Customer Reviews

Croton Men's CA301079SSGY Gray Carbon Fibre Dial Automatic Watch

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I got this, I read the reviews and thought, "Sure sounds like a good value at $40." (Note, it is now, as of 7-5-09, priced at $69.95.) I was happy with my old Citizen, but it was in the shop getting the face replaced and I happened upon this Croton, which appeared to be a nice looking watch at a decent price. If nothing else, I figured it would suffice as a temporary replacement. Well, a little over a month later, my Citizen is almost back to me, but the Croton is done.

First off, there are tick marks between the big hour numbers (1-12) and that's normal and fine, but there is also an outer conical ring where there are tick marks and minute numbers every ten (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60). Now take a moment and zoom in on that outer ring and count tick marks between the numbers. That's right. There are four ticks where there should be five. Now, I was willing to give on this because how often am I really looking that close. I know there are five minutes between "two o'clock" and "three o'clock". So that was strike one. Maybe a fowl ball, but a strike none the less.

Strike two. This one is a swing and a miss. I'm not one to water ski in my watch. I don't wear it into the shower or swim with it on although it is rated for 165 ft. Heck, for that matter, I usually take my watch off when I wash my hands because I hate that wet watch feeling. Over the past few days (maybe just a month old) I noticed condensation in the watch. Granted I've been wearing it every day, but I would estimate it might have gotten wet all of once or twice a day. So 60 times of getting wet, not submerged, but wet, and the thing has water in it. Maybe I just got the one bad gasket, but it's a definite strike against.

You're out. At this point, I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm past my 30 days. Just last till I get my real watch back." Last night the band breaks. It appears that the pin closest to the body just sheared. Now I'm not exactly gentle with my stuff, but that's just silly. I could probably find a pin to fit, but considering the other problems with the thing, it's not even worth that. So to continue the analogy, this one is caught looking 0-2 right down the middle.

In conclusion, this thing is definitely not worth the list price of $450. (Are you kidding me?) And I would say it's a pretty poor value at $70 or $40. I would say considering how the thing DID succeed at keeping time and looking nice for a few weeks, it may have been worth a max of $20. If you are going to spend $70, I would think there are plenty of other options out there.

The watch is great looking and very solid - a bit on the large size, but not huge. Love it.

This watch claims to be water resistant to 165 feet. The first time this watch got wet, a quick accidental dip into room temperature water, significant condensation developed which several days later has yet to dissipate.

The watch is larger than I thought even though I had looked at the dimensions prior to purchase.The finish and detail of the hands,dial,case and band are excellent and in many ways better than envisaged.
The the band links are heavy in keeping with the body but the locking to the wrist is difficult in as much you have to lock two points. I have found if I slip a small strip of plastic between my wrist and the band to support the locking action it is quite easy.
I am sure as I use it more and get used to the locking mechanism it will be fine.
In short it is a lot of watch and well worth the money.

The watch itself is a high quality piece, well made, hefty and accurate. Unfortunately, the watch bracelet is sized for a gorilla and made in such a way that no local jeweler can size it. I went to two established full service jewelers to try to have the bracelet sized without success. One jeweler actually broke his link removal tool attempting to extract a pin. Both jewelers said the bracelet is not made to be sized by anyone except Croton. Croton wanted $50 plus shipping to do the job ($80 total).
Once again, nice watch but not practical unless you have an 11 inch wrist.

Got the watch 2 weeks ago and am very impressed with it. yes it's heavy and big, but well worth the price. find a nice place to adjust the links to your wrist size. too bad it doesn't have clear glass on the back of the case to visualize the automatic movements, but still fun to own an automatic.