Reply With QuoteOut of sheer bordom during lock-down - I ordered a Corguet Aquaterra for the very same reason - it has not arrived yet but will see what it's like when it arrives and report back.
I was looking for something on Ebay the other week (not a watch) and came across this in China which is pretty much an Omega rip off and I was curious about how well or badly it was made - I had to pay an extra £3 for the Miyota non hacking "upgrade" over the standard Seagull movement and was amused by the text on the dial proclaiming "chronometer", its called Corguet in the Ebay listing but the dial is sterile apart from the inaccurate claims about performance. Ceramic bezel, 41mm diameter, 11mm thick and display back - it arrived today a week after ordering. I gave it a good wind and stuck into onto my timegrapher for a bit of fun and being used to pretty ropey Miyota and Seiko movement performance was quite surprised to see this thing showing 0 sec dial up, 0 sec crown up, +6 sec dial down and +1 sec crown down with beat error of 0 in all cases and amplitude close to 300...maybe that Chronometer claim was less of a lie than I had thought. Anyway, its just a bit of fun but does show how good these low priced movement can be and I assume this came off the production line with no adjustment. It came on a decent enough NATO strap, bezel action isnt too bad and the construction looks totally fine at the moment but time will tell how it stands up to the abuse that its going to get e.g. gardening, working on the car etc!. Pic below.
Keith
Out of sheer bordom during lock-down - I ordered a Corguet Aquaterra for the very same reason - it has not arrived yet but will see what it's like when it arrives and report back.
I have heard some pretty bad stories about the "brand" though so dont expect too much! BTW I dont intend to test its depth rating because it hasnt got one...just says water resistant like in the good old days.Originally Posted by Alansmithee
good luck
Keith
For what I paid I'm not that bothered - I was more interested what £50 buys you...
Looks and sounds great!
This design seem to get lot of attention now. Seen quite a few looking to make look-alikes like this.
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cheap movements can do amazing things for a short time.
I regulated a £28 vostok with hind wind movement.
The movement probably cost them a few quid to make.
I tested it against an atomic clock.
The results would beat alot of Rolex and Omega.
13/02/20
23:35 -1 SEC / OFF WRIST
14/02/20
07:35
08:35 -1 SEC / ON WRIST
09:45 -1 SEC
12:45 -1 SEC
14:00 -1 SEC
15:15 -1 SEC
16:00 -1 SEC
18:25 -1 SEC
19:30 -1 SEC
20:35 -1 SEC
21:25 -1 SEC
22:00 -1 SEC
23:35 -1 SEC / OFF WRIST
15/02/20
08:50 -1 SEC / ON WRIST
09:35 -1 SEC
I had a pop at the Corgeut bronze BB homage during lockdown as I fancied a 'bronze' watch but didn't want to spend a fortune incase I didn't get on with it... it has never seen any bronze! I think it is PVD coated and resembles more of a copper colour, I like it, but it's not quite scratches the itch of a bronze watch for this reason.
Had I known about Steeldive at the time of ordering, I would probably have been better going for one of those since they are bronze by all accounts?
Anyway, after a strap change - as the one supplied is garbage - it's not a bad watch, it gains about 5 seconds a day. I was impressed enough to get a SS one for work, it will get a battering being submerged in water and knocked about, so we will see how long it lasts...
I realise the 'homage' factor isn't for everyone, but compared to some of sub/daytona homages that sekonda and rotary are putting out on the high street, pound for pound they seem like great value for money... So far...
Coincidentally this vid popped up on my YouTube feed just before I read this article, so I had a look.
https://youtu.be/7YAgINOJGhI
This guy tests the water resistance of a Corgeut ‘Aqua Terra’ in a water pressure machine. It lasts for an hour submerged at 30bar with no water ingress. During the second hour, at 40bar, a little water gets inside. Which basically means you can easily do regular swimming in one of these, just don’t spend hours under water at >30 metre depths!
