So it's been a few days of living with the Lorier Hyperion Skyward now, and I thought I'd try to capture some of my initial thoughts and reactions to it if anyone cares to read. A few starting points:
1.) This is the first mechanical watch I've ever bought for myself. I have a few others that I've received as gifts, but this is the first one I'm laying out my own money for. I am not really planning on making buying watches a regular habit, but I'm sure tons of other people have said the same thing about tons of other hobbies. 😀
2.) I am by nature kind of a pedantic/nitpicky/detail-oriented person when it comes to stuff I'm interested in, so I don't want people to think that I'm complaining strongly about anything. Overall after a few days I am very satisfied with the purchase (which may also be cognitive bias but that's how I'm feeling now), especially when factoring in the relative price of this watch compared to its direct competitors on the market.
With that....
First off - the size. One of the reasons I specifically went with the Hyperion over the Hydra was because of the size specs. The 44mm Casio Duo Marlin looks pretty huge on my wrist (which is around 6 1/4" or so), and the 41mm wide x 37mm tall Omega Geneve Dynamic fits quite nicely but partly I think because it's an oblong shape. Also from a thickness standpoint the Hydra is like 14.6mm vs. 12.7mm for the Hyperion, and given that both the Casio and Omega are around 12mm or so, I was concerned that anything thicker would have issues fitting under shirt cuffs and stuff if I ever dressed up a bit.
So from a size perspective, the Hyperion overall came out of the box giving me the impression that it was smaller than I had expected. I think this is partly due to the fact that I've just been looking at online reviews and videos that zoom in way close on watches, and overall that has given me a magnified expectation. Having it be a little smaller in the flesh is a good thing IMO, and it actually looks thinner than it is compared with the Omega because the domed crystal on the Omega is so much more pronounced. On a side note, the crown on the Hyperion doesn't look as proportionally big either as it did in videos and pics. Extremely satisfied with size overall.
Next up (and I'm not going in any real particular priority order here, just as things occur to me) - the bracelet. Another deciding factor for the Hyperion over the Hydra for me was that the new 5 link Hyperion bracelet looked a little more distinctive and dressier compared to the traditional 3 link that Lorier had been using on all of their models previously. On the looks side of things, it definitely came through on my expectations, although again based on pics and videos I was expecting the links to look a little thicker than they are in real life.
Sizing the bracelet was not difficult at all. Kind of nice that they include a screwdriver for folks that don't already have a mini set of screwdrivers. The hinges on the links are not completely buttery-smooth; you can feel a little roughness here and there especially since all of the links are fully articulated and there's a wide range of motion. I'm expecting that things will smooth out a bit with some wear. Definitely doesn't feel cheap, but again the links were not as hefty as I had been expecting. I did notice some hair pulling the first couple of days, but I think as my weaker wrist hairs have been culled from the herd and as I've made a couple of small adjustments to the bracelet size this has largely gone away. Also for the first full day of wearing, I missed taking the plastic sticker off the caseback, so things were a little stickier under there!
Next - the dial and hands. I went with the Skyward white dial model for a few reasons. One, I'm not big on gold/gilt colored stuff just as a taste/preference, so I didn't know if I would really like the dark face/gilt hands/markers of the standard Hyperion. Plus most of my other watches have dark faces already, so I figured this would be an opportunity to mix things up. Maybe if there had been an option to get a dark face with silver hands like the first Hyperions I would have gone for that combo. Finally, the Skyward is billed as a "special edition" that's produced in smaller batches (although Lorier told me that they had been planning on making roughly equal numbers of the regular vs. Skyward editions for this production run), so I thought it might be nice to have a less common color combo. Again overall I think it looks really nice. I especially like that the text/logo printing on the dial is very small and discreet relative to the rest of the dial. The large white expanse stands out very nicely, and I only notice the text if I'm really looking for it.
