Reply With QuoteOnly a Rolex fan can spot the difference. Other people simply donīt care.
And another good thing about hommage - even if you crash the watch you donīt have to be so sad :)
Enjoy!
another one of my reviews (so this makes 2) & another mirco brand watch....
my first review & first mirco brand watch can be found here
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...77#post2377777
Having decided that i wanted a sub homage (in lieu of not being able to afford the real thing, whilst absolutely adoring the design) i quite naturally contacted the good people at Steinhart. The Steinhart really wasn't for me, as it fell short on some of my touchy/feely OCDs that i look for in a watch & being good people, the good people at Steinhart refunded all my money, incl postage & even provided their courier account for the return shipment - did i mention they were good people?
this lead to the steiny needing replacement & i had long been aware of the existence of the Davosa Ternos Diver and having found one in Germany at a palatable price i pulled the trigger
the ternos tries very hard to mimic the pre-ceramic sub & from what i can tell looking at pictures of the rolex succeeds nicely, which is a bit overkill to my tastes as ultimately i was just looking for a dots/dashes not-too-busy-face & quite like Mercedes hands !!
one thing i do like about the style of the davosa homage is that they haven't felt the need to replicate pieces of dial text in place of the original rolex text (unlike sterinhart) - this to my eye actually gives a less cluttered dial that the watch they're mimicking
the lugs have a small degree of curve, no drilled ends [:(] & push pins holding the links togther
one disappointment with the bracelet is that there are 4 holes for micro adjustment, but only 3 are usable as the forth hole causes the folded diver's extension to interfere with where the other side of the bracelet connects to the deployant clasp. In some pix i've seen of this watch there are only 3 micro adjustment holes, so PERHAPS davosa have commonised this part with another watch in their range..... whatever the reason, a little bit of a let down
bracelet itself starts at 20mm & tapers to 18 at the clasp. It's a good solid bracelet, the links dont rub on one another yet maintain a consistent gap, the non removable links are properly pushed together (more OCD)
not surprisingly folding part is very rolexy
decent sized crown signed with the davosa logo - crown winds the movement when being screwed in, has no visible threads or gasket (unlike my areonautec), so i assume they're internal
overall proportions & face of the watch are very classy, the case & bracelet sides are polished, as is the case back & underside of the lugs, while the rest of the watch & bracelet are brushed finished
the bezel pip is centralised & the bezel triangle & 12 hr marker line up perfectly (a big OCD of mine)
Cyclops magnification very good, certainly better than the aeronautec & i'd say x2 better than Steinhart. (BTW the Cyclops IS fitted straight, i've just somehow managed to make it look very non-aligned in this picture)
end link (SELs btw) fitment is very good, no play, no big gap
bezel action is nice, firm, 'clicky' with the bezel spring being strong enough to damp out any play that is generally found in a rotating non-bearing interface (another colossal OCD of mine)
lume is good, on par with the steinhart & aeronautec, which is no bad thing - the bezel pip doesn't glow as much as everything else, but this doesn't bother me
one bug bear was the accuracy.... out of the box it was running +15pd which is a bit quick for a eta2824-2 & in my limited experience very poor.... having saved about Ģ140 buying it from Germany, i wasn't in a big hurry to ship it back & i was wondering if there was a problem with such a new watch..... damage during shipping? maybe sat around in a warehouse for a while & needed a service? a manufacturing problem on the balance, was it's tick not matching it's tock???
in the end my local watchmaker had it on the timing machine, confirmed it was running fine but fast & 30mins later & Ģ30 lighter i had a regulated resealed watch, which has run at -16 in 15 days ~ i'd have preferred +16 (in 15 days) but it's no biggie, i suspect shopping around i could've had this performed cheaper, but while-you-wait-service is worth a couple of quid to me & i didn't want to spend time away from a new watch
the date changes slightly to early @ 11:56/8 but i understand this is par for the course on many watches, hand to indices alignment is good, so any improvement on the date change time can wait for it's service.
i compared this watch to a tag aquaracer 300m calibre 5 & found it comparable in quality, the tag had a nicer shape bracelet, but less nice crown screwing action, annoying end link play & the tag changed date at 11:50 !!!!
not quite the bargain that my beloved aeronautec was, but overall imVho a very nice watch for the money far better quality than the homage forum fav, the steinhart ocean 1
summary
plus =
-good overall quality
-quality feel to the functionality of the parts
-good lume
-classy execution of the rolex design standard
negative =
-pointless 4th hole on micro adjustment
-needed regulation from new
watch dimensions as inexpertly measured by me
dia = 40mm
Dia incl crown = 44mm
thickness (not incl Cyclops) = 12mm
crown dia = 7mm
Lug = 20mm
weight with all links = 157g
notes on homages homage rollies are a big pile of hate for a lot of people, strangely Panerai homage watches seem to be forgiveable for most & a lot of people are like bees to honey when shown a Seiko diver made to look like a fiftyfathoms, but i digress - as a sub homage owner i can assure you that most people don't notice, people don't think you're wearing a rolex & i don't think i'm wearing a rolex, in fact the market place is so saturated with steel bracelet divers watches that no one gives it a second glance, which i suspect would be its biggest commonality to a rolex ;D
if you've read this far, thanks very much :)
Only a Rolex fan can spot the difference. Other people simply donīt care.
And another good thing about hommage - even if you crash the watch you donīt have to be so sad :)
Enjoy!
Not my cup of tea,and I am speaking as a Rolex fan....
But great review with great photos :)
Good choice!
I have had one of these in the past also and I much preferred it to the Steinharts due to it's 40mm size. I thought that it was very nicely made, especially the crown.
i dont know.... i get very annoyed when i break a wine glass, let alone a homage & god know's what i'd be like getting desk diver marks if i had the real thing!!Originally Posted by jakubisko
thx for reading the review
thx for reading the review, having now bought 2 watches over the 'net with very little info to go on, i've made a point of trying to review them, so that someone else might stumble into my reviews & get some idea of what they're getting....
i'm finding that watches are hard to take pix off, i need a lot more practice there
glad you liked the review, even if you didn't like the watch :P
i don't want to bad mouth steinhart, they were very, very good to me & i know they're a world wide forum fav
however, with the exception of
the screw in link pins (although god help you if you thread 'em as they go straight into the link & don't have a screw at each end)
the white lume (the davosa has a slight greenish tinge to it)
the ceramic bezel option
the fact my davosa needed regulation
i cannot think of a single area where the davosa is not head & shoulders above the steinhart, not just in looking like a rolex but being a watch with a quality feel, that's well put together
thx for reading
Have you managed to compare the Davosa against the Marcello C Nettuno 3? I ask, because this is another option which in my opinion is on a higher quality level than the Steinhart.
Just spotted the Yachtmaster version, it looks very nicely put together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69RmiE7eiQ
I think the Marcello might be the same case as the davosa... I'm not a fan of the face tho
I saw that you tube vid I believe its the same watch as mine but with Bezel and face differences, but I'm more of a sub fan than a YM one and this filters down to homages :-)
Nice review, thanks for sharing.
Love Davlosa watches. Soon one will be mine
- - - Updated - - -
Davosa* sorry
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