One of my major downfalls in life is that I collect things. Dust mostly… and bad decisions… but it seems like I can’t be content with only one of something… or just two of something. I don’t get it. So anyway, over the years, I have amassed a lot of watches, which I’m proud to say, I am in the process of getting rid of the majority of *hearty pat on the back*. But as I was weeding things down to fit into a single watch case, I thought to myself… I’m going to set three of my automatic watches down to the second, and keep them on the winders, and see how close they are after a week. So on April 30th, 2022, I did just that… but as I was doing that, I added a fourth watch to the mix, because it’s just an old dress watch I’ve had laying around for some 20 years, and now you can find them on Ebay for under $30… so I thought that could be the ultimate low end price point example. Then a week went by, and I forgot, then two weeks went by, still forgot, so here it is, May 17th, as I am about to go on a road trip in a different time zone I thought about how I’ll have to reset the watch for the trip and I was like “Holy shit, I forgot I synched all those watches up”. So I grabbed them, and checked them and I was really surprised. So here it is, four watches, in four different price points, but for the most part, pretty much the same style.
So here they are, in order of how they just happened to get set down when I took this picture on the day I set them… because I’m really scientific about stuff like this.
Watch Number One: Orient Raven II – $216 on Amazon (Paid $125 used on Ebay)
The Watch Geek info:
Reference Number: FAA0200389
Black PVD Coated Stainless Steel
Movement: In House Orient F6922 with 22 jewels, and 21,600 bph second hand.
Case is 41.5mm x 13mm, lug width is 22mm, and lug to lug is 47mm
Mineral Crystal
I really enjoy this watch, basically my watch collection goal is to have a higher end main watch, then a cheaper one of the same color/style to wear when I have a feeling I could end up breaking something, or something bad happening. So this was my planned cheap wearer for when I didn’t want to wear my Tudor. Which is why I started all of this, I was curious as to how accurate they were in comparison.
Now for those who aren’t too familiar with Orient, they’re from the same company as Seiko. Their main market is online, I’m not even sure if I have ever seen Orient in any brick and mortar stores. And being that they were from Seiko, is why I then decided to add my Seiko Baby Tuna into the picture too. I have two orients, this one and a “President” which is a really nice Rolex Day Date homage. Both of them get a lot of compliments, and just feel good on the wrist, maybe it’s because they’re on the cheaper side that they just feel light on the wrist to me. Some days when I wake up and old age has made my wrists sore, I throw this on and it is just a nice lightweight feel.
BUT, is it accurate?! Well after almost 3 weeks, it was only about 20 seconds different than the Tudor Black Bay, So in 3 weeks it had gained about 40 seconds. Which, to me is really good, if you can go a month with an automatic watch, especially one I only paid $125 for, and still have it only a minute off… that’s really respectable in my book.
Watch Number Two: Seiko Baby Tuna – According to Jomashop, these retail at $575. I paid $300 used on Ebay for mine, with non-factory strap.
The Watch Geek Info:
Reference Number: SRP641
Black Ion Plated Stainless Steel
Movement: Seiko 4R36 with 24 Jewels, and a 21,600 bph second hand.
Case is 46.5mm x 14mm, lug width 22mm,
Hardlex Crystal
Oh Seiko. I have always loved Seiko. Ever since I was a little kid it was a name held in high regard in the house. My first dress watch was a gold Seiko, with a black face, and a presidential styled bracelet. Got it at an Albertsons when I was 15 or 16 for a whopping $40. And over 30 years later, my daughters still refer to it as my “Fancy watch”. Then one day I was watching Jory Goodman’s Youtube channel “The Time Teller”, very entertaining channel, and he was showing off his SRP641 Baby Tuna and I just loved how it looked so much, it became an obsession to find one in that style. It’s SO nice looking, wouldn’t you agree?
