A month or two ago, I bought a jumping hour watch from Alpha Watch. (Yes, it's a Chinese company selling mechanical watches for easily an order of magnitude less than you would expect a jewelry store would charge.)
I am crap with a camera, but please see the picture anyway.
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Pluses:
Beautiful! Very classy and easy to read. It is surprising how much of a difference it makes to have one hand instead of two. Also, seems reasonably accurate given that it is mechanical.
Minuses:
The band is funny: "backwards" from what you would expect, and it kind of feels funny when I wear it. Also, the claim of water resistance was at least in my case false: the crystal got foggy inside just from me washing my hands. Also, no calendar. (It feels very weird to know the time but not the date.) And if you do not have good close-up vision (not a problem for me), the hours will be hard to read.
Conclusion:
If I had it to do over, I would not buy this watch, unless the manufacturer were to change the style of band.
Also, this particular style is out of stock, although they do have some similar: see this link: http://www.alpha-watch.com/details.php?myid=541
NB: Be wary of buying from them, as some of their "jump hours" aren't (see the photos on their site). The watch I bought from them is a true jump hour, though.
I am crap with a camera, but please see the picture anyway.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Pluses:
Beautiful! Very classy and easy to read. It is surprising how much of a difference it makes to have one hand instead of two. Also, seems reasonably accurate given that it is mechanical.
Minuses:
The band is funny: "backwards" from what you would expect, and it kind of feels funny when I wear it. Also, the claim of water resistance was at least in my case false: the crystal got foggy inside just from me washing my hands. Also, no calendar. (It feels very weird to know the time but not the date.) And if you do not have good close-up vision (not a problem for me), the hours will be hard to read.
Conclusion:
If I had it to do over, I would not buy this watch, unless the manufacturer were to change the style of band.
Also, this particular style is out of stock, although they do have some similar: see this link: http://www.alpha-watch.com/details.php?myid=541
NB: Be wary of buying from them, as some of their "jump hours" aren't (see the photos on their site). The watch I bought from them is a true jump hour, though.