“This my first Herodia watch and I’m pretty impressed with the overall quality of it. The watch keeps excellent time and the polishing of the case is very well done.”
“The watch itself carries the same feel and finish of the squale with even better pricing during the black friday sale. If youre looking for a starbucks homage with rich history and a reliable swiss movement, look no further this is the one”
“Let me begin with the things you should know, before buying. I have plenty to say, so skip this one if you’re not into that.
First, the color of the bezel isn’t represented well in the photo. Admittedly, this is a tough shade of green to capture with a camera. The photo makes it appear vibrant and metallic. In reality, it’s very close in appearance to the “Starbucks” or “Hulk” green. Softer, and a little more satin. For me, that’s a good thing, but it may not be good for someone expecting the vibrancy of the factory photos.
Second, the bracelet is different than it appears in the stock photos. It’s very similar, but the end links with the extended middle link have been replaced with an end link with the shorter middle. It’s subtle, but I don’t care for the change. It’s difficult to tell from the photos if it’s just the angle, but it was a surprise to me. This isn’t something that will bother everyone.
If you’re familiar with the Squale Y1945 20 Atmos, you’ll find the Meditteraneo to be nearly identical. It also has the same case as my Davosa Ternos Ceramic. For me, this is a definite plus. Squale makes great cases. Excellent bezel action, solid case, and I love the downturn of the lugs. It’s just right for comfort. Between the heft of the watch, and the clank of the bracelet, it feels like quality in your hands, and on your wrist. But make no mistake, while Davosa tweaked the design a bit, and the Squale dial immediately alerted to the fact that their watches were not direct copies of the much more expensive watch from which they drew inspiration, the Herodia is much more of a direct copy. That doesn’t really bother me (though I enjoy at least a little originality), but some will find it offensive.
The fit and finish is good, not great. The cyclops is very slightly misaligned, and the tolerances of everything just seem to be a bit looser than they should be. There’s nothing done very poorly, but there’s some play in the bezel (though the bezel is very tight when rotating), and the lume is okay. The crown is annoying. It’s domed at the top, which is alright, but the transition between the dome and cylindrical sides creates a sharp edge that digs into the wrist. Some other edges are a little sharp, but this one is irritatingly sharp.
The rehaut is a little thick for my liking. Admittedly, this is getting extremely nitpicky. I probably wouldn’t have noticed, except “Herodia” is engraved all the way around, Rolex-style, so my eye is drawn to it. It would look better with no engraving.
I’m a fan of the SW-200 movement. I have several watches with that movement, and it’s always smooth, reliable and reasonably accurate. This one is running at +14s/day on the wrist, which isn’t horrible. However, this is the first one I’ve had where the rotor squeaks. I’m hoping that will fade with time. It makes the watch sound flimsy.
But it’s not flimsy. The weight is very good. It’s solidly built, comfortable (except for the crown), and looks very good, overall. It’s getting a good bit of wrist time, because I do like it; I could just like it a lot more with a few tweaks. I’m deducting one star because of the squeaky rotor, misaligned cyclops, and sharp edges. These seem like things Squale/Herodia could address without a significant cost increase, and would make this among the better homage-style watches on the market. As it stands, it’s better than the Chinese copies, but I’d place it near the bottom of the Swiss homages.”
“I owned a squale 1545 in the past. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the homage thing, but I really like this watch. For $495 I think it’s a great deal.”
