Geckota P-01 Small Seconds Dress Watch
Showing lumed area on hands
As most of my dress watches are gold, I was looking for a stainless finished one and thought about the Geckota P-01 for quite a long time as there were a couple of things I was not too sure I liked about the design, loads of positives though!
I really like the case design, especially the notch were the lugs meet the sides of case, there is also that domed sapphire, where its edge shape mimics the curve of the bezel (seems to be a Geckota design standard as they’ve used it several time in the past). Then there is that oh so nice dial, all that detailed Guilloché work, the small seconds dial at 4:30 is unusual for a modern watch (but seems to be making a comeback). The polished bezel and lug tops and the unusual vertical brushing to the case sides, yes there was a lot to like here, so what didn’t I like? Well the dreaded exhibition case back for one, yes there is a bit of striping to the mechanism, but still a rather boring looking Miyota all said and done. The other thing was the logo, which looked a bit plastic and stuck on’ also the lettering is a bit thick or too bold for my liking. It really was calling out for a steel applied logo. But after a bit of a delay, plus it was put on sale I decided to go for it and I’m really glad I did, it is a great watch to wear and the dial is just so much nicer in real life. You often hear of people say how well the dial “plays with the light” well this dial is having a really good time! Because of the multitude of both radial and concentric grooves it seemingly changes both colour and texture quite dramatically.
Wearing the watch it looks far smaller than its 40mm diameter, this is probably due to the combination of the curved bezel and crystal which has the effect of reducing the dial size. Talking of that crystal the curvature of the edge also adds another significant visual element to the watches ability to play with the light as the amount of distortion it can produce when looking at the dial from various angles always brings a smile to my face. The supplied bracelet is amazingly comfortable, probably down to its flexibility, but the end link are only pressed and I don’t really like how they sit a bit low between the top of the lugs. Having said all that and even given it only has a butterfly clasp so lacks micro-adjustment it is one of the few OEM bracelets I haven’t taken off the watch it is a great fit on my wrist. Presumably this is down to a lucky combination of the watch overall length and the link lengths for my wrist which is 18.5cm (or 7 ¼ inches). Now in all but the poorest lighting conditions I’ve found the dial to be nicely legible, however when you need to rely on the lumed hands it’s a different story as the lumed area is so similar that you can’t easily differentiate between the hour and minute hands (see left) but I suppose it’s a bonus to have a dress watch with lume at all as most don’t, but I feel the hour hand could have been broader to accommodate a wider & more distinct lume patch. The Miyota 8218 has a date complication, but no date wheel, so has a ghost position when you unscrew the crown, so you have to go past the first position when you pull out the crown. The crown itself is perhaps a little small and the raised ‘G’ logo looks a little cheap in my opinion, but it is polished and as such again adds a further level of design interest as you look at the watch. For the record I have no issues with the Miyota’s unidirectional winding and have never noticed the so called rotor chatter that is often mentioned.
So on the whole the Geckota P-01 is another rather enjoyable offering from WatchGecko – Geckota if you are looking for a slightly out of the ordinary dress watch, although I do feel it is perhaps a bit overpriced and it may be worth holding out for when it comes up in their sale, which it has a few times now, but of course that is always a bit of a gamble with small production runs.
Some picture of my other watches can be found in my Watch Gallery page.
I really like the case design, especially the notch were the lugs meet the sides of case, there is also that domed sapphire, where its edge shape mimics the curve of the bezel (seems to be a Geckota design standard as they’ve used it several time in the past). Then there is that oh so nice dial, all that detailed Guilloché work, the small seconds dial at 4:30 is unusual for a modern watch (but seems to be making a comeback). The polished bezel and lug tops and the unusual vertical brushing to the case sides, yes there was a lot to like here, so what didn’t I like? Well the dreaded exhibition case back for one, yes there is a bit of striping to the mechanism, but still a rather boring looking Miyota all said and done. The other thing was the logo, which looked a bit plastic and stuck on’ also the lettering is a bit thick or too bold for my liking. It really was calling out for a steel applied logo. But after a bit of a delay, plus it was put on sale I decided to go for it and I’m really glad I did, it is a great watch to wear and the dial is just so much nicer in real life. You often hear of people say how well the dial “plays with the light” well this dial is having a really good time! Because of the multitude of both radial and concentric grooves it seemingly changes both colour and texture quite dramatically.
Wearing the watch it looks far smaller than its 40mm diameter, this is probably due to the combination of the curved bezel and crystal which has the effect of reducing the dial size. Talking of that crystal the curvature of the edge also adds another significant visual element to the watches ability to play with the light as the amount of distortion it can produce when looking at the dial from various angles always brings a smile to my face. The supplied bracelet is amazingly comfortable, probably down to its flexibility, but the end link are only pressed and I don’t really like how they sit a bit low between the top of the lugs. Having said all that and even given it only has a butterfly clasp so lacks micro-adjustment it is one of the few OEM bracelets I haven’t taken off the watch it is a great fit on my wrist. Presumably this is down to a lucky combination of the watch overall length and the link lengths for my wrist which is 18.5cm (or 7 ¼ inches). Now in all but the poorest lighting conditions I’ve found the dial to be nicely legible, however when you need to rely on the lumed hands it’s a different story as the lumed area is so similar that you can’t easily differentiate between the hour and minute hands (see left) but I suppose it’s a bonus to have a dress watch with lume at all as most don’t, but I feel the hour hand could have been broader to accommodate a wider & more distinct lume patch. The Miyota 8218 has a date complication, but no date wheel, so has a ghost position when you unscrew the crown, so you have to go past the first position when you pull out the crown. The crown itself is perhaps a little small and the raised ‘G’ logo looks a little cheap in my opinion, but it is polished and as such again adds a further level of design interest as you look at the watch. For the record I have no issues with the Miyota’s unidirectional winding and have never noticed the so called rotor chatter that is often mentioned.
So on the whole the Geckota P-01 is another rather enjoyable offering from WatchGecko – Geckota if you are looking for a slightly out of the ordinary dress watch, although I do feel it is perhaps a bit overpriced and it may be worth holding out for when it comes up in their sale, which it has a few times now, but of course that is always a bit of a gamble with small production runs.
Some picture of my other watches can be found in my Watch Gallery page.
