I've only had the watch a week. So far, accuracy is right on. The stopwatch works and those hands line up correctly. That covers the uninteresting, but important, points.
I have to be honest. I'm a sucker for black on black. The black face in a black brushed metal case looks professional. The off white of the radiant markings and hands, along with the white of the other markings, stand out well from the black face. The numeric markings are large for 3, 6, 9, and 12. The other hour numerals are much smaller but easy to read.
The one thing that isn't so easy to read is the calendar window -- the numbers are recessed and smaller than the small hour numbers. You don't want to try reading it in shadow, although I'll take issue with the review that said you need bright daylight or you can't read it.
All the watches I've looked at under $300 seem to have difficulty with the lume (the glow). Usually it's not very bright and doesn't last very long. I have indirect, low wattage, energy saving lighting in my home. Even with that, the watch glow is quite visible in the dark and lasts a long time. If I hit the watch face with light from my LED flashlight for a second or two, the glow from the watch in a dark room is very bright afterward and lasts quite awhile. From reviews on watch sites, the glow is comparable to watches costing 10 times as much. Only the hour markers and the minute and hour hands glow, no numbers. But the 12 o'clock marker is an inward pointing arrowhead, so it's still easy to tell time in the dark.
The watch isn't huge, like some of the bling oriented watches, but it's definitely large and man sized. I have a smaller than average wrist, which is my one personal downside with this watch. It still looks OK on my wrist. But, because of the size, even the last hole on the stock strap left the watch too loose on my wrist. And the leather-like material used on the area where the holes are, made it impossible to cut an extra hole in the strap and still look good.
Since this is a military style watch, I decided on replacing the strap with a nylon military style band -- plain black of course. After some research, it seemed that Maratac bands were the hands down choice. There are two styles: Zulu and NATO. For me, Zulu was the best choice and I opted for "lo lite" (black coated) hardware. The combination looks better than the stock band and fits perfectly. There's room to go much looser or much tighter.
Overall, the combination of price, accuracy, and looks make the SNDA65 a winner!
EDIT: This is more a minor notation than a change to anything that was said above.
1) The watch is mechanical and does just the numeric date in the date window. Unlike watches with more electronics, there's no provision that I can see for it to adjust for months shorter than 31 days. It looks like the watch owner will need to adjust the date in those cases.
2) The date does a rolling change between 11 and 12. I happened to notice, the other day, that this was happening between 11am and Noon. The enclosed instructions don't tell the customer how to deal with that. So, as a public service, here it is: that afternoon, set the time 12 hours ahead. The next date rollover will happen from 11pm-midnight, completing at 12am. Simple.
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Reviews with images
Run this watch through the ringer.
I needed a watch that could take an absolute beating. I work as a cook 40 hours a week and a bartender on the weekends its spent a lot of time submerged in water. So many variables went into the purchase of this watch. 135$ is a lot of money to spend but it equates to a hell of a value if you ask me.I bought this watch because I needed something something water proof I wash a lot of dishes while I work at both jobs. I needed something light weight, waterproof a must I didn't want to be taking this off every time I had to put my hands in a sink which is a lot. I needed it be smooth and fairly slim I go in and out of my pocket with ease I don't want it catching or getting caught up on anything this couldn't be something that gets in the way. Had to be easy to read in low light. Really wanted to have all digits 1-12. This wasn't a a purchase I made to make a fashion statement it needed to be functional if I'm going to have this on my person 24 hours a day it better not get in my way.I'm going to start with the cons. But to me these aren't deal breakers I'm just trying give a fair judgment.The black Finnish has been fairly abused, it's starting to show signs of wear,if you look closely at my photo you can see, that's not deal breaker for me. Then there is the calendar its small I suppose one may consider it difficult to read, Again not deal breaker to me. Finally the pin to set the time every once in a while finds its way out and the date will adjust not a deal breaker doesn't upset me in the very least.Now the PROS.Keeps time very well.Numbers are easy to read.Glows adequately the bar I work it is a low light environment.Yeah she's water proof I've spent hours having this submerged wether it's at work on on vaca. I just got back from a week pretty much spent in the hot tub or pool with my watch on. The chronograph is convenient really nice to not have to pull out my cell phone to time something silly like a lunch break of when I give customers 5 min on the back deck at the bar. But for the fact that the watch had a chronograph have little to do with my decision to buy this watch.It's appropriately sized the weight it good it's really not heavy As some one who never wore a watch I can say I hardly notice it's there. I've found many watches at the end of the night while cleaning. Why because from time to time a spring bar comes out and the watch just comes off generally with out the customer even realizing. So I got a NATO strap because it runs through the back and if I loose a spring bar I'll still have my watch. And last but not least I get a lot of compliments on it. I'm very pleased with this purchase.
Top reviews from other countries
john howes
Really nice watch value for money the only reason for 4 ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2015