Alternative Pro Diver, What Do You Think?

Jones in LA · Jan 21, 2016

Archer
Just on ethical grounds, I would never buy an Invicta. As a watch, they are probably no worse than any other contract manufactured Chinese junk watch would be, but the marketing tactics they use are something I can't stomach.

And yes you had a bad experience with your Omega, but I would encourage you to Google "Invicta customer support" and read how well they support their product. I think you will appreciate your Omega experience much more after that...

I'm curious @Archer what it is about Invicta's marketing tactics that is repulsive to you. It's such pure form of capitalism and international commerce that I find their business absolutely fascinating. If I happen to see an Invicta segment on QVC I find myself mesmerized by all that glittering, polished and brushed metal, and glass (and the unbounded enthusiasm -- probably feigned-- of the presenters) and wonder how that stuff can be manufactured, shipped, marketed, and sold for such a low cost. The interview I referenced above with Invicta's founder shows someone who's utterly unpretentious, and completely honest about his objectives. He wants to sell watches that make a lot of people happy and sell them at a very affordable price. Would I buy an Invicta? Of course not -- it would not make me happy at all. But there are no doubt millions of Invicta customers out there who very, very happy with what's on their wrist. A work colleague of mine, who makes a comfortable six-figure income, wears a gigantic, frighteningly garish Invicta watch that his wife gave him as a gift. I've observed that watch for 5+ years and it's still going strong, and doesn't look beat up at all. I'd say there is an extremely high satisfaction-to-cost ratio in a case like this.

gatorcpa · Jan 21, 2016

It's a business. No one is required to like them.

Obviously, enough people do to keep them solvent.

Seiko makes plenty of knock-offs, too. No difference there, IMO.

Their customer service sucks because it doesn't pay for them to service a $60 watch either. So they either replace it (for a few more $$$) or tell you to throw it out.

Now, anyone who spends more than $60 for an Invicta ought to have their sanity checked.

That's another matter entirely.
gatorcpa

Taddyangle · Jan 21, 2016

More than $60?

This one lists for $13,000, but I can get it for $2,650....with box and papers.

Screaming deal!

Archer · Jan 21, 2016

gatorcpa
It's a business. No one is required to like them.

Obviously, enough people do to keep them solvent.

Seiko makes plenty of knock-offs, too. No difference there, IMO.

Their customer service sucks because it doesn't pay for them to service a $60 watch either. So they either replace it (for a few more $$$) or tell you to throw it out.

Now, anyone who spends more than $60 for an Invicta ought to have their sanity checked.

That's another matter entirely.
gatorcpa

You have made these points before in previous Invicta threads, and of course I agree completely. The fact they make watches that look like other watches has absolutely zero to do with the problems I have with them as a company.

Jones in LA
I'm curious @Archer what it is about Invicta's marketing tactics that is repulsive to you. It's such pure form of capitalism and international commerce that I find their business absolutely fascinating. If I happen to see an Invicta segment on QVC I find myself mesmerized by all that glittering, polished and brushed metal, and glass (and the unbounded enthusiasm -- probably feigned-- of the presenters) and wonder how that stuff can be manufactured, shipped, marketed, and sold for such a low cost. The interview I referenced above with Invicta's founder shows someone who's utterly unpretentious, and completely honest about his objectives. He wants to sell watches that make a lot of people happy and sell them at a very affordable price. Would I buy an Invicta? Of course not -- it would not make me happy at all. But there are no doubt millions of Invicta customers out there who very, very happy with what's on their wrist. A work colleague of mine, who makes a comfortable six-figure income, wears a gigantic, frighteningly garish Invicta watch that his wife gave him as a gift. I've observed that watch for 5+ years and it's still going strong, and doesn't look beat up at all. I'd say there is an extremely high satisfaction-to-cost ratio in a case like this.

It can be made, marketed, and shipped for such a low cost because most of it is pretty much junk. Having said that, the company has made a few watches early on (after their revival as a brand name in the 90's) when they made a few decent watches that were priced reasonably. One looked very much like a Submariner, but used an ETA movement and I know some people who have them and have been very happy with them. It seems somewhere not long after the company was reformed, that things went off the rails though...

And I'm sure there are plenty of happy Invicta customers, but I have to consider if they are happy because they bought a top quality product, or because they feel like they got such a screaming deal because a watch with a huge MSRP was sold to them for a small fraction of that MSRP, and they have no clue that said MSRP was completely fictitious?

If you admire such tactics that's up to you, but to bring this back to gator's point of comparison, if Seiko sold their watches with ridiculously inflated MSRP's and deep discounts to deceive buyers, I'd feel the same way about them as I do Invicta. Fortunately they are ethical enough not to do such things, which is why I have owned several Seikos, but will never own an Invicta.

Cheers, Al

nightowl · Jan 21, 2016

Taddyangle
More than $60?

This one lists for $13,000, but I can get it for $2,650....with box and papers.

Screaming deal!

You would be a fool not to buy it at such a price! You can buy ten, and sell nine with profit!

