Pictures : Magrette Vantage Bronze LE (WR 500m) @ USD720/RM2,880 Shipped

This was a pictorial review of the masculine and handsome piece from New Zealand i.e. Magrette Vantage Bronze LE. Magrette has a niche following amongst fellow watch collectors and was famed for its high quality and well-constructed watches. As this piece's name depicted, it was a bronze piece, and came shipped with nicely-developed patina on the case. As per the norm for such watches, it came with a 2-year manufacturer's warranty. Further details of the said watch were as per below :

MODEL: VANTAGE BRONZE

CASE DIAMETER: 44MM X 53.5MM EXCLUDING THE CROWN

CASE: CUSN8 BRONZE ALLOY WITH BRUSH FINISH.

CASE BACK: SEE-THROUGH (SAPPHIRE) CASE BACK , DLC WITH ANTI FINGER-PRINT COATING.

CROWN: SCREW DOWN CROWN (POLISHED STAINLESS STEEL).

CRYSTAL: SAPPHIRE (DOUBLE DOMED), AR COATING.

WATER-RESISTANCE: 500M RESISTANCE WITH AUTOMATIC HEV.

STRAP: LEATHER CALF STRAP, REMBORDE EDGE, LORICA LINNING WITH BRONZE BUCKLE

MOVEMENT: MIYOTA 9015

LIMITED EDITION: 500 PIECES INCLUDES BLACK DIAL AND BROWN.

PRICE : USD685.00 + USD35.00 SHIPPING WORLDWIDE

Given the 24mm lug size, you would be spoilt for choices when it came to the selection of straps that could be matched to this handsome piece. Below were a few selections that I thought would complement the look of the Vantage Bronze. 

The Toscana Vintage leather strap especially, although pricey at USD218, rather matched the vintage brown dial for the said watch.

And this was a comparison of the size of the Magrette Vantage Bronze next to the Prometheus Poseidon and Seiko Tuna 50th Anniv. All were beautiful pieces in their own right.

#PureLove

E-mail from Reader : What Rolex To Get Next?

I received the following e-mail from a reader i.e. Richard, which served as the basis for the current entry :

Now, I would admit that I have a soft spot for the Rolex brand. A jubilee ago (all pun intended as Rolex is renown for its jubilee bracelet), my grandfather had a goldsmith business (half the shop) and the other half was utilised by my Dad in his watchsmith business. Ask my Dad and you would find that many of those whom came to shop for gold jewellery would also asked if there was any "Kam Lor" (slang for gold Rolex watch) in stock- and of course, Rolexes' price were much more down-to-earth back then.

Rolex watch's price was on the expensive side, but you get a very good watch with its prestige- at a big chunk of your one-month salary perhaps. Today, you still get a very good watch with its prestige- but you would be looking at sacrificing some months of your salaries perhaps. Yes, Rolex's prices had been on the increase with every passing year and it may not be as easily accessible as per the yester-years. But their quality was time-tested and I remembered a vintage Datejust from the 70's that I had, which was still attractive and ticked beautifully even when placed next to the newer Datejust of today.

I wore the 70's DJ for my Datoship ceremony.

His-and-hers. My wife wore her ladies DJ with rubies.

Both my DJs were 40 years apart. Can you tell?

The DJ was a businessman's perfect dinner watch for networking functions. The jubilee bracelet was very comfortable on one's wrist and you would blend in easily with the crowd sporting a DJ. Therefore, I could understand Richard's collection having a DJ- although I would prefer the 36mm collection as it was IMHO the gentleman's classic size for a dress watch. Richard's choice of the DJ II at 41mm was IMHO more suitable for a sports watch than a dress watch size.

After the DJ, the next Rolex that I added into my collection was the Submariner Ceramic and Explorer 2. I initially had the classic black 116610LN, which was later flipped when I was offered a Hulk-green 116610LV. The SubC was a great sports watch and could be worn for any occasions.

I liked the Explorer 2 for its dash of orange GMT hand, which added casualness into a watch that was great on casual Friday and weekends. Between the 2 models, if I could only choose 1 piece, I would recommend that Richard pick the SubC, as it was a piece that everyone would recognise as a classic Rolex sports watch with its unidirectional bezel, maxi-dial design and 2.5x cyclops.

