Watch reviews

I have the full-black version and it looks like it means business. Joking aside it's a great stealthy-looking sports watch. Also, I got the watch as a gift from my wife so if you are looking to gift this, yeah, go ahead, I think any watch lover would love it in the collection.

The size is perfect for me, it doesn’t look chunky even though it's quite large and the band goes quite sharply downwards and not extending the effective “lug to lug” which helps a lot for smallish wrists.

The build quality is where I have some issues with it. After about 3 years of semi-regular wear, the outer shell has started to warp and get a bit loose. It's not as tight around the watch head as it was when new.

This is something that happened with an older G-Shock that I have as well. I’m not sure how common this issue is but it's something I noticed. The watch still holds together very well so it's not falling apart or anything but it is quite annoying.

Another issue I have with the watch is the lack of lume on the hour makers. I think it would have helped with legibility. Sure there is the usual G-Shock LED light but since there is some lume on the hands why not add on the markers as well?

Some anti-reflective coating would have been nice since at least in the full black version the dial is quite hard to see if light hits the dial. On other color options, it doesn't seem to be as bad. My wife’s GMA in the pink color scheme doesn’t have this issue.

Even though I mostly complained about the watch here, I still think it's a great watch for the money and also there are quite a few mod kits out there to change the look of it, cases, bracelets, and whatnot if you are into modding.

TLDR: A great watch for the money.

I have two of these, the blue dial and the black PVD version and I don’t intend on selling either of them. At least not yet, after about 7-ish years of ownership on the PVD version and about 3 for the regular blue dial one.

It’s a nice-looking dive watch, nothing too interesting but also not quite boring. The dial has a nice subtle sunburst effect on the colored versions but stays plain black on the PVD version, adding to the stealthy vibe of the watch.

The bezel/bezel insert is not completely round, it has some notches between the numbers adding a bit of visual interest to it. Unfortunately, the blue one has a slight misalignment, hard to notice due to how the triangle at 12 is designed but still noticeable if you pay attention to it. The PVD one sits a bit better on the matter so I guess it's a matter of luck how you get yours.

The bezel action is where I have some more criticism, the shape of it makes it quite hard to grab and slippery so it's quite difficult to use. I’m hoping the newer versions fixed this in particular but I haven’t checked them out yet.

The lume is good, if I wake up in the middle of the night I can still read the time. Nothing to complain about here.

The bracelet doesn’t taper much so it feels a tiny bit chunky but I don’t mind as the overall watch is slim enough. I also think it would’ve worked better with a 20mm lug with instead of the 22. The end links are female and the lugs are short so the real lug-to-lug is short making it very wearable for small wrists even though the diameter might make you doubt it.

The bracelet design also has a bit of visual interest with 2 polished lines that run across the whole thing so it doesn’t look too plain but not too complex either.

In conclusion, I would say this is a balanced design, great for small wrists, and great for the price if you are not expecting the world for 200 bucks.

A watch that looks a lot more expensive than it really is. What drew me to it was the intricate textured dial but unfortunately, it has a major flaw.

I got this watch for around $250 and for the money I think it's an excellent watch. The dial on the rose gold version in particular gives me vibes of brands much more expensive featuring multiple different textures and different dial levels giving it a lot of depth.

The sun and moon complication is a useless but fun alternative to a regular moon phase complication and I appreciate the sun face as much as the moon.
The leather strap that comes with it is pretty bad and stiff and features a deployant buckle. Not much to say about these, not much to expect for the money either.

The biggest issue and the reason I’m probably going to sell this watch is its size. It is way too chunky for a dress watch. It fits my wrist, somehow, but not as a dress watch, it has the presence I would expect from a big dive watch rather than a dress watch.

I think the ideal size for it would be around 38.5mm with a max of 12mm thickness and it's far from either of those. Maybe some update will fix the size but I’m afraid it might also lose what made it very appealing in the beginning, we’ll see.

For now, I think the play with this one would be not to go for the rose gold, instead go for the blue dial version and wear it casually.

This is a very small, very cute, and elegant jewelry/bracelet type of watch. Not too small to become impractical as a watch but enough to work well on a variety of dressy outfits.

On the practicality side, it does feature a date window that is too small to see and consider practical but I don’t mind it.

The gold tone on the two-tone version adds just a bit of flair without it becoming overwhelming. The dial also has a nice texture on it making it a bit more interesting and there is no lume to distract from the dressiness of the watch.

The only downside to the watch would be the integrated bracelet, meaning you can’t just switch the bracelet with any strap but it makes sense for the way the case is designed.

Overall a very nice watch for a dressy, elegant outfit that also works more casually.

This is the first G-Shock that attracted me. It’s the right size and slimness without being too small and I love the pink shade used here. It is also light and comfortable on my wrist.

The strap has some grooves on the underside which allows the skin to breathe a bit which helps during hot days.

The only complaint I have is that they went with a plastic buckle instead of metal and I’m not sure how durable that is, so far so good but we’ll see in time if it holds up.

Overall, a great watch for the money.

I was drawn to this watch mainly due to the day window at 12. As far as I know, there aren’t many watches that feature a full name day window in the affordable spectrum, apart from some Hamiltons which are a bit more expensive.