The one thing I would point out as a negative that I had wondered about as I was deciding which model to get was whether the white dial would affect quick legibility. Based on a few days wear, I think it does, but not necessarily solely because of the white dial. I think it's actually more due to the reflective silver hands. Depending on the angle that I look at the watch at and what I have surrounding me, like for example if it catches the reflection of a white ceiling, it can be difficult to quickly read the hands, especially as the watch is rotating toward me, since they kind of blend into the white dial. Once I'm looking straight on at the watch, under most circumstances the hands seem to reflect a darker color that makes them stand out against the white dial much more. I'm guessing I'll just get used to this over time. Having said that, I really love the minute hand - it comes to a great precise point that hits the minute markers in a way that I find very aesthetically pleasing.
On the topic of hands, this is my first and only (so far - hah!) GMT watch. Again I think this is something I'll get used to over time, but my brain keeps seeing the GMT hand as the seconds hand on first glance, and it takes a couple of seconds to register the actual seconds hand, which not only has the same reflection issue as the hour and minute hands but is super hair thin as well.
I guess from there it's a good segue to lume. Overall when fully charged up this lume is the brightest watch I've ever owned. I'll put another aside at this point to say that my eyesight is awful. Seriously terrible. I'm able to get to 20/20 corrected with glasses and/or contacts, but add on middle aged onset of other vision problems, and take things that I say about low light visibility with a few grains of salt. Anyway, I was very interested to see how the 2 tone lume on the Lorier would work out, and in general even when fully charged I can't really tell the color difference at arm's length. It's much more apparent in a pic or if I take off my glasses and look up close. The size of the lume plots on the hour and seconds hands makes them a little difficult to see for me. I know that Lorier recently redesigned their hour and minute hands specifically to "be more distinct, making for better low-light legibility." And they definitely are distinct, but I wonder if I would be able to see the old hour hand better since it had more lume area. On a similar note, again for me the second hand is not hugely visible in the dark because it's such a tiny lumed area. Again overall it's still the brightest lume out of all my watches, but keep in mind I'm comparing it to a few Casios in the $50-120 range and a 1969 Omega where the tritium-based lume is completely (and understandably) non-functional at this point.
Last point on the watch face itself - I know it's only been a few days, but the alternating roulette black/red numbers on the date wheel are fun. 😀
Next, the bezel. It's a 24-click bidirectional 24 hour bezel. Again this is my first GMT watch, so I have no real points of comparison for 24 hour bezels, but as far as the action itself is concerned, it seems positive and solid, just a tiny bit of wiggle when at rest. If I'm being _REALLY_ nitpicky (I warned you at the beginning), the alignment might be the TINIEST bit off, but I'd have to zoom in pretty close to be sure. Even if so, given the other threads I've seen here about people talking about misalignment on brand new Omega bezels, I don't think it's anything to complain about IMO.
When I first was thinking through whether to get the Hyperion or Hydra, one thing I brought up was that I really didn't think I'd have much occasion to ever actually track a 3rd time zone with a rotating GMT bezel. I think that's still true (although haven't traveled to any other time zone in a while - hope to start again soon), so I don't really see myself rotating the bezel much other than just as something to fidget with, but then again it has only been a few days of GMT ownership for me. I'm still learning how to quickly read the GMT hand time zone itself, let alone with a rotated bezel. 😀 Maybe after that gets ingrained for me and I actually go travel somewhere the rotating bezel will become indispensable!
OK, let's get into the movement. I had read that the Miyota movements could have noticeably loud automatic rotors. I had also read that the 9075 wasn't as loud as other Miyotas. If I hold the watch in my hand and wave it back and forth to spin the rotor, I can definitely hear it. In comparison, the 752 in my Omega is virtually silent. But the other automatic rotors I have in other watches are easily on par with this Miyota. I'm certainly not hearing it at arm's length as I walk around by any stretch of the imagination. I know my hearing is definitely better than many folks I know, again especially as we are hitting middle agedness, but obviously my hearing is not as good as other people's as well.
