Boderry Admiral GMT Watch Review | Is It More Than Pure Specs?
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As you can read in their ‘About us’ page, Boderry wish to distinguish themselves from “scammer brands” who rebrand generic off the shelf products from AliExpress (al la Spaghetti Scameti!). Boderry claim to be transparent about their Chinese roots and their ability to offer low-cost products as a result. They insist that they go about their business in a meticulous manner – so meticulous in fact, that they say ‘meticulous’ 10 times in the same article. So just how meticulous have Boderry been in meticulously producing this meticulously finished sub-$150 titanium GMT!?
I love a GMT complication - which is handy because we’ve seen a whole slew of them over the past few months. The office GMT movement has become a bit of a darling of the affordable watch complication game. As consumers continue to look for more and more ‘value’ in their affordable mechanical watch purchases, manufacturers are pushing to provide pieces with more and more eye catching specs. The term ‘spec monster’ has been circulating forums for a while now.. and affordable brands are giving their customers what they want, with Titanium cases and claimed high water resistance, as well as GMT movements. So imagine my (un)surprise when another pair of GMTs landed on my doorstep. What is surprising about this pair, is the price – coming it at a hair under $150 a piece, you can buy both of these variants for less than the price most competitors are selling their wares for.
Case
Indeed, these pieces are titanium cased, with the tell-tale dark grey hue of this trendy lightweight material. The cases are no-nonsense designs with straight lugs, a screwdown crown at 4 o’clock with crown protection, and a simple brushed finish all over. Case sides are vertical with no bevels transitioning to the top of the case. There are some micro-chamfers along the bottom of the case presumably needed to prevent severe lacerations of the wrist.
Proportions are in keeping with the obvious dive-watch design, with the case diameter of 40.6mm (40.75mm including bezel). Lug-to-Lug distance is 49mm however the bracelet endlinks extend the span of this watch to 53.6mm as a result of a pretty poorly designed endlink/first link interface.
The reverse of the case has a screw-down caseback which appears to be titanium, and has a handsome 3 dimensional relief of a polished 5 pointed star – perhaps referencing the Chinese roots of Boderry. “Titanium & 200M” is etched into the circumference of the caseback, the “&” there being unnecessary but hints at the desire to really push the specs of this piece. I’m not sure why they didn’t go the whole hog with “Titanium & 200m & GMT & luminous & $150!” – but perhaps I’m being a little flippant here!
The Bezels are sharply knurled and bi-directional with aluminium inserts. Black and Red “Coke” colored for the black dialled variant, and Blue and Red “Pepsi” colored for the white dialled counterpart. The coloring is obviously cheaply done, as the reds are tending to a slightly pinkish-purple hue and the flashy blue is straight off an 80s anodised bmx trick-nut. But I will repeatedly flash up this reminder throughout the review - it's a titanium GMT for less than $150, so I’ll lower my standards a little.
Dial
There are a couple of heavy influences from Tudor on this dial. Firstly, there’s the Snowflake Seconds hand, and then there’s the square lumed hour markers. When I first got into watches, I could not stand Tudor’s big ugly square indices – but with time and knowledge I grew to appreciate the reasons behind Tudor using these shapes and I came to love them for their heritage.
On the Boderry, they are rather stale and not quite as 3 dimensional as you might like – it looks like the lume is just painted on top of the white applied indices, rather than the indices being a hollow frame filled with super-luminova. This saves on cost but compromises the longevity of the luminescence in low light. They look good after being blasted with UV light and a long exposure, but they wont glow for long. Where a Tudor will still be glowing come the morning, the Boderry loses it’s glow after a minute or so.
The black dialled version has white framed indices and handset – with a central black painted section which is a nice touch and makes the hands seem to ‘float’ a little. The white dial has black framed indices and handset. Both have a red arrow shaped GMT hand and red GMT text, with a pencil minute hand and short arrow shaped hour hand. I think the hands are reasonably well proportioned and it’s easy to distinguish between each of the 4 hands.
Each dial version gets contrasting dial text and minute track around the exterior of the dial. The markers are perfectly sufficient in the daytime and the contrast between matte dials and markers is good. Because of the whitish lume on the black markers, I think the white dial looks better put together than the black dial, but in reality, both use the same levels of finishing. I generally prefer black dials as a personal preference, but I can see the appeal of the high contrast white dial with black indices. I noticed the lume is reflected underneath the hands by the white dial, making it appear to glow a little - which is fun to see.
