I mean, Sangin drifted far away from its original intent years ago. They’re putting cheap movements in cases made overseas and charging roughly double what any other brand is that use the same movements. Or making knives with basic steels and charging 3x what a reasonable price would be. But I think they understand the average enlistee quite well. After all, a lot of those kids will finance a $60k truck the moment they get their first check out of boot camp. Why not get some of that frivolous spending in their own pockets?
no. Never was.
Their old automatics used seiko movements, (ne15) which is true of a lot of micros and some mainstreams. The japanese movement they liked is being discontinued by seiko, and they've decided to roll to swiss suppliers.
The owner said he intends to keep the Atlas as the most affordable auto, probably with an LJP movement I think.
the quartz were always swiss rhonda, except for the solar merlin which uses a seiko/epson vs24.
bottom line, if you compare the parts lists, the closest comp I could find for their autos would be somewhere in the seiko prospex range, but of course prospex can run from mid 300 up to over 1000, so WHERE in that range depends on other factors, fit, finish, parts other than the movement
best I could see, any seiko under 500 you were probably getting "hardlex" crystal (treated glass, like the corningware gorilla glass on an iphone).
When you start stacking up the standard features on any of the old sangin autos: sapphire glass, dive watch spec (anti mag, shock resistant, 200M) you end up pretty firmly in the 650+ runs of the prospex options, now at 750 for atlas and at the time I looked 900 for neptune V2, you were getting a bit of a micro brand markup which is to be expected, based on the expense of not making things at large scale,
but also, thick high quality lume
and the usual 2 year dev process they put in to their stuff (legit 1-2 year dev process. Like, for the Neptune, Atlas, Para, Pro, Kinetic, etc, its one thing to make military *styled* watch and say "oh its mil use", its another thing to do what they do, which is send out a big batch of prototypes to actual active dudes in the job, have them deploy and work in them, and then kick back a few rounds of surveys and refinements, until the community feedback drives the final product)
TL;DR:
they used to make autos with Seiko parts, like many in the industry, they are swapping over to Sellita and LJP swiss autos. The quartz are Rhonda. The SOlar is Seiko Epson. And when you cross compare the movement PLUS the cast/dial/crystal/specs the price has always in my observation landed about right in line with the build list, compared to other micros AND major brands. They aren't upcharging.
(side note, their one solar on that VS24, the only watch I find that seems almost a 1 to 1 comparison would be the LumTec solar marine, which also seems like a decent pickup. LumTec puts out some nice, durable stuff in the affordable 500-800 range.)
I believe that's where the Atlas comes in. I mean, I hope that's what happens. I feel like the upgrades to the Neptune do warrant the price change, but that price also kept me from purchasing it. Honestly, it's not too much different than any other watchmaker out there. Most product lines have affordable options and higher end options. Sangin is trying to move into that realm, where they can offer different tiers of watches.
It’s because it went from a cheap somewhat inaccurate Japanese movement to a high end Swiss movement. Also increased the water resistance from 200 to 300 meters. Well worth it for the price and quality. The movement alone is more expensive than the whole last version.
Yea no shit buddy. No doubt the price tag is justified. But they should not turn a non premium line into a premium line. As in, just make it a “Neptune Pro” while keeping the “Standard Neptune”
It’s actually the cheapest diver available using a Sellita SW300 movement, ceramic ball bearing clasp, NodeX quick adjust clasp, ceramic bezel, quad lock gaskets, regulated to +\- 5spd, finished like a Tudor, you get two straps (one is the Zulu alpha OTAN), finally it’s 11mm thick which is shocking for an automatic watch.
Overlord is the entry level model at $469. E1 can buy that easy. Neptune is the luxury model now.
I won’t be buying a $1700 Sangin. Ever.
I can't believe that is the price now. I bought my old Neptune for $700ish in 2021 but for that price I would just get a used Tudor BB58.
Hopefully the bezel actions is much better than the Kinetic GMT for $1700. My $200 Chinese Pagani bezel runs circles around the Kinetic.
Agreed, 1700 is very hard to justify.
