A good friend of mine, somewhat new to automatic watches, wrote a review on his initial impressions of the Garinin Dual Tower watch winders. Here you go:

After endless hours of internet scouring and discussion with a fellow watch enthusiast I finally bought a Watch Winder. My collection of auto watches had grown to 5. So I definitely needed a winder to keep them all up and running. But I couldn’t bring myself to buying an Orbita or any other quality (and costly) winder. My previous watch purchases have left me rather baron in the wallet. Plus the wife has me under probation till further notice.

I was told and warned about the cheap China Made watch winders that spawned on Ebay. They were of low quality craftmanship and sub par motors that would only last a few months. So I spotted Garinin Winders during my extensive net search. I liked the look and function of the dual tower winder and decided to try one out. Price wise they were low enough to sneak under the wife’s radar.

Upon receiving my winder I quickly scuttled to my den, just narrowly missing the scouting eye of my better half. I carefully unwrapped everything and inspected the quality of the unit. The first thing I noticed was the “Made in China” label. Really, what isn’t made in China these days? The dimensions come in at L 6.5″ W 6″ H 11.5″inches with glass windows 3″ in diameter and weighing 2 lb.

I opened up the front door and noted that it was at a slight angle leaning back. That way the door doesn’t swing forward while your trying to get your watch out. And I notice a slight resistance just before the door opens. Turns out there are small magnets discreetly built in to keep the door securely closed without a complicated latch system. Very nice!

The watch holders are nothing terribly ingenious in design. Simply spring loaded pushers that add tension to the band when the watch is wrapped around it. You can remove the face of the holder to reveal a smaller face to accommodate smaller bands.

I then load up my two Seiko divers for a test spin. One with a jubilee metal band and the other a rubber strap. The Holders had no problems adjusting to either. My thick Formex AS1500 Auto (About 20mm) on the other hand just fitted in.

The holders slip back into the rotator drum with a click and they were ready to roll. Taking a look at the back there are a few switches. First rocker switch is for On and Off. The second rocker allows you to select counter-clock, alternate and clockwise rotation. The third is the rotation frequency slide switch. You have 4 choices.

> Rotates 33 seconds rests 12 minutes
> Rotates 10 minutes rests 90 minutes
> Rotates 30 minutes rests 180 minutes
> Rotates 60 minutes rests 180 minutes

I plug in the 3 volt adapter and holding my breath I flick the on switch. Brrr-gurgle-gurgle!!! then silence. My heart sunk. Did the winder poof out? A quick peek thru the winders show the watches rotating together nicely. All was silent! Brrr-gurgle-gurgle!! This time my stomach felt something. Ooooh! It was my stomach making that noise as I had yet to have dinner. Ok……..

After realizing that I was very happy to hear how quiet the Garinin winder motor was. I was expecting a Can opener grinding whirr noise but quite the contrary. I had to come within a few inches to really here something going on inside the winder. Leaving this winder on my nite table wouldn’t be a problem at all. After playing around with all the other switches everything appeared to be in working order.

My initial impression of tis Garinin Dual Tower Watch Winder is Excellent. I am very happy with this product BUT it remains to see how long the motors will last. If the motors are brushless I would expect a few years of use. If you don’t see another review then you can assume all is well and running. Otherwise a long, detailed and angry rant will be posted in the near future.

I picked up a Versace Madison automatic a week or so ago, and have been wearing it for a couple of days over the last little bit. This is a very nice watch that deserves a mention in my blog. It won’t be getting too much wrist time for the next little bit as I’ve picked up a Chronomat Evolution and just got it in yesterday! But enough about the Breitling 😉

The Versace has a stainless steel case, stainless bracelet and everything. The bracelet uses screws, not push pins, so it is a nice touch. Multi-link style reminds me of IWC Fleiger and Movado Horwitt bracelets, among others. The dial is very nice, with a matte white finish, and the sapphire crystal is domed and AR coated on the inside.

Nice steel hands and small seconds complication, with date window at 3 o’clock. The word “Automatic” appears on the dial in a somewhat chunky type. Not sure the exact diameter of the watch, but I would put it around 38-39mm. Not small, but not big either. A good size for a dress watch.

The way the bracelet connects to the watch is unique, and gives it a extra “style factor” making the watch seem more of a design-based watch than a movement based product. It does indeed look very good on the wrist, even with the smaller face that I am not used to. The
wide bracelet helps.

The clasp is a friction lock double butterfly clasp, similar to the Breitling Rouleaux bracelets. Holds pretty good, and has the versace typeface deeply engraved on it. Very nice!

