 |
PM |  | |
Quote | | |
Reply | | |
Full Topic | |
| Joined: | Mon Apr 19th, 2010 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 9 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
A solid military style watch with some unique touches; a kolsterized case and an optional sapphire bezel. The moderate size and solid case makes this a great everyday watch and the sapphire bezel helps add a touch of class that allows it go when you dress up a bit.
Introduction
I'd been looking at the Corvus Bradley for a while since it caught my eye on one of the forums. I like the simple classic dial with no date, the traditional hands and the fricker case added to the allure. The utilitarian Kolsterized case treatment meant it would last a while. The size of 41.3mm and relatively moderate 13.3mm height meant it would fit my seven-inch wrist although the 51.2mm gave me a bit of pause. That and the normal position of the crown and the fact that I spend a large amount of time at the computer keyboard makes the normal 3 o'clock position of crowns uncomfortable.
When I asked Mike at Corvus what the cost would be for making a destro Bradley, he offered to make me one at the factory with the next batch for no additional cost. That was pretty much the part that made me pull the trigger.
The nice USPS man dropped off the watch off last week and I started wearing it the same day. The destro option was a life saver and got rid of all of the discomfort while typing at my keyboard. I'm really enjoying this watch, especially on the Maratac Elite Composite strap in a 20mm true size with a hint of color in the blue stitching.
I'm looking to get a couple of nice leather straps for more dressy occasions but haven't decided on which ones to get.
Case
The Kolsterized microblast surface is very fine and seems very tough. I have accidently smacked it pretty hard into a few doorways and although the doorways didn't fare that well, the surface remains unblemished. The case is comfortable on my wrist with only the back of the case touching and the lugs held about a millimeter above my wrist. The edges of the lugs, both top and bottom are pretty sharp, but are well finished with no tooling marks or blemishes. The 20mm lugs are drilled through and make changing straps very easy. As you can see, the watch fits nicely on my 7-inch wrist.
Case Back
The case back is much simpler than the original Corvus Bradley case backs I've seen. The Corvus crow faces sinister with wings addorsed. The only texts are "Corvus", "MIL-W-22176A" with "Serial No. ###".
Dial and Hands
The layout of the dial and hands is traditional, simple and very well laid out. The dial is the traditional mil-dot dial, triangle at 12 o'clock, bars at 3, 6 and 9 and dots for the other hour markers. Nice and simple minute track just outside of the dots where the minute and second hand just touch. The hour hand stops just slightly short of the bars and triangle. The hands look like basic Type I hands at first glance but have subtle differences in their finish: the tip of the hour hand is a 90-dgree angle and the minute hand is a 60 degree angle. The head of the seconds hand is like a standard Milsub sweep, but larger and much more visible. All three hands look white but glow blue. The dial hour markers all glow with a greenish-white. The dial black is matte black with no hint of reflection or matte texture.
Bezel and Crystal
The bezel markings are in my preferred 15-30-45 layout with major markers every five minutes and smaller "stealth" minute markers up to 15. The stealth markers aren't really that stealth although I'm not sure if that is a feature of my particular bezel, or a general appearance of the sapphire bezel. The sapphire on the bezel is domed and rises to just beneath the height of the domed crystal. The action of the 60-click unidirectional bezel is very positive and smooth with crisp clicks and practically no play when set. Personally, I would like the font on the bezel to be a little smaller, thinner and more square text, but this is a relatively small nit.
Timekeeping
The ETA 2824-2 itself has been running around 8-9 seconds fast per day but I figure it will take a couple of weeks for the movement to settle down. Since this will be my EDC for quite a while, I may spring for a complete adjustment after letting it break in for a few months.
Specs
Here are some specs (those measured by me marked with *):
double-domed sapphire crystal with A/R on inside 3.5mm thick
diameter 41.3mm
height 13.3mm
lug width 20mm
lug-to-lug-edge 51.2mm
300m water resistance
lug-to-lug-hole 46mm*
dial diameter 27mm*
crown diameter 6mm*
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is a solid watch with a great classic dial and a solid case. The sapphire bezel option adds a hint of luxury to the watch. The size and heft of the watch make it a great fit for my 7-inch wrist and the destro option keeps it very comfortable for me.
Extra
Here's an accessories shot, nerd points for being the first to identify both tools.
Thanks
Special thanks to Mike and Corvus Watches for being such a great guy throughout the process and getting me this great watch.
Note, this review has been posted to other watch forums.