# Review of the 40mm Tisell Flieger



## rafalema (May 31, 2016)

Sup all,

I wrote a review of the Tisell Flieger a few days ago and posted it on r/watches, then thought I might as well contribute here too.
As a preface, I've had the Tisell 40mm Flieger in my collection for about 7 months now, during which it has stolen 90% of my wrist time. The model has been out of stock on the Tisell website for quite a while now, though I do hope they manufacture more and in case they do, I wanted to do a short writeup of my experience with the piece so far in case anyone is thinking about getting one in the future. If you will end up purchasing one from them, do note that it will be with a different movement (Miyota) than this version, which I believe is of slightly higher quality than the ST2130 in this one. The lume colour was also changed from green (my version) to blue (new version) as far as I'm aware.

*Feel & Design*










When the watch first I arrived I was very impressed with its feel save for the strap, which though looked good, felt very cheap. At 40mm diameter and 50mm lug-to-lug, it is the biggest watch that I own but I feel it wears significantly smaller due to its slim profile and the curved lugs, which make the watch feel very thin compared to for example my Seiko 5 which is of equal height but feels much thicker.
I cannot praise the design enough. The dial and hands extremely legible, to the point where I am annoyed by a lot of my other pieces simply because they are not as quick to read nor as precise. The case as mentioned before is slim and there's nothing I'd change about it. My feelings for the crown are much more neutral as in general I would prefer a screw-down, more "standard"-shaped crown. The crown works well in setting the time as it is easy to pull out, but it is not comfortable to wind and feels sharp when doing so. I don't feel like this is a major problem though as far as my experience goes, I never have to wind it manually and it seems to have a very good power reserve though I haven't ever measured this precisely.

*Overall build quality*

The case of the watch is stainless steel and so far has done well. It has a lot of minor scratches but they are not really visible in everyday use and from a normal watching (heh) distance. This Flieger was my first watch with a sapphire glass and this is by far one of the most positive aspects of the piece for me. All my other watches show a ton of scratches, especially the Seiko 5 which is almost unusable at this point due to the scratching of the crystal. The crystal on the Flieger has yet to show any scratches at all, even when viewed under a loupe, even though I know and the case can testify that I bump it on very many things very often.










The dial printing is extremely crisp and has a little bit of thickness to it when viewed from the side. The lume on the watch is usable and in a very dark room at night works very well. The legibility of the dial also means that at very low light it is still easy to read even without the lume being an active factor. However I am a bit disappointed by the lack of lume on the white seconds hand, which is lumed in the more expensive models like the one Stowa produces. Stowa on the other hand does not have lume on the individual minute indices, only on the hour ones, so overall I think I prefer the design choice made by Tisell here.

*Functionality, timekeeping & movement quality*

















In case I didn't make this clear enough yet, the dial is extremely legible at almost any condition. The only piece in my collection that can compete at all is my F-91W, which is not really a fair comparison.
In terms of timekeeping, the watch did insanely well for the first 3-5 months, gaining less than a second per 24 hours when used daily. Currently, about 7 months in, it is doing roughly 3-10s fast a day, which, given the hacking feature, is very easy to correct from time to time.
The feel of the movement - Seagull ST2130 - is something that I am very conflicted about. While in my view it has performed very well, it definitely feels cheap to use. Sometimes when you pull out the crown, the hacking feature does not work, sometimes it does. When putting in the crown, sometimes it does not go in all the way until you turn it a little bit and then push it down again. Winding is like hacking - sometimes it works, sometimes it does not and in general feels quite terrible. Setting the time works well and feels fine but it's nothing to write home about.

*Conclusion*

Overall I am extremely satisfied with my experience for the price. After using it on the original strap for a week or so, I ordered a riveted 20mm strap from Stowa which I feel fits the watch perfectly, especially after combining it with a cheap deployment clasp. Until I can get my hands on a something higher-end, this will more than do and I can hardly recommend it enough if the model is ever restocked. I do plan to modify it in the future with the intentions of replacing the Seagull movement with an ETA one.

The whole album: Tisell Flieger Review - Album on Imgur


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2016)

welcome to the forum *rafalema *

*i may be wrong but i was under the impression that Tisel were related to Parnis and use the same cases movement etc..only the name is different *


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## rafalema (May 31, 2016)

The movement (by Seagull) is probably used by Parnis in some models, though from what I've heard from people's experiences, Tisells usually arrive well regulated / performing much better than Seagulls as a general category. While Parnis seems to pump out cheap, low quality watches continuously, Tisell has been out of stock on their best models for some time due to waiting for movements as they switched to Miyotas.

About the case I'm not sure. I've heard Parnis cases described as feeling cheap, which this one certainly does not. Do you have any reference or where from you heard about such a connection? I'd love to know more if possible.


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## Padders (Oct 21, 2008)

In my experience, Parnis *cases* feel very well made, it is the Seagull movements which are shoddily put together, full of dirt and badly adjusted, this rather tallies with your experience above. The suspicion has always been that Parnis models come out the front door and branded fakes using the same parts come out the back door. A sort of third shift operation which is common in China. Certainly the GMT/oyster cases I have seen up close are very high quality whereas the movement on several have been, let's say, less dependable, though often nicely decorated, rather like that above in fact. Parnis also routinely fit sapphire glass to some models so I am afraid nothing in the review above would persuade me that Tisel weren't closely related to Parnis, though I have no firm info that they are either.


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## rafalema (May 31, 2016)

I am curious of your definition for being closely related though. If the problem that you see is the close association with the Seagull movement manufacturer, it seems more than odd to me if Tisell is indeed an outlet for Parnis for Tisell to switch to Miyota series movements.

Honestly though, even if a connection would exist, I'm not sure would I really mind either way. Seagull movements are what they are and if this is the level of quality that Parnis produces in terms of dial, case and hands then I am incredibly impressed since from what I have heard a lot of their produce has been of a low quality. Then again Parnis is a bit of a hit and miss thing anyways since it's not as far as I know a single factory/producer anyways.


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