today we got the Stowa marine classic the marine classic pays tribute to deck watches of the past
the handheld chronometers were absolutely essential for survival for any marine vessel
before GPS but should you buy it how does it wear
how does it feel we're gonna discuss that in this video now let's begin
introducing the Stowa marine classic 36 millimeters started in 1927 they
are 95 years old so we got a company with a ton of history when I hear Stowas name
I think flieger that's their bread and butter but you know what they make fantastic re-imaginations
of the 1940 deck watches now I'm not going to go into the history but real quick John Harrison
in the early 18th century made the world's first c chronometers and they were used for
navigation so when a watch impresses me within the hand feel which is completely subjective
I say it gives me a positive impression of quality but I do have a tier system the lowest is a poor
impression of quality or negative impression of quality then standard impression of quality then
we have positive impression of quality and at the top an extremely high impression of quality this
watch right off the bat gives me a standard impression of quality one of my dings is the crown
feel it is a beautiful large 6.2 millimeter onion crown push pull giving the watch 50 meters
of water resistance the movement is an eta 2824 which normally has a date but Stowa modifies it
so when you pull out the push-pull crown sometimes you hear two clicks or one and a half clicks and
pushing in as well one click if you push a little bit harder there is a second click so the crown is
a little bit finicky it doesn't feel sorted and solid the watch is completely high polished and
the mirror finish is fantastic this watch is three years old so has a ton of scratches and dings but
it held up really well and now the wear ability how this wears so it's a 36 but it has a really
large dial coming in at 33 millimeters for the sapphire and the dial so that makes it wear larger
however the gentle downward curvature of those lugs and being high polished makes it kind of
disappear and wear smaller so overall I feel like it wears true to size maybe we can say it wears
like a 36 with a little bit more wrist presence to illustrate my point here is the vintage grand
Seiko mod we did on the channel earlier and it has a smaller crystal about 29 millimeters so you
can see right there the risk presence is going to be different but it's clear that Stowa wears
larger now let's do the dimensions 30 6.1 in diameter thickness of 10.8 with a double domed
sapphire crystal clear anti-reflective coating no drilled lugs and a lug to lug of 44.6 the strap 18
millimeters tapering down to 16 and it feels like a generic Chinese leather strap it says genuine
leather which we all know means it's the lowest grade possible however it does feel soft and is
very comfortable so there is that the dial is enamel look so I'm assuming it's enamel paint
which is disappointing I've reviewed Seiko's with real enamel dials and they're incredible
the look and impression you get from real enamel is something you want trust me but the enamel look
it does a good job you get a pure white but it doesn't have the same effect as the real enamel
love the railroad minute track all the way around the theme here is less is more Stowa in silver
under the 12 o'clock Arabic and that's it beautiful thermally blued hands when you
catch the light you can see the color come to life that's amazing if you're going for
a marine chronometer look this is exactly what you want the weight is 57 grams extremely light
and comfortable the movement here is upgraded top grade eta 2824 modified by Stowa what do
you get with the upgrade you get perlage work and coats Genève also real rubies instead of synthetic
and upgraded mainspring so it's definitely worth it 140 usd on top of the base price but look at
the rate no error three years old 300 amplitude one second a day we're going to do 12 down
to see that positional variance not very often we get a top grade eta it does about negative
two seconds on my wrist so I am expecting to see a negative number and look at that negative
two oh it's correcting itself a negative one amplitude powerful at 291 no error still fantastic
let's ignore the first number and the fourth and final round negative two the marine classic
from Stowa has no loom so we're not gonna do a loom shot I'm gonna recommend you do
upgrade the movement it's gonna be around 960. for under a thousand dollars from a historic brand in
Germany something a little bit different in your collection from the many swiss or Japanese that
you most likely have I think German watches not many people have German watches I did nitpick a
little bit with the crown action and the enamel dial I complained about but that's unrealistic
the price would be way way higher if it was real enamel so you can ignore that negative
it's not fair so overall gorgeous watch will I keep it in my collection I don't know I bought
it just to review I do like it but I'm not sure it's gonna stand the test of time only because
when I go 36mm I want tons of wrist presence and I don't get that from this one but that's just me
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