The case

I’m going to be honest, and start off by saying that there are a number of flaws on the Alpha. But don’t let that put you off. Sure, there are some poorly machined edges and some not that great finishing, but always keep in mind what you’re getting for the price.
The size of the case is 39mm, in my eyes a perfect size for a smart / casual watch like this. It has a lug to lug length of 48mm, which is a reasonable and comfortable length, resulting in good seating on the wrist.

The height is 16mm (mainly due to the exhibition case back being quite tall), but I still think it looks and fits in the wrist well, not being so overtly tall you can’t get it under a shirt cuff at all. In every way, I think the dimensions are spot on for a comfortable yet impressive looking watch.

The Alpha Daytona weighs in at 120g, which is a very agreeable weight, too. This is actually quite light for a mechanical chrono on a bracelet. I believe this is mainly due to the bracelet being a bit lightweight, and possibly the acrylic crystal too. Still, it weighs enough to let you know that you’ve got a nice timepiece on, yet light enough to be able to comfortably wear it all day long. I usually get a bit fed up of wearing a watch all day and end up taking it off, but it’s been pretty easy wearing the Alpha Daytona.

The case is brushed on the top and bottom, and polished on the sides and bezel. Whilst the brushed finishing leaves a little to be desired, the polished sides are actually very well done and pretty much spotless.

I do really like the shape of the case, mainly due to the lovely slight bulge of the sides, and the slender point of the lugs. Let’s thank Rolex for that.

The lugs have a width of 20mm, and are drilled-through – so it’s dead easy to replace your strap. The little holes on the two ends mean you can poke a tool or paper clip in to release the pin, instead of risking damaging the underside of the lugs. A good positive. And let’s face it, you’re likely to replace the bracelet eventually.

The crown is of the screw-in variety, rather than a simple push-pull. A popular opinion is that the threading isn’t that great, and I’ll agree with that. Being that it’s a hand-wind only movement, and you’ll have to unscrew it every 2 days, it feels like you may thread it at any time. It doesn’t particularly screw in or catch the thread particularly cleanly, so you do have to have a bit of a fiddle, which at times can be a bit worrying. I think it would have been better to just leave it as a push-pull crown so you wouldn’t have to worry about it.

The crown is polished, with an acceptable quality of finishing; and has the Alpha logo embossed on the end, which is not very deep at all – you’d miss it if you weren’t looking for it. This is a shame, as coupled with the rough grip, the crown isn’t particularly good at all.

Above and below the crown are the pushers. Now these are very good in comparison. They’re locking pushers, which have a screwable outer edge which unlocks the pusher, allowing you to push it in. It’s quite surprising to see these on such a cheap watch, and they actually work beautifully. Unlike the crown, the grip is decent and well machined; the thread is fine, and the motion of screwing and unscrewing them is pleasant and simple.

The bezel is polished, with all the tachymeter markings engraved and then filled with paint. This is a great looking and effective solution – you can read the markings incredibly well and they’re protected from rubbing off. All the numbers and dashes are all very neatly and accurately machined out too. The only problem is that Alpha didn’t quite fill them all in well enough – the 6 in the number 60 at position 12 is only half painted, which is a little annoying. Apart from that, the bezel is surprisingly good and the polished finish makes the watch look excellent and appears high quality on the wrist.

The main worry I had with the Alpha Paul Newman Daytona was the acrylic crystal. I had never properly seen one or had a watch with one before so I didn’t know what to expect. I though it would not be very clear, and just look and feel like plastic. Thankfully, though, I was wrong. It looks as clear as mineral crystal and offers good clarity and visibility. Obviously one of the key points to be aware of is how easily it can scratch. And that is definitely true. Within a day or so of regular wear, I had noticed a couple tiny hairline marks on it. But, this is a well-known issue with acrylic so I was expecting it. All you need is some Polywatch and you’ll be able to polish those marks right out. One thing which is a little annoying, is how when you do have a mark, sometimes in direct sunlight that mark casts a tiny shadow on the dial. Again, that’s something that comes with the territory of an acrylic crystal on top of a light dial. The crystal sits quite high, and has a steep curved edge towards the bezel, which creates a fair bit of visual distortion at steep angles. All in all though, my first experience with an acrylic crystal hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would – and despite the small problems that I already knew about, it’s proving to be a perfectly clear and effective crystal.

