# affordable 24h vs GMT vs. anything



## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

Dear watch people,

I dunno why I fed my interest into watches, I should have left it blind, my Timex solved the need to find out what time is it... Now my new passion-obsession is taking me a huge amount of time...

So, to start, I'm wondering what to buy...

Requirements:
- analog 24h indication, either 12 on top, lateral, bottom or whatever
- quartz, I'm looking for something with a good precision
- black dial
- leather band
- simple design
- date would be appreciated, but not mandatory
- and yes, toughest part, not more expensive than 150 euros

I've traveled through Andre's 24hour info site, with a few successes:

Been thinking about the big Nordschleife one, Nordschleife.us - The Ultimate Shop for all Fans of the Nürburgring Nordschleife

There's a cheaper one, Hummel, Hummel 24 Stunden Uhr 6278111 - M&D Marketing und Vertriebs e.K. , but it seems small and quite hard to read. The nordschleife have it re branded.

There's an English one, that looks quite fancy, but that shiny rim around it kinda spoils everything... RLT Watches RLT Watch Co.

And then comes the xen, Xen Herren Uhr 24 Hours braun / schwarz: Amazon.de: Garten

I found the latter one to be the most appealing, but I haven't found too much info on this xen, and would appreciate a review. None found, yet. There are some German forums who argue about the high prices of the mechanical models, but that's all that I found.

While browsing through, I noticed the GMT idea would also work, like besides the traditional hour and minute indication another slow 24 hour indicator. My only pleasure would be to have a big 24 hour indicator, like a normal 24 hour watch, not just a tiny one. Whether I'll tear apart the regular hour indicator should be up to me

Here, I found a big and popular Citizen Eco drive, but who looks like a conversion table, too crowded for me. Forgot the name.

Also, cheaper, a Chinese brand with probably a good designer, August Steiner Men's Steel Swiss Quartz Day/ Date GMT Watch | Overstock.com
I don't know why but the looks of this one doesn't seem that appealing.

I've been looking at this for quite a while now, and it's beginning to take too much time. Do you have any suggestions?...


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## TimeOnTarget (Feb 11, 2006)

Check out YES watch. They have several interesting models. I own the ZULU and it serves me well.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

The Yes is really a wonderful piece of engineering, I would love it, even if it's quite big.

The problem is that it is, as far as I see on their site, more than 500-600$, and I wouldn't go that high.


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## TimeOnTarget (Feb 11, 2006)

You might try posting a WTB add with your price requirement. Maybe you will get lucky. You never know until you ask....


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## tsultrim (May 8, 2010)

very useful post, thanks


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## hieuhv (Jun 7, 2011)

thanks useful post .


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

First YES watch that I found, and at a very cheap price:
yesClock - Home



I'll keep looking, right now I have this thing on my desktop, and I'm beginning to like it a lot.

The thing is that I work all day in front of a laptop, either in an office or in a bunker somewhere, and I have a feeling I'm totally missing time. Like Time. The earth moving, the flowers growing, stars floating, everything. And a good starting point might be to get more of the feeling that a day truly has 24 hours, maybe I can find a bit more time to spend at home or somewhere else...

Right now no Time to spend looking again for watches, maybe a bit later.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Thanks for the link.


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## stefaniesunny (Jun 4, 2011)

It sounds you are hard to make a decision, a watch good or not, depend on the movement. Quartz movement is good.


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## WnS (Feb 20, 2011)

No matter what you get, definitely get a GMT over a 24 hour watch. A GMT is easier to read and can have a 2nd timezone, sometimes cheaper too.


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## nz_Fuzzy (May 27, 2007)

WatchesNSuits said:


> No matter what you get, *definitely get a GMT over a 24 hour watch*. A GMT is easier to read and can have a 2nd timezone, sometimes cheaper too.


What a strange comment on a 24H Forum :-s
24H is easy to read. 
Can often have a second time zone too.


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## WnS (Feb 20, 2011)

Yeah, I guess that did sound odd. It's just that I prefer 24h in the form of a GMT hand - it makes the watch so much more useful. But if the OP only wanted a 24h watch, I wouldn't make that comment.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

There are 24h which might be hard to read, a lot of pointers crowded there. That xen had an advantage that the hour hand was right between the hour indicators, which makes it easier to read than even some 12h with a tiny hour hand.

I'm still staring at that yes clock, which I find very useful. I'm not traveling very often in another time zone, and when I do it's not very hard to keep track of time. So this would not be the main reason.

I'm instead amazed by how cool it is to know where the sun is on the horizon, to actually keep track of it. I'm missing the fact that time passing by and the day passing by is also the sun passing by...

I've tried on a bulky Citizen - 44mm. It's wearable, like it wouldn't be impossible to wear, but it also wouldn't be comfty. I have the feeling I would take it off from time to time since it's too big.

I'll be looking again, no time now unfortunately.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

I'm going for a trip to Germany in about two weeks, I'm gonna look, touch and smell whatever they might be having there regarding these xen, since they seem the best choice now.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

What about this one?

Citizen Red Arrows World Time Chronograph. | the Watch Hut

Is it me or it has a 24h dial? I don't get how it works, but it is a 24h dial, so it probably does something. It says 12/24 hour time.

Any clues?

The movement is a typical one, it seems, the red plane hand is just the seconds hand. I don't get why the bezel has the 24 style.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

norenendur said:


> What about this one?
> 
> Citizen Red Arrows World Time Chronograph. | the Watch Hut
> 
> ...


The subdial to the left is 24hr.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

that's obvious, but what about the 24h mark around it?


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

norenendur said:


> that's obvious, but what about the 24h mark around it?


Yes, I see your point now.
I've been hoping Citizen would introduce a purist 24hr analogue ecodrive watch, but this does not appear to be it.
I shall continue to look around. If I find any more info, I'll post it here too.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

I haven't found any.

