Month: December 2017

Tissot has turned into the go-to brand for fake watches that pack lots of technological and mechanical punch for not a ton of money (relatively speaking, as always) within the Swatch Group's diverse portfolio of watch brands. Well, Tissot's stepped things up a notch with the Everytime Swissmatic, providing an automatic Swiss-made watch for at a very nice price. But the real question: Is it really so good? Any time you purchase a best watch, you're making compromises. There are no truly perfect watches, so whether the trade-offs have to do with price, size, materials, or any number of other variables, they're there. With watches at the entry-level end of the spectrum, these compromises can be dramatic though. Do you want a better dial or a more reliable movement? Does the watch need to be automatic or would quartz suffice? Longer power reserve or a bit of movement finishing? The dials come in either white or black, with either printed Arabic numerals or applied stick markers. All of the constructions have a very nice minimal, modern look to them. There are no frills here. There's the "Tissot 1853" signature at 12, the "Swissmatic" and "Swiss Made" signatures at six o'clock (Swiss is in there twice, lest you forget), a date window at three o'clock, and three hands. In theory, I really like the layout, and I think Tissot was honest to match the date discs to the dials for a cleaner look. However, ultimately the quality of the dials is a bit disappointing. They've got a real flatness to them that can almost look paper-like at certain angles. The black is better than the silver and would be my choice if I were to pick. If you compare these dials to those of Seiko 5 watches, for instance, they pale in comparison. It's hard to make a cheap dial look nice, but not impossible. Turn the Swissmatic over and you get a look at that all-important automatic movement. It might look a little familiar, and with good reason: it's a new take on the movement developed by the Swatch Group for the Sistem 51, the completely machine-made automatic replica watches that can be had for $150. This one has a few more metal components, including the full metal winding rotor, and the power reserve is a little longer at three days, but it's still mostly made by machines, and doesn't really display any of the traditional finishing you'd find on a Swiss-made movement. According to Tissot, this new caliber is excellent to them, though I wouldn't be surprised to see Swatch Group use the technology elsewhere in the future. However, I do think this is a very special watch, mostly because of the interesting movement inside, but I wouldn't say it's the best watch you can buy at this price either. It's not a typical Swiss watch, but it offers a glimpse into where the industry might be heading.

Hublot has a rather quiet history as a pleasant but extremely small watch brand that did itself the disservice of being founded during the height of the quartz crisis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Hublot replica wasn't doing very well and was apparently looking for a purchaser. That buyer eventually has to be the Jean-Claude Biver who recently came from the fake rolex and Blancpain. Biver told me several years ago that the Hublot was losing a few million dollars a year when he acquired it and in 2004 he officially became the CEO. In 2005 his radical plan to reform the brand started with the launch of the Big Bang. The design built on the classic porthole sports watch case that the Hublot was founded on, but made for a new generation, in a boldly large size, with a strong, hyper-masculine design. My first experience with a Hublot Big Bang watch was back in about 2006 - about one year after its original release. I'd heard about the replica watches but never seen one on public. This was more than a year prior to when aBlogtoWatch even started. I encountered the Big Bang in a rather unlikely place. The first thing I recall noticing on the Big Bang was the applied military stencil-style hour markers and how cool they looked. The rubber strap design struck me as being a bit odd, and overall I remember feeling as though I'd never held a fake watch in my hands that was quite like it. I didn't know at the time whether or not I was a Big Bang fan, but it left a deep impression in my mind and I could understand why the dentist got so excited about it. If anything, the Big Bang was impressive for being actually quite different than what I think most watch lovers were used to circa the mid-2000s. That would all change a few years later. The Hublot Big Bang 44 watch I am going to talk about is actually the same exact model that I was shown in that dentist's living room over a decade ago. Now it is on my wrist, even if it is one of many replica Hublot watches I've put on my wrist. The last Hublot I reviewed was the spiritual successor to the original Big Bang which was the Hublot Big Bang UNICO watch. As we said, the Big Bang 44 has a unique look and wearing experience. Compared to the Big Bang UNICO, this earlier model is much simpler, slightly smaller, and at this point actually feels more classical. The sandwich-style case design is where a lot of the "art of fusion" comes into play. The popular Hublot designed the Big Bang this way so that it could mix and match colors and materials. Being able to have a modular case design was an important part of the original concept. This best watch case makes use of steel, resin, titanium, ceramic, and rubber. Other Big Bang models have featured a large host of other materials ranging from gold to carbon fiber and even magnesium.