Kickstarter Irish Vostok Amphibia

HDMI

Just seen this project mentioned on TZ-UK, to be honest I'm embarrassed.

I give you the so called Irish dive watch.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919328871/mcmanus-amphibia-automatic-irish-dive-watch/description

This is a rebranded Vostok and the guy calls himself a watchmaker because he watched YouTube videos and bought tools from eBay. Then has the cheek to charge €350 for just a dial swap with Ireland on the bottom.

It also comes with a health warning :eek:

Quote from his Kickstarter page

"This watch has serious heft, so wearing it daily may cause the kind of muscle imbalance typically seen in left-handed professional tennis players"

Some of his wild comments like claiming more jewels make a better watch and comparing the Vostok to Rolex is just nuts.

"Omega Planet Ocean 39 jewels (Swiss made) 6500 Euro
Rolex Submariner 31 jewels (Swiss made) 7000 Euro
2416b: 31 jewels (Russian made) used in the McManus Amphibia
Sellita SW200: 26 jewels (Swiss made) 600-1000+ Euro tier
ETA 2824-2: 25 jewels (Swiss made) 400-600 Euro tier
Seiko NH35A: 24 jewels (Japan made) 250-350 Euro tier
Miyota 9015: 24 jewels (Japan made) 150-250 Euro tier

So as you can see above, the Russian made 31 jewel movement in the McManus Amphibia has more jewels than excellent ETA and Sellita Swiss movements fitted to more expensive watches. When it comes to automatic movements, the more jewels the better. You are getting the same number of 31 jewels as a Rolex Submariner."

Really goes to show a little knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands. Mr McManus needs to pull the plug before he is ridiculed on every watch forum.

Trigger Happy

McManus ambhibia. Does not sound too sexy.

Clareman

There are as many pictures of the box and straps as there is of the actual watch assembled.

blue5000

I don't think docvail need worry about the competition yet anyway:)

edit; HDMI you made me splutter coffee all over my laptop screen.

Clareman

I picked up a William L 1985 and Pebble watches on Kickstarter a few years back, nice watches but I haven't worn them in year.

saccades

That's a nice bracelet but doesn't match the watch style.

HDMI

blue5000 wrote: »

edit; HDMI you made me splutter coffee all over my laptop screen.

Must be the thought of wearing a McManus making you all excited

Clareman

HDMI wrote: »

Must be the thought of wearing a McManus making you all excited

And all the extra muscle mass on your hand as a result...... :eek::eek::eek:

ninja 12

His sales pitch makes interesting reading .

The McManus Amphibia is a 1960's inspired 200 metre automatic dive watch. Made in Ireland with a 31 jewel Russian automatic movement.

So I wanted to create my own vintage inspired diver watch; something I would love wearing myself. I wanted something special, with a quality 31 jewel automatic movement, and solid stainless steel tonneau case. Not just another homage, or clone with a Miyota or Seiko automatic movement we have all seen before. So I built my dream watch, and now just need the funding to buy the parts in larger quantities; so I can keep the price down and offer this piece to others at a good price. I wanted to make a proper 200 metre rated dive watch with a screw down crown and case back. I built my first McManus Amphibia 3 years ago, and still wear it daily; it is tried and tested. To be honest with you, it has taken me 3 years to get all the parts suppliers sorted. My main obstacle was finding someone who could print the dials at a reasonable price. I don't have thousands of Euro to place an order with a watch factory for hundreds of dials you see. Personally I don't like homages and clones made in China

In one sentence he says he wanted to create his own vintage inspired divers watch , and in another says he doesn't like homages .

You can see the Vostok rotor in the video .
Not even an attempt at customizing it .

Giving him backing for 350 Euros gets you one of his watches , How much does an unmolested Vostok sell for new ?

Here's where I'd be going if shopping for a watch in the same price bracket -
https://www.steinhartwatches.de/en/diver-watch.html

ninja 12

HDMI wrote: »

"This watch has serious heft, so wearing it daily may cause the kind of muscle imbalance typically seen in left-handed professional tennis players"

HDMI wrote: »

Must be the thought of wearing a McManus making you all excited

Clareman wrote: »

And all the extra muscle mass on your hand as a result...... :eek::eek::eek:

Ideal for balancing your arm muscles after looking at too much watch porn :eek::eek:

Gets coat and runs .....

