# Astroavia Chronograph Watches



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

I recently came across a group of quite nice looking chronograph watches, under the name "Astroavia" on Amazon, and I thought that this brand might make an interesting little topic. I say little, because the company has (according to its website) been going only since 2012 in its current form, run by two brothers - before which the company was in the hands of their father. I don't know anything about the company's history prior to 2012.

Having looked at these watches from the point of view of their design and price, I checked on them horologically and looked at how others in the know regard them, and a problem immediately arose which has prevented men from going much further with the topic.

The problem is this - are these watches replicas or are they a product in their own right, deserving of attention by genuine watch collectors? If they are deserving of attention then myself or some other member might like to write something about this make.

Let me just explain, the warning shots or red flares that alarmed me were as follows:

1. Astroavia is on "The Black List" of brands which "Trusted Watch" "simply refuse to report on. ..."

2. The website gives me a cause for concern but this is a personal feeling and might not be shared by other members. The website claims that the company is based in Berlin and produces small numbers of quality watches, but something about the way the "About Us" page doesn't give one confidence in the product as a small. For example, a phrase like "We label our watches as water-resistant up to 3 atm., although most of them are water resistant up to 10 atm." does not inspire confidence in the water resistance of the watches, and if the watches are produced in "small quantities" then I am surprised that they wish to call the company an "international watch brand" with watches "registered and exported in over 30 countries." There is something rather "East-Asian about the way that the website is written, and I feel that the German content of these watches is not going to be very great. Finally, I don't know why the term "AVIMEGA" is stuck at the top of the website, with no explanation, and it veers rather too near "Omega" for my liking, and then there are the FAQs which remain unanswered when you try and click on them.

3. The price of the Astroavia chronographs is rather cheap for something produced in the manner in which Astroavia claim. Astroavia chronographs can be bought on Amazon for as little as Â£50, even the more expensive examples are in the Â£110-120 range, although there is one chrono for Â£260.

I think that is as far as I am going to take this one as I do not want to offend the administration or other members. I should say, in its defence that Astroavia watches have been discussed and reviewed on Watchuseek forum, but an Astroavia watch has also been reviewed on a replical watch forum.

Thus the result is that no topic will be forthcoming from me on this collection of chronos. A pity since many of them have a 40 mm diameter case, which is ideal for my wrist. If you want a good idea about the Astroavia watches then I recommend you have a look at Watchuseek's Astroavia thread.


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## Will Fly (Apr 10, 2012)

Worth taking a look at http://www.pilotur.dk/english/FlightCom-with-alarm.html for their take on Astroavia. It seems they use Citizen movements for their watches, and Citizen are a reasonable quartz Japanese maker. A quick look at a few Amazon reviews shows satisfied customers.

They seem like good value if you want a decent, low-priced quartz chrono in that style. The web site is pretty crap though.


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

53 quid for acitizen chrono movement with 5stars i cant see a problem :thumbup:


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks Will and chris - it seems that these watches are OK to review after all, and I must say that, like you, I thought that if they were OK horologically then they are quite a good buy. If I remember rightly, they were reviewed quite well, and I do actually rather like them, especially if they contain citizen movements.

So I apologise to Astroavia, but I know how strict the Forum is on discussing or promoting replica watches, and I wanted to see if they were suitable for this Forum to pay heed to. Now I know that they are, and have other members to back this up, I will leave it at that, and say that as far as I am concerned, they seem to be decent watches at a pretty keen price. If I was buying one though, I think would stick to the less expensive examples with 40 mm cases and no alarms - a good basic quartz movement and a nice face and decent chrono action is quite enough for me.


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

I just thought that members would be interested to know that the moderator of Watchuseek also put Astroavia on a post listing his blacklisted watches - why? I am not quite sure. This was in 2012, and I might provide a copy of his blacklisted watches for members to look at sometime in the future, as an interesting view on what a Forum Moderator found appropriate and what watches were "non grata" a couple of years ago in his opinion.


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