The Alpha Paul Newman Daytona offers 3 ATM / 30m water resistance, which is basically splash-proof. It’s not suitable to wear whilst having a shower, nor should it be fully submerged in water. Cheap Chinese watches never really fare well in water proofing, which is a shame – as the Alpha Daytona has screw-in pushers, crown and case back, so theoretically it should be able to handle it.

I personally think the case is fairly good and well made, bar the crown and the below-par brushed finishing. I don’t think the acrylic crystal can be used as a negative in this instance, as its used in many other watches at a greater price to offer a “vintage vibe”, such as the Smiths Everest.

The dial

The dial style of the Alpha Daytona is commonly known as a panda dial – which is a lighter background with black subdials (which refers to the Panda’s white head and black eyes). It’s an extremely popular design thanks to how darn good it looks.

The dial as a whole is actually surprisingly very well executed and is pretty much flawless – which I really wasn’t expecting. In the top half, below the 12 marker is the Alpha logo, the main feature being the applied polished Alpha “A”, which is a nice touch and accurately made and applied. Below it: Alpha, 1993, and mechanical chronometer are all printed. It’s not a chronometer though – that’s a complete lie. A chronometer is a movement that has been tested and certified to meet certain strict precision standards. Only the best Swiss Made watches get this done (also known as COSC certified).

I really love the cream dial, it offers a beautiful softness and vintage touch to the watch and I believe it looks less harsh than a crisp white dial would be. There’s a black outer edge, with the minute track within it made up of red markers at every minute and then 3 smaller dashes in-between. The red on black looks great, supplying a very sporty aspect to the dial. There are polished applied batons at every hour within the black ring, which have rather pleasantly impressed me with how well they’re made. Below them, on the inside of the black minute track, are lumed blobs. They are tiny and barely visible – and they may as well not have bothered with them the lume is that bad. No charge ability or strength whatsoever.

The hour and minute hands are very simple long batons with squared ends, which are pitched down the centre, offering different degrees of reflection based on the angle of light. They have a very thin centre line of lume which is as poor quality as the hour markers.
The subdial hands are very thin stick batons with points on the end. All the hands are polished steel, which reflect the light beautifully. They are all finished to a high standard, which is great to see. They have no flaws on them whatsoever, nor are any tooling marks apparent. Because the dial is cream rather than white, they are visible enough to ensure good readability.

The subdials all have a subtle concentric circular pattern within them, which again is a nice unexpected level of detail I was pleased to see. Each subdial has white printing on, which isn’t the cleanest or crispest print work I’ve ever seen.

Just above the bottom subdial is the word chronograph printed, curving around the edge in red ink – another sporty gesture which is pleasing to the eye. The printing as a whole is pretty good, apart from on the subdials as mentioned, but this is most probably because of having to print on top of the circular pattern.

I am very pleased with the dial of the Alpha Paul Newman Daytona. It’s an undeniable eye catcher, and it has a unexpectedly high level of finish to support that.

The movement

The movement powering the Alpha Daytona is a Seagull ST1903, or SG2903. It is a hand-winding column wheel mechanical chronograph movement, which doesn’t hack. It runs at 21.6k bph (6 ticks per second), and has approximately 40 hours power reserve. It’s currently running about 2 minutes slow per week – not the best, but at a price like this I’m not surprised it hasn’t been regulated particularly accurately.
It’s a 30 minute chrono, rather than the more popular full hour. The centre seconds hand is the chrono seconds, the left subdial at 9 is the running small seconds, the right subdial at 3 is the chrono elapsed minutes, and the bottom subdial at 6 is a 24 hour indicator for the time.
It’s well known to be a sturdy and reliable workhorse of a movement, so it’s likely to tick away for many a year, as long as it’s properly looked after.

Looking at the ST19 through the exhibition case back, it’s a great looking movement, with (chemically) blued screws, 23 jewels, and fairly decent quality Geneva stripes and pearlage.

Let’s not forget this is probably the cheapest mechanical chronograph you can buy new on the market… And that this watch costs only £120. Quite impressive when you think about it.

The bracelet

The bracelet is most probably the weakest part of the Alpha Daytona. Although each link is fairly well made and finished, it’s completely let down by the poor hollow end links that don’t fit very well to the case or look that good, and also the lightweight buckle.
The bracelet starts off with a width of 20mm at the lugs, reducing to 16mm at the buckle, which I find to be a comfortable size that fits the wrist and well, and matches and balances the watch head.

