Orbita Watch Winders are as quiet as you can expect to get in a Watch Winder. What is more, they stay quiet! Almost all (some cheap winders sold in airline magazines excepted) watch winders start out quiet, but it is only after 1,3 or 6 months that the gears start to grind and make noise.
Why? Well, the cheap watch winders use cheap gears. I read somewhere that the gears used in the cheap imported Chinese made watch winders cost like 25 cents! Whereas the gears in Orbita's Watch Winders cost 25% of the total cost of making the thing! Big difference. You really do get what you pay for! What do I mean by grind and make noise?
Noise you can hear across the room, under that pillow which is over your head! But not Orbita, they start whisper quiet and stay that way. Whisper quiet is the only way I can think to describe them. I mean, a discerning ear will pick up the slightest noise, but if you are bothered by it, well then falling leaves must wake you up at night!
I was up one night watching late night TV, I could not sleep, I had jet lag. I was flipping through the 100+ channels and nothing was on! I came across a TV channel selling watches, I watched. They had a special segment, they were offering a free winder with a watch, they were bragging about the winder and saying how quiet it was. I could here the motor over their talking!
I was aghast! I was talking to the Television. But, this is why there is such a price difference between a cheap watch winder and a quality quiet Orbita Watch Winder. Quiet is relative...they should have said "quiet, not as loud as a jack hammer in your bedroom!" That would have been truth in advertising!
But I have never once had one of the Orbita Watch Winders returned for being to loud, customers all the time tell me they bought a cheaper one, but just packed it up and sent it back because it was so loud they could not sleep.
Yes from time to time I hear a story about an Orbita Watch Winder getting noisy, or not working after years of service, and usually the guys follows it up with "and they [Orbita] fixed the thing for me!" Your mileage may vary, and I can not promise Orbita will take care of you the same way, but in my 6+ years of dealing with this company they have consistently proven them selves to be reliable, dependable and nice! (I am talking about the Staff at Orbita, not the winders! ;-) I truly doubt you would have a different experience. I have had a few people call and "pretend" to be "customers" and report this or that bad about Orbita, however when they say they were rude, I realize immediately I am not talking to a real customer, because even when they say no to a request the Orbita Corporation is not rude! Chuck Agnoff, the owner of Orbita would not stand for that, and the co-workers at Orbita would not tolerate a rude customer service rep in their midst. The Internet is such an anonymous place,but Orbita is real, they make real winders for the real world.
Does it matter how much I spend on a Watch Winder?
Yes, it matters! Does it matter how much you spend on a car? Yes!
There really is a difference and "good enough" is not a good motto. Come on how much did you spend on your watches?
I got this question for the one thousandth time the other day, and I about to explode!
I do not understand this in the least. How can someone with a $25,000 watch collection not want the best watch winder to maintain their watch?
Steinhausen advertises in the skymall magazine and has people fooled into thinking that their low price point is the appropriate price point for a watch winder. It is not! I can not tell you how many former clients of that company are now our clients!
Even in the winders we sell, if one costs more, it is better simple as that. There is no "luxury" status symbol for watch winders, no one sees your watchwinder, except you, so the "label" effect of say a "Gucci", or "Rolex" does not apply and so the price reflects the quality of the mechanical parts and finished materials. You get what you pay for!
I have to laugh, because my client base is not made up of people who can not afford to purchase the best winder, they (these 1,000 callers) just choose not to spend the money and instead put a priceless watch collection at risk. I just do not understand it. These men and women are smart in other areas, yet....oh well.
Fortuneatley for WatchCases.com the majority of owners of fine Swiss Watches are not so foolish and buy a quality watchwinder from us the first time without learning a lesson of throwing away money and wasted time on an inferior product...
My Grandmother used to say, "buy the best product you can afford"....this motto holds especially today!
Simple. Don't tell him "don't worry you can take it back"! Why on earth would you say such a thing?
I have women shop, read and read and call and ask me and research the perfect watch winder and then their man sends it back. Not because it is the wrong product, but simply because she makes the mistake of saying "you can send it back"....
So if you want him to keep it say...."I hope you like it, because I bought it a long time ago and you can't take it back"....then add you searched and read and researched and this seems to be the absolute best choice for his situation....;-)
Life is simple when you know how to word thing. Good luck with your gift shopping!
OK this is a story....a true story I feared I would never be able to tell...When I tell people what I do they are almost always confused... after 20 minutes of explanation I get "you sell watches"? "No. I sell watch winders and watch boxes"....starting over... "But watches have batteries"...never mind.....
Not everyone owns an Automatic Watch, or even a watch for that matter now a days, but I have a friend (acquaintance might be a better term, but...anyway), he is an older guy, long retired. He owns a Rolex and a nice house and likes otherwise to buy cheap things! He loves to save money on the front end...
He always brags about the money he saves on this or that...he is a college professor, or rather was, but still at heart can't shake the air of superiority syndrome some professors seem to elude, please don't take offense. I elude that same smug obnoxious confidence, sometimes myself, ha ha...anyway.
When my friend learned what I do, he said he had researched watch winders and found in the Sky Mall magazine a watch winder that was much cheaper than the stuff I sold....he asked my opinion on them I told him, he was right they are much "cheaper" than the stuff I sell, I also explained it would die and early death, that you get what you pay for.... he bought it anyway....months went buy, maybe it was close to a year, he kept telling me how great it was working winding his and his wife's matching Rolex watches. I noticed she would just look on and shake her head ever so slightly...then finally when I had almost given up hope...his wife, egging him on at a dinner party got him to admit to me 2 things.