OldBean

I don't get how he can complain about homages and clones, then take pride in using the same font and colour as Rolex for his own logo..

HDMI

I pity all those owners who over paid for their 31 jeweled Rolex when they could have bought a McManus and saved thousands.

The guy is probably a member here, the watch community is pretty small in Ireland.....

Come on fess up which one of you is McManus?

This is going to be an "I am Spartacus" moment.

HDMI

Oh wow..... he is a man of many skills

http://www.donegaldaily.com/2014/07/06/donegal-castaway-man-is-exposed-as-prostitute-organiser/

Homer

Two people have backed it so far.. sweet Jesus

“The McManus Amphibia is a champagne watch for lemonade money” :pac::pac:

893bet

So a redialed Russian watch!

What a fool.

Wibbs

OldBean wrote: »

I don't get how he can complain about homages and clones, then take pride in using the same font and colour as Rolex for his own logo..

Yeah I was wondering about that. In the blurb he shows a clear understanding of how the Russians approached water resistance(IMHO about the cleverest method) and it's not copy pasted either. Some good info there.

endacl

Homer wrote: »

Two people have backed it so far.. sweet Jesus

“The McManus Amphibia is a champagne watch for lemonade money” :pac::pac:

I’d imagine those two are McManus himself, and Mammy McManus.

blue5000

.

Giving him backing for 350 Euros gets you one of his watches , How much does an unmolested Vostok sell for new ?

Here's where I'd be going if shopping for a watch in the same price bracket -
https://www.steinhartwatches.de/en/diver-watch.html[/QUOTE]


But, but, but, but the ETA 2824-2s don't have 31 jewels.

Plus the cheapest one is €380. Shipping is extra too.

How much is a Vostock amphibia, I'm afraid to look it up.....?


So he pimped a Vostock,

gets coat.

endacl

blue5000 wrote: »

How much is a Vostock amphibia, I'm afraid to look it up.....?

$119

https://www.russian-watches.info/category/vostok-amphibia/

art

I appreciate not everyone wants a watch that looks the same, so I have offered two different coloured bezels; black/green/red.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, our two bezels are ...

njburke

McManus McMicrobrand comes to mind.

I have a Vostok amphibia winging its way to me, it was $73 shipped from Christopol,RU. Oddly enough, i bought it to dive with.

CarltonBrowne

I think it would comply better with the trade description act if he left out the McM.

HDMI

He has over €1000 of his €3500 requirement. :eek:

Won't be too long now before one ends up on adverts with a €500 asking price for the rare McManus. :rolleyes:

Deep Thought

Lads on TZ are having some fun with this..

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?417481-Kickstarter-of-the-week

aaakev

It has to be a joke, its comedy gold

blue5000

aaakev wrote: »

It has to be a joke, its comedy gold

I'm busy checking posters in the donegal gaa thread for a match:cool:

peasant

blue5000 wrote: »

.
But, but, but, but the ETA 2824-2s don't have 31 jewels.

Neither does the Vostok ...really.

The underlying manual movement has 17 Jewels.
Early automatics had 21 ... and then they realised that that was a bit wobbly and supported the two counter-rotating winding wheels with five jewels each as a kind of ball bearing.

So you could say that an automatic Vostok has 21 Jewels and two ball bearings

endacl

Same pic, so I presume it's the same fella?

Doesn't seem a well man...

Homer

He’s obviously not all there god love him.. I see he has now blocked anyone commenting on Kickstarter unless you are a backer after getting a lot of comments on how he is essentially just redialling an Amphibia and quadrupling the price!

blue5000

Banned on WUS
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/mcmanus-amphibian-4634767.html

HDMI

Looks like he is back again with a bit of a price drop.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919328871/mcmanus-amphibia-automatic-dive-watch-made-in-irel/description


Also it appears he is an active member of Adverts, oddly if you look at his feedback it appears to be padded with fake accounts. Same few people only comment on his adverts and then leave feedback but never comment on other users adverts. Multiple user accounts is against adverts rules, maybe I might point Adverts Eddie in this direction.

