James Mitchell
Please note that the following review is mostly about the larger men’s version of this watch. However, just about everything written also applies to the lady’s watch:I am wearing a wristwatch again after 6 years of just using my phone from seeing my grandson’s new Daytona homage watch (no idea what brand, but for sure not a Rolex) over the holidays and falling in love with wristwatches all over again.Anyhow, after looking at what was available to me via the Amazon Vine program, I decided on the Burei homage to the Oyster Perpetual. As a bonus, I was able to order matching watches for both myself and my wife, which was really cool. However, as I wasn’t allowed choice of all the dial options (I would have personally wanted to go with the dark blue) I went with the turquoise as being the classiest and most understated looking between the ones I could choose.I am very impressed with the watches overall, particularly at the $100 price point for this model. The build quality is superb, with stunning polished chrome and flawless sapphire crystals. While I certainly was attracted to the style and price point, the deciding factor for me was the use of Japanese quartz movements in the otherwise Chinese watch.That said, a few (slightly) negative observations:After looking at many YouTube unboxing videos and comparing with the protective plastic film on my wife’s watch, I am inclined to believe one of two things about my watch, which arrived with some small but annoying scratches on the bracelet right out of the box: A) my watch was improperly packaged at the factory or B) maybe my watch is a customer return or other factory second, as all the other Burei watches I’ve seen had the entire watch, case AND bracelet, encased in protective wrapping, while on mine just the case was wrapped. Had I been buying the man’s watch for myself I probably would have returned it for a replacement over this issue alone – I rather expect new stuff to be unblemished when unboxed. On the plus side I won’t be super bummed when I make the first scratch myself!The stainless-steel bracelets on this model don’t have any micro adjustment at the clasp. So with my weird sized wrists (I have weird sized feet too!) I either need to take more links and have a tight fit or fewer links and have the watch slide around on my wrist (which I really hate!). If I’d been paying myself, I probably would have gone for another brand of watch with a micro adjustment at the clasp and may yet switch the bracelet (or at least the clasp) on this watch for an aftermarket one with this feature. I haven’t decided yet.On both watches the seconds hands tick slightly off the dial markers – my watch before the marker by quite a bit and my wife’s just after by a few hairs. While this is not at all uncommon with quartz watches, and can sometimes be corrected by a skilled watch technician, if I was shopping brick and mortar I am pedantic enough that I would go through a store’s entire inventory, if necessary, to find a watch that hit just right from the factory. Not something you can do when online shopping and certainly not something you can reasonably complain about when you receive a watch gratis.So, with those few small quibbles aside, I would not hesitate to recommend this brand for someone looking for an attractive and affordable homage watch.If I was ordering again, and on my own dime, I think I would almost certainly step up to the automatic version of the Datejust, with a fluted bezel for sure and likely with a Jubilee style bracelet (and again, swap the clasp). Maybe even in two-tone and definitely with the dial color I really wanted. These really are beautiful watches for not a whole lot of money.
