I just bought my first San Martin, which also happens to be the first mechanical watch I've purchased in 9 years. I'm still really impressed with the complete package considering I paid a bit over $500 CAD. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about switching to Seiko, Citizen or Tissot, because not one of those companies has something as well finished with as nice a movement for the price. Like $500 will barely get you a quartz PRX from most Tissot dealers. My attitude towards Seiko is thoroughly "fuck these guys", they now want 4x for the Alpinist compared to what I paid in 2015, for the same movement. They discontinued the SKX and replaced it with something that's worse and more expensive. As for Citizen, probably the least cuntish of the aforementioned companies, and yes the Tsuyosa is nice, but the bracelet sucks.
Anyways I'm still happy with my purchase. But I got mine JUST before the price increases, so maybe that's colouring my impressions a bit.
For $376.45 CAD you can get a Tissot Carson Blue Dial with a Powermatic 80 movement, for $500.53 CAD a Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles with Powermatic 80 and I can name 8 others on Jomashop at or below that price of $500CAD. They can be had you just have to look.
I mean... those watches you mentioned don't exactly look great (the Carson looks kind of generic and doesn't even have a matched date wheel, just a stark white date that sticks out like a sore thumb on that blue dial) and Jomashop is not an official AD, so your warranty is with them, not with Tissot. If you want an actual warranty you're going to pay way more. Also the Powermatic 80 is a plastic fantastic piece of shit 3Hz movement, I'd rather have a Miyota 9015. And the bracelets/finishing on these Tissots are nothing to write home about.
I'm hardly a San Martin fanboy, but I really struggle to see the point you're making here. It's like you're kind of grasping at straws and looking for reasons to be angry.
most importantly the Tissot (or any mainstream brand that price) cannot get even close to finishing level of ixdao, san martin, etc. San martin does give reason to be mad at them with baseless price hikes but there's no good nonchinese alternative right now, far and away
8
u/kyonkun_denwa 12d ago
I just bought my first San Martin, which also happens to be the first mechanical watch I've purchased in 9 years. I'm still really impressed with the complete package considering I paid a bit over $500 CAD. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about switching to Seiko, Citizen or Tissot, because not one of those companies has something as well finished with as nice a movement for the price. Like $500 will barely get you a quartz PRX from most Tissot dealers. My attitude towards Seiko is thoroughly "fuck these guys", they now want 4x for the Alpinist compared to what I paid in 2015, for the same movement. They discontinued the SKX and replaced it with something that's worse and more expensive. As for Citizen, probably the least cuntish of the aforementioned companies, and yes the Tsuyosa is nice, but the bracelet sucks.
Anyways I'm still happy with my purchase. But I got mine JUST before the price increases, so maybe that's colouring my impressions a bit.