The watch isn’t bad but I’m also not in love with it. It has a bit of a unique case design, a bit of a cushion case design with some angular edges to it, is quite slim, and plays nicely with small wrists. It features a mix of polished and brushed surfaces but nothing to write home about.

The dial has a nice sunburst effect and the minute track has a texture to it making it contrast to the main dial face and giving it a bit of a 3d effect.

It has applied hour markers, a printed logo, and nothing else in terms of text on the dial which makes the dial feel a bit unbalanced. It has loom on the hands but nowhere else nudging it to the dressy side but the overall look feels quite sporty.

The bracelet has a few half-links to help you find your fit which is nice and has a simple folding clasp. The design of the bracelet is also somewhat unique for this price range. It also has a strange sound when you shake it around making me think that it's either not stainless steel as claimed or it's made with hollow links. I have no idea.

Overall it has some things going for it but for me, it still ends up feeling quite bland and generic. I can’t put my finger on it, maybe the dial is too minimalistic and unbalanced, maybe it's the fact that it feels a lot lighter than I would’ve expected, maybe the bracelet sound. Maybe all of these combined.

For under $200 (and I would not pay more than this), it's not a bad watch especially if you want the full name day window. But if that is not the case I think the money is better spent either on one of the older Seiko 5s while they’re still around for a good all-round option or an Orient Bambino for a dressy option. There are other options as well.

This might not be the most popular opinion but this watch is not great. Not quite terrible mind you but not great. I have two of these, the two-tone and the yellow dial and I’ll probably end up selling at least one of them.

Let's start from the beginning.

At first glance, this watch looks like it's more expensive than it is. Its design shouldn’t work in a sense but somehow it does.

The watch head has angular shapes and edges, the bracelet is a very round president style. In my mind, at least this shouldn’t work but it does. At the same time, it gives off some Rolex vibes, probably due to the bracelet, hour markers and hands combo but I don’t dislike that.

The dial layout is very simple but I think the date magnifier breaks that cleanliness a bit and I like that. I’m not a fan of too minimalist dials. Overall, it's quite an elegant dial.

The bracelet is very nice with individually articulating center links making it very comfortable. The way the bracelet articulates also helps with wearability making it wear quite small for an integrated bracelet watch. For comparison, I can’t pull off a PRX but this one works well on my wrist.

So what I don’t like?

The movement is where the watch loses points in my eyes. Accuracy is not great, actually quite terrible on one of the watches (I don’t have exact data but it's a few minutes a week off).

The other thing, it's not hacking. For a watch launched in 2023, this is quite disappointing.

Sure, it's a lower-end movement in an affordable watch but I would’ve expected something just a bit better. Maybe the next versions will have improvements as this watch has proven to be quite successful.

The other big thing I don’t like is that it’s a nightmare to set. I have small hands and the crown is still very hard to operate. It is very small and placed in a very inconvenient place on the case, not to mention it's buried in the case and it doesn’t come out much when pulling it out.

So yeah, quite a nightmare to set, and this leads to not much wear. When I think about setting this guy up I have to be prepared to be patient and very slow in doing it because it is slow.

So, if you are charmed by the looks try it out, just don’t buy two of them.

These dials are hard to beat. I have the green with gold colored markers and hands and it is a very luxurious-looking combo.

The watch is a mix of retro-modern vibes with a boxed crystal but modern textured dial that literally dances in the light. It's hard to put it into words or in photos but in the dial is magic.

The logo and markers are applied and the date window is nicely framed. The date wheel is not color-matched but is on a dark background blending in nicely.

The size is great for smaller hands and has a short lug to lug. It’s paired with a pretty good leather strap and deployant buckle making it a very comfortable ware.

The watch has an open case-back and while the movement is not the most spectacular it is still nice to see and it features a gold colored rotor for some visual candy.

If you like the look this is a very nice step up from the Orient Bambino line that is usually the go-to for affordable dress watches and I don’t think it has any competition in this price range if you want this kind of dial on a dressy watch.

To me, this is the right amount of dress watch, not too minimalistic that it becomes boring but not too loaded that it moves away from what a dress watch should be.

The dial does something interesting that you don’t see very often, it brings the minute track closer to the center of the dial touching the inward end of the hour markers. 

This does a few things to the overall vibe of the watch, it creates two zones to the dial, a very clean outer area and an inside area where all the magic happens. The other thing is that it removes some of the usually empty space around the dial thus making it more visually interesting to my eyes at least.

The dial also features a small seconds hand but does away with the markers so as to not load it too much since right under it is the day window.

The hour markers are applied and so is the Longines logo adding a bit of 3d depth to the dial. I’m personally not much of a fan of printed dials that have no elements to give them some depth.

The gold-colored elements like the hands, logo, and hour markers give the watch a classy, luxurious look. The only gripe I have is with the hands featuring loom, I don’t think it adds anything to the watch and could do without it, but it's a minor issue.

The crocodile leather strap is great, it’s soft and comfortable and it has a signed buckle. The issue some people might have with the watch is that it has a 19mm lug width so if you hoard lots of 20mm bands they won’t work here.

The size and proportions of the watch work great, It should work on a lot of people’s wrists small or big, and is quite thin for an automatic at this price point.

Overall, for the money I don’t think it has much competition really, and I think it's comparable to watches way more expensive and I think it's unfortunately rather underrated.