Signum Cuda 39 - Rugged build, great dial, outstanding lume! 

Thank you!

Later, rather than sooner, I'm afraid... Multumesc frumos, succes!

You're welcome and I'm glad you found the video interesting enough to follow up! Yes, I took 2 links to have the watch fit my 7 1/2 inch wrist. Just to make sure, write to Kyle and I am confident he will send you an additional link if needed. This is how microbrands operate 😊

Thank you! I believe it's down to the restrictions imposed by the solar cells on the dials. That being said, Farr & Swit have a couple of goureous solar chronos!

@@watchyawant Thanks! I hadn't thought about it that way but it does make sense that it would limit the dial materials in order to let the light through. I'll look up Farr & Swit, I mainly know Redwood - most of their watches are solar except their chronos.

Thank you! Too many to list, honestly...

Thank you, Dick!

Staaavroooos, keeping my fingers crossed for you! As I have way more watches than shirts and trousers, I would say I dress first. HOWEVER, there are times when I HAVE to wear THAT watch, so...

@@watchyawant So the question remains. How do we (all !!!!) have THAT watch??😜 Be well Toni, thanks once more for all your effort. In all honesty, i'm not sure i can stand ANOTHER watch smiling at me, like THAT! Cheers!

I have tremendous respec for Polish watchmaking! Besides the names you mentioned, let's not forget Radia and, of course, the only Polish microbrand that i have reviewed: Nadir. And, of course, ABSOLUTELY, if you could facilitate communication with your countrymen, I would be honoured to be able to review Polish watches!

Impossible to answer your question, honestly. I can tell you what my favourite microbrand watch is at the moment: Isotope X Mercury!

Already replied to this question. Thank you for watching!

Choosing the right dial colour is, for me at least, influenced by the colour of the bezel. This Orange/Navy combo is great and for some reason the Brasil Gree/Yellow combo has just popped into my mind.

Alredy replied to both questions 😊 It was a combination of "genetics", entourage and a heart attack which led me down this rabitt hole. As for grails, let's keep it attainable: SpeedMaster Reduced.

@@watchyawant that's interesting!! I love your content cause it's really a true opinion!! And as for a speedmaster reduced that's a beauty!!

I like channels that offer more than just measurements and that make as little compromises as possible. You're Terrific, ID Guy and my fellow Romanian Andrei at Brave Beaters.

For the first year the ratio was 9 to 1. Now, in the second year, it's a complete 180 (1 to 9). As for my favourite video of mine... this is a hard question to answer, as I'm my own toughest critic. Perhaps the 2024 SOTC video.

I don't invest as much time in any other of my activities.

I can call myself a collector only since 3 years ago.

Thank you! I find vintage watches a bit intimidating, as I don’t know much about them.

Very good question. While most brands have lived up to their reputation, I guess Wise have been a revelation. Wholeheartedly recommended!

@@watchyawant that’s awesome. Their GMT does have some killer specs

Thank you! Has to be a Top 3 at least, man! Manchester By The Sea, Glengarry Glen Ross, No Country For Old Men.

It changes on an almost daily basis. Today it's the Reverso Hybris.

@@watchyawantI think we can all relate on it changing lol!

This is such an intriguing question!... Obviously, the first thought is of an event where timing was of utmost importance, like the Normandy landings. Will think about this for a while.

For me, the Malachite Solus is the best looking watch in their catalogue! Not as affordable as others, but unique indeed.

I guess the most useful would be a Moonphase, so I can time the tide.

Unfortunately I’m as far from being a GShock fan as any guy out there.

Thank you! Helium escape valves are clearly overkill, and, to be fair, I haven’t seen many.

While I'm not a big Seiko fan, I believe their vintage pieces are amazing. Would love a 70's Advan, but I wear my 7A38-7020 quite a lot!

For being a multi-sensorial experience, I like the minute repeater a lot. However, jump hour with retrograde minutes is simply amazing!

I am a Citizen guy.

