This is an attractive design, but 200 usd is pushing it . Snap on caseback, no Sapphire, huge misalignment of the seconds hand..... This brand should do it's homework first. The good intentions are appreciated.
How hard can it be to get it right the first time, i ask, Ivan? If you know the watch community is very critical about the alignment, i would make sure it is spot-on!
That's a good question! The number of analog quartz I've seen have this issue (including Omega!!) makes me think the movements might shift with time (pun noted!), although of course more frequent a problem in cheaper watches probably due to cheaper mounting methods (?).
hey Ivan. thanks for the review again. This Nordgreen reminds me of SKAGEN from Denmark, well apparently Nordgreen is also from Copenhagen, Denmark. I have been a fan of Skagen since 20 years ago and I must say that I still have 3 of them in my collection. Ivan, I am sure that you know of Skagen also. unfortunately, for Nordgreen, they might, NO, probably will suffer from the comparison to Skagen. from same country, same minimalistic concept (it seems like Nordgreen copied the back casing and the curvature of casing around the crown and few other things which do not really help Nordgreen to stand up on its own), same quartz movement, very similar dial....YET MORE THAN DOUBLE THE PRICE. Similar style Skagen is being sold less than $100 in Skagen website. I do not have much to say about the designs of dial, casing...etc because it is a simple bauhaus design watch and I must say that it is well done. Not much to complain about. However, if I have to nitpick, the black croc style leather strap does not really go well with the watch. Better to have Skagen type of thin metal bracelet or more simple plain mat finishing, without any texture (either, black, brown, blue or white, but mat finishing) leather strap with some unique buckle if they can. That would make it look nicer. But if you ask me, they have to be different than Skagen in many ways. as i see it, the lug design from the casing is bit unique, however, it is not unique enough to differentiate it from Skagen. They both share so many characteristics and at the end, without something unique, consumers will take Skagen with less than half of the price. I can see that "giving back" program is something unique and it is a nice touch. And if they are using this as partially a marketing scheme/tactic, it won't go far, even if they have a good intention. They must make some sort of program, process that consumers can actually see their participation and progress of this meaningful "giving back" program. Let me give you an example. I own a green coffee exportation company in Guatemala. Very small operation with just few people. Ensoluna S.A. is the name. in facebook, ensolunausa is the user name. We export green coffee beans from Guatemala to other countries. Since 5 years ago, I do this not to make profit, but to help the education of poor Guatemalan children. 5 years ago when I started, without any customers, our company sponsored one kid, but now we have about 50 kids and familes that we are helping. our company has NGO which got just established two month ago, user name in facebook is believing in children. Our company & our NGO sponsor kids from local poor neighborhood villages, to help them to continue their education, extra school class to improve their math skills, teaching their parents about nutrition and sanitation...etc to better their surroundings...etc Every clients that our company has and other people who are willing to donate and sponsor kids of their own, they can participate and monitor the progress of their donation thru our facebook. And people can actually come and visit our company and NGO to see their own sponsored kids and participate in voluntary activities in the school and communities. And they do every year, to see their own kids. visit our coffee farms, taking coffee making courses in our company..etc. Everything, 100%, has to be transparent and Nordgreen must give some sort of plan, programs, participation opportunities in order to make their "giving back" program feasible, as a marketing and as their good will. Something they do because they really want to help the good cause. Without that, consumers will just see it as a sales & marketing gimmick which might back-fire. Honestly, i think that it would be difficult for Nordgreen to compete with Skagen. But I just hope that they can make some changes in their designs and make their "giving back" more transparent and be more participation based in order to make themselves different from Skagen. Thanks for interesting review. Have a good day, Ivan.
Thank you Alex - yes you are absolutely right, there is a lot of similarity to Skagen and unfortunately for Nordgreen they are a bigger name (under Fossil I believe?) and with the bang for buck pricing, people will probably just look to Skagen for this design sensibility. Good point about the leather - they have plain leather choices also, I guess it's my fault for choosing the croc grain one! And good point also about the program - I was hoping that there would be a way to see the progress of your "gift", but alas there isn't really. That is simply awesome what you are doing with your company and sponsoring children and families in Guatemala. My dad did a similar thing in neighbouring Indonesia when he was working there for 25 years... not to share with others, just him and his work company partner supporting a number of local needs. Nordgreen don't run the program themselves as evident on their site... they link to partner NGO's who do the work on the ground... so perhaps they need to have a place in the NGO site that people can go to and see the fruit of their gift. This is valuable feedback - hopefully they are checking out my video and the comments here!Cheers, Ivan.
