Like double-decker buses, just a week after the CIGA Design Z Series, here’s another Chinese Tonneau-cased watch. Does the Wishdoit GT Chrono do it for WRUK?
Wishdoit GT Chrono Watch Review
Wishdoit got in touch and kindly offered a watch to review. I was unsure at first: I’d just reviewed a Chinese tonneau watch and the name didn’t exactly grab me, but I thought I’d do my bit for the watch community and give the Wishdoit GT Chrono the usual honest WRUK review.
At a glance |
Wishdoit GT Chrono |
| Price | £212 (25% off with code WRUK) |
| Case size | 42mm x 50mm |
| Thickness | 15.7mm |
| Water Resistance | 50m |
| Movement | Seiko VD53 Quartz chronograph |
The watch is better packaged than I’d expected when I first saw the cardboard two-piece box. Inside that is a lovely little watch pouch that is of really good quality.
Case and Movement
The Wishdoit GT Chrono is based around a Seiko quartz movement. It’s one of those annoying (to me) movements where the sweep second hand constantly ticks and you’re somehow meant to read elapsed seconds off a tiny subdial. I can’t see anyone using this watch as a precision timer but still, if a watch has a function it should work properly. On the plus side, the second hand does seem to hit most of the markings around the dial.
The case itself, while bulky and very tall, is very nicely finished. The crown is exquisite, and the watch has a lot more heft to it than I’d expected. The almost-16mm thickness is excessive, in my opinion, especially for a little quartz movement, but I appreciate that the Richard Mille watches that have inspired the Wishdoit GT Chrono are equally chunky. For me, this watch is just a bit too top-heavy and unbalanced on the wrist. The case back again surprised me, with a decent engraving of a car. This quality makes it even more annoying that Wishdoit have fitted the watch with a mineral crystal. At this price, I expect a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.
Dial and Hands
Again, my expectations of the GT Chrono were confounded by the dial. It’s a deep, multi-layered design with plenty of applied pieces and looks really good. The hands are easy to read, although I did feel the second hand seemed to flick back a bit after each tick, which would eventually bother me.
Strap and Buckle
In what is rapidly becoming a theme in this review, the strap fitted to the Wishdoit GT Chrono is again much better than I had thought. It’s made of a soft and supple fluorine rubber. I was disappointed that despite the watch being gold-coloured, the buckle is silver-coloured.
Wishdoit GT Chrono – Video Review
What I Liked… and What I Didn’t Like |
|
| þ | Really well built with superb finishing on the crown and case back |
| þ | A relatively unusual design |
| þ | Dial is legible despite a lot going on! |
| ý | The brand name doesn’t instil you with a feeling of quality |
| ý | A couple of silly missteps – e.g. the mismatched buckle and mineral glass |
| ý | At £212, it’s expensive for the specifications |
Wishdoit GT Chrono – The WRUK Verdict
The Wishdoit GT exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways but then gets a couple of the basics wrong. For the asking price, I’d expect an automatic movement, a matching buckle and a sapphire crystal. The watch does have a lot of the hallmarks of a watch in its price range and it is indisputably well-made, but this one won’t land a permanent place in my collection.
Buy a Wishdoit GT Chrono
You can buy a Wishdoit GT Chrono watch at: https://wishdoitwatches.com/wruk Use code WRUK at checkout for 25% off orders over $300.
If a Tonneau-cased watch is what you want but the asking price of the Wishdoit is more than you’re willing to pay, then I’d recommend taking a look at Tonneau watches on Aliexpress, where you can pick up something similar for a quarter of the price.
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