Specifications
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Case Diameter: |
40.75mm incl. bezel |
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Case Thickness: |
13.2mm incl. crystal |
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Lug to Lug Distance: |
49mm (with bracelet end-links = 53.6mm) |
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Case Material: |
Titanium |
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Bracelet: |
Titanium & Steel |
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Crystal: |
Sapphire (anti-reflective) |
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Movement: |
Seiko NH34 |
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Accuracy: |
-20/+40 seconds per day (2 models Tested: +3s and -4s in 4 positions) |
GMT Function
The Bezel movement is 24 position and bi-directional to allow tracking of an additional timezone together with the red GMT hand. The bezel action was actually pretty good, with acceptable levels of play, and solid clicks. For those unfamiliar with the GMT complication and its functions, the darker colored black and blue portions of the bezel signify night-time, with the red portion signifying day-time and the lumed 24 hour scale displays the time in the timezones tracked by the red GMT hand.
This is an office/caller GMT Seiko NH34A movement, meaning the red hand jumps independently of the local time handset when setting - allowing you to track a second timezone. This is good for those who need to track times in other parts of the world - Family, friends, colleagues etc. Taking a look under the hood, it’s a very basically finished variant of the NH34A, with no country of origin engraved in the winding rotor – this generally means it’s made in Seiko’s Malaysian plant. This makes sense as the production costs are likely lower than the Japanese made versions and helps keep the Boderry below that $150 mark.
The Crystal is sapphire and flush with the bezel, the claims of anti-reflective coating seem correct as I didn’t struggle with glare in any lighting.
Bracelet
The bracelet is the most obvious area where Boderry have cut some corners in terms of production quality. The 5 link bracelet is manufacturer from a combination of brushed Ti and Polished steel centre links. But there, the accolades cease. The link finishing is pretty raw, with sharp edges and some stiff links snagging from time to time – especially adjacent to the deployant clasp and end links.
Split pins hold the bracelet together rather than screws which is an old, and rather low-tech solution to attaching bracelet links together. I found sizing the bracelet was extremely painful both physically, and metaphorically as a result of these split pins – you know something’s poorly designed when you have to take a hammer to it!
The deployant clasp is also quite basic with more raw unfinished edges and absolutely no micro adjustment holes. If your wrist circumference is between link sizes, you’re going to be out of luck here. I also found that the relatively short, smart looking clasp hides a rather long and ungainly folding mechanism – it was impressively machined from titanium, but it was far longer than one might think and off centre compared to the clasp body. This means that you can’t actually centre the clasp body in the middle of your wrist because the folding section extends far beyond the visible section. This is an annoyance rather than a deal-breaker. However, the complete lack of micro-adjust truly is a big red flag – If I can’t be sure I can find a good comfortable fit, I’m not going to risk a purchase unless I plan to put it on an aftermarket strap.
The final nail in the coffin for the bracelet is the immensely poor endlink/first link interface. The links rub together and snag, and they extend so far beyond the already lengthy lugs – to the point that this “40mm” watch on the bracelet wears too large for my 6.5” wrist (often I can pull off well designed 42mm cases without trouble). If you’re considering buying this watch, factor in a little additional spend on a good aftermarket strap. I also found many of the bracelet edges were raw and unfinished which were uncomfortable and I noticed the bracelet had begun to start scratching itself and the caseback.
What I liked
The GMT complication is very useful. I have close family based in Canada who went on holiday to Japan, and it was nice being able to track their local time and figure out when would be a reasonable hour to call them. The NH34A ‘Caller’ style GMT is the perfect complication for such a situation.
Testing both watches on the Timegrapher highlighted why movement manufacturers provide a range of tolerances. The Black model tested in 4 positions averaged +3 seconds fast per day, and I should note, in some positions it was actually running at 0 seconds per day. Whereas the White model tested in 4 positions averaged -4 seconds slow per day but with some significant variance from slow to fast depending on the angles the watch was tested in and the pressures those positions placed on the movement. On average both were well within the tolerances set by Seiko and were certainly accurate enough to be passable in my book.
The bezel movement was better than I’d expected. There was minimal play when in position. The black model has a slightly stiffer action than the white model, and the positions were positive and well aligned. The knurling is well defined and grippy.
The hints of red from the GMT text on the dial, pairing with the GMT hand is also a nice touch and breaks up the otherwise monotone dials. There were also some nice details on the caseback engraving with the significant machining relief of a star motif, as well as a signed crown, and black painted central sections of the (black dialled) handset giving a ‘floating’ effect seen in luxury watches like the Tudor Pelagos.
What I didn’t like
The lack of micro adjustment holes in the clasp is a serious over-sight. Whilst I remind myself that this is a $150 watch, since Boderry went to the trouble of machining the Titanium folding clasp, it does not seem too much of a stretch to expect some micro adjustment positions to make the bracelet far more adjustable. Especially considering the awkward split-pin link solution.