Gotta love his user name, Mr. Rolex and there he was saying his McManus name was good enough to be put on a watch.

https://www.adverts.ie/member/1722438/feedback/page-1

Trigger Happy

HDMI wrote: »

Looks like he is back again with a bit of a price drop.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919328871/mcmanus-amphibia-automatic-dive-watch-made-in-irel/description

Why is he modelling a left hand version of the watch on his left hand?!!

aaakev

Im gonna buy one

Spocker

Thanks for the heads up, I've flagged his account for review

HDMI wrote: »

Also it appears he is an active member of Adverts, oddly if you look at his feedback it appears to be padded with fake accounts. Same few people only comment on his adverts and then leave feedback but never comment on other users adverts. Multiple user accounts is against adverts rules, maybe I might point Adverts Eddie in this direction.

https://www.adverts.ie/member/1722438/feedback/page-1

unkel

HDMI wrote: »

Also it appears he is an active member of Adverts

Bloody hell! We had to ban "Mr Rolex" from Classic Cars last year for his atrocious behaviour and agressive posting style. Soon after he started posting on boards, I was actually warned by an admin of another car forum (not on boards) where he was already banned

He was also lying about a classic car he had for sale on adverts. Claimed all the time he was only in his 40s and already retired with his mortgage paid off because of his hard work and success. Search for his posts in Classic Cars for a laugh at this Walter Mitty type of a chancer

Spocker

Spocker wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up, I've flagged his account for review

Dealt with.

HDMI

Spocker wrote: »

Dealt with.

Thank you, pity he is still left with his 73 feedback score. All the fake comments have been removed.

HDMI

His eBay account is no better with his lies.

From one of his listings, his words

"my 100% positive feedback speaks for itself"

From customers

"Very rude and incompetent seller. Probably has fake ratings. Do not buy of."

"Sent wrong item, very rude person, incompetent and useless seller"

Daemonic

Just saw a post on WUS from the meranom.com representative on there saying he ordered the parts from them, then opened a dispute with paypal and got a refund so even more profitable if he manages to dupe anyone into buying one. They cost him nothing!

893bet

Link?

What a €%#^

sparrowcar

Daemonic wrote: »

Just saw a post on WUS from the meranom.com representative on there saying he ordered the parts from them, then opened a dispute with paypal and got a refund so even more profitable if he manages to dupe anyone into buying one. They cost him nothing!

Any link? Couldn't find it just now.

Daemonic

893bet wrote: »

Link?

What a €%#^

sparrowcar wrote: »

Any link? Couldn't find it just now.

Link

blue5000

I wonder has JP ordered one:D?

HDMI

Meranom post on watchuseek, seems the scammer paid up once they outted him.

"After reading this message buyer paid for this order."

893bet

What a horrible £&@&£.

Wouldnt take one for free off him.

dr.fuzzenstein

I really, really, really want a Russian watch now...

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I feel sorry for the guy. The wolrd tells everyone that they should be talented and successful these days. But some of us are just born to be dumb, dishonest, pimps with no taste or style. He should go back to selling his sperm, I would look better on the wrist also.

StereoSound

I wear a Tag, what do you wear? A McManus... Russian made and customised with abit of spit and polish by some Irish guy in his shed.

893bet

StereoSound wrote: »

I wear a Tag, what do you wear? A McManus... Russian made and customised with abit of spit and polish by some Irish guy in his shed.

Ah but it's so good......it's got his name on it!

HDMI

I think this would be a safe bet that this guy on adverts is Mr Rolex back again. Gotta love his user name Vostok Ireland

http://www.adverts.ie/15346398

Spocker

HDMI wrote: »

I think this would be a safe bet that this guy on adverts is Mr Rolex back again. Gotta love his user name Vostok Ireland

http://www.adverts.ie/15346398

Flagged for review