Stuhrling Original Watches Review – Ambitious Style
E
ven if you’re a regular follower of luxury watchmakers, it’s possible that you’ve missed out on Stuhrling Original watches. The company was founded in 1999, which makes it easy to get lost in a world where many of the prominent companies are more than a hundred years old. They’ve caught up in a hurry, though, as Stuhrling Original watches offer terrific, ambitious styling, great build quality and reasonable pricing.
In fact, the price range is broad enough to cover the vast majority of consumers who enjoy luxury timepieces and their styling is diverse enough to appeal to just about anyone’s taste.
Read on for the full Stuhrling Original watches review.
Build Quality
Movements
Innovation
Styling and Features
Care and Maintenance
Warranty
Prices
Where to Buy
Summary
Stuhrling Original Watches Build Quality
The build quality is quite good. They use stainless steel cases and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal to protect the watch face. Water resistance is good, with some models offering water resistance at up to 200 meters, which should be good enough for just about anyone. Straps are leather, silicone, ceramic and stainless steel. All in all, these watches offer great quality and with proper care, they should run well for years to come.
Here you’ll find a rather wide selection of movements. They offer Swiss-made manually-wound and automatic-winding mechanical movements as well as Swiss-made quartz electronic movements. A few models offer Japanese quartz movements made by Miyota, which is a division of Citizen. These are quality movements that should result in an accurate, reliable timepiece.
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The innovation of Stuhrling Original watches is mostly in styling, though the company does include a number of mechanical complications in their product line, including a tourbillon, world time, dual time, moon phases and chronograph features. A number of models feature skeleton designs or semi-skeleton designs, so you can see the moving parts inside the case.
The styling of Stuhrling Original watches is all over the map, meaning they should have something in their product line to suit anyone’s taste. They do, of course, have a number of models with traditional styling, as might befit a Swiss watchmaker, but they’ve also got a wide variety of models with bright colors, exposed moving parts, elaborate complications, oddly-shaped faces, and more.
This results in a product line that should appeal to those with traditional tastes as well as those who like the truly avant garde. They make models for men and women, and a few unusual limited edition models, such as their three models that feature a tourbillon. While such watches can often run into the six figure range, the models offering this feature are surprisingly affordable, though not inexpensive. They’re just reasonably priced when compared with the competition.
Care and maintenance will vary, depending on the model. Those with either Swiss or Japanese quartz movements will require relatively little in the way of care, aside from having the battery replaced every two years or so. Mechanical models may require occasional factory service; please contact the company for details regarding how to have this done. Most watchmakers recommend such service every five years or so, and this consists of disassembly, replacement of worn parts and lubrication. You should store your watch in a cool, dry place and keep them away from extremes of temperature and strong magnetic fields, as these can damage the movement. With proper care, your purchase should run well for decades.
Stuhrling Original Watches Warranty
The warranty offered is the standard warranty offered by 90% of the industry. These watches are warranted against defects in materials and craftsmanship for two years from the date of purchase. These timepieces are thoroughly tested before shipping so defects should be quite rare.
You’ll find that as luxury wristwatches go, this brand’s prices are reasonable, and range from moderately inexpensive to fairly expensive. At the low end of the price range, you can find models with a list price of about $295 or so. At the high end, models top out at about $10,000 for limited edition models featuring a tourbillon.
Since many watches from competing companies with similar features can easily cost $100,000 or more, you’ll find that these watches are priced quite reasonably in comparison. There isn’t yet a lot of interest in the brand among collectors, though that may change in time, as the brand offers interesting styling, mechanical complications and limited production on some models.
In time, the watches that you purchase today may increase in value, but we don’t currently recommend that you buy them as an investment.
You can find the brand for sale at a number of brick and mortar retailers, including a number of department stores and jewelry stores, mostly in major cities. You can also find them for sale at a number of Internet retailers and they will usually represent your best opportunity to buy them online at a discount.
We’ve seen them at some online retailers at up to 70% off of the suggested list price, which can make them quite a bargain. Keep in mind that the product line is quite large, so don’t be surprised if not every retailer carries everything. That’s particularly true of the higher end and limited edition models.
Stuhrling Original Watches Summary
There’s a lot to like about this brand. They’re attractive and diverse enough in styling to appeal to the taste of just about anyone. They have a broad range of pricing, which allows them to appeal to a large segment of the watch buying population. Their build quality is quite good and they come with a decent warranty. They offer models that are suitable for daily wear, business wear and evening wear. All in all, Stuhrling Original watches offer great value.
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