The bracelet is all brushed on the top and bottom, and polished on both sides. The polished finish is actually surprisingly good, with no marks and a mirror-like finish. The brushed finish is not quite so good, it being easy to mark, a bit light, and not too uniform. Still, when you’re wearing it as normal, these things can’t really be seen when you glance at your wrist. It’s only when you start looking a bit closer do you see them.

The hollow end links are a bit of a disaster. They aren’t cut with that great accuracy, as they don’t fit the case’s curve accurately. You can also see them all folded up from the bottom. Yuk. Thankfully the bracelet is easy to remove courtesy of the drilled through lugs. This is a shame as the main links are all actually very well made.

The buckle is another aspect where the bracelet isn’t the best. It’s very thin folded steel, with the Alpha logo stamped in the centre, which looks pretty bad. It’s a single locking buckle, you just push it together and it clicks shut, which isn’t particularly secure. In fact, I have had it pop open on me before. One good thing about it is the 6 micro-adjustment holes, so you can get a perfect size to fit your wrist. Like the rest of the bracelet, it has a brushed top and polished sides.

So, it’s clearly not the best quality bracelet in the world. But that doesn’t mean it completely ruins the whole watch. I actually think the watch looks pretty good on it – as long as you don’t look at it too closely.

The competition

There’s not many other watches out there offering a mechanical chronograph at a similar price to the Alpha. In fact, the only two I can think of is the Alpha Radomir (the same price) and the Seagull 1963 Reissue (available for £150 from WatchUnique). The Radomir wins out on the spec front as it has a sapphire crystal, whilst the Seagull has an Acrylic crystal like the Daytona. But, no matter which one you choose, you’re going to get a great watch for your money – so it really is a matter of which one appeals to you most.

Sea-Gull 1963 picture courtesy of Worn and Wound.

Final comments

If you’re serious about watch collecting, then you need a mechanical chronograph in your collection. Unfortunately for us affordable watch geeks, these usually come at a higher price range due to the complicated movement. I find it incredible that you can buy one that looks this good for £120. For that price, you can’t really say no. Thanks to the stunning Rolex Daytona, we have a wonderfully designed affordable chrono that looks fantastic on the wrist. The only things to keep in mind is the rather poor bracelet (feels cheap, but actually looks ok, and it can be swapped for a leather strap anyway), the acrylic crystal, which has a tendency to get tiny hairline marks easily, and the crown threading. Still, on the wrist, it looks great. Despite the obvious flaws, it certainly looks more than what it’s worth. I love it.

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There is one brand based in China that still manages to offer a mechanical chrono for a mere £120. This is the homage to the Panerai Radomir, made by Alpha. At first glance, what isn’t there to like? Sapphire crystal, hand wind mechanical chronograph movement, distinct styling, and a very appealing price. It is based on a Panerai where only 10 were ever made, the PAM158, which was a special edition from 2003. Let’s face it, none of us are never going to have the opportunity to get the real thing, so we may as well settle for the Alpha.

Let’s take a closer look to see if it is as good as it seems…

The dial

The main feature of the dial is the distinctive panda styling, with silver sub dials contrasting well against the black dial. The black face of the dial is a flat matt black, with little texture to it.

There is an unusually large rehaut with tachymeter printed around it. This gives the case extra height – if you look at the side profile you’ll see how it has been designed and made to have this deep rehaut. It gives the watch face a very deep and spacious appearance.

The subdials have a subtle concentric circle pattern within them and are inset into the dial, giving the dial an extra layer of depth. A nice and impressive touch considering the price. This also couples well with the fact that it is a sandwich dial, meaning that the hour markers (apart from 3, 6 and 9) are all on a lower level and inset into the dial. The hour markers are all batons with curved ends, with the exception of the 12 where it is numerals. The cutting of the dial to necessitate the sandwiched areas are all very well done, with no visible flaws at all. The number 12 is especially crisp. This is a nice surprise as I thought these were going to be a tad messy and poorly executed.

The main hands are quite simple – the hour and minutes are straight with a small pointy tip. The big chrono second hand is a very long arrow.
The subdial hands are well made and are not your usual shape or design – they are elliptic ovals with a small bulbus counter balance. Again, at this price these are quite impressive. All the hands have a small amount of lume within (bar the big seconds), and are made of polished stainless steel. They are all seemingly very well machined, with no apparent rough edging or marks on them, even under the macro lens.

The lume used across the whole face and hands is poor, having barely any charge ability and not really very visible in the dark. For me, it isn’t really a deal breaker, as I never expect too much from Chinese watches anyway when it comes to lume.