Caseback is also engraved with the model number and serial number as well as Versace logo. Four micro-screws hold the caseback on, and beneath it hold the swiss made movement… can you guess which it is?

ETA 2895-1. Not bad. Movement looks stock, and likely has no modifications to it at all. Still a nice movement, 30 jewels, Swiss made ETA, based on the 2892. It kept within about 10 seconds/day… good enough for me. For what this watch is, a designer timepeice made for the fashion concious, not the WIS, this is a fantastic watch. Looks great with edgey clothing styles and that metro-sexual look.

Movement: 7/10
Case/Crystal/Crown: 8/10
Dial/Hands: 8/10
Strap / Buckle / Bracelet: 7/10
Accuracy: 8/10
Comfort: 9/10
Packaging / Manual: None Received
Overall Impression: 8/10

Absolutely AMAZING. This watch can be summed up into 2 words, and those are them!

I absolutely love this watch. From the moment I opened the package and laid my eyes on it, I was fixated. The dial is beautiful with it’s sunburst Guilloche pattern, blued steel hands, and applied blued steel arabics. The watch is very large for a dress watch… 44mm wide so it sits with prescence on your wrist.

The blue Crocodile pattern Sinn Strap is very well made, It is a bit stiffer than the leather straps from Breitling which I tend to prefer, but very palettable and quite robust. The Strap is calf leather with a Croc pattern on it, not genuine Croc. Watch sits at about 10mm thick, so it is not extremely thin, but not thick either.

Check out that Detail!!! The watch comes with a loupe so you can look at the movement and dial with it and see all the intricacies that Sinn has modified! Very cool watch. I always find myself looking at it and not able to look away! The watch also comes with a CD Manual, not a written one. The guilloche is nicely done tho the lacquered letters look a bit lost in the pattern sometimes.

The Unitas 6498-1 Movement that Sinn has modified is called the SZ 04. Sinn has modified it to a Regulator configuration and has tweaked it to perform at Chronometer standards. The watch is keeping time within 2 seconds per day since I have received it. Amazingly the watch is water resistant to 100m, even with the push-down crown. It uses Sinn’s new D3 system. The movement as you can see is decorated very nicely.

Movement: 9/10
Case/Crystal/Crown: 9/10
Dial/Hands: 9/10
Strap / Buckle / Bracelet: 7/10
Accuracy: 10/10
Comfort: 9/10
Packaging / Manual: 7/10
Overall Impression: 9/10

So, I got my Eterna Airforce Chrono earlier this week, and wow… am I impressed! Once I put it on I noticed that it felt a lot like a slightly more expensive Tag Heuer Aquaracer… in fact, its more robust feeling, and uses the same movement as it, the Valjoux 7750…. also the same movement as the Breitling 13 used in the Chronomats and Navitimers. Bidirectional Compass Bezel, and Superluminova arabics and hands… completely swiss made. This watch is incredible for the price… absolutely incredible. Its likely that the lack of proper marketing of the brand is the reason that they are not as popular as they could be. Porsche Design bought the company out a while back as far as I know… and their Kon Tiki line is somewhat popular.

The dial is very nicely made.. .and has very nice guilloche subdials. I am actually quite stunned by it. It reminds me of a cross between a Tag, and the dial of a late 90’s Chronomat. Very nice. I would highly recommend this watch to anyone who wants quality and doesn’t really care too much about name dropping.

Bracelet is okay.. about right for hte price point.. not as well made as Breitling bracelets, and about in-line with the entry level Tag bracelets like the Formula 1 and possibly the Aquaracers, but certainly not the Link.

Movement: 8/10
Case/Crystal/Crown: 8/10
Dial/Hands: 8/10
Strap / Buckle / Bracelet: 7/10
Accuracy: 8/10
Comfort: 8/10
Packaging / Manual: 8/10
Overall Impression: 8/10

IWC is set to launch a new watch in a few weeks at SIHH in Geneva. It will be using an in-house IWC designed Movement, the Cal. 89360. It will be a beautiful and very large 43mm wide Tonneau shaped case, available in Platinum, Rose Gold, White Gold and Stainless Steel.

I’ve always been a fan of IWC, especially of their Aquatimer, GST and Portugese Lines. These is a fairly radical style for IWC, but looks very nice. Hopefully it is a popular model for them.

Case: 43mm
Strap: 24/18mm
Movement: In-house Caliber 89360.
Movement highlights:
-Column wheel switching
-68 hour power reserve with single barrel mainspring
-Free sprung balance with 4 adjustable weights
-Flyback function
-Improved Pellaton winding system with 4 pawls (instead of 2).
-Winding efficiency improved by 30%.
-Integrated 60 minute and 12 hour counter.