Alpine Eagle in 41mm is just an amazing watch. The dial and the case without any compromise are just phantastic and in person even more impressive than on pictures. I was really surprised when I tried on the 33mm just for fun, how good and still present the watch was on my wrist. Obviously not my colors and stones but the Alpine might be a couples watch I’ll propose in the future 😄
I have a 16.5cm (6.5 inch) wrist which is rather on the smaller side of the average men. That’s one reason why I don’t have any dive watch in my collection. Every single normal diver I tried was too bulky for my personal taste.
But I started swimming in the local pool regularly and as I don’t want to wear a smartwatch, I started again looking for a dive watch to just measure my time in the water. I had no need for a real diver, but quite a few desk divers have not been sufficient as well.
My criteria have been:
At the beginning I got recommended only the same five watches but the more I went town the rabbit hole the more great watches of all price points I found. I ended up with a list of 39 dive watches for smaller wrists on my blog as I got asked from quite a few friends about my research and what I ended up with. I know not all of them are microbrands but I am sure I missed some great ones there. I’ll comment with a link to my list as they aren’t allowed in the post just in case the images are too small to see.
So here is my question: do you know any microbrand dive watches that fit my criteria and I should add to my list?
I am currently writing an article about Dive-Watches for smaller wrists. And while at first the same old five watches appeared, I managed to research 39 divers that really fit small wrists.
But with all the watches, I still couldn't get the thought out of my head: what if Nomos would design a diver? They have the ahoi and the club line. Absolutely robust and waterproof watches, but not one with a diving bezel.
So I asked Gemini to create a child of the Nomos Ahoi and the VPC Type 39VM. While I adore both watches just by themselves and Gemini really didn't nail it, I now totally wish for Nomos to make a diver.
How about you, would you dig it, or is it a good thing to have at least one and a half brands not jumping on the dive-train?
Ich habe auf meinem Blog eine Review der Galo Novo Cruisin‘ 318 geschrieben. Das Design hat sofort beim mir geklickt und ich hatte Glück sie gleich im ersten Drop im April zu bekommen.
Nicht so viel Glück hatte ich bei der Uhr selbst, weil der Automatik-Rotor klemmte und ich einen Uhrmacher das habe fixen lassen müssen. Seitdem läuft sie rund, aber die Qualität und der Preis passt dennoch nicht ganz zusammen. Ist halt doch eine Uhr aus China, die ohne Kontrolle verschickt wird.
Seitdem sie aber läuft, habe ich wirklich viel Spaß an der Uhr, das Design ist schon wirklich besonders und da ich nicht viel Farbe in meiner Kollektion habe, ist sie die Uhr, die trage, wenn es mal eher spielerisch sein soll.
Schade finde ich, dass sie keine verschraubte Krone hat, das wäre zum Baden im Sommer schon gut.
Sie ist mit 430€ plus Versand und Zoll/Steuern nicht billig und auch nicht richtig teuer, trägt sich für mich aber besser als bspw. die bunten Citizen oder Seiko, die ich anprobiert habe auf der Suche nach einer Sommeruhr.
Würde ich die Galo also empfehlen? Als einzige Uhr eher nicht, da ist man wohl bei Junghans, Seiko oder Citizen in der Preisklasse besser aufgehoben. Als bunte Retro Uhr in einer schon vorhandenen Sammlung würde ich sie trotz des Ärgers am Anfang aber trotzdem empfehlen. Ich mag die Galo und trage sie doch recht häufig.
I got the Galo Novo Cruisin' 318 in the first batch back in May, and after wearing it for quite a bit, I wrote a review on my personal blog about it: in English and German.
Unfortunately, my watch had a little defect with the rotor not winding while wearing it, which got fixed by a watchmaker but stained my initial experience with the watch. Some people here on the sub reported some mispainting on their dials, but mine is perfect in that sense.
Despite the initial grunt because of the rotor, I really like the Galo and have been wearing it quite often this summer. I have a large rotation of about 20 watches, and the Galo keeps winning me over, especially on sunny days. It’s quirky and colorful without being childish, and it has a great vintage vibe.
The design is amazing, the overall quality is really good (if I assume I just got that one defective watch), and it's really a different approach in the microbrand space, taking the vintage vibe but creating a real modern watch. It also fits very well with a variety of clothes. I mean it's a colorful watch, but because of the pastel style, it's not like a statement yellow/red/neoncolored piece, and I wear it with basically all my clothes.
So all in all, I am happy with the watch, and I am sure it will get reasonable wrist time ven in autumn and winter, but I also hope Galo will do some more quality assurance in the future, because I am eyeing the Super200, but especially with a watch I want to take snorkelling, I need to be sure everything is in order.
How do you like your Galo so far?
The Kuoe Royal Smith 90-006 was the first microbrand watch I bought for myself quite a while ago (2024 I think). And as much as I love the design, the watch just never really fit me. Not aesthetically; in that sense, it fits perfectly, but the watch always moved up my wrist and looked out of place.
Soon after, I gave it to my partner, but she has quite a few very similar watches, and again it got very little wrist time.
So yesterday, out of a hunch, I tried a different strap. It’s much thinner than the brown leather strap it came with, and that allows me to wear the watch a bit tighter without compromising blood flow, and now it doesn’t move up my wrist anymore.
I also love the black color giving the watch an even more classy vintage touch. I might look for a thin alligator style strap, as the current one is 1mm too small.
I am sure the Kuoe will get a lot more wrist time again 😊
How do you like the black strap?
Early this summer I visited Prague and obviously spend some time in the watch boutiques and vintage stores there but I got from several friends the recommendation to visit infinitywatches and now I want to do you the favor. It’s so rare to be able to have all the great watches from the microbrand space on your wrist and I don’t really like buying without getting the feel.
OI wrote a blog article about my experience at infinitywatches and the Dozent microbrand watches I got to try (German version) and I know it sounds like k got payed for it, but I unfortunately had to pay full price für the DUG Purist I purchased like anyone else 😄
I really wish we would have a shop like this in Berlin. Are there any shops like this anywhere else? We should start a list if there are more shops like this.
I got this vintage Longines Tank from Italy and I love it. I am not sure how the watch was called, if it was already part of the Dolce Vita line, but I know it’s from the 70s and its reference is 4243.
It’s the perfect classic and light summer watch for me, linen cloths and Aperol.
What vintage (or Neo vintage) Longines are y’all rocking these days?
Does anyone have a link to a video or manual how to set the calendar on my Orient Mult-Year-Calendar? It’s an heirloom and I can only find videos and manual of similar but not this watch.
For me it’s the Rolex Pistachio in the golden sunset over Berlin.
Wearing my Baume & Mercier Riviera and enjoying an oat latte.
I know not few seem the Datejust as an entry point, but I love the subtleness especially with the black dial, perfect 36mm and the layback oyster bracelet. I contemplate from time to time if I also should get a jubilee bracelet though.
Show me your grey shots with your Datejust.
Love my vintage Longines tank, better proportions imo than Cartier.
I love the straps from Nomos and I wear them even on my Omega and DUG, not only on my Minimatik. They are comfortable, right thickness and especially the vegan velour is just chefs kiss.
But they don’t have a quick release, I would love to switch them more often but I am not comfortable with the normal springbars. If I could find out who produced the straps I could maybe get them with quick release.