R
Richard Knight
a Horror logical not a Horological
a Horror logical not a Horological Watch Company I bought their Premium Titanium Ocean 500 GMT The bracelet fell apart because the screws don t properly screw in OK so the bracelet is rubbish So I used loctite to put the screws back in and did so for each one I thought my woes were behind in terms of deployment no sir the watch came apart because the spring bars that hold the end links in kept jumping out and the bracelet gets loose So I took off the bracelet and noted that springs don t securely hold any strap or bracelet in It seems the holes are too shallow and wide I bought four different sets of spring bars with the same problem they jump out with even slight twisting of the wrist and each time scratches the virtually unworn watch around the lug holes Then when I looked carefully I see the entire case is machine in a diagonally skew fashion it is small but noticeable One Jewellery told me the reason the springs are not holding is that they are not held with an even pressure on each side because of the defect in the case machining - he was the one that alerted me to the skewness of the case in the first place As a result the lugs are of an un-even width and length and this pattern is repeated on the opposite side confirming that indeed the case is machined skewed The crown does not screw in symmetrically top and bottom so on the one side it screws until it is flush and on the other side there is still a gap - again confirming that case is actually skew and surfaces not aligned properly The actually machining around the insides of the crown guards is very rough The bezel does not line up at the top and the GMT hand does not align to the hour hand when the minute hand is set to the 12 O Clock position As the 24 hour second time zone is reliant on both of these being aligned actually reading the second time zone needs some calculation on the viewer as you have to offset for theses manufacturing errors The watch was purchased through a local reseller and I will quote all screws in bracelets fall out even Rolex so you need to keep a check on this and use loctite to help and carry around a jewelers screwdriver The out of aligned GMT hand apparently no Watch Manufacturer gets this right even Rolex and they all have GMT alignment issues guess I am lucky my other two GMT watches a Baume et Mercier and a Montblanc are perfectly aligned and so is my friends Breitling GMT just more luck on our part I guess The bezel not aligned is because the watch has been knocked Finally we come to the lugs uneven width length apparent although they look quite thick and contrary to what I thought about the strengths of Titanium it actually bends and the watch has been knocked so the lugs are now skew Coincidentally it got knocked on the other side of the watch on the opposite side to precisely mirror the knock on the one side This watch is being sent back to you Steinhart at my cost from sunny South Africa through the local resellers so you can examine your manufacturing procedures and hopefully revise them in the light of the perfect storm of watch defects that my one presents to you I have photographic and video evidence and testaments from several jewelers to the absolutely abysmal quality of this specific watch If you want some fun look at Steinhart s own web page and their own photos of the watches with GMT functions It is indeed true that none of the GMT hands are consistent given the location of the minute hand