1.) His Rolex (and hers too) was in the shop for repair and
2.) the watch winder had stopped working, but only after it started making so much noise they could not stand it...so its untimely death was a relief...
He has not placed an order for a watch winder from us yet, and I plan to sell it at full price for the tormenting I took while we waited for his cheap watch winder to break his watches and then to die....(OK, I do not know for certain that his cheap winder broke his watches, all I know is they needed servicing because they stopped working for some reason!) But his wife is pretty sure the winder did the deed. Ha Ha...Watching them fight without fighting is amusing.
I suppose I should give him a trouble free Orbita Watch Winder for proving me correct! Nah!....he was so cock assured about it for months. I simply smugly replied "whad I tell ya?"...ugh....ha ha...anyway, remember friends you get what you pay for and what comes around goes around!
As August begins to wind down, that means schools are about to start. College students begin to pack and shop for necessary items (of if you're like me, you've been packed since July...) for their studies, dorm rooms and fashion to impress their new college friends.
Many students load themselves up with college gear bearing the name or logo of their University. While doing some college shopping of my own, I stumbled upon the Collegiate watches by FOSSIL.
These are watches that bear the name and/or logo from different universities on the watch face. The watch strap and bezel are made of metal, and come in men's and women's styles. There was even a charm bracelet style!
So before you or your loved one ship off to college, be prepared not only for studying and dorm life, but looking sharp and spirited as well.
The pop art of Andy Warhol is still popular even twenty years after his death. I remember when I went to the Museum of Modern Art a few years ago, there was a huge section dedicated just to his work. It's found in movies, television, clothing and even in watches.
Two years ago, the watch company Seiko released a line of watches in Japan modeled after the art of Andy Warhol. The watch faces contain images of his famous paintings, such as the bright yellow banana.
Musician, dancer and actress Jennifer Lopez created her own clothing and fragrance line a few years ago called justsweet. This month, the line is having a huge sale on summer lines, including the watches.
Most of the watches are fairly unconventional for wristwatches, with charm bracelet watches, watches in the shape of locks, and even watches on necklaces.
The sale on watches is featured on the homepage of the website, with a picture of the Interchangeable Pendant watch, a red heart shaped watch on a necklace. The bezel of the watch has interchangeable patterns and colors, thus the title. The price has been knocked down from $95 to $30. Now that is an impressive sale.
Marc Ecko is predominately known for colorful, almost graffiti like shoe designs, sponsored by celebrities like Vanessa Hugdens and Ashley Tisdale. He also designs hoodies, t-shirts and accessories like watches. Most of his products are sold at Macy's stores.
Like the rest of his designs, his watches are edgy and different. Many of his watch faces have skulls, and one of his most interesting watches is actually part of a dog tag necklace set. Most of his watches are predominantly designed for men, but there are many that I'm sure girls would not mind wearing.
Some of the watches come in watch case sets, that come with a watch, a box and interchangeable watch straps. Just in case you want to wear your favorite watch, but the strap doesn't match you ensemble.
From watches to shoes, Marc Ecko designs are definitely different and creative!
I absolutely love the show "Project Runway" on the Bravo channel. It's so exciting to watch the designers have to create outfits from interesting and different materials in a very limited time. The judging after the runway show is always incredibly nail-biting, with the judges ranging from the harsh, not-so-nice criticism of Nina, a former fashion editor, to the harsh but funny criticism of Michael Kors, a designer.
I looked up some of Mr. Kors' designs on Macy's website, to see if he truly deserved to be a judge on that show... and let me tell you, his designs were beautiful. He definitely knows what he's doing.
His dresses adorable, his bedding designs were fun, and his watches were creative but not tacky. The watches ranged from having brown tortoise straps and bezel, to textured goldtone, to simple stainless steel and leather. All the watch faces were pretty straightforward and not complicated, which I enjoyed as a difference from overly decorated watches.
My favorite watch was the White Strap watch, which had a mix of white, gold and intricate black designs around the bezel. It was feminine and simple, with a hint of elegance.
The MICHAEL lines by Michael Kors overall is very fun, and Mr. Kors more than deserves to be a judge on "Project Runway".
Japanese culture and technology are becoming very popular all over the world, and the United States is no exception. From laptops to cameras to televisions: the world of technology seems futuristic across the Pacific. Even their watches seem as if they belong in the future.
Toykoflash has a unique mix of Japanese designed watches. From the seemingly normal to the outright creative and colorful, these watches make quite a statement. My personal favorite is the Shinshoku watch, which is, as the Tokyoflash website states, a stainless steel band that has 29 LED lights that give the time. It took me a few moments of staring at the picture to finally understand how the watch actually tells the time, but once I did, it was so amazing. 12 Red lights give the hour, 3 green lights give 15, 30 and 45 past, and 14 yellow lights to give the minutes. You even have a choice of checking the time normally, or having the lights animated.
The Shinshoku watch and the other watches look as if they belong in a sci-fi movie! Leave it to Japan to design a watch so ahead of its time.
Designer Betsey Johnson recently debuted a fashion show online this past month. She had a large array of new dresses, handbags, and accessories, including watches. Johnson is known for her cutting edge, and colorful designs: her watches are no different.
One of the watches has a black resin heart shaped case, and colorful stones around the bezel. The second hand of the watch has an adorable little pink heart at the tip. Each watch is pictured on a pink pillow in a gold colored watch case with rose engravings.
The watch is cute and fun, an excellent gift for a special young lady in your life. Since the watch is black, it's good for the upcoming cool weather seasons (fingers crossed that those are soon!) and would match most anything.
