Customer Reviews

Stuhrling Original Men's 161.33511 Water Sports 'Regatta' Automatic Black Ion-Plated Dive Watch

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I could NOT be happier with this watch! It looks great and has a really nice weight to it. When I brought it to the little jewelry kiosk in the mall to get the band sized, the guy looks at it and goes, "Oooh, a Stuhrling! I don't see too many of these... Nice watch, you will be very happy with it". Its got a really interesting viewable movement through the back. I love this watch....

I was looking for a watch I could swim with but that also looked good enough to wear to work/dinners/dates etc. I found just what I was looking for in this watch. It comes in a very impressive package, and just opening the box and seeing it was exciting, it looks much nicer up close than it does in the picture. I have not taken it off since I got it, I've showered with it, I went into the pool with it, worked out with it, and so far it still looks just as new.

It's a great starter for people new to the timepiece scene, but in my case it's a keeper. I couldn't be happier with my purchase, worth every penny.

Amazon had a great limited time promotion on this Black Ion-Plated Stuhrling Water Sports Regatta Automatic Dive Watch so I took them up on the deal. I had been looking for another everyday watch and thought the black on black design would fit my needs. Once I received this watch I took it to a local jeweler to have them properly size it. Then I wore it every day for a week to check for form, fit and function. Here is what I noted during that initial week:

The look and feel of the watch is very nice and is well balanced. The stainless steel black bezel, black divoted face and black case are all very attractive and the two tone stainless steel black bracelet (polished inner links with mat outer links) compliments the watch very nicely.

The static safety clasp (no moving parts as apposed to Amazon's description & picture of a two button release mechanism) appears to hold well for now and has "Stuhrling Original" etched onto it for a nice subtle touch.

There does not seem to be enough adjustment in the links to support all wrist sizes. The jeweler removed all the adjustable links, then adjusted the linkage on to the clasp to its minimum setting yet I could still lose one more link to fit my standard wrist size. But this is a minor point.

The skeletonized hands with luminescent tips are very bright after initial light exposure and diminish over a sufficient amount of time. The hours are marked with luminescent dashes except at the twelve o-clock position where the Arabic numeral "12" is found.

Stuhrling's proprietary crystal "Krysterna" is clear and is purported to be better than sapphire in its shatter and scratch resistance. There is a Krysterna window on the back of the watch as well for easy viewing of the mechanical automatic winding mechanism which drives the watch. Bright blue screws on the stainless steel mechanism can be seen through this crystal.

The black bezel is unidirectional (moving counter clockwise only) and is easily adjustable with audible clicks with each turn. The bezel has an interesting wave pattern etched into it and is very subtle to the casual on-looker. There is a single luminescent marker at the "60" minute location on the bezel and there are round etched markers at every minute from "60" to "15." Every 10th minute after "15" is marked with etched Arabic numerals (i.e. "20", "30", "40", and "50") and an etched dash mark at every 5th minute in between.

The watch is easy to set using the screw down adjustment crown though fine adjustments of the hour hand are sometimes a little jerky.

During normal operation, the minute and hour hands sweep the face in a smooth motion while the second hand advances in 1/4 second steps. The date window at the six o-clock position is small, but there is a small magnifying bubble on the Krysterna crystal to focus on the Arabic date numerals for ease of reading.

Out of the box, this watch does not seem to hold accurate time over the course of an entire week. My watch appears to need fine tuning by a watch jeweler to compensate for the 2-1/2 minute gain in time each week. The mechanism is quiet and non-distracting.

Pros:
Nice looking automatic watch for everyday use or for special occasions.
Stuhrling's proprietary crystal "Krysterna" is clear and scratch-proof.
Inexpensive (through Amazon at least) automatic watch.
The mechanism is quiet.

Cons:
Needs fine tuning to hold time accurately.
Bracelet needs to be more adjustable to fix average size wrists.
When setting time, fine adjustment of hour hand can be jerky.

Overall:
This is an inexpensive watch with the look and feel of something more expensive. Once I get the watch adjusted to be more accurate, I will definitely wear this watch more often.

Totally the best watch I have owned. Beats any battery watch hands down even though you will need to reset time when watch is left to sit for more than overnight.
This watch has not lost time as except for when I did not use it for a couple days.

Pro's:
1. no battery
2. hands glow in the dark
3. great feel very comfortable
4. keeps time quite well
5. Second hand stops when setting time allowing for very accurate time.
6. Built very solid (I work in building services and put a lot of pressure on the band with no problems)

Con's:
1. Needs to have time reset when not used for more than a day
2. If you have large hands it may be difficult to get on your wrist (watch needs to fit wrist tighter than a regular watch for self winding to work properly)
3. if you have difficulty reading without glasses then you will have trouble reading the date (if you can't remember the date then it doesn't really matter)

I bought this watch January 2010 for $135. This is a heftier watch than what I would usually wear, and I liked that right off the bat. Photo represents the watch well. I was disappointed that the watch did not keep very accurate time. Off by as much as several minutes a day. A little aggravating, but a worthwhile trade-off with not having to worry about a battery. (As noted by some others, mechanical watches tend to be a little off. However, this watch has a greater margin of error than my manual wind 1965 Timex.) My real disappointment came after owning the watch 16 months. That is when the second hand fell off and was loose inside the watch. It was still under warranty, but the warranty is: pay to ship the watch to the factory with a check for $20. They did repair it within 4 weeks and ship it back very well packed.

Very impressive, this is an extremely attractive watch. Quick & easy to read, the hands & dial are wonderfully designed. The "simple dimple" dial gives the impression of carbon fiber. Nice weight, not too heavy, very comfortable to wear. Very nicely finished overall. Outstanding value for the price. Only nitpick (and at this price it's really nitpicking) is my watch did not arrive with the dual button deployment clasp, (as the Amazon photo & description show), instead sporting a click to close type safety deployment clasp. No biggie. This is my first Stuhrling and I'm very impressed. Classy presentation, comes in a very nice (and large) box. Truly gorgeous and again, an outstanding value.

I own about 15 watches of various makers, values, and styles. This is by far one of my favorites. It's design and function is exquisite. Stuhrling are highly recommended in the time-keeping world, and I also highly recommend them, with this watch in particular. The description of the watch is very accurate. My only additional comments are that the entire watch is very solid. Not particularly heavy, but solid and secure. One of my favorite dive watches I've ever owned, and I encourage others to own this as well.

I have had this watch less than a year and will throw it away. The screw-down stem no longer stays closed and this part is not covered by the warranty, which only covers the internal movement parts. Unlike many of Stuhrling's other watches, it has an automatic movement, which I found would lose at least a minute per day.

I purchased this watch through Amazon and being somewhat new to online purchasing, I was a bit apprehensive... The watch arrived when I was told it would...
Upon receiving it I found it to be of good quality...I have a rather large wrist and found the watch too big, even with adjustment... I took it to my local jeweller who removed two linksand $5 later the watch fitted perfectly... I'd have to say in all honesty I am very pleased with my purchase and will more than likely Shop with amazon again...

I was excited to get this watch and when it came it was packaged nicely and the watch looked sharp. It is really a great looking watch in person with good weight and build quality. I took it to a watch store to get it fitted, as I have smaller wrists. The watch repair man took out all of the links that he could but the watch did not fit at all. He told me that there was nothing I could do to make it fit, short of getting a new band, which would be tough to find a good match. I had to return the watch, which Amazon was great with, and find a new watch. If you have normal to large sized wrists, it should be fine and it is an awesome looking piece. If you have small wrists, look elsewhere.