There are some older models with a big GMT hand, which would serve good (check ebay), but they didn't look that good and had a metal bracelet.

There a current GMT model with something like a nato bracelet, but the 24 h hand is small, and overall the watch looks a bit to military too me. Though it is an option, I really like the eco drive idea, a friend has a few and they basically make no sound at all. By the way, Timex is nice, but they tick quite loud. Like I'm hearing this one running at 70kph in a diesel Ford.

And there's a diver GMT, forgot the name, again with quite a small hand, with a really good look, but at an expensive price.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

I just made a buy.

What were the final options?

The 24H xen. No lume, no date, little wr. Even if cool, lost the race.
A xen GMT, wonderful watch, but a bit out of the price range and a bit uncertain about how it would actually work. The xen XQ0011. Xen Metal Fine, Art.-Nr. XQ0011 - günstig kaufen bei mtrshop24.de 50m wr, btw.
Orient GMT Automatic. Not very precise, so lost the race.
A Golana GMT. A reviewer said the watch stopped working after a few months. Not my kind of investment, and it didn't look that good anyway.
A Timex Expedition GMT, long ago built. Would have been an option, but the hands were really crowded, the watch was quite small, and shipping costs about half of the watch price. And it might also tick quite loud, which I find quite unpleasant.
Bruvik GMT. Wonderful watch, but out of the price range, probably. Couldn't find a price, though.
Of course, the YES watch. I'm still using the YES clock, by the way, now with a Always on top option and transparency added to the window. Expensive and big and quite unusual. Would have been an option since it had almost all that I wanted, if it would have had a small case. And smaller price.
A YES replica, SKY TIME, apparently built by the same manufacturer a few years ago. Unfortunately the brand no longer exists, and it seems it also had some reliability problems. Cheaper and smaller, would have been a nice option.
A Citizen GMT. Wonderful watch, but a bit to expensive, looking too military and having only a small 24h indication.

Actually finding the watch was a bit of an unusual approach. Since there are so many brands around, I wanted to make sure the choice will be a good one, taking everything into consideration. So I started looking on all the watch manufacturer websites, from the WUS alphabetic listing.

I didn't finish the search, stopped at letter C.
I found a CANDINO PLANET SOLAR GMT, quartz. Candino Herren-Armbanduhr Planet Solar C4451-5: Amazon.de: Uhren 
I was looking at it for a few days while strolling around for others, when I noticed that there's only one left in stock. Since the price on amazon was half that around other sites (116 Euro with s&h), quickly bought it.
Why?
Sapphire glass. I've seen the difference on a few watches, and I would really like to have one that would be able to take a kick. Besides that, the brand seems to be good, it's wr to 100m, the GMT is big enough, and it looks ok. Well, it doesn't look exactly as I would have wanted it, but it's a good deal nevertheless.

As soon as it arrives I'll post pictures.


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## norenendur (Jun 4, 2011)

So, short watch review.

The watch arrived 5 days ago, about 10 days sooner than it was scheduled to.









First impression? It's big. Like really big. And heavy.

I not sure about how heavy, to give an objective feeling of it, but somewhere between 100-150g.








A lot bigger than my ex. Timex.

The dial is actually not that black, it's a bit to the grey.

Even if big, it's decently comfortable to wear.

The band has to be cut to the desired size to be worn, but for a rubber band it's really comfortable. I haven't decided whether to switch to a leather one, it looks really good, very wide, 22mm, especially the clasp on the back.
















I've read the movement is made by Citizen. I don't know if they make non eco drive movements, but I would tend to believe it. It makes no sound at all, no ticking whatsoever, like a Citizen. The seconds hand moves sharply to fixed positions. It was a bit difficult to adjust the GMT, since when moving the GMT hand all the other hands move a few degrees. Don't know why.

Even if the dial is made with 24 on top, it doesn't make too much sense to me. I've stared at that YES clock for too long to appreciate anything else than a 12 on top, so right now it's a bit weird adjusted, to be working like a 12 on top even if the dial is a 24 on top.

What else? The glass looks really cool, like even if it stains a bit it cleans and shines awesome. An anti-reflex coating would have been the greatest addition, and I believe they are quite cheap. The little magnifier on the date makes the watch look even weirder, since it's bumping out of the low profile. It is practical and gives an interesting look, but I don't think it's the best addition, I don't know how good will it last in time since it's so exposed.

Over all, the whole thing looks wonderfully rugged, a bit like an old fancy tank.

The blue color of the GMT hand and that of the dial and hour markers looks a lot better than in the pictures. Even if the watch looks sporty, with a leather band should be suit-wearable.

What else? Lume, looks great also. All the markers have it, even if they are blue, and it charges up very fast. The lume on the minute hand seems to be toasted, at least on this watch, since it charges up more difficult than the others and loses it's light faster. Anyways, the GMT also has lume, and looks very good. The lume lasts about 5 hours without charging, which is not as much as I expected.









So, overall?

I'm still gonna wear the Timex when camping. The Indiglo is really cool when you find yourself in complete darkness.

But since I'm camping only a few days per year, the Candino will be the choice. It would have been better if it would have been a bit lighter, but considering the looks, WR, sapphire glass and overall quality, it's probably the best buy for the money. A better one might have been the YES, but I'm quite uncertain if it would have been suit-wearable, and the price for even a sh one would probably be more.

That's about it, hope somebody finds this useful!

Oh, yeah. A bit of philosophy. The watch moves circular, but time is anything but circular. It will end one day. Our earthly watch will just stop. In a way, it's a bit like the movement of a wheel. It goes round and round, but if you don't pay attention, you miss the fact that it's actually traveling somewhere...


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