Horological Meandering

MTF
[PuristS]
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On-The-Wrist Review: RED8

On-The-Wrist Review:  RED8

Luckily, sense prevailed and this grey piece seemed to go well with my matching grey fur.

Available in a variety of bezel and dial colours that can be outfitted with a choice of coloured straps, every RED8 watch features a sapphire crystal 3.8mm thick with non-reflective coating on the inside,  Superluminova treatment on index markers, and an eco-friendly I-MATIC quartz movement.

Although the original quartz movement has a date function, it has been purposely omitted from the RED8 watches for both aesthetic symmetry and philosophical reasons. I thought this may be a significant flaw........but more, anon.

Although, Christian BÉDAT proclaims the RED8: "DESIGNED ON EARTH BY REDWORLD  -  PRODUCED IN ASIA",  in actuality, it was designed near Geneva because that is where he lives with his wife and 5 children! The website was designed and maintained by Koreans. The quartz movement is designed by Japanese and the rest of the watch components are made in China.

Is it any wonder that his friends and relatives in the Geneva society scene have been spotted with RED8 on their wrists?  What can pique the interest of the jaded crowd than "affordable luxury"?  I must admit to a modicum of perverse cheekiness as I wore the RED8 into boutiques to inspect timepieces costing 1500 times more!   

I found myself turning the bezel to show the compass cardinal direction that I was travelling most for each day.

Yesterday, I travelled mainly WEST 

 

Today, I'm travelling EAST

The iconic and eponymous RED8 crown is made of ABS.

The watch diameter was difficult to determine because of the curvature of the case sides and the chunkiness of the knurled bezel, but I estimated 42mm as pretty close. Thus was confirmed later when photographed side-by-side with the 42mm diameter PuristSPro All-Black Rescue watch.

Easily interchangeable rubber strap system.  It takes about 4 seconds to change the strap!

The repeated RED8 logo forms the textured grip inner surface of the strap, against the wrist.

I found the rubber strap both pliable and quite comfortable to wear, even for extended periods travelling in trains, planes and automobiles from Geneva to Singapore vis Istanbul. The logo markings did not leave any imprint on my peach-like skin, unlike certain 'haute horlogerie' brands, I could not care to mention!

The rubber strap is shaped so that the two 'kinks' are seated at the lugs. The watch is always in the same position on the strap and wrist.

The caseback is machined stainless steel with both multi-level and multi-texture finishing. The motto, "DESIGNED ON EARTH BY REDWORLD  -  PRODUCED IN ASIA" is highlighted in red.  The Chinese characters for RED 8 are in high relief over a textured backgrouund. All this is hidden from view in normal use when the starp is in position. only the wearer needs to know.

The caseback is screwed-in onto the PVD-clad stainless steel case for a water resistance of 200m.  The watch has a solid feel and appears well constructed "in Asia"......actually in China.

The eco-friendly 'automatic winding' quartz movement is the Seiko Kinetic-based I-MATIC with AGS - Automatic Generating System that spins up to 100,000rpm to charge the built-in battery. Although no disposable batteries are used, the newer rechargeable Ti-Li-ion batteries may last 'only' 20 years. On full charge, without activation of the AGS, there is about 4 months reserve.

The double tang buckle was an interesting design quirk that provided no advantage nor disadvantage in use., except maybe it divided the tension load between two tangs. The PVD coating bore up well to all the usual knocks of life and also the PuristS on Tour 2009 visit to Geneva. Any white flakes seen in the macro photos are just magnified dust.   Hey! this was a real-world test......

Overall, the RED8 has performed well over the last 6 weeks, in tropical Singapore and cold Switzerland, not to mention airport lounges on 2 continents. Timekeeping has been as expected at +15 secs/month or half a second per day; that's more than 10 times better than a mechanical watch.  I did not miss the lack of date as much as I thought in the beginning.

Criticism

Maybe it's just me or a PuristS' trait but more than one PuristS has mentioned the seconds hand NOT coinciding with the markers as it ticks around the dial.

I mentioned this to another watchmaker and he told me that this is "common" for quartz watches.

At least I have not detected any of the infamous 'backlash phenomenon' that affected the Minute hand of early Seiko automatic quartz movements.

Finally, the RED8 automatic quartz with everyone's favourite PuristSPro ABR, as the reference 42mm diameter, automatic mechanical, black PVD watch.

The best of both worlds.

Regards,

The Grey Rat Watcher

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