If you’re a regular visitor of my website, you already know that I started my watch collecting journey by exploring Soviet watches. However, I abandoned that collection years ago and shifted my focus primarily to the world of mechanical wrist alarm watches. In building and researching my alarm watch collection, I’ve relied heavily on the two reference books I mention here. But even though Beitl’s book in particular is a true encyclopedia of alarm watches, it omits one watch that remains unknown to most alarm collectors—at least outside of Russia. The only reason I even know of its existence is thanks to my earlier collecting passion for Soviet watches. As the title already suggests, I’m talking about the Raketa 3031 alarm watch.

Some time ago, a fellow “Watch Geek” published a review of a Super Compressor watch by Berny, and even earlier, a review of another watch by the same company, which was an homage to the JLC Polaris. In both reviews, he emphasized the very good, high-quality craftsmanship for an incredibly low price. Although the Polaris homage didn’t convince me (JLC, and especially the Polaris models, are too dear to me to “dishonor” them with an homage), the Super Compressor review did prompt me to at least visit the Berny website and see what they were doing.

In my reviews, I have spent quite a bit of time discussing Venezianico watches, so after my last review, I was convinced that I had more or less covered Venezianico and that I wouldn’t be writing about their watches again. And I stuck to this principle, even though in the meantime, I bought two rather interesting watches (Nereide Lapis Lazuli and especially Nereide Aquaforte, which is quite a unique watch). 

Some time ago, I wrote a review of my first Oceaneva watch with a Damascus case and dial. As evident from my review, I was very satisfied with the watch—my only issue was the low contrast between the dial color and the hands. That was such an issue that in the end, I sold that particular watch and pre-ordered a model with a dark brown Damascus dial, which I also mentioned at the end of my stated review.

Jaeger Le-Coultre Memovox cal. 489

Have you ever asked yourself what the main reason for choosing a specific watch among the countless options available when buying a new one is? Did you buy it simply because you liked it, or perhaps because others consider it a "good" watch? Was the price the deciding factor? Did you carefully analyze comparable models and brands? Why did you choose a particular model?

I must admit, I originally had no intention of writing about the watch which is in front of you today. In fact, I didn’t even plan to buy it. So why did this article about the Stalingrad Defender Titanium Lunar Dial come to be?

I apologize in advance to all watch enthusiasts, as this will not be a classic review of a watch as you might expect. This time, I have a watch on my desk that is intriguing for many other reasons – the Nubeo Star Trek Enterprise-D chronograph.

Honestly, I can’t even remember how long I’ve been on the Oceaneva company’s mailing list, nor do I know why I subscribed. It’s quite possible that I’ve been on it since the company’s inception in 2019. Back then, this USA-based microbrand introduced its first diver watch, the Deep Marine Explorer 1000m, along with its vision to become one of the most recognized brands for quality and water resistance. They have actually lived up to their promise, offering watches with a declared water resistance of over 1000m (mostly 1250m), with the Deep Marine Explorer III even reaching 3000m. Additionally, they boast that they are the only USA brand to test water resistance in actual ocean depths and claim to be one of only six brands in the world to do so.

Not so long ago, I wrote about the Venezianico Arsenale watch, sharing my impressions of the version with a purple dial. My conclusion wasn’t too optimistic. Even though the watch is exceptionally high-quality, I mentioned that I planned to sell it and rather purchase the black dial version for my son—a version I personally found very boring. Since then, two things have happened.

Incredible but true! Just one day after publishing the review of the Redentore Enigma watch, I received a notification from Venezianico that my Arsenale was ready for shipment. The reason for the time gap between the review of the Enigma and this one isn't due to a long wait for the Arsenale, but rather my holiday's absence.

As almost every weekend, I received a newsletter from OrologioChePassione last weekend as well. Normally, I just skim through it, but this time, the Hoffman Diver 40 watch caught my attention. I was already familiar with the Hoffman brand thanks to the mentioned store, as they’ve been selling Hoffman watches for quite some time. However, I hadn't found anything particularly appealing from Hoffman until now. Their flagship collection is undoubtedly the Racing 40 line, which consists of chronograph watches powered by the Seiko VK64 mechaquartz movement. I believe they currently have 16 different models in this collection, and I recently read that, for the first time in a long while, all versions are in stock.

It hasn't been long since I posted a review of two Venezianico watches here. In that review, I mentioned how incredible the team at Venezianico is when it comes to releasing new models – it seems like they release a new model almost every month. And this pace hasn't slowed down at all over the summer. Since my review was published, they have reissued the Nereide Aureo, featuring a stunning dial made from 18-carat gold. This was followed by the Nereide LapisLazuli, where the name itself already reveals that the dial is made from Lapis Lazuli.

One of my most time spending hobbies is by far cycling, primarily road cycling. I have two road bikes, one is located at home and one is on my holiday cottage. Let me be quite clear, I am just an amateur rider, I have never participated in any race! However, I enjoy watching races. Whenever there is a road cycling race available on Eurosport I try to watch it. So, no wonder that at the beginning of the May of this year I spent quite a lot of time on my sofa following carefully the first Grand Tour of this year - Giro d'Italia. 

During the last year I noticed in our local watch forum that watches from the Venezianico brand are more and more popular, guys were often showing their new watches of that brand. As I liked what I saw, I decided to investigate this brand. I checked their web page, noticed that the majority of watches that I liked were sold out. The most interesting sold out watch was a chronograph called Bucintoro. So as there was nothing interesting to buy I just registered for their mailing list to receive information about future novelties. And just a month or two later, the new version of the Nereide model - called Agata - was announced. I liked what I saw so I preordered it. As a result, at the beginning of May I became a proud owner of my very first Venezianico watch. 

Few months ago I already made a review of  the Panzera watches through the two of their diver watches here. That review was focused on the Marine collection. At the end of the review I also announced that I have also ordered - in the preorder phase - another Panzera watch, but this time from the Flieger line - the new Flieger GMT watch. As announced, at the beginning of May this watch was released and shipped to me, so let me give you now some of my additional feedbacks about the brand after the first month with this Flieger GMT model.

Today, I am going to focus on a watch which was purchased totally unplanned, in fact just one look was enough. How has this happened? Well, I was checking my notepad on Chrono24 (a kind of a wish list) and while checking one of the watches from my list, at the bottom of the page Chrono24 - under the category "You may also be interested in these watches" somehow offered Tition Impetus Ceramtech in Argentine blue version. Seeing this watch I was excited, the color and material combinations were just crazy good. "I must have this watch", was my only comment.

You might have noticed that lately quite often watches from Eastern Europe are reviewed. That is not accidental. After my detailed research of the Russian watch industry (which was driven by the fact that I used to be a passionate collector of USSR watches...) I extended my interest to all East Europe development of the watch industry. So I already have watches from Belarus, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Croatia(where this is a bit of an intruder, as watches are only designed and sold in Croatia, but made in Germany), Slovakia, so, it is not a surprise that today my focus is Poland.