I suppose the caveat is I doubt Corgeut have the strictest QC, so just because his model survived 30bar it doesn’t guarantee everyone’s will.
It’s a decent vid to be fair, he explains everything very clearly, worth a watch.
I just ordered the blue version with the Seagull movement, which according to my research (although I didn't bother to ask the seller who would most likely get it wrong anyway) is an ST-16. The Miyota, I believe, is is an 8215. AFAIK both movements are surprisingly good for what they cost and I don't think the Miyota is necessarily the better of the two. However, the ST-16 is hacking, so that's why I went for that version.
Hopefully this will tide me over until I can afford a real SM300. I expect the Omega cal 9300 co-axial will be a teeny bit better than either of them.
Got home from Whitby to this - need to resize it.
Last edited by Alansmithee; 8th August 2020 at 14:55.
Those photos make it look remarkably good for the money. How's the finish up-close? Especially the case, hands and index markers. Sometimes those can look good in photos but be quite rough up close. Is there anything about it that stands out as making it feel remarkably high or low quality in certain ways?
Still waiting for my "SM300".
For some reason - tapatalk is making the pictures pixelated - try these:
https://imgur.com/a/ZskeSTr
Let me take a closer look and get back to you....
So the screw crown is pretty rough when screwing it in - but otherwise dial looks clean and although I'd say the bracelet is a little light, it's as good as a hamilton or a Tissot - all in all - is it as good as what you'd get for £50 from Argos? I'd say many times better.
A tiny dab of olive oil on the threads using a watchmakers screwdriver will normally sort the gritty crown out.
Olive oil should not affect the O-ring seal, and the treatment should only need doing once.
I did my £49 Miyota sub-a-like PVD last week to make it easier to screw in.
I am pretty sure the quoted 30m water resistance will still be OK.
These watches seem to be the legitimate (?) arm of a watch "replica" manufacturer.
I wonder how much premium the Omega stamped dial commands ?
I own one of the blue dialled versions with the seagull movement. It is totally crazy that you can buy something like this for 50 quid. I appreciate that the design is a total rip off but still.
Someone asked what the finishing is like. The answer is decent. The fine straight brushing of the sides is actually very good. The polishing on the lugs is ok. There are a few spots on mine which look slightly inconsistent. Having said that I have had watches costing many times this with worse finishing.
The other thing to say is that as you might expect the lume is pretty rubbish. It is not evenly applied so fades inconsistently and is of low quality so fades very very fast. I have a Casio Edifice which when on sale was a similar price and I would say the lume on both is an equivalent standard. Super affordable watches and decent lume seem to rarely go hand in hand.
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Mine arrived today. Really impressed with the quality for the money. There are no tell-tale signs of a cheap watch in the finish. The bezel action is decent. It has a bit of play in it, but the clicks are positive and when it drops back into the resting position it aligns properly and won't move around on its own. Even the bracelet seems pretty good, although I didn't size mine to try it on properly, I just took it off leaving the protective plastic intact as I was always going to put this one on a Nato. It seems pretty comfortable, well made, and has solid end links that sit flush with the lugs.
The Seagull movement isn't as good as I've had on actual branded Sea-Gull watches. It's undecorated and seems to have a gear lash issue causing the second hand to jump when hacking if the mainspring isn't wound enough. The problem goes away with a bit of winding. It also gained about a second within the first 30 minutes, but it's only gained a couple more since then so it seems to be settling down properly. I'll leave it on a winder overnight to run it in and then properly test the accuracy over a few days.
The hands have some lume although not much and the dial has no lume at all, which is unfortunate. Also the "faux vintage" lume which looks quite orange in the photos actually is quite orange. It looks OK but that's probably the one thing that could be better.
All in all, perfect for what I bought it for which is a cheap watch I can wear at the weekends and not worry about it, but which also doesn't look out of place next to my other watches. Other cheapies I have in my collection do tend to look like cheapies and this bothers me, so I end up not wearing them. So far, not finding that problem at all with this one. I've very tempted to try out some of the other models.
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