Jun 01, 2023
I love watches, but being a young student it can be hard to afford higher-end luxury watches. Often most people opt for smart watches, but I don’t like the way they look, and they present privacy concerns. I also doubt their durability. There is also something to be said about their value. I don’t forsee anyone passing down their Apple Watch to their children.
Most people who still wear watches wear either smart watches or cheaper digital quartz watches. Quartz watches are great, but in my opinion lack soul. I much prefer the feeling of a mechanical or hand-wound movement. I think they’re much cooler and demonstrate a much higher level of craftsmanship. The same argument above also applies here - I don’t really see anyone passing down a Quartz watch to their children. Quartz watches are durable and certainly have their place, but I wanted something automatic to wear every day.
With all this out of the way, many people recommend the Kamasu as a great budget automatic diver. When I was looking for my first automatic watch, I saw loads of good reviews for the Kamasu. Two things stood out to me: the sapphire crystal and the day and date complication. After seeing these two things, I bought it.
It’s been about a month of owning and wearing it every day, and I have to say, I’m impressed. I’m writing this review since I couldn’t really find many good written reviews of the Kamasu online.
For the price point (~$200-$250 at the time of writing), it is quite hard to beat.
The bracelet leaves a little to be desired. It scratches quite easily, and with the hollow links, it’s likely to rattle around just a bit. This can be solved if the watch is sized properly, however.
Mine gains about 5 seconds a day. Not bad for an automatic watch at this price. The fact that the movement inside is in-house is quite nice as well.
The thing looks great. It isn’t likely to amaze another watch enthusiast, but I have gotten quite a few compliments on it.
Many people online complain about the crown being too small or the crown guards making it hard to operate. I did not have either of these issues. The crown is easy to cross thread however, so be careful with it. Screwing the crown down is a bit finicky, however. You have to screw the crown backwards just a bit and then forwards to get it to properly grab the threads. This isn’t really a con, just something to be aware of so you don’t over-wind the watch the first time you’re trying to screw down the crown.
I don’t like the days of the week also being in Spanish, as this results in a small window of time around 2-3 AM where the day of the week is in Spanish. This isn’t a big deal, but can be slightly annoying.