There is a question a watch of this kind is meant to answer — whether the €900 heritage feel can be had for a fraction of the €900* — and the undersigned party intends to answer it, in full, below,¹ where “below” denotes the note appended to this note, which appends itself to a certificate of authenticity that certifies, upon inspection, chiefly its own inspection.
¹ See the entry marked “Best Overall,” which is not overall so much as first, “first” being a position the undersigned party has been advised not to confuse with a verdict (as previously noted, though it has not been noted). The reader may reasonably wish to know which of the three the undersigned party would carry. The reader is directed, with all courtesy, to the cross-reference — the certificate references the maker’s charter, the charter references a movement, the movement references the caseback, and the caseback, in the case of two of these three, is transparent, so that one may at last see the mechanism and confirm that it, too, defers: gear to gear, escapement to balance, the answer perpetually one wheel further in.
The certificate, it should be clarified,* is not the watch. This is the single fact the undersigned party is able to state without appending it to another. A certificate is a document attesting that a thing is the thing it is — a claim the thing itself makes more persuasively simply by being on your wrist and keeping the time (cf. the earlier entry, which does not exist). Where the certificate says guaranteed, it means subject to the conditions herein; the herein is a second card; the second card is, in the experience of the undersigned party, blank. The adjacent temptations are filed under other hands: the object carried against the body but never certified is treated in the leather wallets, while a household’s belongings admitted for transport and eventual return are assessed by the undersigned in the hardside luggage sets, per §3(b).
All of which is to say that user reports, admitted as exhibits per §5, attest that the three below keep time, wind, and hack as represented; the undersigned takes no position on the timekeeping, and has instead formed a view of the paperwork.** The view is filed with the verdict. The verdict is, as ever, present and one entry further down, and the entry further down reads only (as above) — above being, in this document, a place the eye has already passed and cannot return to, the margin having closed behind it like a door onto a directory of other doors, none of them the
*The undersigned party is, of course, the undersigned. This resolves less than one would hope. **A view is not a verdict. A verdict would require a signature, and the undersigned party’s signature is, per the nameplate, “(see note).” No one has found the note.
At a glance
| N° | Pick | Category | Price | Sold at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Seiko 5 Sports SRPD55 Automatic | Best Overall | $265 | Amazon |
| 02 | Orient Bambino (Version 2, 40.5mm) Automatic | Best Dress Watch | $295 | Amazon |
| 03 | Citizen Mechanical NH8350 Automatic | Best Restrained Classic | $175 | Amazon |
Questions, anticipated
Is a certificate of authenticity necessary to buy one of these watches?
No. A certificate attests that a thing is the thing it is — a claim the watch makes more persuasively by keeping time on the wrist. Two of the three (the Seiko and the Orient) disclose the movement through an exhibition caseback, which is the only authentication the undersigned finds admissible without appending it to another clause.
Which of the three shows the most of its movement?
The Seiko and Orient are fitted with exhibition casebacks, through which the mechanism may be verified; the Citizen seals its movement behind a solid back and declines to disclose. For the actual pick, the reader is directed to the Editorial note below, the undersigned's own verdict being filed elsewhere.
Are these automatic watches accurate?
Accurate enough for daily wear, though not chronometer-grade. User reports, admitted as exhibits, describe a few seconds of drift per day across all three — a tolerance the undersigned records without objection, movements being permitted to defer, gear to gear, like everything else in this file.
Do any of these need hand-winding?
The Seiko and Orient permit hand-winding and hacking seconds; the Citizen winds automatically only, with no hacking, so setting is less precise. None requires daily attention if worn regularly, per the owner reports entered into the record.
