First of the FEW or last?

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Galton321
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First of the FEW or last?

Post by Galton321 »

Some time ago someone made a post about Few watches, a site that allows you to design your own watch. http://www.fewwatches.com Consequently, thought you might like to see my watch.

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The watch has a Miyota auto movement with day and date, floating second hand, 21 jewel crystal. 40 h power reserve. The case is stainless steel with a screw down back. I chose a black case but I'm not sure what the coating is but so far it has remained scuff free. The bezel rotates uni-directionally and is not loose so doesn't move when rubbed by cuffs etc. The hands are lumed with reasonable visibility in the dark. I chose a patterned face which looks printed and not embossed. All in all it is well made but doesn't feel as solid as my CWLs.

The design process is very easy using the stock items but to get the best from system you can import your own designs for the faces and even create your own brand if you have a mind. The watch has proved to be a good time keeper, better than some of my ETA powered watches. I like it but proably not to everyone's taste, if anyone's. I wear it regularly as an everyday watch. Even beat Chris to the orange bezel!

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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by stumpbass »

Great looking watch, Galton321! Yours is the first FEW I've seen in the wild. Very unique looking. Do you feel like it is a good value for the money?

I was so enchanted with the FEW design process that I designed some custom dials and paid them to have proofs made. The results were less than satisfying. When you design your own dial (unlike the premanufactured FEW dial shown here), they basically use a fancy printer to print colors onto a white dial. The result was what you might expect from this process - there was an obvious lack of crispness where one color touches another. Some colors looked "dithered" (like dot-matrix) as opposed to looking solid. The whole thing turned out like a bad print job from an desk inkjet printer.

I'm confident that the proofs' lack of quality was not a result of the design I sent them; I used only the most basic shapes and traditional colors. I also used a high quality non-anti-aliased graphics file. If their printing process made a mess of my throroughly simple design, I can only imagine how shoddy a more intricate design must come out.

Since the big draw for me was the potential to design my own dials, the proofs scuttled my immediate plans to purchase from FEW. But I will acknowledge that their website design makes it SO EASY to put different watch components together. And in Galton321's case, it looks like the finished product is quite fine!

Enjoy it and wear in good health...
C5 Cream Auto
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Galton321 »

I thought it was good value for the price I paid. It comes with a 2 year warranty and I found the customer services people very helpful who responded quickly to my questions. The watch took about 15 days to arrive by recorded delivery. Altogether I was pleased.
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by downer »

Interesting process and outcome. Thanks for posting.

I don't know if I'd make all the same choices as you, but I guess that's the point of the one-off design. :)

Do you feel like the watch is worth the money (quality-wise)?
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Galton321 »

downer wrote:
Do you feel like the watch is worth the money (quality-wise)?
I think so but to be honest if you're not bothered by having a mechanical, a CWL quartz is better quality.
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Loddonite »

It's very tempting to have a unique watch and a bit disappointing to read that the custom dial didn't work out as well as hoped. That said, There are still a fair number of combinations in the stock options...
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Loddonite »

if anyone is tempted by these they are running a promotion for a very limited time.
Right now we have an April fools campaign - 10% discount on all our products, just use the campaign code aprilfool in the checkout. The campaign is running until mid-night 1st April. No, it's not a joke ;-)
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Dancematt »

Galton321 wrote:Some time ago someone made a post about Few watches, a site that allows you to design your own watch. http://www.fewwatches.com
Ummm that was me, was just for fun really but i found a design i like when i first posted, due to your and Loddonites kind updates i thought what the hell, i'l go for it using the discount code!!

Its a chrono - my first for about 13 years! update heading your way in a couple of weeks.
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Loddonite »

@ Dancematt. I'm delighted to have cost you some money and to take all the credit, though to be fair and give Galton his due, I'm happy for him to take the blame if it bombs.
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Galton321 »

Loddonite wrote:@ Dancematt. I'm delighted to have cost you some money and to take all the credit, though to be fair and give Galton his due, I'm happy for him to take the blame if it bombs.
Nah, I blame the guy who mentioned the special offer. :)
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Dancematt »

Naaa im gonnna blame you too Galton (seeing as i cant blame myself!) :lol:
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by st-rider »

Thank you for posting this, I found it interesting.

I'm getting married at the end of the year (literally, 31 December :shock: ) and thought this might make a good gift for my best man (obviously not myself as well :wink:). This is as it will be a fairly unique design (although as there are so many 'lookalikes' out there at least the owner will know the provenance). The back can be engraved with an appropriate inscription as well.

Altogether as a simple day-to-day watch I've very tempted. I have had a couple of Citizen automatics and the reliability and accuracy is more than acceptable.

Two queries for the original poster:
1. I can't seem to change the stitching colour (that's color is you're a Merrycan) using the default builder. How did you manage it?

2. The face on your watch looks like the carbon fibre look. Is it just a bad print or does it look acceptable?

Thank.
Alex

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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by Galton321 »

st-rider wrote: Two queries for the original poster:
1. I can't seem to change the stitching colour (that's color is you're a Merrycan) using the default builder. How did you manage it?

2. The face on your watch looks like the carbon fibre look. Is it just a bad print or does it look acceptable?

Thank.

I think I covered this in my PM but you may wish to share it with the world. :)
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by st-rider »

Galton321 wrote:I think I covered this in my PM but you may wish to share it with the world. :)
Yes, thank you.
1. Your own strap and
2. Carbon fibre
Galton321 wrote:...it is a print but very effective in my view but not as effective as the real thing...
Hope that clarifies for anyone else :up:
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Re: First of the FEW or last?

Post by davidg »

How does the size compare to any of your other 42 mm watches? Does it "wear" small or large?

Thanks,
David