In most engineering fields and resulting products, complexity is really a nasty evil that pops up at inopportune times in most cases needs to be curbed and eliminated. In the world of fine timepiece craftsmanship, complexity, the right kind, is highly valued and cherished. Complicated watches from top brands which include calendars, astronomical charts, power reserve indicators, and so on, are prized collector’s items.
Of course, an unwanted effect of complicated watches is that they may require more frequent maintenance and therefore are on the very top price range of the already high-priced market for Swiss made watches. One brand that's trying to break the mold is Raymond Weil Frank Sinatra Replica (RW). A part of their mission is to create classically designed watches with assorted complications while keeping prices within the affordable range. A good example is the Raymond Weil Maestro Automatic Moon Phase that also includes day, date, and month complications.
Raymond Weil names its watch lines after musical-related monikers. The Maestro line was introduced in 2010 in advanced celebration of Raymond Weil’s 35th year anniversary given that they started operating in Geneva in 1976. Most of the watches in the Maestro line are essentially RW’s version of classic round watches with guilloché dials as well as other calendar-related complications.
The Maestro Automatic Moon Phase reference 2849-STC-00659 is a relatively small watch by today’s standards. Its 39.5mm wide polished stainless case measures 11mm high. It’s also a light watch at just 70 grams. The brown leather strap with alligator pattern starts at 20mm and narrows to 16mm with a polished steel tang buckle that is inscribed with the Raymond Weil name.
My favorite thing about this watch is the beautiful dial which is visible through a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. The dial’s color is silver having a central round guilloché pattern that contains a month subdial between 7 and eight o’clock and a symmetrical day subdial between 4 and 5 o’clock. Both subdials have a fine radiating pattern that ends with the abbreviation for months and days along with a small blue steel hand indicator.
At 12 o’clock is really a half quadrant that serves as the moon phase indicator. The moon shows in gold on a blue background that includes gold stars once the moon is in its crescent and new phases. The dial includes roman numeral markers in black for that hours and at the edge a complete calendar of dates showing the odd numbers and ending in 31 at 12 o’clock. The bottom line is, it is both attractively symmetrical and legible in its design.
WatchTime covers Raymond Weil Or Rado Replica watch news, Raymond Weil blog posts and other articles about Raymond Weil watches too as Raymond Weil watch infos. Raymond Weil watches are available globally.WatchTime is your very best resource for Raymond Weil watches and Raymond Weil see prices. We have coverage about Raymond Weil watches for males and Raymond Weil ladies watches, together with photos and tech specs.A great number of Swiss watch brands have been owned by conglomerates. There are just a couple of independent brands left and Swiss Raymond Weil is among these. Because most readers will probably know by this time, Swatch’s choice to reduce supply of ETA movements to manufacturers outside the Swatch Group has had a considerable impact on the Swiss watch industry. In the last couple of decades, many brands outside the Swatch Group have scrambled to develop and create their own moves or have sought out alternative providers. For Raymond Weil, one of the things which they did was kind of between those two choices by teaming up with movement maker Sellita to design their very own movement. And the result of this cooperation would be that the Calibre RW1212, Raymond Weil’s initial in-house-designed movement, produced by Sellita, and the first watch to make use of this motion is the Raymond Weil Freelancer Calibre RW1212 watch.Because the in-house developed movement is that the highlight from the watch, let’s start with this. The title RW1212 is available in the postal code of Raymond Weil’s speech in the Geneva suburb of Grand-Lancy. A distinguishing feature of this movement is the fact that it had been created in a manner that its escapement may be revealed on the dial side at 6 o’clock. This way, by the side of this watch, the total amount wheel, which is also diamond-polished, by the way, almost resembles a tourbillon the way in which it’s mounted with two bridges. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I will leave this up to you to decide.
The dial is completed with hours and minutes blue steel hands and a hair thin seconds hand. The present date is shown by one more hand that ends with a half circle and moves in steps every day, half-encircling the current date. The hands have the classical “clous de Paris” design style using the hours and minute hands including a hollow circle close to the tip that becomes thinner to higher show the current hour and minute. The dial is brilliantly executed, reminding certainly one of Breguet-style calendar watches… Or you can think of it as “baby-Breguet” or “Breguet-light” (“Diet Breguet? if you may).
The automatic movement within the watch is an RW 4600 caliber which is a modified ETA 2824 movement to include day, month, and moon phase complications. The transparent case back shows the sparsely decorated movement. The automated rotor includes the caliber number and the RW name.
Adjusting the day, date, month, and moon phase is performed via flattened pushers at 2, 4, 8, and 10 o’clock. To simplify this method, RW includes a small stainless steel pin that has a tip perfectly sized for the pushers. The pin is included with a brown leather pouch and includes the RW name quietly.
