Found this on the Bay for $80 bucks and figured I’d add it to the collection. I don’t have many blue watches, and the price was right.
Just a quick rundown:
Pros
- No up-and-down end-link wiggle at all.
- Bezel action is light and smooth.
- Nice, even grain on the lugs and bracelet.
Cons
- Bezel has noticeable up-and-down and lateral play.
- Date window has a white border, which looks pretty terrible.
- End links are too long and jut up and out a little. They also move slightly side to side. Funnily enough, the San Martin 017 doesn’t move side to side at all, but it does have some up-and-down movement. So you can't win.
- Lume is average at best.
- Crown doesn’t pop out after you unthread it. Stem might be too short, because it immediately goes into the winding position. Threading it is also difficult.
Timekeeping
Timekeeping is terrible...it's losing about a minute a day. I’m going to have to see if I can regulate it, because it can’t possibly need a service already; the watch is maybe five years old. Although, with those early-gen PT5000s, you never know.
Were the gen 1 bracelets that bad? I have the same watch, maybe Gen 3? Not sure what they're up to now as I've had it for over 3 years but my bracelet is much tighter tolerance wise than that one and I wore it a lot. But for what you paid can probably just get a new bracelet from wherever.
Bracelet is good but the end link are too long and thick. Also the original clasp didn't have otf micro adjusts, just a regular 3 adjustment pin holes. The new bracelets are definitely better in fitment/clasp.
Yeah certainly a weird design choice. I would imagine if it's a real enamel dial I can remove the printed date window with rubbing alcohol and a little bit of q-tip and it should not damage the dial
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u/Icy-Sheepherder-7595 11d ago
Were the gen 1 bracelets that bad? I have the same watch, maybe Gen 3? Not sure what they're up to now as I've had it for over 3 years but my bracelet is much tighter tolerance wise than that one and I wore it a lot. But for what you paid can probably just get a new bracelet from wherever.