InvictaMen's Watch

This is a brilliant watch for the money. Mine came in very nice packaging and from day one has kept fairly accurate time. If you want to the second accuracy buy a quartz watch. I wanted a watch that will never need a battery and will never need the back to be opened. And this one does the job perfectly. You will have to manually adjust the watch if the month has less than 31 days and to me that’s a convenient time to adjust the time if it has gained or lost a few seconds over the previous month. Also the bezel on mine has no slack whatsoever and the zero pointer matches 12 on the dial perfectly. The sweep of the second hand is very smooth.The bracelet on mine is well made and comfortable to wear. It was easy to adjust by removing a few links and is now a lovely fit.Going by online reviews, this watch is either accepted for what it is, ie a submariner lookalike, or it is a blight on watchkind. To me it is just a very nicely made and nice looking watch for an amazing price, and it has a very good Seiko mechanism inside. Win win all the way. If you are a watch snob you won’t bother anyway but if you want a nice accurate well built and good looking watch then don’t hesitate to choose this one.

If you are researching automatic watches in this price range you will no doubt have an Invicta Pro Diver on your shortlist. If not, then you should consider it.My parcel arrived in good order within 24 hrs on express delivery. Inside a cardboard liner was an impressive if bright, yellow invicta trademark box in leatherette. The watch was well protected in a clear bag and secured in foam. A Yellow pastic price tag showed an alleged RRP of 395 US Dollars. Unusually the strap was protected by very tough shrink wrap which took some time to remove...but meant the watch was very well protected...a very good sign. It was also set to the correct time and day and must have been given a wind which was very good. Fit & finish is flawless...I have checked it thoroughly with a magnifying glass. The cyclops magnifier and date readout are perfectly aligned, as are all the face markings. The sweep hand even has a little set of invicta wings on the short end which is a nice touch. A nice glass back shows the movement. The gold plating on the bracelet and bezel is excellent quality deep and lustrous...the blue finish is bright and lovely to look at. The gold plating on the front of the strap links does not extend to their backs, but the inside of the strap is not visible anyway when worn. The colour combination certainly has visual impact..I wanted a watch that stood out from my otherwise understated collection...and this sure does..I love it.I was suprised that the watch was not larger. The case is around 38mm in diameter. I still had to get 3 links removed by a local jeweler, but there is about 1.5cms of adjustment on the clasp that you could do yourself with a pin and a bit of patience. It actually looks perfectly proportioned now on my weedy wrist..but I reckon those with a larger wrist might want to look at the Grand Diver model. Invicta have a good website which is worth checking, as they have a series of templates for various sized cases which you can print out and cut out to see how it would look on your wrist.I was torn between the Invicta and an Orient Mako but it really came down to price. The Orients have great reviews but less of them. Invictas have loads of reviews so the odd bad one did not worry me...fortunately, as I am very pleased with my purchase. I was never going to spend out on a Rolex. This does not pretend to pass itself off as one since it carries the Invicta name prominently and proudly on the face, in large engraved font on the side of the case, on the clasp and on the inside of the strap links. For less than £70 I think it offers very good value as it looks like it should cost ten times that price, even on close inspection. I realy don't know how Invicta can produce such a product for so little money, unless every other manufacturer has actually been taking the mickey for years.Only had it for three days, and it has gained just over 40 seconds which seems about right. My other automatic watch ran fast initially when new then settled into losing between 3 and 10 seconds per day. This watch has an NH35A SII movement which is a newish 24 Jewel mechanism, manufactured by Seiko in Japan, wheras most of the info I found on this model indicated it would have a Japanese Citizen built 21 Jewel Miyota movement. I am not sure if this is a better movement than expected, but it is a "hacking" movement which means that if you pull the crown out to set the time, the second sweep hand is held locked until you push it back in...this helps you to set the time accurately by a time signal. The crown also screws down tigtly to maintain the claimed 200m water resistant integrity, which I am sure it could as the build quality seems so good. I will update this review later with observations on its accuracy etc, but if it stays accurate I will definately be looking at other styles in the Invicta range.UPDATE: Had the watch for a while now and I cannot stress how pleased I am with it. It has settled to within a range of losing 10-12 seconds a week which I think is remarkable. It will keep going for well over a day and a half off of my wrist, and I have adopted the "Tic-tac" shake of the wrist every now and then to ensure the auto mechanism keeps the watch wound. Whatever you might think of the Invicta brand, this particular model is tough little watch and is a superb product for the money.