Being able to try on the watches and to be in contact with the brands' owners is a fantastic perk of being a reviewer, especially when we're talking about KickStarter projects. Having this "inside scoop" on one hand, and out of my desire to help original, well made watches make it to production, I have backed a few KickStarter campaigns (Ubiq, Pedral and Alato). Also, I'm grateful to Peter at Second Hour for a couple of fantastic discounts.

Jumping hour with retrograde minutes.

Thank you for the praise! On one hand, I feel rather intimidated by vintage watches, on the other hand my self-imposed mission is to feature as many under-the-radar contemporary brands as possible. Finding a format that would reconcile microbrands and legendary vintage watches is quite a daunting task, made even harder by the large amount of watches I am yet to review (fully booked till mid-August). What I would definitely love doing is meeting as many members of this community and, as your name suggests you might live close by, talking watches over coffee would be great!

Thank you! I believe this new variant is still fighting for supremacy in this price range with Wise Hitman.

Thank you! As a matter of fact, the very first watch that I gave away on the channel was a Zeppelin quartz dual timer that just didn't seem to fade. Like never! That was the only lumed dial that I've experienced. As for overall lume, this one's quite impressive, but it wouldn't beat the AD8 or the Akva I've featured on the channel.

I adore MB&F for their off-the-charts creativity and Patek Philippe for everything but the Nautilus. Keeping it sensible, I believe Christopher Ward is the brand that offer the best value for money at the moment.

RZE, Wise, Second Hour

As an attainable grail I have the Speedy Reduced. As for all-time... it changes on an almost daily basis. Today it's the Reverso Hybris.

Patek Phillipe, definitely. They just have everything. As for micros, because of the same considerent of an extensive catalogue, C Ward.

9 series every day and twice on weekends.

Even though my "grails" are mostly chronographs, I am a fan of GADA watches.

Thank you and I hope you'll find enough resons to visit again! (for what it's worth I got 2 more giveaways lined up 🤣) Your question ties in very well with another I just answered ("if you had the chance, what would you change?"). It's amazing how much my taste has evolved (or changed, so I wouldn't appear pretentious) over the years, from aesthetics to size to features.

If there were too many, they wouldn't sell, yet they (still) seem to be doing alright. Also, many of the new ones come with the overwhelmingly superior Miyota 9075.

This is obviously tough and tomorrow I might give you different answers. Sticking to micros only, today's answers are: GADA: Monta Noble Blue Chrono: Pitzmann 3 Ice Blue Dress: Isotope Mercury Military: C Ward Sandhurst Black Diver: Second Hour Gin Clear 2 Black

It depends on the watch For example I would never wear a dress watch on a metal bracelet.

Oh, this question elicits a looong answer... To me the value of a watch resides primarily in how much I enjoy wearing and looking at it. As for the design, what matters to me, in order of importance are: 1. Originality 2. Understanding function 3. Understanding proportions 4. Coherence I will definitely elaborate on this answer, thank you for the question(s)!

As much as I love micros, my favourite 5 are Patek Philippe, MB&F, FP Journe, Vacheron Constantin and JLC.

Thank you, you're too kind! My name's Toni and I live in Brasov, Romania.

Those watch will leave my wrist in a week’s time.

Thank you! 18 wristwatches and 2 pocket ones.

The best thing I can recommend to you is to watch my review of the Perpetual C-05 where I speak at length about the ST19 caliber.

It depends a lot on the dial. For the mineral ones I would go with plain black, avoiding a colourite cacophony, but for the full lume dials I would go for shark tooth, black for green and blue for the rest. Kyle has done a great thing posting on the product page renders of all possible variants.

Automatic, but quartz can be amazing!

Wow! Unfortunately my first watch (a Russian Raketa) was destroyed in a skiing pole wielding reenactment of the 3 Musketeers when I was about 12...

First impression was really good, but I grew to like the green pearl better. Still, because of the colour scheme, I like the reviewed variant best.

Might be the fact I'm getting older, but I prefere more and more dressy watches with complications. I agree with your observation on the blue strap, thank you for watching!

