Just picked this up yesterday.
I've long been a fan of Rotary - having owned several of their higher-quality models as well as a few of their cheaper watches. They're always very well built, reliable and with a quality feel to them. We have a Rotary AD locally, run by a guy I know fairly well (He drinks in my local and I've fixed his computers on several occasions) - so if there's ever anything I want, I can usually get it at wholesale prices.
Anyhow, I'd lately been thinking that I wanted a Cartier Santos - or something of that style. I'd looked at various reps as well as a few homages and had come to realise that the cheapies wouldn't satisfy me at all - it was going to have to be one of the better quality versions. Then I stumbled across the Rotary 700 series. It's not quite a copy of the Santos, but has a very similar dial and overall shape. It's available in two sizes, 37mm & 40mm and three finishes - rose gold, stainless steel and titanium. List price is £285 (around $440) but I knew I could get one a lot cheaper than that.
Anyhow, I placed an order and picked this up yesterday. It's the 702c model (40mm/rose gold) and I'm really impressed with the build quality - it looks and feels like a MUCH more expensive watch. Being rectangular, 40mm width means that it wears fairly big - about as large as a 47mm Radiomir. It's an automatic running a Rotary Calibre RE2008-1 movement (apparently a slightly modified Seagull ST16) with a 21,600 beat rate and came well packaged in the standard watchbox that Rotary use for all of their high-end models.
The dial is a beautiful chocolate brown with rose gold Roman numerals. There's a date window at 6. There's no lume on the dial, for obvious reasons, but the hands have much better lume than I'd expected, being both bright and fairly long-lasting. The crystal is sapphire and there's an interesting display back where the date of the founding of the company is cut into the back and you can just see the movement (which is undecorated) through the numerals. The watch is fitted with a high quality Santos-style croco strap and Rotary's standard deployant buckle and is extremely comfortable on the wrist.
Overall, this is even better than I'd hoped; I'm kinda blown away by how nice this is for the money - even at RRP it's good value, but at the price I paid, it's stunning. I'm semi-tempted to buy a second one - in SS this time - but we'll see how much wrist time this one gets first. I've a feeling it might well be a keeper... but I've said that before
Anyhow, enough of the drivel - here's the pics.
I've long been a fan of Rotary - having owned several of their higher-quality models as well as a few of their cheaper watches. They're always very well built, reliable and with a quality feel to them. We have a Rotary AD locally, run by a guy I know fairly well (He drinks in my local and I've fixed his computers on several occasions) - so if there's ever anything I want, I can usually get it at wholesale prices.
Anyhow, I'd lately been thinking that I wanted a Cartier Santos - or something of that style. I'd looked at various reps as well as a few homages and had come to realise that the cheapies wouldn't satisfy me at all - it was going to have to be one of the better quality versions. Then I stumbled across the Rotary 700 series. It's not quite a copy of the Santos, but has a very similar dial and overall shape. It's available in two sizes, 37mm & 40mm and three finishes - rose gold, stainless steel and titanium. List price is £285 (around $440) but I knew I could get one a lot cheaper than that.
Anyhow, I placed an order and picked this up yesterday. It's the 702c model (40mm/rose gold) and I'm really impressed with the build quality - it looks and feels like a MUCH more expensive watch. Being rectangular, 40mm width means that it wears fairly big - about as large as a 47mm Radiomir. It's an automatic running a Rotary Calibre RE2008-1 movement (apparently a slightly modified Seagull ST16) with a 21,600 beat rate and came well packaged in the standard watchbox that Rotary use for all of their high-end models.
The dial is a beautiful chocolate brown with rose gold Roman numerals. There's a date window at 6. There's no lume on the dial, for obvious reasons, but the hands have much better lume than I'd expected, being both bright and fairly long-lasting. The crystal is sapphire and there's an interesting display back where the date of the founding of the company is cut into the back and you can just see the movement (which is undecorated) through the numerals. The watch is fitted with a high quality Santos-style croco strap and Rotary's standard deployant buckle and is extremely comfortable on the wrist.
Overall, this is even better than I'd hoped; I'm kinda blown away by how nice this is for the money - even at RRP it's good value, but at the price I paid, it's stunning. I'm semi-tempted to buy a second one - in SS this time - but we'll see how much wrist time this one gets first. I've a feeling it might well be a keeper... but I've said that before
Anyhow, enough of the drivel - here's the pics.