But that’s where I found the love affair ends. And because of this, I have taken any mention of Jory out of my will, and will never send him a Christmas Card… well I think he’s Jewish, so that’s probably not too big of a deal for him. However as much as I love the black watch, with the gold details, and the little 5 minute markings, the classic Seiko Day/Date window that I love so much…. MAN I can’t look at it and smile. But when I got it, I ordered the stock band for it as well… I’m not much for putting aftermarket things on watches. But when it arrived it was the most awful feeling band I ever had. It literally felt like when McDonalds Happy Meals had those little fake plastic watches. I will say, the seller warned me about how terrible the band was new. So I kept the very comfy aftermarket one that came on it. Now I’m a big guy, but I’m not someone who will put on a watch and say “well my wrist is x.xxxxx mm”, but let’s just say if William Refrigerator Perry was White, we could be brothers. That being said, this watch wears like a concrete block. It is HEAVY, and BIG, and with a rubber strap, it’s really top heavy, if your wrist is really in between the sizes that the holes allow for, it’s going to always be trying to fall off your wrist. I quickly began to only wear it when I knew it would be appreciated (and get the standard “You must be a diver…. big watch and a little dick” joke), because it LOOKS great, and it’s big, and noticeable, and just doesn’t really look like any other watches. But I had noticed that the bezel was hard to turn and it was losing A LOT of time, basically any time I took it off the winder, it had to be reset like I had just bought it. So I took it down to the Seiko dealer in town.
“Eh, that’s about how much time is expected to get lost, but we can send it in for a service for you.” So less than 2 years ago, this watch received a $250 service from Seiko (There went that sweet $300 deal), and turns out that the bezel is really just a pain to deal with because of the bezel guards that look cool, but… HOW ACCURATE IS IT NOW!?!?! Well in the time that my $125 Orient gained 40 seconds, my $500 Seiko from the same company, lost 57 minutes… in less than 3 weeks. BUT, “that’s about what’s expected”. Oh Seiko, How the mighty have fallen. I have seen all the stories about how the faces don’t align properly, but never dealt with that… but this watch… breaks my heart. Especially since the watch that will be my “Cheap Submariner” when the glorious day of Rolex Ownership falls upon me, is an AMAZING Seiko solar quartz chronograph I bought YEARS ago, and when I put it on a time checker… it was +/- 0.00 seconds. As many years as I’ve had it, the only times I had to set anything was Daylight Savings Time and changing time zones (I live about 35 miles from the time zone, so it happens… sigh). The worst of it is I love how it looks, it would be hard for me to get rid of it… and it keeps such bad time, I would have a hard time selling it and not feeling like the biggest schmuck used car dealer type in the world. What a heartbreaker.
Watch Number Three: Tudor Black Bay Dark – I think they were about $3,700 New, I bought mine used with warranty and all the packaging for $4,000, they’re officially out of production, you can find old new stock 2021 models for about $4,800
The Watch Dork Stuff:
Reference Number: 79230DK
Black PVD coated Stainless Steel
Movement: Tudor MT5602 COSC Certified with 25 Jewels and 28,800 bph second hand.
Case is 41mm x 14.5 mm, lug width 22mm, lug to lug 50mm
Domed Sapphire Crystal
I love this watch, and I only have it because of that stupid collector thing I mentioned… and because I get angsty about getting things. I’ve been on the Rolex wait list for a Submariner for close to a year at my beloved dealer, and got on the Tudor list for the Pelagos and a Black Bay S&G, and was REALLY looking at the Black Bay Ceramic for my black watch fetish, BUT they were just a little too dark for my blind eyes… so I found this on Ebay, and was like “MUST…. HAVE”. Now I understand most people will never understand the concept of just how different a high quality watch is.. but it reminded me of when I picked up my first Gibson Les Paul, it was like an epiphany of “so THIS is how guitars are supposed to feel”. Now someone who hasn’t played guitar could hold it and shrug, and say “feels just like that $80 one at the pawn shop to me”. But when it touched my hands, it was like He-Mans sword channeling lightning and giving him the power. In fact just the other day I was at dinner with an old friend and showed her the watch, and her reaction was “well…. it’s heavy”. That was it. BUT when I first picked it up, it was like “WOW, there is quality here, where I never thought quality could make a difference”. The bracelet is amazing, the clasp is almost industrial grade. the bezel is so smooth, easy to move, and the way it clicks into the 12 o’clock position is glorious. I have a Citizen Promaster that I was always blown away by the bezel, I don’t know how, but Tudor blew it out of the water…. but then it also cost $3,700 more, so I guess it should. AND LOOK AT IT!!!
