Starking Watches - Can A $50 Budget Automatic Be Any Good? Full Review

several months ago a company based in China who had never heard of before contacted me to review one of their watches they mentioned that the watch in question was of their own design and utilised him in house movement we were 28 800 escapement when I read that the movement was in house well that got my attention and I said sure why not and we've been a couple of weeks the watch turned up due to other video projects it sat for a while in my to-do pile yes I have a pile but I eventually managed to make a start on the project last week now we'll stay here that although they sent this what to me as a review model I stated from the outset that I would share my true faults no matter what I found in their watch and I have to admit they must have been very confident with the quality of their offerings to be willing to send a sample to a watch repair who shares his findings in high-definition video for all to see in short this is not a paid promotion but before I share my force I will say that I checked into the price of these watches and was stunned to see that they actually sell for $50 on Aliexpress I have to admit when I saw that price my expectations about the watch hit the floor and I will also admit I had a little chuckle and it did stay longer in my to-do pile as a result not that I'm a watch snob I just thought it would be a waste of time and possibly not very good content for the channel but eventually I did take the watch out of the box and I removed all the wrapping and was actually quite amazed at the quality actually I was gobsmacked for the price I was expecting a chrome plated budget feeling what but this actually felt quality and my hands a nice weight to it the bracelet was well-constructed and had a butterfly clasp the case was solid feeling and well finished looking at the specs on the Elias breast site I observed that the case was indeed stainless steel and the crystal is said to be sapphire which if true helps resist scratches the dial is not just a painted piece of brass which he would expect from a budget offering he had raised dial chapters and well quality printing all together on the surface this really surprised me for a 50 dollar price tag you get a lot of watch but what do we have under the hood I was interested to know more about the 2800 B in house movement actually that's what got my interest in the first place but looking at the movement I was a little bit disappointed to see that it was or at least looked like a DG 28:13 movement and I'm not being unkind I simply know these movements to be of quite low quality however this is a $50 wash I suspect the case bracelet dial and hand alone would cost more than that if I was to purchase those individually so I went the movement and I put it on the machine to see what I could see and I can see that the timekeeping is not certified chronometer standard by any means but I didn't expect it to be in the least the beat was 2,800 as advertised and well if it keeps working I can see that it could possibly be a nice little dress watch I decided to dig deeper and remove the movement from the watch case [Music] [Music] can you see the rust starting to develop on my case opener here it seems that since bringing all my tools over from the UK they don't really like the humidity too much all my tools are starting to rust is a real pain in the ass I started cleaning and treating them with a rust inhibitor which seems to be working fine [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well I have the movement out of the case I'm going to continue and strip the movement down [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well now that's a bit screwed looks like the underside of the train bridge has some quite heavy scoring I can't see any debris so it does look like this was done during manufacture or assembly it does look pretty nasty [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well that's it stripped down I would normally clean and put this back together with fresh lubricant and see what performance gains I can achieve but in this case well I'm not sure that I would really get any gains due to the finish on the movement well strikes me hard with this watch is that it is actually really good quality for the price but the movement lets it down but logically speaking it would not really be that price or even close to that price without some kind of compromise and of course the compromise here is the movement that will solve it I can't totally scrap this I'm gonna clean this and can I put it back together with some fresh lubricant I just want to know what we can get out of it it's a lovely little watch maybe it can be enjoyed for a little while [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I have no idea why the setting leaver got discolored like that it was nowhere near the heater in the cleaning machine and none of the other components suffered the same fate it's a real mystery if I could be bothered I would clean and polish it up but it's really not worth my time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] by the way I sent pictures of my findings to Stocking and they responded by standing by their claims that the movement would be good for at least five years before needing replacement or service now I personally don't think so but my faults are that even if this watch lasts only 12 months for $50.00 is still a bargain but I have a cunning plan a stick with me and I'll let you in on it but first let's take another look at the performance now that I've put the movement back together so a little boost in amplitude and the timing seems reasonable I mean I could put this back together and I reckon that it will last quite a while and would be an enjoyable watch to where the movement seems to be a reasonable time keeper but for me the value is in the case and the bracelet is this watch worth it I would say yes why not it lay it looks good and it feels quality and as long as the movement holds out it can be enjoyed I could put this back together or I could explore another option now this movement is actually loosely based on a Japanese citizen my outer movement than my outer 8215 I say loosely based because it does share the same diameter the same stem height and the dial feet placement but is not a hacking movement and it is a 21600 BPH movement rather than a 28 800 the my outer 8215 is a much better quality movement however that quality does come at a price as a matter fact about the same price as this watch complete I just happened to have one in stock so I'm going to explore using it for this watch and see where we get first I fitted the dial and all went well I'd inputted the hour hand and well that's okay that fitted fine I then tried to fit the minute hand and okay that failed the DG 28:13 can opinion is 0.9 millimeter diameter and therefore so is the hole in the minute hand but the 8215 required a hand with the hole being one millimeter diameter well this is not a problem I can brooch that hole out [Music] [Music] [Music] and so now the Minahan fizz let's try the second hand [Music] okay the second hand is too loose but there is a little trick to tightening the pipes of second hands take a pin vise and hold the second hand by its pipe in the pin vise jaws and then just tighten device and the pipe will compress and well this did the trick [Music] and with that done all we have to do is remove the crown from the existing stem and fit it to the my outer stem now this is a job I've demonstrated several times in previous videos [Music] [Music] [Music] and well look at that a nice little upgrade should the original movement fail my recommendation is if you like this style of what you could purchase it get as much use and enjoyment out of it as you can and should the movement fail well you can purchase a replacement DG 28:13 quite easily online or you can upgrade to a my oder 8215 if this watch didn't have such a nice quality case and bracelet well it wouldn't be worth the time and trouble but for $50 is definitely worth it is definitely a lot of watch for the money that's just my opinion but what do you think is this a watch that you would buy or would you not touch it with a barge pole let me know your thoughts in the comments below but that's it for now I hope you enjoyed the video if you did and you've not done so already then please consider subscribing it is free and if you click the bell you'll be notified whenever I publish new content and I do have a few nice projects on the go and if you're interested in knowing more about what repair and check out w-w-what repair lessons.com where i have a full watch repair course and plenty of extra content which is not available on youtube and this video was made possible with the support of my patrons whom i thank so so much and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Watch Repair Channel

Views: 528,004

Keywords: watch repair channel, watch repairs, watch repair lessons, watch service, mark lovick, watchrepairtalk.com, watchrepairlessons.com, dg2813 watch movement, miyota 8015 watch movement, citizen 8015 watch movement, starking watches, starking watch review, low cost watch review, the best low cost watch, watch review

Id: L_Efar7Dlyw

Length: 25min 41sec (1541 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 24 2019