Average Customer Review:
 ( 6 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 An Excellent watch and buySep 16, 2008
By John A. Dangelo
I have been a fan of Croton watches since the 60's. The family owned company has been making watches since 1878 and their watches have been of high quality with reasonable prices and this watch carries on with their fine tradition. The automatic movement is a Japanese Miyoto 21 jewel movement that has a "Hack" feature, allowing you to set the second hand. The crystal is a hardened mineral with a sapphire overcoating making it highly resistant to scratches and breakage. Everything about the watch speaks quality and the stainless steel construction and band are of top quality. The company has a lifetime warranty on all their watches and if you ever need to have the watch serviced there is only a $15 dollar service charge. I have had this watch for some time now and I am extremely happy with it.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
RecommendedOct 10, 2010
By Gerard M. Palomo
CAVEAT: This is a sub-$100 automatic watch. You will not get a Rolex for the price of a Timex. At this price-point, in a product with as many features as this watch possesses, you run the risk of reduced quality control by the maker. You see five-star reviews and one-star reviews, but few in-between. Quality control is expensive. You must pay for it.
This said, my experience with this watch has been GREAT. Therefore, the five stars.
Right out of the box, this watch is impressive. It is large, fairly thick, and the bracelet is one of the best I have ever seen. Within minutes of receipt, using a cheap jewelry-screwdriver from the discount store, I was able to size the stainless steel band to fit my wrist perfectly. The links are solid and the removable ones are attached with screws instead of friction-fit pins.
The black face of this watch is very dark and the luminous markers are set upon raised metallic bases, which makes a three-dimensional, easily-readable presentation that looks much more expensive than it is. Unfortunately, this effect is betrayed by the date-magnifying lens in the crystal, which distorts more than it magnifies. It's usable, but if the crystal was flat without attempting to ape the trademark "submariner" magnifier, the appearance of quality would be enhanced (hint to Croton: if it's the R***x effect you're striving for, eliminating the magnifier would make this watch look more like the vastly superior "Sea Dweller" model).
TIMEKEEPING: There's good news and bad news. Isochronism is terrible. When fully wound, this watch will gain time (5 to 10 seconds/24 hours) if it is left flat on its back. Set on edge with the crown up, the watch will lose time (also 5 to 10 seconds/24 hours). No COSC certification for this little jewel. However, the practical effect of this is that if you wear the watch all day on your wrist (8-18 hours) you may find that it has gained, say, 7 seconds. When you go to bed, close the band clasp and set the watch upright on its edge with the crown up and in the morning when you wake up, your watch might have lost, say, 7 or 8 seconds. If you can tolerate this sort of back-and-forth, you may not have to reset the watch for weeks or MONTHS, yet still be within 10 seconds of the exact, correct time.
This watch does not seem to have a Miyota movement. I cannot locate a listing for an inexpensive Miyota that features hand-winding and hacking functions, unless it is something new. Beneath the 6 o'clock position on the face of the watch appears the solitary word, "Japan" which implies that the majority of the components of the product were made in Japan. Despite this, I have seen reference to a movement called a DG 28, for "Dixon-Guangzhou". Guangzhou, of course, is an industrial city in Guangdong Province in southern China (P.R.C.), located adjacent to the Macao-Hong Kong area. This makes sense, since I do not know of any other likely source for a 21-jewel, hand-windable and hacking movement at this low price. I could be wrong (that happened, once...) because the automatic winding rotor visible through the exhibition back of the watch is (nicely) decorated with the Croton brand and, once again, the word "Japan". If anyone knows, please let us hear from you.
In summation: This is a functional watch with features normally found only on much more expensive products. The watch is handsome and impressive on the wrist, but upon close inspection it will exhibit some minor cosmetic flaws. As a timepiece, IT WORKS. If you have fine watches, this Croton dive-style piece makes a superb "beater" for everyday wear or while engaged in activities where you don't want to endanger your IWC or gold Rolex. If you have never owned a mechanical watch and are leery of spending $300 to $500 to try one, this would be a perfect start IF you realize that you might, at this price, get a "dud" and have to use warranty service. I have rated this Croton watch 5 stars for what it is: an inexpensive automatic watch that keeps time well enough to use in the real world.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 The Six-Month SubmarinerMar 24, 2012
By Aron Hsiao
I was looking for a daily "beater" watch that was an auto with a stainless case/band and a rotating dive bezel. I knew of the Invicta submariner clone but had heard about spotty Invicta quality control and so bought the Croton instead.
Big mistake.
The watch appears big and heavy and well-made when you first take it out of the box, but the first clue that something was amiss was that the bezel didn't actually rotate without the use of two hands, much struggling and cursing, and even then it wouldn't rotate so much as "wiggle back and forth as you try to turn it," indicating that the tolerances were sloppy. The bezel shouldn't move right or left by half a millimeter in relation to the crystal. But oh well, they tell me it's going to loosen up and "center" with age and use. Fine. The other clue was that the bubble over the date was crooked, not exactly aligned to the 3:00 position but rotated slightly, making the watch look a bit cheap upon closer inspection.
Within a week, the lume dot on the bezel falls out (it's a piece of plastic that's glued in). Now there's a big gaping hole in the middle of the bezel that doesn't turn but that slides from left to right. But I'm wearing it as a daily beater. Whatever. I don't expect heirloom quality.
Within a month, at every band joint with a spring bar, black-and-brown powder is beginning to accumulate everywhere, giving me the distinct impression that the spring bars and the insides of the links are rusting from the inside out. It just looks bad to have to keep "dusting" your watch so that you don't have black and brown powder on your wrist.
Within three months, the supposedly sapphire crystal is covered in scratches--something that has never happened to me with a watch before, even mineral crystal or acrylic (like a Russian watch that I own). What kind of sapphire is this?
Finally, before six months are out, two lume dots have *fallen off* of the watch face (not such great glue over at Croton these days) and one of them has wedged themselves between the hands in a way that keeps them from moving freely, while the other is jumping around inside the watch case for all to see. WTF?!
I suppose I could have taken this to a jeweler or watch shop to have them open it up and try to fix some things, but why? Why spend more money for a watch that has a non-working bezel, a scratched up crystal (unless I pay to replace that, too), rust coming out from the supposedly stainless band, and leaves a general impression of scammy low quality behind?
Instead, I spent twice as much to replace this watch with an Orient Black Mako and couldn't be happier. The difference is night and day.
Moral of the story: Spend twice as much. You'll get more than twice the watch. Oh, and the Invicta couldn't possibly be worse, so you might as well go with the more well-recognized name if you're deciding between the two.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Excellent DiverJun 21, 2008
By Watchgeek
"watch lover"
Great diver watch for the money, screw in bracelet link, movement very accurate and a beatuiful face. Looks like a Rolex submariner if you like that look
great value.Dec 15, 2008
By Omega Fan
"Ulysses"
This is a lot more watch than you should expect for $53.95. The description has a few mistakes. It IS water resistant to 20 atm/600 feet, not 50 meters (150 feet), and it CAN be hand wound, and it does hack (you can stop the second hand for precise setting.)It's a large, handsome watch that gets a lot of positive reactions, but most importantly, it is a good, solid dependable watch at a shamefully low price. There's nothing to think about...just order one (or two), you will want to keep the first one, and the second will make a great gift.
See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
based on 6 reviews