For a diver's watch with claimed 200m water resistance, with mechanical, automatic movement, you're unlikely to get better value than from the Invicta Pro-Diver range, considering they use the proven Seiko NH35A movement. Ironically, the Seiko 200m diver's watch using the these movements cost over double the price. That said, the quality of their bracelet is a lot better (slightly thicker).The Invicta wings insignia on the dial, is a joke to anyone after the quality of engineering associated with top-of-the range, marque, Swiss watches. It looks like plastic, painted gold!It's advertised as a mans watch, whereas 'unisex' would be a fairer description these days. It's slightly smaller than a 'Submariner' and a lot smaller than a gents 'Seamaster'.The date change takes over an hour to complete (again, not what you'd expect on a quality watch).The movement being the NH35-A, as used by Seiko, is a lot better than cheap, Asian, automatic movements, often used elsewhere. So far, mine has maintained an accuracy of 30 seconds over 10 days; it gained 20 seconds over 7 days and then settled down, to gain a further 20 seconds by the end of the month. For a fairly cheap automatic, that's highly impressive and vastly superior to what you'd get from cheap, Chinese, self-winding movements; accurate only to only about 90 seconds a day.The luminous paint works brilliantly (better than what you might expect at this price).It is claimed water resistant to 200m; a Seiko automatic at this price would not be guaranteed water resistant beyond 50m.We now come to the crystal (claimed to be scratch-resistant Sapphire). Again, far batter than what you'd expect for £67 and the cyclops-window, date magnifier does a splendid job.Update - 29th December, 2014I've had the watch nearly a year now and so far, it hasn't deteriorated the way I expected. The glass still looks good as new and the casing shows only minor marks. There I'm sorry to say, the good news ends. The incredible accuracy I enjoyed during the first few weeks is now a distant memory. It looses 20-30 seconds a day. In fairness this is still a lot better than what you can expect from a cheap, Asian movement as fitted to most 'fakes'. Another thing that bothers me is that the description on Amazon, has changed. Mine was advertised last year as possessing a sapphire crystal. This has now been changed to mineral glass. Which of the two is correct bearing in mind that mine is the same model? Seems bit dodgy to me!Update- 19th January, 2015Used a special tool, purchased on eBay for less than a fiver, to remove the back and adjust the movement (a very easy task). Several attempts have now restored the accuracy to between 5-10 seconds a day, which I think is very impressive for the price. If you decide to adjust it yourself, however, do be careful to stop the flywheel by pulling the hands adjuster, and take great care not to touch the flywheel or hairspring. If you magnetise the flywheel or damage the hairspring, you'll need a new movement. A plastic toothpick is a good tool for moving the timing adjuster tab. Before doing this, however, I'd recommend detaching the strap to improve your line of sight. A magnifying glass (any convex lens will do!) also helps.30th August, 2015It's still accurate to 10 seconds a day and both casing and bracelet have worn very well. Overall, I'm very satisfied. This may not be in the same league as Omega, Rolex etc but represents excellent value-for-money to anyone wanting a solidly built, gents automatic. With its screw-down crown, it certainly looks the part though whether it really is 200m water resistant, most of us will never know!Overall, this is a good mechanical, automatic watch for the money, but slightly lacking in quality in terms of the weigh and solidity associated with the expensive brands most of us are familiar with. Those with big wrists would be much better off with the Grand Diver range of Invicta watches, as these not only posses these qualities, but are also guaranteed water resistant to 300m. Often, there's not much difference in price, so it really is a no brainer unless you have small wrists. If you do, forget it; you may get one to fit but would look daft wearing it!Finally, the only thing I dislike is the word invicta etched on the left side of the casing, in capitals. It seems grossly uneccessary detracts from the appearance. Why did they do it?