There is an applied “a” of the Alpha logo underneath the 12 marker, with “Alpha 1993” printed below. It is applied well, but does look a little cheap. I’m not really sure if it is steel or not, but I suppose it’s still an applied logo, it’s nice that they have added this at the price the watch is to give the dial even greater depth rather than just printing it on.

The other printing on the dial include the small minute track around the dial, the tachymeter, and small markers on the sub dials.

The only visible flaws I can see is a tiny spec of dust on the 5 hour marker baton. Apart from that, the dial looks great under the macro lens.

The case

The case of the Alpha Radomir is a distinctive pillow shape. It is 42.5 mm wide excluding the crown and 45 mm lug to lug. It is completely polished 316L stainless steel.

The rather large oversized shoulders are the key design queue of the case, and is a very unique shape for this price.

The side profile is an enjoyable sight, with the top housing for the dial and crystal protruding upwards to house the large rehaut and crystal. There is a sleek oval running alongside the edge too, all immaculately machined. There is no sharp edges anywhere, and the polished finish is spotless.

The Alpha Radomir features a push-pull onion style crown. Its a plus that it features a push-pull (rather than a screw-in) crown, as with hand wind movements you need to wind it every two days. You wouldn’t want to unscrew the crown that regularly in case you thread it. It is a definite feature, as it is oversized and demands attention, and does indeed draw the eye. It is well made and offers sufficient grip to do the job. Just as any big pilot styled watches, you have to beware of the crown digging into the top of your wrist when you wear the watch on your left hand.

The pushers for the chronograph are also well done. The top pusher, which operates as the start/stop, has a nice grip circling it. I initially thought it was a screw lock but it doesn’t appear to be functional, but rather there for aesthetic purposes.

Atop the Alpha Radomir is a domed sapphire crystal. At this price this is a major surprise. No anti-reflective coating is present. The dome is quite large, distorting the view of the dial at shallow angles. It is very well made and applied, with no marks apparent.

The screw-in exhibition case back shows off the movement beautifully. It has the watch details very lightly laser etched around the edge. The window is a mineral crystal, which appears to be very thin as the movement looks incredibly close to it. Like the rest of the watch, it is polished stainless steel and appears to be well made, with no sharp edges anywhere.

The lugs are also quite unique – but a regular occurrence on Radomir homages. Rather than having two side lugs protruding out, with a link pin between them, the Alpha Radomir has two L shaped steel pins which are removed by unscrewing small screws on the underside of the case.

As mentioned before, it is worth noting that the whole case is very well machined, with no sharp edges evident anywhere – and it has a high quality polished finish to it. At this price, the case is very impressive.

The movement

The movement within the Alpha Radomir is a hand wind mechanical chronograph, namely the Sea-Gull ST1901 (also known as the TY-2901).
It features 23 jewels, 42 hour power reserve, and looks to die for. It is a column wheel controlled lever movement. The column wheel prevents the action of the reset while the chronograph is running. It feels reassuring and sturdy in the hand when you are winding and setting the time. The pushers require quite a push, which give a satisfying click when the movement is engaged.

The big seconds hand is the chronograph seconds, so only is active when it’s started. The left subdial is the running seconds, 30 minute counter on the right, with a 24 hour indicator at the bottom.

The strap

The strap is pretty bad, but what would you expect for this price. It is 24mm in width, and is a rather unpleasant shiny black leather which feels and looks quite cheap. It also is quite stiff and doesn’t seem to wrap around the wrist as naturally as other higher quality straps.

The buckle is polished stainless stroll, with the Alpha logo very lightly etched on the top. It feels a little flimsy, with a lot of play and wobble in the middle pin. I do like the high contrasting white stitching surrounding the edge. Let’s be honest though, we all know what to expect when it comes to cheaper Chinese mechanicals. The straps are never the selling points! Nevertheless, it serves it’s purpose and does a good job of keeping the watch on your wrist. Personally, I would look to change it straight away.

Final thoughts

Any watch enthusiast should have a mechanical chronograph in their collection. With the Alpha Radomir, you can do that even on a very tight budget. The spec to price ratio is brilliant – to get a mechanical chrono, sapphire crystal and great case and dial for £120 is a no brainer to me. Sure, you’ll want to change the strap, but you’ll still get a watch offering staggering value for money. So if you can live with the tiny flaws, and like the unique design, then I would highly recommend it.

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