Have you ever renovated your apartment? I'm doing it now. Oh, and this is not an easy task! .. In addition to impressive financial expenses and the need to organize and coordinate everything, you need to be able to choose, correlate it with your capabilities and look for ways to compromise. For example, my friend also made repairs and put luxurious floors made of natural oak boards in the apartment. I also like the color and texture of oak, but I will put the laminate under the oak. Why? Less expensive and much more practical. Is this a compromise? Undoubtedly. But he is conscious and rational. Oh yes! We're not on a construction forum! Let's go back to the clock. Let's talk about watch compromises and oaks.
Recently, the theme of integrated bracelets and images in the style of the immortal Jenta has once again played in watch design. And IWC returned the traditional look to their Engineer, and Seiko released a chic update to the Astron line, in the exterior of which the ears of one of the master’s most famous creations, the Royal Oak, clearly “stick out”. I have not yet considered a watch based on the “Royal Oak”. So, it's time to correct this omission by writing about a curious model with a strange name - Tsar Bomba TB8805Q-03.
Looking at the packaging, I wondered how the name is translated? Well, with the "bomb" is understandable, but the first word? Then it dawned on me that this was just a transcription of the Russian words "Tsar Bomba". If anyone does not know, this is what the people called the most powerful hydrogen bomb tested at the Novaya Zemlya test site in 1961. More than 50 megatons if I'm not mistaken. In short, the name of the manufacturer alludes to the biggest "boom" in the history of mankind.
I am not very fond of such loud statements from little-known companies, but let's not rush and see if the product is worth the declared noise. Many will covet the laurels of the "oak" design. But not many manage to interestingly rethink the legendary design or make a quality hommage at a reasonable price. I think in this case copying the design is justified. Original watches cost sky-high money and a long wait. So to involve the average consumer in a compromise option is not a bad thing. Okay, enough abstract thoughts! Let's open the box!
We open it ... and ... Inside we see a drawing of the Iron Man's hand (is that him? I'm not very in the subject) and our watch is on this hand! Next to the instructions, warranty and cleaning cloth. Impressive dimensions immediately catch the eye. Under 50 mm in diameter, almost 15 mm thick and weighs 160 g (on rubber!). Only an adequate length saves the matter (about 51 mm): they will suit not only the transformer giant.
Although, of course, the watch is brutal and hefty. The case has a massive faceted shape and a traditional octagonal flat bezel with screws. Everything is satin finish except for the bezel. There are no ears as such - a wide (26 mm) rubber strap goes right under the body. The belt is pleasant to the touch and well made.
The case did not impress me very much, but the dial pretty pleased me. Behind a thick sapphire porthole, you can see a coolly made techno-skeleton. Lots of small component parts, several levels of depth and good readability at the same time. Although only the main arrows have good readability. It is difficult to understand what the additional dials show. Informativity there is buried in the design details.
The caliber is weird. But Japanese origin is declared. The second remains “alive” all the time, which is very atypical for chronographs. This is good. We have readable three hands, and the additional dials of the chronograph and 24-hour time are usually not used by anyone. In this case, they look much better in the role of "dial trim" than as functional elements.
Separately, it must be said about the date disk. It is painted in color and flickers unobtrusively here and there around the circumference of the dial, which gives an additional technical charm to the appearance. In short, the dial turned out to be in the best modern trends of Zenith Defy techno-skeletons. And this despite the fact that inside the quartz! Did not you forget? I confess, I forgot for a moment ... fantastic!
Water protection is quite decent - 100 meters. This is good. And then there are huge devices with a monstrous appearance, which, judging by the specification, you can’t sneeze at! Leak! By the way, the original Royal Oak is water resistant to 50 meters if I'm not mistaken. However, it is much smaller and thinner.
At first, I was quite skeptical about "Tsar Bomba" in a distinctly hommage style. But after looking at the price tag and looking in more detail, I will say that this is an interesting watch. The manufacturer was able to realize well-known design ideas with decent quality for little money. And the finish of the dial deserves admiration at all: to decorate a practical quartz in a techno style - it was necessary to try!
Unless the size is great! However, this is traditional for young manufacturers. They still need to grow up to small, concise and elegant watches. But if your hand has an impressive girth and you want to have a watch in an immortal design, this is a good compromise. It doesn’t pull on the “Royal Oak”, so let there be “King Acorn”!
