Reviewing a 2010’s Jaragar ‘Casual C1’ wristwatch

A lot of people don’t bother with wristwatches these days, preferring just to look at the clock on their phone. Well, not me, if only because I struggled for so long to tell the time from a clock face (well into primary three) that I’m loath to give up the hard won practise now. So when my Swatch Skin Chrono ‘Outrage’ finally went haywire a few months ago, I hunted around for a replacement. I graduated from uni in June, and still don’t have a job, so price was a major consideration. Also, I felt like a change, and went for a mechanical movement instead of quartz this time.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my take on Jaragar’s ‘Casual C1’ wristwatch. This is a mechanical, self winding watch.

The Buying Experience

 ... was pretty painless. I bought this Chinese watch from an eBay shop based in Hong Kong, “lucky123shop”. Postage was 9.99 US Dollars, so I was pretty surprised when a small package from “Lucky Time” arrived here in Scotland just 7 days after payment.

Packaging was pretty light; a small envelope, some bubble wrap. There was no box or instructions.

  

Initial Impressions

One thing that puzzled me, on opening the packet, was that I couldn’t get it to start after winding or shaking. Then it seemed to start by itself! Subsequently, I have left it for days to run down, and then wound the crown a couple of times or shaken the watch, and it starts up straight away.

This is my first self winding watch, and the glass case back showing the winding plate moving around was a neat touch. The smudge on the bottom left of the photo is inside the glass by the by.





The other initial aspect that held my attention was the thickness of the timepiece, but I knew anything after the Swatch was bound to be more 'man sized'.






Looks
There’s a lot I like about this watch. Visually, it couldn’t be further away from the usual direction inexpensive Chinese watches take – lots of silver rings, huge cases, the kind of thing that fills pages and pages of eBay listings. The white hands and strap stitching are set in contrast against a black face – more gloss than matte - , black case, black crown, black buttons and black ‘leather’ strap. The overall image of is purpose and understated cool.

In these photos, I’ve paired the watch up with Hero’s 850 fountain pen, another Chinese product I think shares a similar aesthetic.

The Jaragar C1 wristwatch, with a Hero 850 integral nib fountain pen.

The strap stitching - which looks like nylon or something similar - to the bottom right of the face is finished off a little crudely.





The shot below was supposed to include the sturdy, satin steel buckle, but doesn’t quite make it :/

The complications, from left to right, are day of the week (strange that there are superfluous marks between them), a 24 hour indicator, and the date of the month. None of them seem to be off centre, and they all work.

The date pointer is slightly off I would say, but at least when it hits midnight, the 24 hour dial is bang on the vertical – I have a different model Jaragar that is way off. The printing on the face and bezel looks fine, the glow-in-the dark spots are just slightly out of place.

Notice the “swiss made” mark at the 6 o’clock position – I wish the Chinese manufacturers would stop this kind of thing, it adds nothing at all to the watch. Personally speaking, I’d find it far more interesting if it said “wuhan province” or wherever it was really made. 

The second hand is the type that sweeps rather than hacks. By the way, isn’t the second hand supposed to stop when I pull out the crown? At the moment, I’m finding it hard to set the time when the second hand carries on regardless!

Time Keeping
After wearing the Jarager a few days, I noticed it was running a little slow. To see how slow, I got out my mp3 player and synchronised the watch as best I could to 7.30pm. For the next few days, I compared the watch and the mp3 player to get an idea of the Jaragar’s accuracy.

October 6th: Looks about a minute slow...

Still October 6th: Yes, its a minute slower than the zen micro.

October 7th: Hmm! It’s still slow, but seems not to have lost time since the previous evening?

Build Quality
Compared to my last mechanical watch, the Jaragar has a solid feel. No odd ticks or clunks are apparent when shaking it. There’s no vagueness when pressing the buttons, just a ‘click’ with minimal resistance. Setting the time, the hands and crown glide around very smoothly. Even the strap is pretty sturdy and surprisingly good looking. If it’s real leather, I think it’s one of the cheaper kinds. 

