Another W-W-W-I-I-I-D-D-D-E-E-E man's watch that has a classic, refined watch face that reminds me of the Vostok Europe Red Square automatic watch (see my guide for this watch).

Although this is a Chinese automatic homage watch to luxury brand "Wyler," Wohler's no name-ness makes it an affordable homage watch for the middle class.  The see-through back of the Wohler Lazarus makes it obvious that the Chinese may become the next up-and-coming runner-up to to the Japanese Seiko / Orient manufacturers of the world. 

Unfortunately, the Chinese watch manufacturers stand in the shadow of the Swiss, who are refined marketers that attach the likes of Rolex and Cartier to upscale lifestyles.  The Chinese watch manufacturers tend to be world-class artisans, much like their Russian counterparts, where both Communist countries reverse-engineered the Swiss movements, but never got to attach the foreign names to European lifestyles of the rich and famous. 

I remember the Japanese automobiles like Toyota and Datsun in the 1970's being second-rate vehicles.  They were considered cheap tin cans on wheels, and the attitude was they'd never catch up to the Detroit or German factories.  Fast forward 30 years, later and these cheap Japanese manufacturers are churning out luxury brands like Lexus and Infiniti that are the luxury equals. 

Collecting these no-name Chinese watch brands is similar to buying a 1970's Datsun.  The watch runs, and admiration comes from the simplicity and complexity of execution.  In the watch industry, no talk ever surfaces in any of the Japanese watch manufacturers' complicity in fakes or homage watches of the early 1970's.  Now, it seems to be the Chinese in the growth mode of copying the Swiss masters. 

The sheer simple class styling of the Lazarus indicates this:  the Chinese are going to someday be a force to reckon with.

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Update Wohler Lazarus, Feb 3, 2009

While admiring this watch on my wrist one-day, I was reminded that the Chinese manufacturers still have a way to go in terms of quality control.  Although this is a gorgeous watch, the Roman numeral four was written on the watch as IIII, not the Western accepted way of IV.  This is a slight detraction from the watch, but a reminder that Chinese designers still need a course on design sensibility.

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Feb 2009

I received in the mail an Orkina automatic watch for under $35.  In quite a few watch forums, Orkina automatic watches are associated with the epitome of cheap Chinese manufacturing practices, examples include: hand dials falling off, movements stopping after several hours of use. 

So, to see if this were true, I purchased one myself. 

And:

- See through case-back reveals an unfinished Chinese movement.  The white plastic ring surrounding the movement inside reminds me of the Apogaum I have.

- Quality of overall watch is not chintzy, but not the quality of materials in a good Seiko, Orient, Vostok-Europe, or Swiss watch.

- Overall design is quirky in a Chinese sort of way:  the numbers on the dial face inward, so that the bottom numbers 4-9 appear upside down.  Also the clasp on the imitation leather strap has a engraved "Orkin" with the "a" barely showing.

To test the "cheapness" of the Orkina watch movement, I tested it against an automatic 2008 Vostok Europe, a vintage 1970 Swiss windup, and a 2007 Miyota automatic.  With the 3 automatics in one hand, I swirled the 3 watches 200 times, being careful not to violently shake them to skew the results.  I set them for the same time (12:40), set them flat on my dresser, and then let them to see how long they'd last.

Orkina:  lasted 40 minutes.

Vostok Europe:  lasted 6 hours and 55 minutes.

Miyota:  lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes.

After that trial, on another day, I hypothesized that the Orkina might have a winding function, so I wound it as much as I could, and then lay it again on the dresser, and let it run.  It last 1 hour and 15 minutes.  It seems the winding function is the primary function that powers the watch as opposed to the weighted pendulum of the automatic movement.  The friction of the weighted movement is not as powerful as "real" automatics, hence the lower price. 

Plus I wore the Orkina to work one day, and it stopped twice on me:  I had to set it forward 30 minutes at one interval, and then 40 minutes forward at a second point in the day. 

There is another Chinese automatic watch brand, Schaffer, that goes for under $40 (including shipping), and I would assume it's watch movement functions much like the Orkina

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Update:  March 7, 2009

I wound the Orkina every other day for about a week, and it has stopped -- ka-thunk -- for the last 55 minutes or so.  All my resuscitation efforts (usually a light tapping on the my thigh for 5 minutes does the trick) did not get the Orkina to move again.  Similar to my experience with the Apogaum.  I would guess that the Orkina, having a factory assembled movement, is not well-oiled or calibrated once it leaves the assembly line, much like the Apogaum was, hence the "problem-child" or "hit-or-miss" syndromes of both Orkina and Apogaum. 

Reminds me 14 years ago, when I purchased a used Dodge Caravan and read that 15% of that year's model's had transmission problems.  I thought at the time:  "aaah, what's 15%?"   Two encounters with failed transmissions later.... *&^^%$+@@#.  

Calibration and oiling of the mechanisms does not seem to be a strong suit of the replica / homage watches in my collection.  My brother brought me 2 replicas from his tour in Iraq in 2006, and while nice watches, set me back close to $90 in getting them re-calibrated at the local jeweler.