Yes, you adjust at end of Feb, April, June, September, November. That’s pretty any analog date model you will get your hands on short of an annual calendar, which are usually many thousands of dollars if Swiss Made.
I already have this watch, but it's not made by Nordgreen. Another Scandinavian company, Linjer, put out this ( pretty much ) exact design a couple of years ago. Very nice it is, too. And they resisted the temptation to virtue signal in order to garner sales. Cheers
Thanks for that - yeah someone else mentioned the Linjer Classic and it does look similar but taking a look at it the details are quite different and the case is very different. Linjer looks like a much more established company though.
Here in the UK this sort of "giving" is plain daft. We pay 20% Value Added Tax on such a watch. So we'd pay tax on charitable giving whereas if we just give to the charity, we in this country can have the government hand over the income tax we paid on earning it to the charity. Its called "Gift Aid". So what's on offer here is a terribly tax inefficient way of giving and I suspect that like a lot of such marketing, it is just that: a marketing ploy and little more. In light of this, the value proposition here is simply dreadful. This watch looks like all too many over priced minimalist quartz watches and irrespective of whether it bears DW, MVMT or some really odd sounding Chinese branding, it will never appeal to real watch enthusiasts and so nobody is really going to care what movement is inside it. Now here in Blighty, the word "green" can mean many things, amongst them - environmentally sensitive, the colour of a leaf, and perhaps importantly in the context of this watch branding, NAIVE! This last it seems is the appropriate meaning within this branding and the only question that remains is who are the naive ones referred to: the company owners or their customers? Some of your viewers clearly like the design but for me it is flawed in that the hands seem too short and the case finishes and edges look cheap. This means that wearing it fails to speak of discernment, success or anything else positive about the wearer. And I have a suspicion that watches are all about what they say about the wearer and very little to do with telling the time. Thus the watch fails to do what it should do. So I think you should kick this kickstarter into the long grass Ivan and whilst I do admire your generosity of spirit, I suspect that on this occasion it has perhaps been misplaced.
That is a very good point David, about the tax implications of giving to charitable needs. It should've been obvious to me to here in Australia, but it just didn't occur to me... we have some of the highest tax rates anywhere and giving to a charitable cause allows us to tax deduct the giving (i.e. increase our tax return at EOFY). Regarding wearing watches, I think for certain people (probably most viewers here I would hope) the factor of a watch signifying taste, discernment, etc is very real, whilst for others it's perhaps more superficial and more like "I just like the way it looks", and they are more a tool to tell the time at a glance to the wrist. If people are in the former category, then I would have to agree that you wouldn't choose this. Thank you again for the very thoughtful feedback!
Yep, there's no excuse for mineral crystals anymore when Tevise is selling entire dive watches for $20. Not sure what they can do about the second hand missing the marks, choose a better movement I guess. They also need to move the Copenhagen to the lower part of the dial and put a double marker at 12. Then they would have a winner.
Agree with your dial change suggestions and that there is no excuse for plain mineral glass. However Tevise do not make any dive watches, they only make watches that look like divers. Also the seconds hand hitting the mark is actually not to do with the movement, it’s related to the assembly of the watch (and relevant QC and attention to detail).
It is a nice looking watch, that keeps it real simple. I like that concept, but i understand it may turn others off. The misalignment of the seconds hand, could just be QC on this specific watch. I have seen this with more expensive watches and i don't think it denotes quality of movement per-se. I like that they offer 36mm also, for us smaller wrists. Overall i think the $ converted to AU is too high, so would not order............but if it were $150AU, i would consider it seriously. Love the short lugs, if only other brands would take note on that one design aspect. Thanks for the review
Thanks for that, good points there. Many others raise the price as a concern too so it seems the value proposition is simply not there for many people. As you indicated, perhaps around $120-$150 would be a far more acceptable level.