Here’s a macro shot of a scuff I don’t remember causing (next to the lug on the right in this photo):

Value 
The total price of this Jaragar was 20 US dollars, and to my mind its a good deal. In fact, my brother took one look at it, and wants one too. I’d like to have a go at regulating it to run a little faster, after discovering the amazing ‘ball of blu tack’ case opening trick courtesy of an old watchuseek post by Quoll. 

If anyone has advice on regulating the watch, I’m keen to hear it!

All said and done, I can safely recommend the Jaragar model C1 (the C3 is less good looking) and the seller. At these prices, I’m happy enough with it to have bought another Jaragar self winder, this time more of a dress watch:

I’ll review it after a bit more wear - it seems to keep time very accurately so far.

Reviewing a 2000's Baoer 388 fountain pen

The following is a back up of an post I made in May on FPN, reviewing the Chinese  fountain pen manufacturer Baoer’s model 388. I’ve included it here because I thought it would make a good start to a mini series of reviews here on a few inexpenisve Chinese brands that have impressed me by their quality; it follows FPN reviewing conventions as far as possible.

Baoer 388 – Stainless Steel Body, Gold trim, Medium nib

Introduction
Apologies if reviewing conventions aren’t adhered to everyone’s satisfaction – this is my first review. This fp is a Baoer model 388, available – so far as I know – in black lacquer or stainless steel; I went for the steel version. Despite all the volcanic dust cloud disruption, the Baoer arrived here in Scotland just a fortnight after winning the auction on eBay, from Wuhan, China. On top of this, a free converter was included!

Here’s the package as it arrived, on my recently restored antique burlwood desk.

Packaging was a little light – bubblewrap around the pen, inside one of those bubblewrap-coated envelopes. The seller did make clear in the listing there was no presentation box, and the pen itself was totally undamaged.

Appearance and Design

On first sight, I couldn’t fail to be impressed with the Baoer. I don’t usually go for pens where there’s a noticeable step between the cap and body – I prefer there to be a seamless transition – but on this Baoer it looks just great.The 338 also looks great against the grain of my exquisite, recently restored burlwood desktop. With the cap off, it looks even better – see the photo below.

Oh no! I’ve been rumbled! As you probably guessed already, the only ‘burlwood desktop’ here belongs to my laptop. The genuine article is a little out of my price range! In my own obvious way, I’ve arrived at my next point: the Baoer 388 is one of those nudge-nudge, wink-wink, Chinese ‘homage’ pens to the Parker Sonnet. I have no basis for comparison, so this review is conducted on the Baoer’s own merits.

Looks – wise, the brushed stainless steel body is very classy. Looking at my other flighters, it looks more like the Parker 45’s body than the Sheaffer Targa’s, which is brushed a touch coarser. The gold cap band isn’t overstated, and is in perfect proportion to the rest of the pen.

The clip and partially countersunk cap jewel are also very tasteful and at odds with 90% of the more ostentatious style of Chinese fountain pens I see on eBay.

I think the photos speak for themselves - this is a very handsome pen, and looks far more expensive than it is.
Plating is very good overall – there is a tiny patchy area on the end of the cap clip, as shown below.

There is also some evidence of plating loss on this ring. Bear in mind these are macros, everything looks good to the naked eye. 

The nib is two-tone, steel and gold, and this effect has been done quite accurately, shown in the following two photographs. It’s refreshing to see a generous amount of tipping on a Chinese pen.

There’s a gold ring just behind the nib the cap secures to, but it’s not at all gaudy. 

Construction and Ease of Use

As soon as you pick it up, this feels like a very solid, dependable pen. It weighs around 20 grams according to my wildly inaccurate scales – I have seen different eBay sellers claim anything from 27 to 38 grams. It feels heavier than my 45 flighter. It’s around 13.6 cm long; the barrel at its widest is 1.1cm diameter.

