Arrived : Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military and Steinhart GMT-Ocean Black Ceramic

Many of the recent e-mails I received vide this blog were asking for a review of the watches that I ordered early this month from Steinhart Germany HQ  i.e. OVM and GMT as stated in the above title.

Steinhart was not a well-known brand in Malaysia and was more of an enthusiast niche market; but from the letters and comments from our fellow readers pursuant to the Steinhart articles since April, I could gauge that the level of interest had picked up. If we continue to share on this brand's strengths with the general public, I am sure that many more would become loyal fans of its well-built and affordable watches. And no, Mr Gunter Steinhart was not paying me for promoting this brand- I just generally appreciate and like his creation.

Well, I hadn't responded to your e-mails on the reviews as I was also anticipating (excitedly, if I may add) for the arrival of both these watches. I earlier requested for a different case back for the OVM, but was informed that Steinhart doesn't do customisation. Fair's fair then.

A fortnight after the initial order, Fedex brought me the international package from Germany; and boy, was I like a jolly boy in a candy store!

The padding for the delivery this time around was better compared to my earlier order for the Ocean Forty-Four a couple of months' back. The OFF came with the external cardboard case torn on 1 side (but no biggie to me); both boxes for the OVM and GMT came in much better condition this time around.

And voila, I opened the boxes one after another; and the 1st box contained the OVM. I handled it slowly at first, taking in the sights of the details of the watch, before slowly taking (no, more like caressing) it out from its box. It was oh-so-beautiful and I simply loved it.

Unfortunately, the buckle was pretty badly-scratched as the person handling the packing had forgotten to wrap it up with some protective plastic, so the watch-tag had rubbed against the buckle during the shipping from Germany to Malaysia.

Another evident fault was that the pearl on the bezel didn't align correctly to the 12 o'clock.

I have since written to Steinhart customer services to seek for advice and recommendations on how to rectify both these faults, and would revert in due course upon their reply.

Next up was the unboxing of the GMT. And there she was, gleaming as soon as the light hits the ceramic bezel. Although the OFF had ceramic bezel too, somehow the GMT looked so much more captivating- perhaps assisted by the red accents of the GMT hand and words.

The case size was 42mm- not my biggest watch nor my smallest watch. Placed next to the 46mm SevenFriday that I was wearing, you could gauge that the GMT doesn't look too small either due to the maxi-case design that it was using.

This was wrapped up nicely along the bracelet, so not one scratch observed. Definitely a far cry from the OVM's.

But as you observed from the pictures, the bracelet has been installed wrongly. Therefore, taking the bracelet on and off was going to be a hassle as it was opposing to the natural flow of the thumb and fingers. But no biggie here, I just used the mini-screwdriver to replace the bracelet's end links to the the other side and voila, problem solved!

Generally, I loved the looks of the OVM and GMT; and the bigger 42mm was more suitable for my wrist compared to Rolex's original 40mm. The QC could be improved upon, however; as I ordered for 2 watches and both had flaws on them. While I understand that we all make mistakes, Steinhart should understand that we enthusiasts love their watches and it was always exciting for us to take delivery of the watches; but having the enthusiasm doused by faults found on the watches was no fun. The QC personnel probably could allocate 3 mins to just go through each watch, and such problems could then have been avoided.

Nevertheless, I remained a big fan of Gunter Steinhart and Co. Thanks for giving us nice watches, guys!