Michael
12-07-2013, 11:02 PM
If I posted every time I picked up another watch for my collection I would be on everyone's ignore list, (Is watches all that guy talks about? IGNORE!) In this case I got a really cool watch, (reminds me of my favorite car) for an incredible price so if you are in the market for a little Christmas gift for yourself, and this one speaks to you, I can point you in the right direction. I took note of Tendence a few years ago. They are a pretty young watch company who had some unique watches and although I liked the styling, I wasn't crazy about the construction. The company was based in Switzerland but the watches themselves seemed to be plastic cases with Japanese quartz movements. I really don't have a problem with that, but nothing really made me say "I got to have that", Except one watch. Tendence made a limited edition titanium/polycarbonate cased watch with a true Swiss movement. This was the one watch that did make me say "Shut up and take my money!" but then I found out the price. Almost 1,000 dollars, I quickly shut up and put my credit card back in my wallet.
Fast forward a few short years, I was doing my wrist watch thing on ebay when I saw this one seller had marked this watch down drastically. Over the years this particular watch had dropped from 1k, down to 800, and finally made it to the 600's before the liquidaters got their share. They got down to he 300 range quickly and now I was looking at it for 169.00 with free shipping! I guess the appeal was more limited than the production number, but what makes this such a good value is this is a true Swiss made and Swiss assembled watch! I suspect Tendence uses an off location assembley plant for most of their watches, but I believe Tendence does assemble their higher end watches on site. This watch uses the Ronda cal. 5030D which is a pretty nice albeit common 13 jewel Swiss Movement...even tag uses this movement in some of their Aquaracer models. There are 2 versions, a gold plated Swiss made/Swiss assembled movement, and a cheaper Chinese assembled with Swiss parts 6 jewel version. I was almost convinced I had the latter when I placed my order, and I was OK with that at this price. Today when I got my watch in, I couldn't help but wonder and I of course got out my tools and took a peek...it was the Swiss version! It should be noted that in order to qualify only a certain percentage of a movement and watch needs to be Swiss to be "Swiss made" but that's another long story.
Anyway, when seeing this watch first hand, I immediately noticed the pictures really didn't do it justice. the materials and colors used in the dial catch light differently, but a flash makes them look all the same. The colors and materials used actually made me think it would make a good "DeLorean watch", which brings me to posting about it here. It's overall gray in color with a very modern looking gray rubber strap. Titanium bezel, and large, 50mm. I'm fairly confident in saying this watch is almost as nice as my Tissot and Tag Heuers, but it just doesn't have the name recognition. Tag and Tissot and the like are more fashion than timepiece these days. Even still, they never really caught my eye for very long. In fact I ended up selling my Tissot after only wearing it once or twice. This one however is a definite keeper.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23433&d=1386474692
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23430&d=1386474689
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23432&d=1386474691
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23435&d=1386474694
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23434&d=1386474693
Now if you are still interested, here is the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/181259389721?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Fast forward a few short years, I was doing my wrist watch thing on ebay when I saw this one seller had marked this watch down drastically. Over the years this particular watch had dropped from 1k, down to 800, and finally made it to the 600's before the liquidaters got their share. They got down to he 300 range quickly and now I was looking at it for 169.00 with free shipping! I guess the appeal was more limited than the production number, but what makes this such a good value is this is a true Swiss made and Swiss assembled watch! I suspect Tendence uses an off location assembley plant for most of their watches, but I believe Tendence does assemble their higher end watches on site. This watch uses the Ronda cal. 5030D which is a pretty nice albeit common 13 jewel Swiss Movement...even tag uses this movement in some of their Aquaracer models. There are 2 versions, a gold plated Swiss made/Swiss assembled movement, and a cheaper Chinese assembled with Swiss parts 6 jewel version. I was almost convinced I had the latter when I placed my order, and I was OK with that at this price. Today when I got my watch in, I couldn't help but wonder and I of course got out my tools and took a peek...it was the Swiss version! It should be noted that in order to qualify only a certain percentage of a movement and watch needs to be Swiss to be "Swiss made" but that's another long story.
Anyway, when seeing this watch first hand, I immediately noticed the pictures really didn't do it justice. the materials and colors used in the dial catch light differently, but a flash makes them look all the same. The colors and materials used actually made me think it would make a good "DeLorean watch", which brings me to posting about it here. It's overall gray in color with a very modern looking gray rubber strap. Titanium bezel, and large, 50mm. I'm fairly confident in saying this watch is almost as nice as my Tissot and Tag Heuers, but it just doesn't have the name recognition. Tag and Tissot and the like are more fashion than timepiece these days. Even still, they never really caught my eye for very long. In fact I ended up selling my Tissot after only wearing it once or twice. This one however is a definite keeper.
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23433&d=1386474692
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23430&d=1386474689
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23432&d=1386474691
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23435&d=1386474694
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23434&d=1386474693
Now if you are still interested, here is the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/181259389721?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649