My first "pilot" watch; The Aristo Flieger Automatic 3H114. Powered by the Swiss ETA 2824-2 Automatic movement.
The dial is similar to the vintage German flieger watch. Clean dial with luminous markers and luminous sword hands.
The 42mm stainless steel case is finished to a very high German standard. The stainless steel case is sand blasted to the right amount to give it the vintage looks. The short angled lugs aids in the wear comfort. It comes with a huge diamond shaped crown.The display case-back allows you to admire the Aristo signed movement at work. The watch comes with a brown padded leather strap.
As highlighted earlier, it uses the Swiss ETA 2824-2 Automatic Movement. The hour, minute and second hands plus the hour and minute markers are luminous. It also comes with an extra large push-in flieger crown.
It has a black dial with Arabic numbering. The bezel is bead blasted and it has a hardened mineral crystal for the face. Dimension wise, it is 42mm diameter, 47mm including crown.
It has a date at the 3 O'clock position. The case is sand blasted stainless steel and comes with a display case back. It has a water resistant rating of 50m. The strap is thick brown padded leather.
The history behind this watch brand started in the early 20th century. In 1907, Julius Epple in Pforzheim, Germany, founded the company ARISTO. For three generations, the enterprise went under the name Julius Epple, ARISTO Uhren- und Uhrgehausefabrik. In the beginning of the 90's, Helmut Epple, the grandchild of Julius Epple managed more than 100 co-workers. Because none of the descendants of the family could further the business, he sold the company to the trust enterprise UTW Uhrentechnik Weimar. In 1998, Helmut Epple found a suitable successor, Hansjarg Vollmer, which acquired the trademark of ARISTO Watch GmbH.
Below is a picture of the watch on my wrist.
Investment for this watch is RM1,212.71.
My Personal Opinion:I bought this watch from a reputable AD in Singapore via the internet. When I got the watch, it came in a small longish cardboard box just big enough to fit the watch. A small booklet is the only other thing in the box. Ummm, something quite unexpected - even a basic Seiko 5 watch comes in a nice presentation box - and that is a relatively cheap (but high quality) watch.
To make the initial experience even more exasperating - it didn't work! Had to waste an additional week to sent it back to Singapore for a replacement.
Although my experience thus far has been jaded, I decided to give it chance.
It looks hardy and it feels hardy - I guess, I must be one of the only few people in the world that had the unfortunately experience of getting a dud Swiss ETA 2824-2 movement.
However, for a German engineered and manufactured instrument of precision, I got a problem with the QC.
The first obvious problem was the quality of the painting of the lume on the dial. There are smudges at the edges. You can just about see the smudge at the bottom of the lumed triangle at the 12 o'clock position. Moreover, the shadows along the numbers are actually smudges (not the effect of an unfocussed camera).
The second problem is that the "painter" could not even follow the guide print that must have been printed on the dial prior to adding the lume. The number "3" is blatantly obvious. You can clearly see them missing the ends of the number "3" in the photo below. From the picture, you can see the uptick (and downtick) of the ends of the number 3. This is not lumed but the tracing line of the number "3". Instead of following the tracing line, the painter of the lume (here I assume it is done by hand, it could be done by a robot), the ends of the the lumed "3" stops at the edge of the date window. In fact, it should continue on. Now, what you can still see is the
plain white tracing line of number "3".
