Mechanical Watches

My Dad is keen to get a nice, new, mechanical watch, not too fussed if it's winding or self winding.

He is quite taken with some of the Poljot watches he seen on the shopping channel. here

As soon as I hear 'shopping channel' alarm bells start ringing in my ears but I know nothing about watches.

Does anyone know if these watches are of decent quality? or have any other recommendations for similar watches from other manufacturers?

I think he was planning on spending around £150-300 on one, I think that's around $250-500.

I'm not a fan of these watches. They are actually decent watches but not for me. If you are looking for a modern mechanical watch I would recommend the German brands Limes or Sinn.

http://www.watchbuys.com/store/pc/home.asp

I forgot to mention vintage mechanical watches. I would recommend Omega, Hamilton, Gruen, Enicar and Eterna. These watches are solidly built.

Cheers, they do look nice but the $1000+ price tags are not really what he's looking for.

xpost, he's a big fan of vintage stuff but he's dead set on something brand new for this purchase.

Did you look at the "Hot Buy" tab? They have other watches in your price range.

That seems really high for Poljot to me... they apparently do decent mechanisms, but you should be able to find those cheaper elsewhere, IIRC. Check the Poor Man's Watch Forum top 20 list for some suggestions close to your desired price range.

Most lower cost (and indeed a lot of middle and high range) mechanical swiss watches use ETA ebauche's (mechanism's) in their watches. These ebauche's are reknowned for being robust and accurate.

It is pretty hard to find a poor quality swiss/german mechanical watch these days so pretty much any brand is pretty good quality. You may find it hard to find a new watch in the price range you are looking at though.

Tag Heuer, Oris, Limes, Sinn, Longines are some you may care to look at.

seiko 5, its around 80 bucks, and its a fully self winding automatic,

For a decent buy I like Seiko's Kinetic watches....

http://www.seikowatches.com/technology/kinetic/index.html

There are a ton of options and they are reliable. I have one that is almost 10 years old, still looks great and has never lost a second!

Prices range from $200-$700 plus and there are many options/choices.

a.lange & sohne

Seikos and Pulsars last forever and are really excellent watches.

Christopher ward C4
tissot le locle
Hamilton Viewmaster.

I think the three of them use the same movement. (ETA something something) Some german watches use it too.

Tissot PR50. ETA movement- great build quality and in the price range.

D.Irving79 said:

a.lange & sohne

Click to expand...

Yeah... might be slightly out of the price range...i think....

Poljot used to be dirt cheap however the actual company went under about a year ago and the name was sold and the watches are made by someone else now. They are trying to upgrade the name so the prices have gone up.

In your price range I would look at low end Hamilton for Swiss but would really recommend Seiko. You can get the monster for $250 or less and its a bullet proof mechanical watch.

My vote goes to vintage Omega, and new or used Seiko. Hard to beat for class, value, and workmanship.

The Reguladora portuguese vintage brand is a good choice too.

National Geographic has a self-winding watch for $138.

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/218/4549/115.html

Unfortunatetly, they seem to have discontinued their re-issue of the Benrus mechanical watch issued by the Army in WWII. When you pulled out the crown, the watch reset the second hand to 12; when you adjusted the time and pushed the crown back in, the second hand started.

This resulted in the frequently heard command, "Synchronize your watches."

Stowa Antea