Both watches were definitely under his pre-set budget, and a point to note was that one could generally get a better price with Rolex ADs overseas (minus the pesky 6% GST locally which could add to quite a sum). From personal experiences, I found that Rolex ADs in UAE, Hong Kong, Macau and Europe tend to give very competitive pricing after discount and VAT rebates; although you have to factor in the Forex. Now that MYR has finally strengthened somewhat and was expected to reach 3.7 (which I thought was a tad too optimistic though) within this year, it should make the purchases easier to digest too.

All the best with your choice then.

Magrette Vantage Bronze Limited Edition

I had just picked up the Magrette Vantage Bronze Limited Edition, that had travelled from New Zealand to Malaysia; and I just can't seemed to take my eyes off the Magrette Vantage's very mesmerising brown dial, which looked all the more alluring when matched with the Toscana vintage leather strap that I had. Together, the watch looked really handsome to my eyes.

Here was a wrist shot for my fellow readers to gauge the beauty of the said watch.

If you have this...

you gotta have this :

E-mail from Reader : Bronze Diver at RM3,000 Budget

I received an e-mail over the weekend from a fellow reader whom asked for recommendations towards a bronze diver piece at a budget of circa RM3,000.

Given that I was in the same quandary a while back, it would be an easy recommendation from my side. But beware, if you were not a fan of micro-brands or dared not ventured into the dark side, you could stop reading right about now.

I like micro-brands. The ones that I have purchased todate were started from promoters whom were enthusiastic about watches too, so there were genuine affection from the project owners. But as with any micro brands, quality could be a hit-and-miss sometimes, depending on the batch or piece that was allocated to the buyer. They were buying parts and assembling these (or paying others to assemble for them), so they have no full control over the full processes involved. And warranty could be harder to claim as they may not have local service centres, so you would need to send the piece back to the originating countries for any repairs.

So with a micro-brand, you have to pray very hard that the piece that you received was good at the first count. Then, you would have no further issues. Servicing for the movement would mostly be a breeze, as the movements used typically were sourced from Miyota, Seiko, ETA and Selitta. Any watchsmith worth his salt could easily work on these movements.

Me? My luck has been good with micro-brands, all except for a Steinhart piece that had to be sent back to Germany but dealing with Mr Gunter was no issues. As mentioned earlier, the promoters of micro-brands were mostly enthusiasts too so it was easy as we spoke the same lingo if anything was to happen.

But I digressed. Coming back to the Bronze Diver at a budget of RM3,000, I would recommend one of the following :

1) Magrette Vantage Bronze (WR 500m) @ RM3,000 - from New Zealand;

2) Prometheus Poseidon Bronze (WR 3,500m) @ RM3,100 - from Portugal.

Both uses the Miyota 9015 hacking movement, which was rated in the same breath as ETA 2824-2 and had similar 28,800bps. This movement from Citizen Japan was a very reliable and dependable one, and servicing was essentially a walk in the park. So no worries about the movement there.

The Magrette Vantage had Panerai influences in its cushion case, while the Prometheus Poseidon had IWC influences. Granted that they were not original designs, but they inserted their own re-interpretations to make these pieces stood on their own. In any case, given the poor performances of the local currency in the international arena, getting another Bronze Diver with real WR specs and at just north of RM3,000, would not be that easy these days!

(PS : At circa RM3,000, take another look at the WR of the Bronze Divers listed above- Vantage @ 500m, and Poseidon @ 3,500m! Yes, that was not a typo!)

So, which would you choose given that pricing was almost similar between the two pieces above? I personally believed that both pieces warrant a look, and I liked both pieces in their own right -

so much so that I added Both pieces to my collection.

Give me some time for the reviews thereafter. In the meantime, these were from their respective websites :

1) Magrette Vantage Bronze :

2) Prometheus Poseidon Bronze :

E-mail from Reader : Buy New or Pre-Owned?

