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.
I found a large selection of different models at incredibly low prices. Many of them were clearly better or worse homage versions of some iconic watches, though that wasn’t all they offered. Despite the wide range and low prices, I probably wouldn’t have bought anything if I hadn’t come across a section on their site labeled “Customize.” This section contains five models where, in addition to choosing case, dial, and bezel colors, and for some models even hand styles and colors, each customer can also define their own custom inscriptions. Specifically, one can define its own inscription/logo on the dial under 12 o’clock, its own inscription/logo above 6 o’clock, then its own inscription on the caseback, and at last its inscription on the rotor of the automatic movement, if it's visible. All stated for very little money. Well, that definitely caught my attention. My friend's birthday was coming up—he's also the most regular reader of my articles—and I thought, why not order a pair of watches dedicated to the Cinci Watches website? I decided to give it a try.
First, I had to choose which of the five watches I’d use as a base. I immediately ruled out the two diver models because they were too obviously homages to well-known divers (though I later found out you can change almost everything on them, which makes the homage aspect far less noticeable). Then I eliminated the two railway-style watches, since neither I nor my friend have any real connection to trains/railways. That left just the Compressor model AM7081M. I was slightly worried that this model might be too large for my friend, as it’s listed with a 42mm case diameter, but I eventually decided this would be the one I’d customize.
Let me be clear—I didn’t prepare seriously for the watch design! I don’t have any professionally made logo for my website or any polished graphic layout. So I decided the logo on the watch would just be a simple, curved “Cinci Watches” text, which I made using Word Art. I wanted the text to match the color of the bezel and for the bezel to contrast with the dial. After testing a few color combinations, I settled on a black dial and orange bezel. Therefore I also made the “Cinci Watches” inscription in orange.
Then I thought about what to put on the lower half of the dial, but ultimately decided to go with a very simple solution—nothing.
The caseback was easier. I just had to enter the text I wanted on the outer edge of the caseback and the text I wanted on the rotor. I wanted to emphasize that these were (only) two watches from the “same series,” but at the same time not label one as the first and the other as the second, while still making them unique. I ended up writing “Limited edition 1 out of 2 – made for” followed by the initials—mine on one and my friend’s on the other. On the rotor, I added the website address.
You can see what the whole process looked like during ordering in the screenshots from my computer.
The final step was choosing the strap. There were four options: silicone strap (black only), Milanese strap (4 variants), cowhide strap (3 colors), and stainless steel bracelet. I chose a silicone strap for myself and a bracelet for my friend. It's unusual that the price was the same regardless the strap choice! I confirmed the order (100 EUR per watch), and that was that.
A few days later, someone from Berny contacted me and sent me the final design of the watches to be confirmed before production. They hadn’t understood that I wanted the two watches to have different initials, so they put mine on both. They also didn’t follow my request to have the “Cinci Watches” inscription match the bezel color. When I asked for those two corrections, they replied that using a text color other than white or black would require an additional charge of 35 EUR per watch. That seemed unreasonable considering the price of the watch, so I agreed to white text. If I had known this beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have chosen the orange bezel but a white one instead.
When placing the order, I wasn’t entirely sure whether the price already included all taxes and import duties, or whether they would need to be paid upon arrival from China. Given the low price of the watches, this wasn’t a major concern. But I can confirm: the listed price of 100 EUR includes all import duties and is the final price. I should also add that shipping is free.
Due to the confusion with the initials, I was still a bit worried whether the watches would be made exactly as I had envisioned. That’s why, when opening the package, I looked like a small child eagerly unwrapping presents. But my worries were unnecessary. Everything was done exactly how I wanted.
As expected for the price, the box is small and very simple. But the watches themselves are incredibly well-made for the money. I was genuinely surprised by the quality of the bracelet, which could easily be found on much higher-end watches. In fact, for many brands, a bracelet of similar quality would likely cost more than the entire watch here.
Just a note: I didn’t remove the protective film from my friend’s watch, so the pictures might be a bit misleading. On all photos, the watch and bracelet are still wrapped in plastic protection.
Up to now, I haven’t mentioned the technical specs aside from the size, so here they are all in one place: stainless steel case with a 42mm diameter, sapphire crystal, L2L 49mm, thickness 14mm, strap width 20mm, WR 200 m. The watch uses a Miyota 8215 automatic movement with a hacking function.
The rubber strap with its imitation of the bracelet is interesting, but very long—too long. It’s completely unsuitable for smaller wrists, as the end of the strap would reach all the way to the top of the watch on the opposite side. Otherwise, it’s comfortable and pleasant to wear.
There’s not much to say about the movement itself—it’s Miyota’s basic automatic movement, so we can’t expect too much. Honestly, I didn’t even bother to measure its accuracy.
I also have to mention the lume, which is surprisingly good—again, far exceeding what you’d expect in this price range.
Let’s take a look at how the watches wear on the wrist. First, my watch on my wrist (with the rubber strap).
Now my friend’s watch on his wrist (his wrist is approx. 1.5 cm smaller than mine).
The watch can be worn normally on a smaller wrist as well, although the thickness is noticeable. Aside from the thickness, I also noticed one minor drawback: setting the bezel. The inner bezel is adjusted continuously using the screwed-in crown at 2 o’clock. The tricky part is that once the bezel is set in the desired position, locking it isn’t that simple. The only way to stop the bezel from moving is by screwing the crown back in. But before the thread catches and you start tightening the crown, it’s easy to move the bezel accidentally. So, getting the bezel set precisely on the marker takes some effort.
I won’t go into the discussion about dial design, colors, etc., this time, as the watch was made to my instructions within the available options. The only thing I’ll comment on is the date window—generally, I’m not a fan of triple-day displays anywhere. I’d much prefer to see only today’s date here too. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. Oh, and it's funny as day of the week offers two languages but both are set to English. It would be fun if the second language would be an option too!
Despite these minor shortcomings, I must end on a very positive note. This watch offers a lot for 100 EUR—and above all, it offers a ton of fun in designing your own model. So, if you seek for a little project that ends with either a unique piece on your wrist or a killer gift for someone I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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