I came across this watch following a post by Jameo, a member over at RWG1.1, who owns a couple of Astbury watches. Astbury are an English company who sell attractive chinese-sourced watches - often of unusual design - at very reasonable prices. The watches are well finished and generally excellent value for money. They're not terribly commonplace as there are only 3 dealers currently - one in the UK, one in Oz and a third in the US. Both the UK and Australian dealers are active on eBay. The UK dealer also has a website at http://www.momento-watch.com
Anyhow, I had done a search on eBay for Astbury - not really with much intent to buy, but just to see what was around when I came across this particular model. I'll confess that I have a thing for skeleton watches and the Unitas 6497 movement is a particular favourite (whether Swiss or Asian), so this pushed all the right buttons. It was listed at a BIN of £99 and I was very tempted to pull the trigger - only hesitating because I'd just ordered a PAM from Robert. Looking at the dealer's eBay shop, however, I saw that he had another one listed as a regular auction with a start price of £49. Not really expecting to win the auction - especially as it still had about a week to run - I threw in a bid of £55 and promptly forgot all about it, fully expecting to be out-bid. As it turned out, I was the only bidder and last Wednesday found myself the owner of yet another watch for the princely sum of £49 + shipping!
The dealer despatched the watch the same day and it arrived yesterday morning, packaged in a very nice watchbox inside a card outer box. Very swish for the price.
The watch is about 43mm but wears big. It feels a lot bigger than my Rolex Deep Sea and overall wears pretty similar to a 44mm PAM, although it's a lot lighter in weight. The movement is a highly-decorated Asian 6497 and has a small second hand in the standard Panerai position at 9. The hands are blued so, with the exception of the second hand which is a little small, are nice and easy to see. Obviously with a watch of this type, there's no lume. Mineral glass crystals are fitted front and back and the watch is gold plated (no idea how thick the plating is). It's a shame there's no AR as I think it would benefit the watch, but at the price I can't really quibble. The crown has a nice positive feel to it when winding.
The strap is a glossy, slightly padded croco-print with a gold buckle and is very comfortable. It does feel a little flimsy, but replacement Astbury straps are very inexpensive if it wears out too quickly (although I'm tempted to pick up a higher quality genuine gator strap for it at some point).
I'm very pleased indeed with the watch - it looks far higher quality than a £99 gen has any right to (my wife thought I must have spent several hundred at least until I showed her the invoice) and at the £49 I paid is just stupidly good value for money. It's possibly the dressiest watch I own, so isn't going to get that much wear - it looks wrong with anything less than a suit and may be reserved for the occasions that I take my wife out to a decent restaurant or the theatre.
Without further ado, here's the pics:
Anyhow, I had done a search on eBay for Astbury - not really with much intent to buy, but just to see what was around when I came across this particular model. I'll confess that I have a thing for skeleton watches and the Unitas 6497 movement is a particular favourite (whether Swiss or Asian), so this pushed all the right buttons. It was listed at a BIN of £99 and I was very tempted to pull the trigger - only hesitating because I'd just ordered a PAM from Robert. Looking at the dealer's eBay shop, however, I saw that he had another one listed as a regular auction with a start price of £49. Not really expecting to win the auction - especially as it still had about a week to run - I threw in a bid of £55 and promptly forgot all about it, fully expecting to be out-bid. As it turned out, I was the only bidder and last Wednesday found myself the owner of yet another watch for the princely sum of £49 + shipping!
The dealer despatched the watch the same day and it arrived yesterday morning, packaged in a very nice watchbox inside a card outer box. Very swish for the price.
The watch is about 43mm but wears big. It feels a lot bigger than my Rolex Deep Sea and overall wears pretty similar to a 44mm PAM, although it's a lot lighter in weight. The movement is a highly-decorated Asian 6497 and has a small second hand in the standard Panerai position at 9. The hands are blued so, with the exception of the second hand which is a little small, are nice and easy to see. Obviously with a watch of this type, there's no lume. Mineral glass crystals are fitted front and back and the watch is gold plated (no idea how thick the plating is). It's a shame there's no AR as I think it would benefit the watch, but at the price I can't really quibble. The crown has a nice positive feel to it when winding.
The strap is a glossy, slightly padded croco-print with a gold buckle and is very comfortable. It does feel a little flimsy, but replacement Astbury straps are very inexpensive if it wears out too quickly (although I'm tempted to pick up a higher quality genuine gator strap for it at some point).
I'm very pleased indeed with the watch - it looks far higher quality than a £99 gen has any right to (my wife thought I must have spent several hundred at least until I showed her the invoice) and at the £49 I paid is just stupidly good value for money. It's possibly the dressiest watch I own, so isn't going to get that much wear - it looks wrong with anything less than a suit and may be reserved for the occasions that I take my wife out to a decent restaurant or the theatre.
Without further ado, here's the pics:
