Learn all about Stuhrling
I love skeleton watches. Maybe it’s the nerd in me, but I love seeing the inner workings of stuff.
For those of you who are not familiar with watches, Stuhrling is German for “Cheap Chinese junk you find advertised in the back of Road & Track magazine.”
If you are not familiar with the Stuhrling company, I would direct you to tractionink.com
These watches use Chinese movements. But from what little research I have done, those who have purchased from Stuhrling seem to be fairly pleased for the price they paid (usually around 100, but certainly never a 450msrp). For 70 bucks they look like fun watches, and if something physical happens to one, then no biggie.
Buying watches like these could be habit forming! I bought one about a year ago and now own 4. I think the skeleton watches are beautiful and can probably put you in a trance. I frequently get questions about them in elevators, trains and airplanes.
While the automatic watches save money on batteries (they don’t use them) you will have to use that money to buy a winder. DO NOT buy a single watch winder, as you will certainly buy at least another automatic watch. Buy at least a double winder and look before you leap because you don’t need a lot of money for a good winder. I own 2 double winders and paid $39 each. You can buy a quad winder for $59. Check online and you should find them.
By the way, I like and will buy the silver watch with the blue dial and the gold hands…take a look.
Just want to point out something here, and that is the use of automatic winders. I can tell you from experience that using one is actually a bad idea with a typical automatic watch.
Like any mechanical device wear is created over time as long as the watch is running. Typically a watch will run 36-52 hours (depends on the model) between winds, automatic watches will maintain power as long as you are moving. However occasionally you rest, or remove the watch, and let it sit, so the automatic mechanism is no longer in motion.
Watch winders will put constant stress on the mechanism and cause it to wear out faster than normal, which can lead to a broken mainspring (and thus a whole range of issues can arise!) or more commonly worn out pivots.
Just some advice, at this price point when the watch fails odds are that the owner will replace it with another without a second thought.
That’s not entirely true. First of all, automatic watches are designed to run so it is best to run them. Secondly, a good watch winder has a cycle. It runs clockwise for 3 minutes and then counter clockwise for another 3 minutes. It does this for about 12 minutes then stops for 45 minutes. It then begins the whole cycle again.
There is more stress placed on the mechanism by hand winding the watch with a strong possibility of over winding the watch. Besides, it’s a pain in the arse to keep setting the time every time you wish to use the watch.
I just placed my order for the silver watch with blue dial and gold hands. I now own 5 automatic watches, of which 3 are skeleton watches. What’s next?..maybe I should buy one for each day of the week.
UH OH! The picture of the first watch is a 513G. Somebody was sleepy! Or dyslexic like me.
I have a bunch of these that I paid a little bit more for (~$90). I like them, though one is ‘loose’ or something and makes a pretty loud ticking noise as I move around.
I don’t use an winder or anything, I just let the watches stop when they’re done but wind them up a bit and set them as I put them on in the morning. Only takes a few seconds and it’s REALLY nice to not ever have to go get a new battery - which usually takes me much more than a few seconds (even amortized over the life of the battery) and is frustrating as it takes me so long to go get it done as well.
Also don’t really have to worry all that much about it being extremely accurate as it’s unlikely that it’ll get that far off in a single day.
You picked far and away the best looking of the bunch! Kudos to your taste!
What’s next? I think you’ll eventually regret buying several cheap watches instead of one or two high quality watches.
I’m a windable watch n00b (newbie - no idea why Woot changed n-zero-zero-b to ‘boogie man’), so please help me understand:
This watch needs to be manually wound, and each time you wind it it will ‘hold the charge’ for up to 34 hours, is that correct?
For some reason I thought the description meant it winds itself as you move around during the day. Help!
These watches have an automatic “self wind” movement – so yes, the watch will “wind itself as you move around during the day.” But you can also manually wind it by pulling up on crown and twisting it.
This is my first time buying a skeleton watch - I’ve been waiting for some of the Akribos watches to come back on sale, but I jumped at this as it seems to be the next best thing.
If it helps anyone, I found the Amazon page for the men’s watches here, if anyone finds it helpful. Amazon also has it for $50+ more, so this seems like a good deal.
THANK YOU.
Weight is 50 meters.
It will also do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.
This $25 watch is only $70 here when it’s a buck twenty from the parent company? THAT IS AN AMAZING DEAL!!!11111
Sthurling = junk for less