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TimeTechTalk.com > Time Tech Talk > Time Talk > Watch News and Reviews > Corvus Bradley: One Week Review |
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TimeTechTalk.com > Time Tech Talk > Time Talk > Watch News and Reviews > Corvus Bradley: One Week Review |
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| Corvus Bradley: One Week Review | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Jun 7th, 2010 02:53 am |
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1st Post |
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enkidu 3T WIS
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Summary A solid military style watch with some unique touches; a kolsterized case and an optional sapphire bezel. The moderate size and solid case makes this a great everyday watch and the sapphire bezel helps add a touch of class that allows it go when you dress up a bit. Introduction I'd been looking at the Corvus Bradley for a while since it caught my eye on one of the forums. I like the simple classic dial with no date, the traditional hands and the fricker case added to the allure. The utilitarian Kolsterized case treatment meant it would last a while. The size of 41.3mm and relatively moderate 13.3mm height meant it would fit my seven-inch wrist although the 51.2mm gave me a bit of pause. That and the normal position of the crown and the fact that I spend a large amount of time at the computer keyboard makes the normal 3 o'clock position of crowns uncomfortable. When I asked Mike at Corvus what the cost would be for making a destro Bradley, he offered to make me one at the factory with the next batch for no additional cost. That was pretty much the part that made me pull the trigger. The nice USPS man dropped off the watch off last week and I started wearing it the same day. The destro option was a life saver and got rid of all of the discomfort while typing at my keyboard. I'm really enjoying this watch, especially on the Maratac Elite Composite strap in a 20mm true size with a hint of color in the blue stitching. I'm looking to get a couple of nice leather straps for more dressy occasions but haven't decided on which ones to get. Case The Kolsterized microblast surface is very fine and seems very tough. I have accidently smacked it pretty hard into a few doorways and although the doorways didn't fare that well, the surface remains unblemished. The case is comfortable on my wrist with only the back of the case touching and the lugs held about a millimeter above my wrist. The edges of the lugs, both top and bottom are pretty sharp, but are well finished with no tooling marks or blemishes. The 20mm lugs are drilled through and make changing straps very easy. As you can see, the watch fits nicely on my 7-inch wrist. Case Back The case back is much simpler than the original Corvus Bradley case backs I've seen. The Corvus crow faces sinister with wings addorsed. The only texts are "Corvus", "MIL-W-22176A" with "Serial No. ###". Dial and Hands The layout of the dial and hands is traditional, simple and very well laid out. The dial is the traditional mil-dot dial, triangle at 12 o'clock, bars at 3, 6 and 9 and dots for the other hour markers. Nice and simple minute track just outside of the dots where the minute and second hand just touch. The hour hand stops just slightly short of the bars and triangle. The hands look like basic Type I hands at first glance but have subtle differences in their finish: the tip of the hour hand is a 90-dgree angle and the minute hand is a 60 degree angle. The head of the seconds hand is like a standard Milsub sweep, but larger and much more visible. All three hands look white but glow blue. The dial hour markers all glow with a greenish-white. The dial black is matte black with no hint of reflection or matte texture. Bezel and Crystal The bezel markings are in my preferred 15-30-45 layout with major markers every five minutes and smaller "stealth" minute markers up to 15. The stealth markers aren't really that stealth although I'm not sure if that is a feature of my particular bezel, or a general appearance of the sapphire bezel. The sapphire on the bezel is domed and rises to just beneath the height of the domed crystal. The action of the 60-click unidirectional bezel is very positive and smooth with crisp clicks and practically no play when set. Personally, I would like the font on the bezel to be a little smaller, thinner and more square text, but this is a relatively small nit. Timekeeping The ETA 2824-2 itself has been running around 8-9 seconds fast per day but I figure it will take a couple of weeks for the movement to settle down. Since this will be my EDC for quite a while, I may spring for a complete adjustment after letting it break in for a few months. Specs Here are some specs (those measured by me marked with *): double-domed sapphire crystal with A/R on inside 3.5mm thick diameter 41.3mm height 13.3mm lug width 20mm lug-to-lug-edge 51.2mm 300m water resistance lug-to-lug-hole 46mm* dial diameter 27mm* crown diameter 6mm* Conclusion In conclusion, this is a solid watch with a great classic dial and a solid case. The sapphire bezel option adds a hint of luxury to the watch. The size and heft of the watch make it a great fit for my 7-inch wrist and the destro option keeps it very comfortable for me. Extra Here's an accessories shot, nerd points for being the first to identify both tools. Thanks Special thanks to Mike and Corvus Watches for being such a great guy throughout the process and getting me this great watch. Note, this review has been posted to other watch forums.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 7th, 2010 09:24 am |
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2nd Post |
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Nabco 3T WIS 
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Great review and pics 
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| Posted: Mon Jun 7th, 2010 09:43 am |
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3rd Post |
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natevan70 3T WIS 
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Nice review of a sharp looking watch! 
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| Posted: Mon Jun 7th, 2010 09:44 am |
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4th Post |
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KenC Admin 
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Very nice and very detailed review...haven't heard much about Corvus recently. While I find the watch interesting and the design particularly to my liking, there are other quality brands with virtually the same design (albeit with R/H crown & 316 stainless) at 1/2 the price.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 7th, 2010 03:51 pm |
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5th Post |
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enkidu 3T WIS
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KenC wrote:Very nice and very detailed review...haven't heard much about Corvus recently. While I find the watch interesting and the design particularly to my liking, there are other quality brands with virtually the same design (albeit with R/H crown & 316 stainless) at 1/2 the price.Thanks! Yes, the mkii Stingray and the Precista PR-50 are very similar. But neither has a kolsterized case or sapphire bezel. Additionally, the Precista's movement is non-hacking, although it is considerably more economical. If I had my druthers I'd have gotten the reissued Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms (one of the smaller versions) with a reversed crown :-). But that would've been a very long search and wait for funds to accumulate. I considered all of the above watches in my search: all classic dive watches along the pattern of the TR-900, I'm sure there are others I missed. I didn't want to buy used or vintage since I'm pretty new to the watch thing and wasn't sure of my ability to not get screwed. The Stingray and PR-50 are great watches also, but they didn't come with the complete package of features that the Bradley did. The BP Fifty-Fathoms is out of my price range, the standard version is o'er large and, of course, isn't available in a destro version. Following rules 1, 2, and 3 of the 25 rules for watch collectors, I chose the Corvus as a great watch for which I could pay cash and which called to me. Glad you liked the review!
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