Zelos Eagle E-1D "Afterburner"
When I first saw this watch it had an instant appeal until I saw the price that is! At a pre-order price of $460, which is a great saving over the full retail price of $760 it was way above the price I’d normally pay for a micro-brand watch, even when that brand is Zelos which has a great reputation.
The watch itself is going to polarise views as well given its unique design, which will certainly not appeal too many. For me though, it looked great, a different pilot(ish) style watch with some dive watch attributes so giving me everything I’d want from a watch, plus an unusual design, high specification, easy to read at a glance and water resistant, so the only thing that was a negative to me was the price. Don’t get me wrong, the price for anything is what people are willing to pay and certainly this watch has sold out – so whether it was at the $460 or the $760, it was obviously the right price for many.
Now looking at the watch the first and most obvious thing is its case finish in black, normally black cased watches are finished with a technique known as Physical vapour deposition (PVD) and I’ve always found this to give a rather plastic looking result and it has a bit of a reputation for not lasting that well unless you ‘baby’ the watch. However, here the finish is in Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) and this as the name would suggest is far harder than basic PVD (although this is probably still PVD applied?) and is used in many industries such as; automotive, aerospace & weapons manufacturing to name a few where hard wearing elements are DLC coated to enhance their lifespan.
The watch itself is going to polarise views as well given its unique design, which will certainly not appeal too many. For me though, it looked great, a different pilot(ish) style watch with some dive watch attributes so giving me everything I’d want from a watch, plus an unusual design, high specification, easy to read at a glance and water resistant, so the only thing that was a negative to me was the price. Don’t get me wrong, the price for anything is what people are willing to pay and certainly this watch has sold out – so whether it was at the $460 or the $760, it was obviously the right price for many.
Now looking at the watch the first and most obvious thing is its case finish in black, normally black cased watches are finished with a technique known as Physical vapour deposition (PVD) and I’ve always found this to give a rather plastic looking result and it has a bit of a reputation for not lasting that well unless you ‘baby’ the watch. However, here the finish is in Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) and this as the name would suggest is far harder than basic PVD (although this is probably still PVD applied?) and is used in many industries such as; automotive, aerospace & weapons manufacturing to name a few where hard wearing elements are DLC coated to enhance their lifespan.
To Be Continued...
More pictures can be found in my Watch Gallery page - those these are the results from a quick test as the thick domed crystal and black case will need some further work...
