They advertise from time to time in two magazines I subscribe to, Scientific American and National Geographic, usually pieces with a bazillion hands, kind of like that SNL Chronos watch parody ad “It’s like asking a stranger for the time.”
Then, in this month’s copy of NG they have the 1779 Skeleton, a mechanical watch with a transparent front and back so you can see the innards. It’s only a hundred bucks, less than their other offerings and I think it’s kinda neat.
So, have any Dopers out there bought any Stauer watches? I’m not expecting a museum quality time piece for a C-note, but If it’s junk, I’ll stick to my two-dollar digital.
I saw some watches that look very similar to this at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago for around $29.95, IIRC. The guts are fun to watch, but you can tell the gold finish of the watches likely wouldn’t last long. The Stauer watches are made with Chinese innards if my Google-fu is up to par, and they appear to have chosen a name very similar to that of TAG Heuer, which to me is a red flag as well. The watches appear to me to be watches that are actually worth around $10 to $30.
Here is a link to what some who appear to be in the know are saying about them, but given that the comments are random thread postings, I’d take them with a grain of salt as well. The following is a quote from the linked site:
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“It all depends on how you define crap …what the manufacturer promises and
how far away the reality it. Stauer are based on inexpensive Chinese
movements. The Chinese have made strides with their movement manufacturing
but they are still not at the level of the Swiss or even the Japanese, in
terms of quality, longevity, accuracy, etc. If Stauer sold their watches
honestly as “Xiaming” or “Rising Star” or whatever and priced them at $20,
they would not be “crap” , they would be a decent value for a $20 watch.
When you receive the watch, it probably even runs and keeps pretty good time
(or they will send you another one that will). But when the ads try to
dazzle you with bullshit non sequiturs about horological history and imply
that they are Swiss, and they charge you $200, then they are crap.”*
It’s interesting to note, also, that neither Wikipedia nor Consumer Reports has any information on them. Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t drop a C-note on one. Hope this helps.
Overall I was disappointed. I need a watch with larger than average face as I have very large hands and wrists. I thought from the illustrations and ad copy that this watch was what I wanted. It wasn’t.
It works and I wear it occasionally but it’s not the high quality piece the ad makes it out to be. Caution is the order of the day in dealing with them.
