Watch Review: Rodina R005GB

Tangente

So NOMOS has this awesome looking Bauhaus style watch: Tangente. Apparently everyone wants one, but not everyone wants to break their bank ($2330 USD).

Luckily, we have an alternative here: Rodina series watches.

The Review

Some people think it a copycat watch, while some others think it a homage. The truth is, with price only $139.99, it is a really affordable price. During Valentine's, it is on sale with $99.99 shipped. The website frequently has sales. Without further delay, I bought it when it's one sale. It is shipped from Tianjin, China via EMS, and USPS after it arrives in US. After 10 days of waiting, I finally received it!

It's funny that as others commented, the soft bag is supposed to be used to hold the watch, but after opening the case, the watch is not wrapped around it.

However, the watch itself is fine and intact. It is wrapped in plastic strips under good protection.

These are all the stuff in the box. I can understand that, as I don't think Rodina is not any famous big brand. Don't expect full service inside the box.

This is really how it should come:

It's transparent back, which is a perfect show-off for automatic watches. As you can see, it's 5ATM, which is slightly better than 3ATM that a lot of cheap watches have. It is said to have a Seagull ST1713 movement (with date function).

The crown is really a bummer. If you go to look for its pictures online, the 'R' will have a blue coating. However, the blue coating on mine is totally off. I wiped them clean instead. You can see there is still blue pieces in the cleaning cloth. Nevertheless, I like the letter 'R' in the crown.

The watch dial is unbeatable. Case is made with sapphire crystal, which is astonishing for this price. The hands are in blue dark blue, which looks really cool. The only problem as someone else pointed out is that the fonts does not match: the numbers are sans-serif, while the Rodina letters are serif fonts. Furthermore, 'CHINA MADE' sounds weird, although I can understand they may feel proud to say this.

The strap. Leather is of cheap quality as expected. Feels like plastic. However, the making is not bad. The stitching, the holes, are definitely satisfactory. I picked the brown one as I think black is too dressy for everyday wear. I have a skinny wrist, so I almost used the last hole.

This is how it looks like on my wrist. 39mm is a bit small for me. However, the winding piece is not stable enough. It creates noise and you can feel it moving when you move your arm and thus triggering the winding action. The ticking sound is pretty small though, compared to the notorious Timex Weekender.

Conclusion

With lots of imperfection, this watch is still worth buying. I really like it's style. I wish I get one with roman literals and dates (the one with Roman literal does not have dates). I wish the leather is of better quality. But with this price point, one cannot expect too much, and the quality of the watch itself is really good. Here's the pros and cons:

Pros:

• Affordable price
• Good style, similar to the famous NOMOS Bauhaus style
• Seagull ST1713 automatic movement
• 5ATM (instead of 3ATM)
• Stainless steel case
• Sapphire crystal!

Cons:

• Noisy winding action
• Low quality leather (notice that the strap is good, only the leather is bad quality)
• Fonts in the dial do not match
• Blue coating in the crown not printed at the perfect location
• Whether it is a copycat or homage is debatable.

In general, my first impression for the watch is good. Might need some more time wearing it to see if , what do you think?

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