Jhh834 · Jan 22, 2016

I bought a cheap Invicta GMT for a quick international trip and promptly sold it as soon as I returned home. Did it keep time and serve it's function? Yes. Did it have quality fit and finish? No. There were uneven gaps and edges all over the watch. It served it's purpose for me on a two week trip, but I wouldn't want it or any of their other models long term.

ulackfocus · Jan 22, 2016

I have a super limited edition box of Kleenex that listed for $100 but they made a special deal just for me and took 99% off. 🙄

vadimo · Jan 23, 2016

I might get bashed but don't other high end watches also take design cues from each other? In that case people tend to not to discuss this and only do so when a cheaper brand doing so.

For example there is Tag that looks like modem Omega Seamaster 300.

Would I choose Omega over this low end product? Yes but there was a time when I was happy with rotary watch as it did what it supposed do, good price and it looked good for me. Then I stopped wearing watches and only got into it again as my wife almost forced me to buy it, I just couldn't stop thinking that price is 3 monthly mortgage payments and I don't really feel like I need watch, here I am very pleased and used to wearing it. I find it now an incovience to check time by turning my phone on.

M.D. · Jan 23, 2016

I don't think anyone has an issue taking design cues from other brands. The issue is slapping a high msrp on something that is completely made up and then "discounting" to fool people into thinking they're getting a quality product for cheap when they're really getting a poor product and probably overpaying for it. It's the deceit that is the issue. And the fact most of us here like a quality product.

M.D. · Jan 23, 2016

Also, I'm not sure you can say Tag is a low end product. Not in Omegas space IMO, but to say it's low end implies it's closer to Invicta since we're in this thread which is way off base.

vadimo · Jan 23, 2016

M.D.
Also, I'm not sure you can say Tag is a low end product. Not in Omegas space IMO, but to say it's low end implies it's closer to Invicta since we're in this thread which is way off base.

I never said Tag was low end I used it as an example

VetPsychWars · Jan 23, 2016

I have a WWI-vintage Invicta movement. 10 jewels! (10?)

Free to anyone who will pay the postage. One jewel failed, so Mr CMW drilled the plate and stuck a HUGE modern jewel in it.

Tom

M.D. · Jan 23, 2016

vadimo
I never said Tag was low end I used it as an example

That doesn't really make any sense. You don't think it's low end, but you said it was low end as an example?

Mouse_at_Large · Jan 24, 2016

For a cheap (semi) pro diver, possibly look at http://orientwatchusa.com/collections/mens-watches/diver. Decent looks, in-house auto movements, pretty good build quality by all accounts and generally available at discounts from most outlets. I picked up a second hand blue Mako as a holiday beater for precisely nothing.

But that's another story 😎

vadimo · Jan 24, 2016

Mouse_at_Large
For a cheap (semi) pro diver, possibly look at http://orientwatchusa.com/collections/mens-watches/diver. Decent looks, in-house auto movements, pretty good build quality by all accounts and generally available at discounts from most outlets. I picked up a second hand blue Mako as a holiday beater for precisely nothing.

But that's another story 😎

Wow really nice watch, shame only in USA.

Mouse_at_Large · Jan 24, 2016

vadimo
Wow really nice watch, shame only in USA.

Have a look on Amazon or other stockists. I'm not in the USA 🙄

ulackfocus · Jan 24, 2016

Mouse_at_Large
Have a look on Amazon or other stockists. I'm not in the USA 🙄

M-a-L, did you install your avatar or was it assigned?

Spacefruit · Jan 24, 2016

A watch is a watch.

Quality is quality.

I make no critism of a person's decision to buy an invicta for $89 nor a Gerorge Daniels hand made watch for $250,000.

All of my watches, well except for a few real dogs (a frustratingly broken Poljot), give me pleasure of ownership. If the invicta could give me that pleasure I might buy one. I don't think it could because I have discovered the joy of owning quality. I am also able to divine something, I don't know what it is, from handling and holding the watch - an ethos of manufacturing perhaps, that I appreciate, in my vintage Omegas particularly.

Now I have to say I don't get any pleasure from handling a new Rolex either. In fact I regard new rolexes and invictas in the same, undesirable category - of course the quality is very different, but the background manufacturing and supply techniques of both, for different reasons, give me no joy. I say this while having spent the day in Hong Kong, surrounded by very intense luxury branding, that really has destroyed any illusions about a new watch. Imagine how much of a new rolex's price goes to marketing and sponsorship, then rents and corporate costs? I find it abhorrent, along with all modern brands. Omega included.

If someone wears an invicta near me, I say nothing.

If they say, look at my beautiful watch, what do you think? I say, how nice you enjoy it. Then I ask them to hold the watch I am wearing and compare the two.

Nobody wakes up one day able to appreciate high quality without education. It would be kind if that education was gently encouraging rather than through ridicule.

I would say buy the invicta and learn first hand why they do not give me pleasure.

I do find it amusing that someone on WUS bought a second hand Invicta.....that says so much

KCScott · Jan 24, 2016

While Invicta's modern watches are not of high quality, I have a nice vintage example from the sixties that has aged with a nice patina that I quite like.

ulackfocus · Jan 24, 2016

KCScott
While Invicta's modern watches are not of high quality, I have a nice vintage example from the sixties that has aged with a nice patina that I quite like.

Alternative Pro Diver, What Do You Think?

Jones in LA

gatorcpa

Taddyangle

Archer

nightowl

Jhh834

ulackfocus

vadimo

M.D.

M.D.

vadimo

VetPsychWars

M.D.

Mouse_at_Large

vadimo

Mouse_at_Large

ulackfocus

Spacefruit

KCScott

ulackfocus

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