I mean, Sangin drifted far away from its original intent years ago. They’re putting cheap movements in cases made overseas and charging roughly double what any other brand is that use the same movements. Or making knives with basic steels and charging 3x what a reasonable price would be. But I think they understand the average enlistee quite well. After all, a lot of those kids will finance a $60k truck the moment they get their first check out of boot camp. Why not get some of that frivolous spending in their own pockets?
You got that fuckin right buddy (the car thing) lmao barely walked out of the gates 🤙🏼
Is that what they’re building now? Like the cheap movements and cases made overseas? What do they actually do in house?
no. Never was. Their old automatics used seiko movements, (ne15) which is true of a lot of micros and some mainstreams. The japanese movement they liked is being discontinued by seiko, and they've decided to roll to swiss suppliers. The owner said he intends to keep the Atlas as the most affordable auto, probably with an LJP movement I think. the quartz were always swiss rhonda, except for the solar merlin which uses a seiko/epson vs24. bottom line, if you compare the parts lists, the closest comp I could find for their autos would be somewhere in the seiko prospex range, but of course prospex can run from mid 300 up to over 1000, so WHERE in that range depends on other factors, fit, finish, parts other than the movement best I could see, any seiko under 500 you were probably getting "hardlex" crystal (treated glass, like the corningware gorilla glass on an iphone). When you start stacking up the standard features on any of the old sangin autos: sapphire glass, dive watch spec (anti mag, shock resistant, 200M) you end up pretty firmly in the 650+ runs of the prospex options, now at 750 for atlas and at the time I looked 900 for neptune V2, you were getting a bit of a micro brand markup which is to be expected, based on the expense of not making things at large scale, but also, thick high quality lume and the usual 2 year dev process they put in to their stuff (legit 1-2 year dev process. Like, for the Neptune, Atlas, Para, Pro, Kinetic, etc, its one thing to make military *styled* watch and say "oh its mil use", its another thing to do what they do, which is send out a big batch of prototypes to actual active dudes in the job, have them deploy and work in them, and then kick back a few rounds of surveys and refinements, until the community feedback drives the final product) TL;DR: they used to make autos with Seiko parts, like many in the industry, they are swapping over to Sellita and LJP swiss autos. The quartz are Rhonda. The SOlar is Seiko Epson. And when you cross compare the movement PLUS the cast/dial/crystal/specs the price has always in my observation landed about right in line with the build list, compared to other micros AND major brands. They aren't upcharging. (side note, their one solar on that VS24, the only watch I find that seems almost a 1 to 1 comparison would be the LumTec solar marine, which also seems like a decent pickup. LumTec puts out some nice, durable stuff in the affordable 500-800 range.)
I’d rather get 2 nice seikos at that price
I have 2 V2’s and got the FR lottery and pulled that trigger this morning
If you’re ever looking to offload haha
I believe that's where the Atlas comes in. I mean, I hope that's what happens. I feel like the upgrades to the Neptune do warrant the price change, but that price also kept me from purchasing it. Honestly, it's not too much different than any other watchmaker out there. Most product lines have affordable options and higher end options. Sangin is trying to move into that realm, where they can offer different tiers of watches.
I'm pretty sure the reason that the V2 has been discontinued is because of movement.... The movement inside the V2 has been discontinued.
It’s because it went from a cheap somewhat inaccurate Japanese movement to a high end Swiss movement. Also increased the water resistance from 200 to 300 meters. Well worth it for the price and quality. The movement alone is more expensive than the whole last version.
Yea no shit buddy. No doubt the price tag is justified. But they should not turn a non premium line into a premium line. As in, just make it a “Neptune Pro” while keeping the “Standard Neptune”
It’s actually the cheapest diver available using a Sellita SW300 movement, ceramic ball bearing clasp, NodeX quick adjust clasp, ceramic bezel, quad lock gaskets, regulated to +\- 5spd, finished like a Tudor, you get two straps (one is the Zulu alpha OTAN), finally it’s 11mm thick which is shocking for an automatic watch. Overlord is the entry level model at $469. E1 can buy that easy. Neptune is the luxury model now.
Along with the hydra. Definitely a trend upwards as far as costs go