Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Scuba Diving - 8926c, automatic movement
This the THE watch that put Invicta on the map. Styled after the Rolex Submariner, the 8926 has a very solid feel to it.
Mechanical watches can cost thousands of dollars and need to be serviced every 2-3 years. They have to be either worn daily, stored on a watch winder, or hand-wound lest they stop ticking and have to be re-set. Even with due diligence, premium timepieces have to be manually adjusted every month because they will run a couple of minutes fast or slow. Are you willing to put up with this just to own "a work of art?" That is the big question someone with a casual (or fleeting) interest must ask themselves. But at Invicta's price point, this is a perfect way to find out.
Ironically, mechanical watches are a joy to wear because of their complications. The back case is covered by a mineral crystal, so you can actually see the inner workings. The second hand sweeps around the dial, which I think is more elegant than a quartz movement. The aesthetic quality is the main selling point. We are really talking about men's jewelry here folks. With clocks, cell phones, tv and the like, it is not hard to find out the correct time. So to me, a mechanical watch is worth the idiosyncrasies. Buy the Invicta and wear it for a couple of years. This way, when your are ready to drop $2500 on an Omega, $5000 on the Rolex, or $100,000 on a Patek Philippe, at least you will have an idea of what you have gotten yourself into. Invicta Men's 8926OB Pro Diver Collection Coin-Edge Automatic Watch
Why should you buy this watch? Well, you could just like watches, or a diver.
However, you don't have to be a "pro-diver" to use one of these watches. I've worn these types of watches for more than 25 years and have done little more than dive on coral 15-20 feet down. These watches last.
Invicta's 8926OB (for Original Bezel) is almost a duplicate of a Rolex Sea Master. So much so, Rolex threatened legal action unless parts were changed. The Rolex timepiece will probably last longer, but at $3,000 it should. The Invicta is a working man's (woman's) watch. Mine keeps good time and I rarely adjust it. It's an automatic movement watch -- not a quartz watch.
That means it is a self-winding watch. And that's fine. I doubt anybody reading this needs a hyper-precise watch for everyday life. We all like to think of ourselves as underwater demo team members or 21st Century 007s, but that's not the case.
Probably one of the benefits of Invicta is its presentation. The watch comes in an attractive case, and it has a polishing cloth. It practically blinds you with its silver bracelet.
There are drawbacks though. Every Invicta watch I've got has a delicate crown and stem. The crown also winds the watch, like normal, but when you move it out to the other settings then you REALLY have to be careful opening it. Delicately pop it out to the A or B setting. The first, or A, setting is for changing the date. The second, or B, setting is to move the hands.
The crown screws down and is secure. So, you don't have to worry about it snagging anything.
Just a note on the Original Bezel versus the newer 8296 scalloped, or Omega type, bezel: It's sort of a coin edge, and, to me, it is easier to turn. The scalloped type requires too much pressure and over a few weeks of use it starts to feel like it is wearing out.
I use mine to measure elapsed time for exercise and other events. It's not 100-percent precise like a chronograph, but gives me what I need.
Just to recap, this would make a good, inexpensive, gift that definitely looks like it is more of an investment than it is.
I've had my 8926C for at least 5 years now. I never take it off; I shower with it everyday; I do hard, physical, dirty, outside geology work with it; I beat the %$ out of this watch. It's all scratched up (if you look closely), but still looks great; it works perfectly and I LOVE IT! I get compliments on it all the time. After the first few months of resetting it now and then it's kept time to within about 1 minute every couple of months (about 1 second per day). I like watching the Japanese Miyota movement better than the Swiss Silleta movement because you can actually see the balance wheel spinning back and forth and the anchor lever and ruby (jewel) pallets ticking away on the escape wheel. You can only see the balance wheel on the 9937's Swiss movement. Several of the ruby (jewel) bearings area visible on both movements. Speaking of visible, the Tritnite glowing material glows brightly all night. The date window on the front crystal magnifies slightly, less than the 9937's, but the date is no more or less readable than on the 9937. My front crystal is slightly scratched, but it looks pretty good for all the abuse it's seen. The back crystal is perfect. If I could change one thing, I'd put solid end links on the bracelet and screw them to the case like the 9937. I break the spring bars (pins) about twice a year, but only because I'm very rough on the watch. I actually like the 8926's stamped clasp better than the 9937's "solid" clasp because the solid one actually has a very narrow connection to its stamped end piece which is no thicker than the wider stamped clasp on this watch. The 8926's clasp isn't as pretty as the 9937's, but I trust the 8926's more; and who sees the clasp anyway? All said, this watch is a very good-looking, bullet-proof, reliable workhorse. I just got a 9937, and although I love it because I'm turning into a Swiss movement geek, I appreciate the 8926C more than ever. It's a hell of a watch for a steal of a price! Buy one! You'll love it!
Received this watch recently.
Already the crown is defective. It will not screw back into place.
The Invicta warranty terms are that you must send a $25 fee in the form of a Money Order for the S&H. Add to this the approximate $10 it will cost you to ship the watch using a secure shipping service to the Invicta Service Center and the costs of getting a money order, and now the costs to send this $100 watch for warranty service are over 1/3 the price of the watch. If you purchase this watch on sale for around $60 that's over half the watch's price.
If you have to send the watch for service a couple of times it will cost you about the price of the watch!
Either way this is absolutely unacceptable and totally ridiculous.
If a company has a defective product it should pay the costs of returning the defective item to you after it services the item.
You've already paid the costs to ship it to the company, not to mention the inconvenience of getting a money order and of doing without the item for a few weeks.
For the above reasons the watch is going back to Amazon, and will not go near an Invicta product ever again! - Watches - Automatic Movement - Divers Watch - 8926c'
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