Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dino944 
Hi Newcomer,
I can certainty understand your issues with the appearance of the cut off Roman numeral IIII. I wonder if it would have been less cut off if they did the number 4 as IV? As the Santos Galbee XL is intended as a daily wearer and not a true dress watch certain compromises are made such as a date window. Their true dress watches such as the Santos Dumont and the Louis Cartier Tank XL do not have dates. However, on the Santos Galbee I think they would lose lots of sales, maybe to Rolex's Datejust if the date were eliminated. I can tell you from some Rolex forums that lots of people bitch about the Daytona not having a date function ( so they won't buy it or they often sell it finding the lack of a date making it too impractical for them for daily wear). Also as the Santos Galbee is one of Cartier's "Relatively affordable" watches it may also appeal to people getting their first good watch, who are not fans of Rolex, who are not familiar with brands such as JLC, and who as newbies are less critical of certain design issues than those who have collected for a while.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the relatively basic ETA movement has been the main factor that kept me from pulling the trigger on one of these. If they ever "Upgrade" it to have an inhouse movement or a movement from JLC, F.Piguet, or Piaget it will go on my short list of "Must haves."
That is exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there would have been a cut-off if they used IV, or decreased the scale of the numerals a little bit. Other than that, I really like the idea of the watch, and to be honest, I still would probably wear the heck out of it. I really don't have a problem with ETA movements (I prefer in-house, but the serviceability of an ETA movement is always something that is nice) either, just when they are not as well implemented as they could be.
And I guess for me, the date feature is a bit of a hassle. Don't get me wrong, it is nice... But it is also nice to be able to set your watches without worrying about AM and PM, or setting the date at the incorrect time. I think one of my favorite parts about my Speedy is the fact that I just wind it and head out. I can understand the need for it to appeal to the masses though. Funny people complain about the date on the Daytona though! It would make it so much less pure!