@@PerthWAtch Still going in 2022! I'm about to buy the Philosopher with a 40 mm gold case, white dial, and brown & black leather straps! Your review has been very helpful in helping me evaluate my decision. I'm disappointed about the sapphire, but all else seems good, especially with current discounts on their website. I've had to go through three Philosopher models before I arrived at the right combination of size and colour, lol. So I can attest to the fact that the free worldwide returns process is very efficient, and that the customer service is very responsive. You can actually reply to any of automated e-mails you get, and a human will respond!
Oh that is great feedback! Re: glass, I gave one of them to my wife and she ended up scratching it up, but I got a local watchmaker to replace it with equivalent size sapphire and it’s all good now!
Great review, it looks fantastic, crisp, minimal and as such is very attractive, I like the case shape, a potential strap monster for sure....I don't believe it presents good value, mineral crystal, miyota movement, if the seconds lined up correctly you'd be looking at $120 Max in my opinion....I admire the charitable aspect, so I'd be happy to pay an extra $20 as long as it was going to my nominated option....
Thanks for the thoughts Brian. Guess they’re asking for a bit of premium because of the investment into the design plus the charity part. Seems to me that micro brands that offer more original design do charge more; within reason this is probably quite fair.
Looks similar in a cursory way but there are myriad details where it's quite different... this case is more unique, whereas the Linjer looks like a more standard assembly
Yeah good observation... I think this is indeed the result of a smaller movement, which in turn is necessitated by the case design and small case back area.
All noble causes Ivan and thanks to Nordgreen for the intentions. But too many flaws on a style (minimalistic) I just can’t seem to get into. I kind of understand the price. They have to make the watches and be able to have profit for the charities, so they can’t be faulted for that.
It's the sort of watch you would buy if you were a ardent supporter of the designer. I could see him doing a sales pitch to his patrons and shifting the stock. As a watch enthusiast, it's a very good design but not in the components for $200.
Hiya again! I have read the comments prior to making a comment.I tend to agree with the majority frankly? Reference kickstarter I personally have a maybe incorrect distrust on the whole structure of raising money for a new company that will not self fund via the usual means of starting a new business? You technically become a shareholder if you give them a gift to promote something you have no control in? Too many loopholes for my need to sleep tight at night? Unbiased review however and cheers.Len.
Thanks for the input Len, I appreciate that. It does seem to me that many have strong reservations against supporting Kickstarters... I have never done so myself and I think I can understand the very real concerns. In this case I guess they are pass that stage, so it comes down to the merits of the product on offer, and again I can understand the many reservations that others have expressed.
@@PerthWAtch Happy to give hopefully good comment to a good channel so thanks.Often I don't see a watch as being a watch but any product that can be seen as a consumable product,I have no experience with kick start so really not able to comment but age and experience as a retired business man leaves me maybe too sceptical on new ways? Obviously I love watches amongst many hobbies but too old to change my spots as they say? Carry on the work and keep well. Cheers,Len.
I think you're right - Very likely Chinese origin straps come from a few factories. Other products like Fin straps and Colareb would of course have a more unique origin.
@@PerthWAtch I recently got a Guanqin 19031. The watch is comfortable to wear. The watch has such high end style features for the price, it makes me laugh... The power reserve isn't very long, about 6 to 8 hours... My old manual winde Vostok's have a better much power reserve...
If I'm shelling out that much money for a quartz watch on a NATO strap the least they could do is ensure the second hand hits the indices. Sorry but they are out of their minds.
Which philosopher? Heidegger or Russell. It's a 30$ Chinese unit. Good Bauhaus minimalist design. Let's be honest , with the advent of modern high tech computer mfg watches are just jewelry. 200usd is absurdly overpriced . Nothing 'green ' about this thing...massive FAIL.
After spending 200usd, you get a very poor water resistant watch.... Who cares if it looks attractive if you cant wash you hand under slowly running tap... I wasted my money.... N please keep in mind no guarantee for water damage... I need to send back after 1 month itself...
@@PerthWAtch yes it says 3atm...means i can wear in mild splash.... Even after morning bike ride it develops condensation..... Now i did not buy for keeping at home...
