(This page features affiliate links, for more information click here.)

What if I told you that years before the fashion gurus were ramming MVMT and Vincero down your throats, there was another affordable luxury brand being shilled en masse? No, not the Fifth, not Original Grain, not even Spaghetti Scameti. No, I'm talking about Tayroc! Does the name ring any bells?

Well, a few years back, this brand was doing the rounds, with appearances on some of the largest channels on YouTube.

The creators were enthused by how premium and stylish these watches are, with one girl claiming that the watch 'changed her life'. Quite the statement, eh?

Despite being so 'incredible' and offering "high-quality luxury at affordable prices," this brand has since fallen into obscurity, with zero content to speak of in recent times.

Surprisingly, they are still in business today, profitability unknown.

Tayroc Watch Review

Why did they seemingly fall from grace while MVMTs sales rocketed?

To find the answer to that question, I bought one of them lightly used off eBay for $50. Did you really think I'd pay full price for a watch that is highly likely to be rubbish?

Either way, I ensured that I chose a model still available on their site; a black chronograph. It's listed as the TXM093 on their website and goes for $120 new with a leather strap. The TXM116 I purchased is identical but was sold with a bracelet instead.

I'm going to assess this watch on three fronts:

Design
Quality
Price

Those are the only things that matter when buying a fashion-forward watch, right? It's got to look good and stay looking good without breaking the bank...

Watch Design

Unfortunately, this Tayroc falls at the very first hurdle. Not only is the style of the watch incredibly generic, bearing a worrying resemblance to thousands of the super-cheap chronographs on Chinese wholesale sites, but it's been executed so poorly that even at a glance, it looks like a $10 grocery store watch. I'd expect to see this on a shelf next to the $10 watch that I previously reviewed. At least Primark didn't have the gall to charge $120!

The hands and markers are of the same style as those on the $10 watch, with the rudimentary flat, roughly cut rectangular shapes used across all of them as these are the cheapest to manufacture. You'll notice the white date window doesn't fit in with the dark color scheme; that's likely because white is the primary default option and is cheaper than a color-matched one, which would have blended in better.

Quality

This, of course, ties into quality. Higher-quality watches tend to look better, and well-designed watches can usually manage this feat at a distance.

Even from a couple of meters away, this Tayroc looks soulless, like it's got no panache or personality, as everything but the second hand is showcased in the same bland color. It feels like a small child designed this watch on Microsoft Paint and used the fill tool on every component.

Instead of putting the time in to create an exciting design, Tayroc has run with the minimal viable product and labeled it 'minimalist' to try and disguise that fact. I'd hazard a guess that these watches cost less than $5 per unit to produce as the quality is among the worst I've ever seen. Even a wristwatch novice could spot the large discrepancy when placed alongside most alternatives at this price point.

Watch Construction

The seller said this watch hadn't seen much wrist time, and I believe him! After all, the scratch-prone mineral crystal surprisingly has no lacerations to speak of. However, even this limited usage has exposed the pitfalls of cheap PVD coating. In numerous places, the black surface has peeled and scratched away, revealing the silver beneath, and this will only continue to worsen over the life of the watch. Silver-colored watches don't exhibit this level of visual deterioration, hence why they're the go-to choice. The black coating on the less expensive and better specced Lyle & Scott watch that I reviewed felt far more durable, at least during my time with it.

Outside of the PVD surface, the steel case is just a bog-standard shape with imprecise edges that likely make it more cost-effective to mass-produce. A quick look at the bracelet reveals that no attempt has been made to craft a cohesive look, as one end link is popping out, disjointed from the lugs, while the opposite sits entrenched with the lugs riding up either side. This screams low-tier, off-the-shelf components.

More quality control blunders are evident on the dial, with the main logo tilted anti-clockwise and numerous dust and dirt particles visible on the underside of the crystal and on the dial itself. These fragments are impossible to wipe away unless the innards are removed. The hands are also scuffed up, rounding out one of the most lackluster designs in Ben's Watch Club history.

Watch Movement

I popped open the rear to see what was powering this watch. What met me was the 0S11 Miyota quartz movement. While far from the advertised 'luxury' quality, this isn't awful for a watch at this price. These generally sell for around $19 per unit, depending on purchase quantity. Nevertheless, it's not nearly as desirable as the more complex mechanical or solar movements often attainable in watches for around $100.

Marketing

Let's start answering some of those opening questions then. First up; Tayroc's fall versus the rise of MVMT.

To be honest, the quality of the two brands is very comparable. In other words, both are equally garbage. Therefore, we have to look at the other side of the coin to make sense of this; marketing. While Tayroc hit things hard initially and did sponsor some YouTubers, it seems they've shifted the majority of their efforts over to Instagram, where there's a sea of paid posts; very few of which are disclosed accordingly, might I add! I suppose they haven't technically fallen yet, as I'd first thought. Instead, they appear to be chugging along but haven't experienced the headline-grabbing growth of some of their competitors.

Conversely, MVMT, perhaps partly due to funds raised via a successful Indiegogo campaign, has maintained a strong paid presence across both platforms.

Crucially, whether by instruction or not, MVMT influencers tend to promote that brand far harder, with much bolder claims regarding the quality and style of the pieces and the supposed lifestyle improvements you'll get by buying one. Maybe this extremely aggressive approach is paying dividends, with viewers persuaded into buying them after watching?

Now to the hidden video.

For those unfamiliar with unlisting, YouTube allows you to control the visibility of your videos by choosing one of several publishing options. The 'unlisted' option is similar to the 'private' setting, where the video is only available when embedded in an external site or the viewer has the exact URL. This is essentially a way of hiding content from the public eye without technically taking it down.

There are several reasons why Alpha M may have done this. Perhaps he was embarrassed about heaping praise on an objectively awful watch brand? Unfortunately, he still shills MVMT at every opportunity, so we know that can't be the case.

Maybe he was displeased with the poor production quality from 2015 and didn't want it on his channel anymore? Well, there are many far older videos still live on his channel, so that can't be it.

Or did he hide the video to prevent those messages from clashing with his current paid sponsors MVMT and Vincero? That one seems highly likely, as he's done the same thing with a review of this rather decent little Timex watch.

What's my judgment on the quality, then? For context, I reviewed an Accurist chronograph a while back. That watch is cheaper, is much higher quality, looks better and less generic, is from a more prestigious brand, and doesn't use false marketing to attract customers. Worryingly, that's far from an outlier, as this Tayroc is one of the worst watches I've come across.