Bronze and brass watches.
Yeah, the hype has been crazy. Almost every micro builder has come up with at least
one bronze/brass watch in their line-up the last couple of years. The alloys are quite similar in appearance
where bronze is the more expensive of the two due to its higher content of
copper. I can’t say I’m a big fan of the bronze look but when I found this
Armida A8 (made out of brass) it felt like a good watch to give a try just to get
a feel of what this material was all about.
The previous owner had apparently
kept the watch in a bag of hardboiled eggs, which rapidly had got the whole
aging process going, and I remember unscrewing the lid of the tube, which the
watch was delivered in, and how the strong smell hit me. What. The. Fuck?
 |
| #216 - The Armida A8. |
Was it the zinc in the brass that caused this? It might be me who had an
extreme sensitive sense of smell but I just couldn’t stand it while others, who I
asked to smell the watch, told me they could smell it but not that strong and
it didn’t bother them in any way. I almost felt sick because of it. So even
though the watch was quite cool and had a really spectacular patina it had to go.
During the day I wore it worked great. The NH35A movement (manufactured by Seiko) worked fine and the overall build quality felt very high in comparison to the low price. The look-a-like Isofrane rubber it came with was of a good quality and looked really good on the watch. OK, so it’s an obvious Submariner homage but the brass added another dimension to it which toned down that whole rip off feeling quite a lot. It measured 42mm excl. crown and had 22mm lug width. Water resistant to 300m. The crown for some reason wasn't made out of brass which I think looked odd.
During the day I wore it worked great. The NH35A movement (manufactured by Seiko) worked fine and the overall build quality felt very high in comparison to the low price. The look-a-like Isofrane rubber it came with was of a good quality and looked really good on the watch. OK, so it’s an obvious Submariner homage but the brass added another dimension to it which toned down that whole rip off feeling quite a lot. It measured 42mm excl. crown and had 22mm lug width. Water resistant to 300m. The crown for some reason wasn't made out of brass which I think looked odd.
Looking at the rest of the
watches in the Armida line-up didn’t excite me very much and I’m pretty sure
that this was my only one from the brand unless they come up with something a little
more creative.
© All pictures by a Watch
Flipper's Diary unless noted.
