Sunday, July 21, 2019

Watch Review: Cufuo SKMEI Men's Quartz Dress Watch with Brown Leather Strap

One of the watches in my current rotation is a cheap Chinese watch, but you'd never know it from a casual glance.  It's a nice looking dress watch that was sold by Cufuo on Amazon under the brand SKMEI and cost me less than $15.  I have also seen this watch sold under LYMFHCH.  The Amazon advertisement listed the watch with the short and elegant moniker - "Mens Leather Band Quartz Watch, Men's Analog Business Working Roman Numeral Casual Waterproof Watches with Calendar Date Daily Dress Fashion Wristwatch - Brown."  Sheesh!  You'll likely just want to find it via my link.


WATCH DESIGN FEATURES

The watch has some surprising features at this price point.  The dial is marked with Roman numerals on the hour, hashmarks on the minute, a small date window at 3 o'clock, and an elegant, but basic, guilloché pattern on the dial.  The genuine leather strap offers a generous length that I have found very comfortable from the first wearing.  The dial has a bright white face, but it easily takes on the tone of your surroundings.



WATCH DIMENSIONS

This is not a huge watch. The case diameter is 38 millimeters and the watch is 10 mm thick.  The strap is 20 mm wide.



WATCH CONSTRUCTION AND QUALITY

This is one of the best cheap Chinese watches in my collection.  But, it is not perfect.  When I run my finger over the zinc alloy case, there is a little burr on the front that I can feel.  However, I cannot see it with my eyes.  It's the only flaw that I can find.  Otherwise, this watch would be right in there with other commodity quartz watches or even basic Timex or Armitron watches.



Another issue with this watch is that when you click on it directly on Amazon, you see the watch as I have pictured it.  However, when you order it, a brown watch of a completely different model is shown in the picture on the order page.  This makes for a bit of a panic until the watch arrives.  The seller really needs to clean the listing up so that the right picture is shown consistently.


OVERALL

This is a great watch for under $15.  If you are on a budget and want a decent looking dress watch, this might be one to take a chance on.  I like it.  If you like this watch, here it is on Amazon.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

The Other Moon Watch: The Bulova Lunar Pilot

The Omega Speedmaster has always been the official moon watch of NASA.  Consequently, it commands big money in the marketplace.  However, another wristwatch has also visited the moon:  the Bulova Lunar Pilot.


On August 2, 1971, Commander David Scott's NASA wore his personal Bulova as a replacement for his NASA issued Omega.  The crystal of the Omega had popped off and was lost.  He was able to use the Bulova for his remaining five hour moonwalk.


With this month marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, interest in the Apollo program and our astronauts has never been higher.  If you'd like to add a watch with a connection to astronauts to your collection, the Bulova Lunar Pilot Chronograph is a watch that we can all aspire to own.