Thursday, February 11, 2010

PyroLume 43mm Steel & Carbon Fiber Prototype Watch#12 quick review

I did this review last year but thought I'll post it here too. Click on the pics to enlarge.

First Impression
The watch came in nice wooden box which really helps make an early good impression

Also included was a soft polishing cloth

The watch looks quite different from my other watches with its sterile dial and big luminous markers. Quite a lot of people at work asked me about it and wanted to try in on. The textured dial really looks sweet and goes well with the over all industrial look of the watch.

Case
According to the eBay listing, the dial is made from good quality cast steel. Its 43mm but looks bigger than my 44mm PAM homage. It has a canteen crown protecting system at 3'o clock similar to ones found on U-boat watches. It really helps enhance the look of the watch. The steel has a nice brushed finish and looks great.

Dial
As you can see in the pic above, the dial has a nice textured pattern which looks really nice. Honestly this photo doesn't do justice to it. According to the listing, 'Pyro Pilot V12 dial CNC machined from 0.25mm thick 2x2 Twill Weave Carbon Fiber sheet using mid sized 1 .375mmcuts'

The Luminescence
Yes, this is what I bought the watch for. The famous Pyrolume compound. It has a mixture of green and blue lume for the indexes and green lume for the hour and minute hands. The seconds hand is red in colour without any lume on it. The Doc says that 'these compounds are my own mixture of Swiss luminescent compounds in a proprietary mix of solvents, binders and dyes for the day/dark effects'. I can honestly say that I was blown away by how bright the lume was. I did expect something good, but this was much better. Again, the photos don't do it justice. These pics were taken after exposing the lume to light for 10 secs:


Movement
This watch comes with a Japanese Miyota quartz movement. Here I have to say that this is the only part of the watch that I wish could have been better. No its not the quartz that I am complaining about, it keeps real good time and over a period of 24 hours hasn't lost a second. What I didn't like was that when when the crown was pull out to set the time, the hands shifted a bit when I tilted the watch a little. Also the dial moved a bit while pulling out the crown. Once the crown is pushed back, its totally fine and everything is intact i.e. the dial and the hands dont move or wobble with even the roughest of jerks.

Strap
The watch has a nice and an extremely soft 22mm black rubber strap with a steel buckle and feels really comfortable on the wrist

Wrist shot

Final thoughts
This watch is truly an eye catcher and the lume is to die for. The case and the dial is really top quality and you have to give credit to Pyrolume for the amazing lume compound he had developed. It will look great in any collection and fetch you a lot of compliments. Definitely worth more than what you pay for it!


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