I have a few blog entries that I intended to write upon, pursuant to the Chinese New Year celebrations. However, I received the attached e-mail from a reader, which requested for some advice on whether to get a piece of pre-owned watch. I thought that I could answer him in a few days' time but he had followed up with another 2 e-mails in a span of a couple of hours, so I thought that I would take a bit of time and have this entry for him up.

Attached was the e-mail as received from Michael :

Well, Michael, I generally loved a good bargain and from my purchases, you could gauged that I was not a snob for pre-owned pieces too. I flipped watches pretty regularly too. Generally, you tend to get a good bargain with pre-owned watches.

In reference to the Armand Nicolet MO2 watch that you forwarded to me, I must add that I have had no prior liaison with the seller; so whatever I posted henceforth was my personal thoughts and not skewed towards any parties. In this regard, I generally thought, "Hmmm, would I buy this watch with my own monies at the proposed RM12.5k?"

Pro :
1) Watch was fairly new and still under lots of warranty.
2) Full calendar with moonphase, was an attractive complication.

Con :
1) Price maybe.

Why the price, you may ask. After all, it was already severely discounted from RM23k to RM12.5k, for an almost new watch.

Well, that's the power of the Net. A simple keying in the model no. and many options came about. Generally, the prices would not differ too significantly for BNIB pieces; although the online pricing may be cheaper overseas as the 6% GST was not factored in as yet. However, I found that both the local and overseas pricing were generally cheaper (for new pieces) compared to the seller's asking price (pre-owned); which had me wondering if the seller did actually purchased at the RRP (in which case, he had not done his homework), or did he get a good discount but was not passing it on. I clicked on a few links and generally, none of the sellers were selling at the RRP prices. A very healthy discount was adhered upon.

I would opine that Armand Nicolet was an under-rated old brand with lots of history and given its design and workmanship, it would seemed to be a good buy at around RM12k. However, if the price of pre-owned was higher than that of the new piece, I would generally prefer to buy a new piece. Unless the pre-owned piece was of historical importance or owned by someone of importance by my reckoning.

So Michael, it's your own choice to make. Perhaps the seller factored in the "rare" rotor in the pricing or otherwise. If you were really interested, Michael, I would suggest that you get in touch with the seller and checked if you could get a better pricing from him.

United Colors of Benetton

No, I ain't getting a UCB watch for today's post. But I thought it was apt as I have been adding colours into my watch collection, and I already have an in-coming burgundy piece going the green piece that I have in my winder. But I digress.

Green
I love the lively colour of green. Nature is all around us and green is the colour of live. For that, I have the Submariner Hulk when I am green with envy :) And the military Rangeman for the outdoor activities, of course.

Orange
Who doesn't love a tinge of orange in their watches? I thought so. And the orange GMT hand on the Explorer ii really does stand out to the contrast of the black dial.

Blue
You won't be singing the blues when you have these beauties strapped onto your wrist. The domed sapphire on the Poseidon bronze piece really made it a very attractive watch. The 50th Anniv Bluefin Tuna was one of the more comfy Tuna as it had a scalloped caseback that followed the contour of one's wrist. And I can't comment on the 125th Anniv Genesis as yet, as it was still pending arrival into my collection.

Pepsi
The re-issued Turtle Prospex was a real beauty and I just added her into my collection. Off went the rubbery strap and in went a thick military-spec Zulu Extreme sourced from overseas. It was really a beautiful piece and I can see her getting lots of wrist time.

Grey/ Black
You won't get many watches with genuine carbon fibre dial, and the Kirium Ti5 had the real deal. No faux CF for this top-of-the-line Kirium, and when light catches onto the dial, it simply looks electric! The Military Camo had not seen much wrist time, but was still an attractive piece in its own regard. Time to put it to more service time then, if you get what I mean. And the PAM0005 with its sandwich dial was just too sexy to describe over words. You simply had to see it to admire it.

Panda
A Speedy Panda, and in colours as per the picture. Picture perfect!

Burgundy Red
An in-coming piece, which I had not seen or touched in person and backed up the Kickstarter project purely based on the design, passion of the maker, and the quality parts to be utilised. Rest assured that a review would be forthcoming when this piece arrives in due course.

There you have it- the United Colours of Benetton in my collection during the interim period (or soon to be, pending the arrival of the ordered pieces).