Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)ORDERING THE PRODUCT:I ordered the Bulova Marine Star mechanical/automatic watch, model 98A106, in two-tone gold and stainless steel with blue face, from Amazon.com on June 14, 2010.It arrived within a few days, in good working order.The small cardboard Bulova watch box contained the watch, a thin instruction book (Bulova Book No. 623), a 1-year limited watch warranty from HSWW Company LLC (also known as "[...]", 545 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY) and a Bulova product tag.Note that the normal Bulova 3-year warranty was not included.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:This is a mechanical self-winding watch powered by the movement of the wearer.It will stop if not worn and its accuracy is not in the same league as an electronic quartz watch.You will need to reset its time regularly.It appeals mainly to those who are fascinated by mechanisms rather than those seeking convenience (like me).The watch and bracelet are of heavy stainless steel with gold accents, looking and feeling both robust and well made.The clasp is a very secure, smoothly operating double-locking fold-over type that is unlikely to open by accident.From the front, the watch presents a domed mineral crystal under which is a blue face with gold and white luminous tick marks at the hour positions.The gold and whitehour and minute hands are also luminous, but the second hand is not.This watch has no day or date function. A numbered, unidirectional (counterclockwise) rotating elapsed time bezel with 60 click-stop positions, similar to many classic divers watches, surrounds the face, with a luminous dot at the zero position, numbers at 10, 20, 30, etc. and tick marks at 5, 15, 25, etc.The luminous markings allowing the watch to be read easily in the dark, even after two hours or so.The face of the watch has a cut-out revealing the spinning balance wheel and ruby bearings of the 21-jewel gold-plated Citizen/Miyota 8N24 skeleton movement underneath.A metal-ringed, transparent screw-down case back shows the rest of the movement and the winding pendulum, which is clearly marked "Bulova, Automatic, Twenty-One, 21 Jewels"While gold plated, clean and attractive to the eye, a jewelers microscope reveals that the movement is not highly polished, as on some Swiss watches.The watch crown is at the 4-O'clock position and is well protected by a substantial ridge at the top and less well protected by a small ridge at the bottom.Surprisingly, the crown is NOT a positive-sealing screw-down type, making this watch unsuitable (in my opinion) for swimming or diving, despite the "100M Water Resist" label on the watch face.The crown has two positions.Pushed in fully, the watch may be wound manually, a nice feature on an automatic watch in this price range.Pulled out, the hours and minutes may be set.But the second had does NOT stop - this is a "non-hacking" movement.
IMPRESSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:I've used this watch for more than two weeks and found it easy to use, comfortable and well made.It gains about 7 sec/day in normal use (Miyota specs the movement at -10 to +30 sec/day) , less when sitting face-up on a table.This compares well to my slightly more expensive Seiko divers watch (7S26movement, +45 sec/day from the factory, -10 sec/day after adjustment) and even to my Rolex Yachtmaster (just within a COSC certified +6 sec/day).However, both the Seiko and Rolex are much less sensitive to position.The Bulova gains as little as two seconds per day or as much as 8, depending on how it is placed down when not in use and whether it is worn.Neither the Seiko or Rolex vary by more than 2 seconds in similar conditions. Unlike the Seiko and like the Rolex, the Bulova can be manually wound - very handy if you are trading off watches and need to start it up quickly.Fully wound, the watch can run about 40 hours without being worn. Like the Seiko, it is possible to forcibly "hack" the movement to set the precise second by turning the hands backwards slightly and maintaining pressure to halt the seconds hand.But this only works when the watch is barely wound and ceases to work when the watch has more power stored. This is a minor annoyance. In daily use, I reset the minute hand back by one minute whenever the watch hits 30 seconds fast, making it 30 seconds slow.The watch then takes 10 days to catch up and get back to 30 seconds fast again, when I repeat the reset.Overall, the Bulova is well built, attractive and accurate - remarkably so for a mechanical watch in its price range.Two changes would make this watch nearly perfect:1.A screw-down crown to make it suitable for swimming or diving, and 2. "hack" capability to allow precise setting of the second hand.Because these items are missing, I give the watch 4 rather than 5 stars.Nonetheless, if you are in the market for a well-built, attractive, relatively accurate, value-priced mechanical watch, this one is a good bet.
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