This is one Chinese pen with a very European feel. For a pen that’s a decent size and weight, with Parker-style medium tipping, I was very surprised to find that I just can’t get used to writing with it at all. I have puzzled over this for a few days now, and have come to the conclusion that it’s a combination of balance and section size. To my large hand, it feels oddly top heavy, an effect exacerbated by posting. But principally, the reason we can’t get along is the tiny grip section (may I remind a certain FPN member to return my snorkel grip section? Do the decent thing). At 2.5cm long, it’s simply too small for the thumb and forefinger, forcing you to hold the pen almost by the nib. Also, the section is very narrow, 0.8cm where your fingers are forced by the bevelling to grip it. The combination of these factors makes the pen very unpleasant for someone with larger hands to write with, but will probably suit most people. Shame! Comparative photo of the section below. 

The cap clip is tight. The cap itself snaps very, very securely on to the pen and has a very impressive action that’s hard to describe – sort of elastic to begin with, and then a very definite click. Unfortunately, it’s astoundingly difficult to then get the cap back off – it takes both hands and a lot of effort – usually enough to cause real irritation. I’m hoping this will get easier with use.

Unscrewing the barrel and section, I got a nice surprise. Both have metal threads, rather than metal screwing into plastic. I don’t see these stripping, cracking or losing tightness any time soon. Very impressive and actually a more robust design than most of my other fountain pens.



Nib and Performance
The nib is two tone steel and gold plate, listed as medium tipped and lays a line as wide as my Frontier’s medium. Strangely (as most Chinese fountain pens are fine nibbed, to easily write the many strokes that make up Chinese characters), I’ve only seen these 388s available with a medium nib or as rollerballs. It’s wider than a Sheaffer medium, see the photograph below.



Sorry about the handwriting – they are all medium nibs and all filled with Diamine Royal blue. The Baoer may be filled with Turquoise, it’s hard to tell from the free pack of carts Diamine sent with my last order. For a Chinese medium point it’s nice and wide. The nib is absolutely rigid by the way, and of moderate wetness. It’s as happy writing on 90gsm black & red notepads as it is on generic Asda A4 lined paper. I’d say its slightly less smooth than my Frontier, but only slightly. Considering it was approximately half the price, it’s certainly much more than half as smooth.

If the nib can be unscrewed/ pulled for ease of servicing, it certainly isn’t keen on the idea.

Filling System and Maintenance
Here’s a plus: the Baoer 388 takes international cartridges, so I’ve found a use for my free pack of Diamine samples. It comes with a free screw type converter – in the photograph below, you can see the converter has a tiny glass bead ink agitator inside.



I only used the screw converter to clean the nib/feed with water before first use, I have quite a few of these Diamine freebie cartridges. There is also enough space in the barrel to accept a Flounder converter.

Cost and Value
I bought the Baoer on eBay, for $6.90 - £4.70 – including shipping from Wuhan province, China to Scotland. Can you believe that price? This excellently put together, all-metal pen costs less than £5. Brand new. Including shipping across the planet. With a converter thrown in! It simply is unbelievably low priced for what you get. I believe the black version is lacquer over brass, at the same price.





Parting Shots
If I had smaller hands, this pen would be ideal. It’s not for me, but it’s a seriously good looking, solidly made, high quality fountain pen at very, very low price. I’m suitably impressed!

EDIT: I forgot to add this cap off dry out test - I took the cap off, then left it lying on the desk for 5 minutes. Afterwards, it started up straight away.

(6) Thanks, No Thanks

Thanks

Nielson, Karla J. (2007) Interior textiles: fabrics, applications, & historical styles (first result on Google regarding the tassel mystery)

XP Powertools Image Resizer

No Thanks

Word 2007, good God, you are so lousy.

Blogger 

(5) Other considerations, tying up loose ends.

The door needed repainting, but before that, a bit of sanding in some areas and filling in others. The close up below is of a small damaged section of panel bevelling, where the door had banged off the set of drawers next to it. 

  

I found that frame sealant gave a better finish than wood filler for this, having a toothpaste-like consistency, and smoothing down with water. It sets not to badly once dry. 

A professional will probably not approve of the above, but it looked a bit better after filling and painting:

To prevent future damage, I got this brass/rubber doorstop from eBay for a few pounds. It pretty much matches the rest of the door furniture.

Thanks for reading :-)