Man I love stealth wealth! It’s just a wonderful watch, it’s the first one I’ve had that didn’t have a date on it, and I thought I’d hate it, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Well… okay it bothers me a little, not so much because I need the date or anything, but I just really like how dates look on a watch, I’m also one of those people who love the cyclops on watches like Submariners… in fact, I took myself off of the Deepsea waiting list just because it doesn’t have the Cyclops. Picky, picky. Other than that, I just absolutely love this watch, AND it’s ACCURATE… in the nearly three weeks of the test, it gained about 18 seconds. just barely over a second per day… man, ya can’t beat that!!! I could ramble on and on about how much I like this, because there’s nothing I can’t find. It’s funny because I was on the wait list for the Black Bay 58, and when I got this I called my wonderful and patient AD and said “Man you got to take me off the 58 waitlist, if I get that I probably won’t want the Rolex Submariner anymore, and I’ve dreamt of owning one of those for so long, that I couldn’t bear not getting one”. DAMN, I gotta stop typing this so I can make out with this watch a little before I get to the Gruen.
Watch Number Four: Gruen dress watch of some sort – Paid $120 for it at Walmart around 2000, can be found on Ebay for under $30.
Watch Dweeb Stuff:
Reference Number GSM014
Stainless Steel with gold tone accents and blue face.
Movement: Eta 2824-2 with 25 Jewels and 28,800 bpm second hand
Case is a 34mm x 45mm rectangle with 18mm lug width
Sapphire Crystal
I bought this around the year 2000, I was working at Walmart and was good friends with the girl who worked at the Jewelry counter, and one day when I was sitting there chatting with her (I mean working super hard as always), I saw this watch, the face of it was just striking, the blue, the shape, the gold accents, just really nice…. it was on a brown leather strap that I didn’t care for, but I had her put a bracelet on it for me, and I put it on Layaway… it was my first ever automatic watch (I had a couple of Seiko Kinetics by then, but they were meh at best) and I didn’t really know anything about them… I just put it on, wore it when I wanted to be fancy pants, and really thought the sweeping second hand looked all cool and Rolexy (has the same bph as a Rolex and Tudor, so it’s smooooth). As years went by it just sort of sat in my drawer and got forgotten, something happened to the bracelet so it was just a case. So as I was going to do this whole thing, I started looking the watch up, hoping I had been sitting on a jackpot, but at the time, there were ones just like mine for $30, $40, I think one was $75 on Ebay. But it has an Eta 2824 movement, which is in the $200 range. So I thought… let me get a strap and put this on the winder and see what this puppy can do.
So I bought this REALLY NICE watch strap from Barton Watch Bands, and thought I’d pull it out of retirement. It’s still a nice watch, and sure enough still ran just as smooth as can be. BUT it’s over 20 years old, not really cared for, surely it won’t be anything to write home about… BUT I was wrong, it was just about as accurate as the Orient, they were only a couple of seconds off from each other… so if you want a nice little automatic watch, look up Gruens, they’re pretty good stuff, and you can find them at good prices, and not have the Invicta stigma with having an cheap automatic watch.
I have to say, overall I was really impressed. I KNEW Orients were good watches, but I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT good… especially considering the reputation Seiko has been getting for their non-Grand Seiko watches of late. I’m definitely more of an Orient guy now (Still love Seiko, but if I’m buying new, I’ll probably go Orient). And I knew going into this that the Baby Tuna wasn’t going to be the best showing, but man the level of disappointment in this thing, especially after a $250 Seiko service, I just can’t even express it, it would be like if you met the most beautiful woman you have ever seen, and not only was she dumb as a brick, but she was actively going out of her way to make her existence grind your nerves as much as possible. And this Gruen…. just blew me away, I can’t believe that it was still so accurate after all these years. And what can you say about Tudor that Nico hasn’t already said… these are just amazing watches, So there you have it. Thrilling huh?