First, this is the Stuhrling Symphony *Concierto Maestro* (Overstock has it incorrectly labeled as the Maestro II).
This watch is a real looker. It is truly beautiful and a pleasure to look at. It is a conversation piece. It has some really cool features: automatic, "waterproof" (more on this later), master time (24hr time, day of week, day of month, month), skeleton...
For about $250, this watch is a great deal too.
Other reviews focus on the positives, which I largely agree with. To supply some color, I'll mention a few nitpicks I have:
-The watch is about as thick as I can bear. Looking at it, they could have made it a little thinner -- there's some dead space in the unit. Don't get me wrong, it's not THAT thick. But it is on the big side.
-The band is okay, not great. I'm planning on replacing the leather band with a metal band.
-The month is not automatically set -- you have to set it every month. This is understandable (do you want the watch to be thicker?), but it wasn't clear upfront.
-Despite being rated "50M" the manual recommends against swimming with this watch. The leather band definitely won't be able to take chlorine or salt water. I wouldn't swim with this watch, though I wouldn't be scared if it got wet.
-The hands do not glow so it's a bit of a pain in the dark.
-It's hard to see any fast-moving parts from the front of the watch. The skeleton feature stands out more from the back because you can see more things moving.
-With blue hands (the one I have) it's pretty easy to read the time quickly, but the ones with hands that are the same color as the watch are a bit hard to read and take some getting used to.
-The "warped" text makes the day of the month kind of hard to read because the text gets really small on one side. The Maestro II doesn't have warped text, but it has a big winder, which I don't like, personally.
-The watch is only near-flawless. If you look really, really close, you can see a fleck or two of something that doesn't belong in the watch. Not a huge deal IMO, but worth mentioning.
-Nobody's ever heard of "Stuhrling" so you'll get "oohs and aahs" for the mechanical marvel that this watch is, but it's not a Rolex or an Omega (but then you're not paying for one either).
-The warranty's only 2 years.
One star off "Features" because month isn't automatic and one star off "Durability" because you shouldn't swim with it even though it's rated 50M.
All in all, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this or another Stuhrling watch for myself (which I already did) or for someone else as a gift.
- How often do you shop at Overstock.com? Few times a year
- Are you a Club O Member? No
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