have since sold them.  The Worldtimer GMT is still a winner, but the design of the bracelet didn’t sit well with me with such a large case.  The Reserve is a nice watch, but I couldn’t warm up to the Claro movement or the case design after wearing it a number of times.  Still, this watch is a good entry-level automatic for those on a budget.

-MCV, 7-14-11