This is a nice touch and make sure to inquire about your dealer for it if it did not come in your box. This became of me since I had special ordered the watch. All Maestro watches share exactly the same box but they don’t all share the same complications nor include pushers for adjusting the date.
While I've some positive feelings relating to this watch and as I mentioned, I merely absolutely love the dial, I actually do have various complaints.
First the situation is a bit small. I think a couple of additional millimeters would significantly help to make this watch perfectly sized. Interestingly, even at this relatively small size, the crown, containing the distinctive RW logo embossed, scratches against my wrist’s skin- I don't know if it’s because I wear it too close to my hand, but a more softened-edge crown would also help.
While I can live with the relatively small size, my next two complaints have been annoyances from the moment I got the timepiece. First, the strap isn't real alligator. The brown color is perfect but who wants fake alligator patterns with an otherwise classic watch? RW should either forgo the alligator pattern, make use of a real alligator strap, or have a choice for getting the real thing. I don’t care if I need to pay a bit more for it.
Second, as i can again forgive Raymond Weil for sparsely decorating the movement, there's again less of an excuse for not decorating the rotor a little more. An engraving of the RW logo would significantly help. Also, on my unit I discovered the rotor to be excessively noisy. It’s not noisy to some extent of being annoying, however, I'm able to hear a tin noise if I spin the rotor. Not sure if this is due to lack of lubricant or the rotor is touching along side it of the case or that it's loose a bit, but it’s definitely noisy. I plan to take it to the shop soon, before my 2 yrs warranty expires.
I wasn’t entirely correct that there’s no overt Piper Aircraft reference with the opinion. If you buy one of these special edition Raymond Weil Noemia 27mm Replica Freelancer Piper pilot watches, you get a small model of a Raymond Weil-branded Piper airplane. The strap, while nice, includes a perplexing layout since you mainly associated straps such as this with rushing, rather than aviation watches. It is a worthy first entrant into the pilot watch stadium that will find takers, but I am wanting to see where Raymond Weil goes alongside their game watch collection. If successful, it could mean more comparatively affordable Swiss sport watches and, within my estimation, you can not have enough of those. The longstanding Raymond Weil Nabucco watch collection gets a tourbillon for 2021. In reality, I believe that the Raymond Weil Nabucco Cello Tourbillon may be the brand’s first tourbillon-based timepiece, as well as in several ways, they’re off to a running start (assuming the world demands more tourbillons) with this sporty and funky, music-inspired luxury watch.At 46mm wide in largely black with carbon fiber components, the Raymond Weil Nabucco would not be what many people would think about if somebody suggested to them that Raymond Weil was getting into the tourbillon business. Having said that, I really don’t think I’d have paid manual intervention at all if Raymond Weil decided to do something similar to Frederique Constant and come by helping cover their a lower-priced tourbillon. In this case, that is not the ideal example, since the Frederique Constant tourbillon is in-house made.
Finally, the watch is completely invisible at night. This isn't necessarily a complaint as much as it is a fact for many such watches. Just don’t be prepared to be able to read it at all in low light.
For the affordable manufacture suggested price of $2,950, the RW Maestro Automatic Moon Phase (ref. 2849-STC-00659) creates a nice classic dress watch. The dial alone causes it to be worthwhile. RW also makes another variation from the Maestro which is ref. 2839-STC-00659 that includes a black dial with moon phase and a version that also has a silver dial. Have the moon complication at 10 o’clock and don't include the month nor the day subdials but instead a date subdial at 6 o’clock.
Another model within the Maestro line does not include the moon phase and instead includes a chronograph complication (ref. 7737-STC-00659). And there are various plain models with different small variations like a steel bracelet (ref. 2837-STC-00659) and one with a front opening to show the movement (ref. 2827-STC-00659).
Overall, I am somewhat pleased with the RW Maestro Automatic Moon Phase since its classic looks and superb dial provides me with a watch that I can wear at the next play or in the opera, at least until I can afford a Breguet-
Necessary Data
>Brand: Raymond Weil
>Model: Maestro Automatic Moon Phase (ref. 2849-STC-00659)
>Price: $2,950
>Size: 39.5mm x 11mm
>Weight: 70 grams
>Would reviewer personally put it on: No longer
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: As a dress watch to the 30-something guy who is not necessarily passionate about timepieces, but wants to look the part during a date in a play, at a musical, or at the opera.
>Worst characteristic of watch: The case back shows the lightly decorated movement having a winding rotor that is underwhelming…
>Best sign of watch: The dial. Beautiful Breguet-style guilloché dial with radiating subdials and clous de Paris dark blue hands.