The tolerances between the bracelet end-link and the lugs would put a Tesla to shame. There are significant gaps between the end-link and lug – you can actually see daylight through some of these gaps. I also found that the springbar moved around a lot within the endlink – which made it somewhat hard to locate the springbar in the lug-holes when changing straps. If you do remove and replace the bracelet – be sure the springbars affix correctly to the case or you risk a nasty strap failure.
The screwdown crown is nice to have, but didn’t operate very smoothly at all. Whilst photographing watches we often use the crown a lot to reset the time. I found the crown positions and locking mechanisms did not work very well and there was a risk of cross threading or not correctly sealing the case if I wasn’t careful and aware of the hap-hazard locking assembly. Certainly not “meticulously built”..
The small double button clasp is impressive to look at on face value, but generally, these smaller clasps required a butterfly style deployant solution to keep the clasp body small, but allow enough physical space when open to remove the bracelet from your wrist. Whilst the Boderry clasp has a very low apparent footprint, the mechanism below is much longer and off centre. This means you have to position the visible part of the clasp off-centre on your wrist to give the mechanism below enough space to sit on the flat part of your wrist. It seemed unnecessary, and coupled with the decision not to offer micro-adjustment, this clasp is a serious compromise in functionality for minimal aesthetic benefits.
Reading reviews of Boderry, they clearly have some work to do on the logistics and after sales aspects of the business. If I were to summarise the most common complaints were that delivery of the watch was very slow (multiple weeks), and that customer service was difficult to get a response from. On their site, it looks like there are two shipping options available, a free service - likely postal/ground transportation which I imagine may be the cause of the ‘slow delivery’ comments. Then there is a paid for “expedited” service – which I would imagine is going to use a premium carrier who will have better tracking and accountability in the process. If we accept that their customer service is poor, then you’re going to want to minimise the need to interact with them. I would therefore advise you use the expedited option for quicker delivery and hopefully a more reliable delivery network.
I had several other gripes but gave them a pass due to the very low pricing of this watch. I will however throw one last one into the mix – the bracelet is a severe hair plucker! With the combination of poor tolerances and many different interfaces between the links and clasp, it’s easy for an errant wrist hair to get caught in one of the many pinch points of this bracelet. I found I was reaching for my wrist several times a day to free painfully snagged wrist fur.
Alternatives
There are a few watches out there using the cheap and cheerful NH34A GMT movement. But the one which stands out for me above the others is the San Martin SN0116 reviewed on Ben’s Watch Club a few months ago. Having hands on with the SN0116, it is head and shoulders above the Boderry in terms of design, quality and functionality. It is a little more expensive, and it is stainless steel rather than titanium. But I think these are small prices to pay for a far better, affordable GMT watch.
I actually bought a San Martin myself after reviewing the SN0116 and I can confirm their fit and finish is far better than these Boddery offerings. I genuinely found them very close in comparison to some of my luxury swiss watches. Their customer service is also very responsive to questions should you run into any issues. Take a look at the Rootbeer and Pepsi San Martin SN0116 GMT offerings in their Original Designs line-up.
Conclusion
Ben’s In the Loupe vid hit the split-pin on the head with this watch. It’s very focussed on the specifications on paper. I guess consumers at this end of the price spectrum are getting wise to just how much watch they can expect, and are spoilt for choice – at this price-point, branding and heritage is far less of a concern compared to ‘value’. So brands are pushing to distinguish their products from the myriad others on the market through blatant boasting of specs.
In this case, I found the relatively poor user experience was dominated by the details which weren’t boasted about on paper: The clasp looks ok but compromises on critical functionality like micro adjustments. The crown screws down, but in a very low quality, unreliable way. The five-link bracelet looks great in pictures, but is full of technical compromises on the wrist. The case is titanium, but is not finished very well at all. As always, the devil is in the detail.
I don’t think the wordsmith who skillfully crafted their “About us” blurb should claim these watches are as “meticulously” built as they’d like us to believe. Corners have been cut – you can see obvious savings in the product quality itself, but I would suspect savings have also been made in the physical production of these pieces. Thinking back to a recent review of Sternglas - who pride themselves on using suppliers with accredited health and safety standards - there’s a distinct lack of such claims in the lengthy introduction from Boderry. So if you have a stronger moral compass, you might want to look at companies who are explicitly proud of their production standards. If the spec-sheet is more of a priority, then this “Titanium and 200m” GMT Admiral from Boderry should certainly be a consideration (but only after you’ve taken a look at San Martin!).