German watches from Russia: a review of Steinmeyer quartz watches

Good evening, dear readers!

Today I will show another rather interesting watch brand, Steinmeyer, which is now practically not supported by the creators. The creators of it, most likely, are already familiar to us, and all the threads again lead to a company that is known on the market for the brands L’Duchen (Swiss Made), Gryon and others.

Among other things, there is even an “Italian” Rivaldy watch, a review of which I offered to read. Now Steinmeyer watches, apparently, are already “in the past”, their website is disabled, and in general it is typical for owners to launch brands, and then forget about them, launching new ones. Everything has a life cycle, of course.

The positioning of these watches is sporty, and the truly sporty design of most models, both mechanical and quartz, is what distinguishes them, because the classics are completely absent. This sequence is quite understandable: there are suit watches in the portfolio, there are “vintage” ones, and sports ones are also needed, and at the same time they are all of approximately the same quality as assembled in China.

These watches also became German, probably not by chance: there were already Swiss, Italian, there were Russian ones (it is believed that the Cosmos brand is a project of the same company), so the matter remained small: Germany is the cradle of watchmaking after all.

Watch design

It is also worth noting that “Germanness” in the mass market allows you to save a lot without obliging you to use a certain type of caliber, and therefore in such tandems, such as “Adriatica — Pierre Rico”, for example, the last, German brand, should be understood as a brand, inside which Japanese mechanisms. Moreover, they are quite budgetary, and I would say that they are the most budgetary, which they try to hide with a good overall design.

In these penny watches (the cost was about 1200 rubles), this is also felt. The design is very decorative, which, of course, is not good. The bezel here is static, for example. But in general, it cannot be said that the design is poorly thought out. The colors echo, and even the contrasting arrows have a stitching that rhymes with them on the strap.

The dial seems to be of high quality, complex, and the numbers here turn towards the viewer, which is correct for a sports watch, and in general, a quick glance reveals in this watch an ordinary instrument made in the style of a sports watch.

And yet, in a sporting sense, the watch will not be very comfortable: the hour markers are large, the minute marks are almost invisible, the bezel marks — white on white — are not readable at all. Style in this watch still wins functionality.

Materials and assembly

Here it must be said that «the plastic world has won.» Housing, glass — plastic. This does not add to the reliability of the case.

However, the back cover here is steel and reinforced with screws. By the way, it was done decently, and, probably, this made it possible to promise the WR100 in terms of water resistance.

I do not really believe in these WR100s, because the crown of these watches is too flimsy, it does not screw down, and, probably, during active operations under water, it can fail.

What’s under the lid

Here you can observe the «Chinese classics», when a miniature quartz caliber is glued to the huge disk of the dial from the back. Here, in the “German” watch, this is Miyota without stones, the simplest and cheapest. You can watch it, and at the same time how the watch sits on your hand, in the video:

This is an absolutely ingenuous mechanism, which, admittedly, does not always behave correctly in all watches. In Steinmeyer, by the way, everything is not so bad, and even the second hand does not have a classic tremor, but goes quite smoothly and stably.

It’s funny, but again, this is a good watch.

Of course, they are nothing: without charisma, without history, a purely commercial project, but at the same time they are made at the level of “no worse than the rest”.

Their problem is that they only “take away” something from the watch industry without adding anything to it, and therefore wearing them in the end is not interesting, despite the fact that the design here is quite successful. Look in the signature: there is a link to TG and VK, where I sometimes talk about watches.

Good evening!