Armida - A New Brand For Me

[TaketheCannoli]

I've been aware of Armida watches for several years but never owned one until now. I'm sure they illicit mixed opinions here as they're predominantly a brand that build homage watches but let's be honest, there's loads of those about these days.

I've been tempted by several pieces appearing on SC over the years but will admit I always thought they looked both over-sized and a bit over-polished. So when I saw an A2 on SC last week that was a sensible 42mm, had been fully bead-blasted (including the bracelet) and was sensibly priced, I gave it a go.

To say I'm very pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.

The things I like:

- The dimensions are perfect and actually it's slimmer than I expected which is a huge bonus as I tend to use natos on divers
- Gloss dial
- Applied indices
- Sword hands....and that they're the right lengths
- Timekeeping @ +2spd
- Excellent crown action
- Excellent bezel action with zero play in any direction
- Bead-blasted finish looks perfect
- The overall utilitarian appearance, especially on a nato
- Lume is blue and applied evenly across indices, hands and pip

Possible improvements:

- Flat caseback - see through is great but it's not a highly decorated movement so a flat back would make it wear even slimmer
- Date window; it's actually a lot less intrusive than I expected but would certainly be better without it.

So a very good first impression of the brand.

[TaketheCannoli]

Well that went down like a rat sandwich 😂😂

[sweets]

I am a big fan.
I bought one of the A1 brass ones years ago.
I wear it a lot
Back then I recall it was only just over £200 new, all in.
So exceptional value.
It is a very well executed watch, but what is truly amazingl (on mine) is the lume, which is brighter than literally everything else I have ever owned.
I love its simple no-date honesty.
When looking at rationalising my collection, this watch does nothing that is not done better elsewhere, but I never single it out for sale, as it is worth far more in terms of wear-per-pound than anything else I own. It is simply not worth selling.
Dave

[JohnB4]

I have an A9 (I think!) 40mm with a great blue sunburnt dial. So well put together, possibly the nicest bracelet I have and the best/smoothest winding/setting of all my watches. Lovely thing that, like the previous poster I would struggle to sell as it's just so much watch for the money. Enjoy yours David! Cheers, John B4

[sickie]

I've owned 2 A1 45mm ETA2824 with the bubble high domed sapphire crystal (sold first one and missed it then bought another) massive watches but very well made.
I've also owned 2 A4 (Rince and repeat of the A1)
Again big watch but the flat sapphire made it more wearable.

I did at one point have the A3 in Blue which was again large but it was just to similar to the A4 so sold it on.

I did try the A1 42mm Bronze but unfortunately I just didn't like the Bronze so off it went to eBay after 1 week

All in all great watches but the earlier ones were prone to the screws on the link's coming loose to easily.

As a side note there customer service was crap in my opinion.
All to do with screw replacement / cost and lack of response.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[seikomatic]

though the finishing is rather raw, but I just like its shape

[draftsmann]

I bought one of the brass Armida models before getting a bronze BB to see if I liked it. I did. I bought the BB, gave away the first Armida which was a date model and bought a non date version and have no plans to move it on. I don’t do “beaters” as a rule but that’s the only watch I’ll wear for jumping off rocks into the sea.

[sprite1275]

Love my A1. I just think the whole case design coupled with the bezel makes it a great looking watch. Really comfortable to wear also. Would like to try the 44mm.