Winding the movement has not the smoothest feeling to it. I can hear/feel the gears all working together as I wind. I wouldn't say that it feels rough per se, but I definitely don't get a luxury kind of feel from it. And again to be fair I wasn't expecting one. On a side note here I will say that the smoothness of the threads when screwing the the crown on and off does have more of a rough feel. After a couple of days I can feel it smoothing out a bit with wear, and I also have to take into account that some of the graininess when screwing the crown back on I think is coming from the fact that the movement is getting wound as well, but I have to say that the crown threads on my Casio Duro have been silky-smooth since day 1.
Getting into movement accuracy, again it's only been a few days, so I'm anticipating as the watch and I settle into a regular rhythm we'll see some changes over time, but overall I am very pleased. The official specs on the Miyota 9075 are -10/+30 seconds per day. Lorier says that they do some regulation on assembly with a target of -5/+12 seconds per day. I don't have access to an actual timegrapher, but on the first night I left it fully wound dial up for about 8 hours, and it gained ~4 seconds, so that's right at the +12 spd neighborhood. Wearing it regularly throughout the day, it seems to gain ~2-3 seconds over the course of a day (I'm not a hugely active person - mostly sitting at a desk and walking for a couple miles per day all told), and if I leave it crown up overnight, it basically stays right on time or loses a second or two. Still need to gather more data at different states of wind, but if I can basically keep it on time by gaining a couple seconds throughout the day and then keeping it crown up at night, that's easy as pie to deal with and will pretty much not have to reset it at any regular frequency. Overall in this respect assuming this pattern holds I'm more than satisfied.
I have not done a full power reserve test, but I'm guessing given my experience with the nominal 50 hour power reserve in my Omega (actual reserve is usually ~47-48 hours) and my activity levels, I'll be doing a supplemental wind every couple of of days with this Miyota's nominal 42 hour power reserve.
The 4Hz frequency of the movement gives a noticeably smoother sweep action than the 2.5Hz 752 in my Omega. Kind of neat to just look at.
Last major observation - the Hesalite crystal and bezel look great. No visible scratches yet, but I did take the Polywatch and cloth that came with the Lorier and cleaned up the plastic crystal on my most recent Casio Wave Ceptor with years of accumulated scratches of varying depths. There's one deep gouge that didn't come out, but the rest of it looks amazing. So I'm not worried at all about polishing out scratches that will appear on the Hyperion crystal (and no need to tape off the bezel while polishing since it's also Hesalite).
OK, some final random thoughts:
The cardboard of the box was thinner than I had expected it to be, again just based of what I had seen in video reviews and such. It's not bad quality or anything that I'm disappointed by, just something that made a tiny impression. Overall the way the packaging is put together feels good. If you look inside the lid there's a strip of reinforcing cardboard at the top that I believe also stops the lid from going all the way down which is needed because the watch itself as packaged looks like it would be above the lip of the lower part of the box. Attention to detail is noted and appreciated!!
I really like the feel of the included microsuede pouch.
If I hadn't seen the personalized note that Lorier includes in video reviews, I would have been supremely delighted when I found mine. As it is, I was still delighted. This is coming from someone who rarely ever found his name on the racks of personalized souvenirs in travel gift shops as a kid, so anytime something is personalized, I'm all over it.
I elected not to go for the engraving service for $35 extra because if I had ended up returning the watch there would have been an extra restocking fee, plus I had no idea what I'd really want to put on there. So the caseback is a blank canvas at the moment.
Have not gotten the Hyperion wet yet, but the 100M water resistance is reassuring. I don't wear my Omega if I think there's any chance of it getting wet, given that it's only rated at like 30m and that's when it was brand new in 1969. I've had it serviced but especially given sentimental value I don't want to risk it.
The 1 year warranty does seem on the low end considering that many of the competitors offer 2 year standard warranties. Obviously I hope I don't have to contact Lorier for actual customer service/support, but I am comforted by the fact that their service/support levels are universally lauded all around. Even when I just had pre-sales questions, I got very detailed and non-form letter responses very quickly, so I have no reason to be worried if I actually do need to avail myself of support.
So to sum up - very happy with the watch!
If you've read this far, wow thanks for reading. 😀
