Yesterday, we started taking a look at a Skeleton Automatic from the folks at Armitron, the first Skeleton I’ve reviewed. While the previous post focused on the front of the piece, today, we’ll start off by taking a look at the back of the watch.
When I flipped the watch over, you can tell effort went into the presentation here as well. There’s additional scrollwork on the rotor and parts of the movement, as well as blued screws being used. While I’m guessing that the decorations on the movement are stamped, rather than engraved (given the pricepoint, more on that later), it still adds a nice bit of visual interest to the watch.
So, what is the movement here? It’s labelled as a TY-2807, which leads me to believe that it’s a Seagull model from the ST16 line. What does this mean to you? Well, you should take some measure of comfort having the movement coming from a known manufacturer. Yes, you may prefer a Miyota, but don’t let that make the decision for you.
This particular automatic movement offers hand-winding and is hacking, which is something you don’t necessarily get in a lot of entry-level automatics. While I wasn’t particularly scientific in testing the accuracy or the power reserve, I found it to work perfectly well in daily use. And hey, without a date display, it won’t take you much to get it back on track if you have let the watch sit for a bit.
In my wear, I found the 42mm watch to be perfectly comfortable, and held in place nicely by the deployant clasp on the easy-to-adjust 22mm bracelet. The claps does pick up desk diver marks pretty quickly, but that’s to be expected from steel. Should you find yourself in actual water, you’re good until you hit 165 feet (or 50 meters).
At $100 from Amazon, I think this offers a compelling selection for someone who hasn’t had a mechanical watch before, or wants to add a skeleton watch to their collection. Sure, some watch people might hold their nose up at the brand or the included movement, but I think it’s offering a great value in an interesting package.