Great to see you, Daniel! Don't - overspend - limit to a certain style/brand - believe this is an investment - believe everything on YT Do - experiment and experience - enroll in online communities - have patience - take into account all expenses (taxes, servicing, etc)

@@watchyawant great advice brother! And fingers crossed for the giveaway, have never had the pleasure to try a Signum 😊

Thank you, Sivan! No, I don't :)

Microbrands have many things going for them, and they all are a result of the passion, so I guess this is what differentiates them primarily from established brands or Chinese clone manufacturers.

As long as they're not bi-coloured, GMT.

18 wristwatches and 2 pocket ones.

Thank you for watching, Benjamin!

While the Speedmaster Reduced is one of my attainable grails, I find that Rolex have a more comprehensive catalogue.

I do have the ambition, but i lack the means. My idea is so left field, I might end up giving it to a micro.

This is actually a question that I believe microbrands offer a plethora of answers to. I believe I oversimplified the definition out of my desire to emphasise why Signum have made the choices they did. Why Signum actually exists. And the reason Signum exists is to give Kyle more freedom in creating designs for Straton, his "main" brand. Truth is the majority of watch enthusiasts are in the "consummer phase" and that heavily impacts the commercial succes of cutting edge design. It's really unfortunate, but I've seen amazing designs leading to brands' demise because of how much it costs to get such dreams into metal and how small the market is when trying to recoup such investment. This would be a fantastic subject for a video, but I'm pretty sure such production would be burried as a footnote by RU-vid's algorithm...

I honestly don’t know… Sorry…

Interesting question. To give you an interesting answer, I’ll feature 5 reasons against this watch next Friday.

Off the ones available for this model, I would pick this very one.

Thank you! Considering the bezel options, I believe meteorite would've been a good addition to the line up.

I could never have enough of Saint Barts! Sadly, I will never make enough money to afford staying one meager month there (visited a few times when working as a photographer onboard cruise ships)...

More and more, with each passing day.

The website says 2020, but the first model was launched in 2021. Have a great weekend too!

While a few micros like C Ward, Farer or Baltic have already taken a few steps forward, becoming mainstream is getting harder by the day... Just take Kyle for example: he runs two relatively successful micros and still has to keep a day job...

Already replied to this question. Thank you for watching!

I'm a sucker for blue/white combos. Think Breitling Navitimer.

Not a fan.

Really grateful to be able to offer you a flashback - it goes to show how big of a supporter you've been! Thank you!

At the moment I'm in love with my C65 SuperCompressor.

The answer to this question is not as straightforward as some might suggest. I would use an analogy: when one buys a supercar, one buys a package. It doesn't matter if they will only do 65, having anything less than a V8 is unacceptable. For some reason the divers are the most popular watches out there and even I, not a divers' fan and an open minded person, would look sideways at a diver sporting 100 m WR. So, yeah, totally unnecessary, but part of the package.

I got my first watch as a present almost 40 years ago 😊 The watch I started collecting with was a quartz Adriatica, 5 years ago.

Bronze watches have the annoying tendency of being made in large cases. I love both the material and the way it ages, not a fan of chunky divers…

Thank you! Well... I actually have started putting a YT playlist together called "Dream Team" - you can check that one out for my true grails. As for... "obtainable grails": SpeedMaster Reduced and NaviTimer Chrono 41.

Longines Legend.

Hi. Are you a subscriber to my channel?

@@watchyawant yes

Can't really say it was a spark. My grandfather was a collector, and the sad thing there's only one pocket watch that remained. I became intrigued by watches aout 5-6 years ago, but I went fully in after suffering a heart attack 3 yars ago, as I find this hobby very relaxing.

@@watchyawant I hope you’re doing very well health-wise. I can’t even imagine how having a heart attack could impact and change a person. So glad you have found a relaxing passion in collecting, and have that connection to your grandfather. My son actually got me started and I love talking watches with him.

I have spent considerable chunks of my life playing football (soccer) and making/playing music. I am a fan of Juventus Torino and I love my music as I like my watches: very much underground and metal 😂