# Battle of the EA watches - HELP NEEDED



## Tigerman-82 (Nov 22, 2010)

I'm in the market for a new watch. I do like quality but ever since I lost my mechanical Tissot watch years ago, I haven't been into expensive watches (or buying a watch for the sake of "Swiss Made"). Right now I'm looking for a stainless steel watch that would be a "fancy occasion" watch: sharp-looking, stylish, something to goes together with a suit but doesn't look too fancy for a leather jacket and a pair of jeans.

I've read this forum and know that people here aren't too crazy about fashion watches. Fossil with its asian movement seems to be a curse word or sorts. However, I think fashion watches can be extremely cool-looking and I haven't really seen those kind of watches from any respectable brand in a sub-$300 price range I'm going for (I'm using Ebay so the retail price can be higher). I did think about Tissot PRC 200 for a while, but it just didn't have "that something".

Anyway, I'm thinking of going the Emporio Armani route. Now I realize that EA-watches are made by Fossil and the movement is Chinese. However, I simply don't want to pay above the price range I mentioned so no Omegas etc. for me. My number one option is AR4605 which has appeared in these forums before:





















This is an older model (perhaps 2006-model) and it is a part of the EA Meccanico-series. I really like the style of this watch although it looks a bit chunky. Most expensive watches seem to be automatics so I guess this feature adds to the value of this watch. On the other hand, I'm worried about whether a watch of this price (original price $445, Ebay $250) can have decent automatic movement.

My other alternative is AR5855 which is a new model (2010 I think) and priced similarly:





















I like the bling bling -factor of this watch but it does look even chunkier than AR4605. It is from the EA Sports -series (no pun intended :-d). It has Quartz movement which I guess makes it more precise than AR4605 and doesn't have the problem of stopping every time I don't use it for a long period of time.

I've searched other alternatives but honestly these two EA-models are the only ones that appeal to me visually. I've read that Burberry (another Fossil watch brand) has Swiss Made watches and BU1360 has had nice reviews:









On the other hand, the look of those Burberry watches is too conservative for my taste. It feels like I couldn't pull of wearing one of those watches unless I wore an expensive suit and spoke with a Cockney accent. :-d I also know that "Swiss Made" does not exactly mean 100% Swiss watch with Omega-like quality. 

I would like for you to advice me on this matter. Would AR4605 be a good investment? Or am I basically thinking about buying something that looks nice but does not keep time and will break within a year?


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## Tigerman-82 (Nov 22, 2010)

There is actually another Burberry watch that I think is better-looking than the BU1360. It's the BU1850:





















That's actually a good-looking watch and at least partly Swiss Made (although by Fossil). It doesn't have the "rock/cool" factor that EA watches have but it is a nice-looking watch nevertheless. However, the downside is the price.


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## hiddenblades (May 27, 2011)

First of all Ar4605 has SWISS movement and not Chinese movement. I asked this question to Emporio Armani and they replied me like this, they also told that the case and the strap are Asian made. So it is questionable, maybe lie maybe truth, but this power reserve thing is at Raymond Weil watches as well, so it is more likely to have a Swiss movement, because Asian automatic movements generally do not have power reserve unless they are kinetic movement. I also bought Ar0145 and Emporio Armani Customer Service emailed me that they also have Swiss Quartz movement. However this is questionable because all Swiss quartz movements work noisy (you can hear seconds) cheap Chinese movements do not make any noise. 

Anyway, finally I believe that Ar4605 has a Swiss movement, but I do not believe that Ar0145 has a Swiss movement as it is very silent. 

In all cases EA watches are very classy even without 'Swiss Made' on them. Because you pay for the style and thats it. Swiss watches are higher quality with Saphire crystal, scratch proof steel etc etc, but the style of Swiss watches are really crap because Swiss watches are very conservative on styles unlike Italian style Armani.

I hate Swiss watches. Only Swiss watch that I will buy is a second hand 1 year old ROLEX or BNIB one from a grey seller, because that is the only watch you can wear with a profit after selling it because of the abnormal Swiss price increases. 

Hope that this gave you enough ideas, by the way I bought my BNIB authentic EA Ar4605 for 85 dollars which is a good dial if you compare with the silly Swiss watches.


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## Chascomm (Feb 13, 2006)

hiddenblades said:


> First of all Ar4605 has SWISS movement and not Chinese movement. I asked this question to Emporio Armani and they replied me like this, they also told that the case and the strap are Asian made. So it is questionable, maybe lie maybe truth, but this power reserve thing is at Raymond Weil watches as well, so it is more likely to have a Swiss movement, because Asian automatic movements generally do not have power reserve unless they are kinetic movement. I also bought Ar0145 and Emporio Armani Customer Service emailed me that they also have Swiss Quartz movement. However this is questionable because all Swiss quartz movements work noisy (you can hear seconds) cheap Chinese movements do not make any noise.
> 
> Anyway, finally I believe that Ar4605 has a Swiss movement, but I do not believe that Ar0145 has a Swiss movement as it is very silent.


Based on the photo of the back of the watch, that movement does not look like a Swiss movement. I'd need to see a better picture, but I suspect it is by Sea-Gull, China. It might possibly be a Claro-Semag Swiss-finished movement (imported Sea-Gull ebauche) but I am not aware of them offering that particular set of dial complications. Power-reserve is a very common complication on Chinese mechanical movements.










Regarding cheap Chinese quartz movements; I have only found modern Chinese quartz movements (eg. 'Swissebauches, China') in the very cheapest of Chinese watches. Most better quality Chinese and international brands use Japanese or Swiss quartz movements. Also as far as I'm aware, there is no Chinese-made quartz chronograph movement. If the watch does not have 'Swiss Movement' written on it, then it is most likely a Japanese Miyota or Seiko-Epson.


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## Aleric (Feb 10, 2011)

I like the EAs in the photos above. I don't have an EA, but I do have a couple of Burberries which are little more to my taste. I don't know which if the various Fossil brands have what movements. All I know is that the Burberries and Zodiacs (Fossil) are Swiss Made.


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