Bronze watches in general...

Are they any bronze owners out there? thoughts?
And this for Ron...are they any Chinese brands making bronze watches?

Never had the urge to buy one. We also had bronze gate with all the boutique brands.

I don't particularly care for the look. I have fondled them,just didn't buy one............

Just got one inbound, like the vintage looks of the patina and I've wanting one for a while, used to like mrneedles Benarus Bronze Moray before he flipped.
About Bronze Gate, all things considered, the micros involved replaced all the affected cases and althought should never happen in the first place, the reality is that they made it good for the owners.. I haven't heard a single complaint due to lack of CS follow up by owners of any of the affected brands and I have been searching .

You're right the CS is something that most of the micros had right and cost them a lot of money. The CS shown during that time is something at least a couple of companies should take notes on how to treat their customers.

eddiea wrote:Are they any bronze owners out there? thoughts?
And this for Ron...are they any Chinese brands making bronze watches?

Not that I know of (save for, possibly (not certain) some Pan "lookalikes" that I don't trust for a moment to be a decent alloy). I'm intrigued by bronze watches...which is to say, I like the idea and love the look, but I don't want anything that turns my wrist green

Benarus Bronze is the one I like and I think someday maybe, just maybe I will add one to my collection.

I'm picking up the Halios Tropik

Ooooh those Tropiks are secksay!

mrneddles wrote:I'm picking up the Halios Tropik

I look into them too, same alloy as the Zenton, nice indeed!!

Fresh update from Halios:

Greetings! We have a few pictures of the case prototype for you to enjoy for this update.
PROTOTYPE CASE AND CRYSTAL
The case prototype looks great and feels very comfortable on the wrist. The bronze has a subdued, pale yellow gold hue that is quite visually engaging to me, likely because I've only ever worn stainless steel to date. Although I really like how it looks in this pristine condition, I look forward to seeing a bit of patina develop.

It looks like an instrument. The curved lines of the case, the finishing and the domed crystal add some measure of refinement to its overall vibe though, and it's precisely this convergence of function and form that just gets me going. I want mine NOW.

DIALS
I had hoped to show the dial prototypes in this update, but we'll have to wait a little longer as they're not quite ready yet.

STRAPS AND BUCKLES
We'll be offering straps in two lengths to accommodate the variations in wrist sizes out there. Production hasn't begun on the straps yet as I'm finalizing the leather/thread combinations. I will probably stick to "classic" thread colours like cream and brown, but I think a green stitch with one of the lighter leathers would be fantastic for the green dialled Tropik B.

That's it for this update - I hope you enjoy the pictures. Thanks again for being a part of this process, as well as for your patience. As always, please get in touch if you have any questions, suggestions or comments.

I wish you all a great week!

Regards,
Jason Lim
HALIOS Watches Ltd.
604-307-3898

They look sweet, did you reserved one?...

Yep. You convinced me to give the bronze another shot.

mrneddles wrote:Yep. You convinced me to give the bronze another shot.

You wouldn't be sorry, Halios (as well as Zenton) have the best quality and CS I have seen....
BTW , don't know which dial color you picked, but the "brushed" gray is unique, very nice!!

You two are going to make me pull out my wallet. Damn enablers.

JEEBUS...

Strap and buckle update from Halios:

BRONZE BUCKLE
The buckle prototype has arrived fresh from the machine shop. If you're the owner of a Laguna or DLC Puck, the bronze buckle should look familiar to you - it is the signature buckle we include with the Isofrane straps, with the exception of a thinner tongue that'll fit the Tropik leather straps.

The brushing and finishing obviously isn't 100%, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of it for this update.

DIALS / ASSEMBLED PROTOTYPE
...will be in my hot little hands in 2 weeks. I know, you guys open these update emails expecting to see the goods. All I can say is "sorry" and "soon"!

STRAPS
As mentioned before, we will have six different leather straps available in two sizes. Our strapmaker, located somewhere in the wilds of Ontario Canada, has begun hand-cutting and prepping the lovely Horween hides. As our most esteemed pre-order participants, you'll be able to choose two of them - variations will include a dark chocolate leather with antique cream stitching and a reddish-brown with grey stitching, among others.

BRONZE MATERIAL
A brief word on the variety of bronze that we've chosen, simply because I've received a number of inquiries on the subject.

Our bronze material is the hardest available and provides the best corrosion resistance. Having said that, however, it would be disingenuous to claim that there is one single bronze alloy that is superior to all others. Each has its own applications and strengths.

Ours, over time, will patina a rich, dark brown as opposed to the pinkish, coppery hue of phosphor bronze (used quite extensively of late in other bronze watches).

The addition of nickel in our bronze increases its strength, but the content does not exceed that of 316L stainless steel's. If you're concerned about a skin reaction to the nickel but can sport a regular stainless steel watch with no issues, the Tropik B will wear no differently.

We'll wrap it up here. I hope to get you some real eye candy soon, when the assembled prototype is ready. Until then, thanks again for being a part of this.


Regards,

Jason Lim
HALIOS Watches Ltd.
604-307-3898

On a different and related note, it appears by looking at WF and Olivier's FB page, that Olivier has folded up and taken peoples' deposit money on pre-ordered bronze watches.

mrneddles wrote:On a different and related note, it appears by looking at WF and Olivier's FB page, that Olivier has folded up and taken peoples' deposit money on pre-ordered bronze watches.

Yup ..I sent Olivier an e-mail about his bronze buckles months ago, he never answer.
Some lucky folks did recieved their watches but it seems lots of them where left out in the cold , some of the threads at WUS, are just sad....

mrneddles wrote:Strap and buckle update from Halios:

Horween leather? they are going all the way!!!

< $700 is a great deal and as a preorder bonus they are including a second strap and buckle. The straps look like really nice full grain hides) I like the metal formulation they're using as I think it results in the richest looking patina. Sign me up.

TROPIK BRONZE PRE-ORDER - UPDATE #4

Finally, some pictures of the prototypes!

The brown and green dials are what you will see in the production models. I've tweaked and re-tweaked the colours, taking into account the colouring of the bronze case, different lighting conditions, the interaction with the AR coating, etc etc. - I hope each of you approves of the colours.

The grey dial is not the final production version - it was executed in a matte finish instead of a metallic brushed grey, so look out for a revised version in a future update (sorry to all who ordered the grey). I thought I would show it to you regardless, as the hue is accurate.

Although I am not a fan of them, I've also included a cliched "hand in pocket" shot to illustrate the Tropik B on a 7" wrist. We will not produce the style of strap you see on the green dial Tropik B - while I personally love the minimal stitching and own several of them, this design relies solely on glue to hold the leather pieces together. We're going with a full stitch along each flank to maximize durability. In case you were wondering, the strap on the green dial was made by Ingomar of Maddog Straps.

To give you an idea of how the patina might develop, the last picture shows a "fresh" watch next to our original prototype case after two months of wear.

One final note: the date wheels on the production models will match the colour of the dials and will have white numerals.

I hope you guys enjoy the update - I will leave you with many pictures and few words (you're not the sort who reads "gentlemen's magazines" for the articles, are you?).


Regards,

Jason Lim
HALIOS Watches Ltd.
604-307-3898

I really like the looks of this one. Sad that some people were robbed by that other guy.

I want one, I am trying to decide between the brown or green dial. Which do you guys think would look better with aged patina?

I think I would tend to lien more with the green myself. Like the way it looks with that strap.