Today, we’re going to have a look at a watch from a brand you probably know better for their expansion bracelets – Speidel. What you might not know is that they’re also actively producing quite a lineup of affordable quartz and mechanical watches. We’ll be focusing in on a rather fashion-oriented timepiece, the G5.
The G5 is a fairly basic three-hander (albeit with a dose of styling) on a wide leather strap. While our sample featured a white dial (with black indices) on a white leather band, you do have other color options – there are four other dials, and two other strap colors, available to chose from. With the dial, it’s nothing that’s earth-shattering in terms of design, but they did break up what could have been a rather plain dial with some nice texture, in the form of grooves in an inset.
For being a (presumably) fashion oriented piece, there were some surprising (to my eye) choices made when it comes to sizing on the watch. If you use the case and strap as your baseline for proportions, the handset ends up feeling too narrow, as does the date display window. If I were to guess, this handset (and the quartz movement that drives the date display) were moved over from another, smaller, model, without adjusting for the larger case size.
This is all housed in a relatively thin case that itself has a fairly nice design for an affordable. The round bezel gives way to softened angular edges on the case that blend into a sort of integrated lug design. Normally, I’d ding a watch for this design, as it does make strap replacement difficult (either you’re getting another stock one, or having one custom made for the stepping). Here, it complements the style of the piece.
And, at an asking price of $99, I doubt this is a model that’s going to be seeing strap changes very often, if at all. It’s also, in all likelihood, a piece that a purchaser isn’t going to be agonizing over some of the details that I brought up in the review. In some ways, it’s like a good action flick – go into knowing what to expect, and you won’t be disappointed. If this one isn’t to your particular liking, and you’d like to see what they have in an automatic, check out this review over on aBlogtoWatch. speidel.com
>Model: G5
>Price: $99
>Would reviewer personally wear it: Not particularly – the color scheme, plus the odd sizings, just make for a watch that doesn’t “work” for me.
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: Someone (guy or girl) who wants a simple, big ‘n bold timepiece for not much cash
>Best characteristic of watch: Light weight and low cost
>Worst characteristic of watch: The aforementioned sizing / proportions issues
