Where the hell am I? :: stuff - watches - Festina Manhattan

first saw the Festina Manhattan while browsing through a back issue of International Wristwatch that contained watches from Baselworld (Issue Number 67, June 2003, Page 110) during early December of 2003. What I first noticed was that I hadn’t noticed this watch before, which surprised me. I was drawn to the offset dual-time zone and how it was scooped out of the case. Also, I did not know at the time that Festina made more than the quartz watches I saw at my local JC Penny’s. So the fact that it was an automatic was cool to me as well. It was different, it appeared to be big (didn't know how big at the time) and I liked it. So my hunt began.

And at first, it did not go well. I could not find any sources in the US that had this watch and only a few overseas. The going rate was around 300 Euro on the sites that did have it, which was higher than I had hoped, but within my budget. I posted to the Poor Man's Watch Forum a "Thumbs Up or Down?" for the watch and got good responses, as well as a source in the US! www.4abnet.com had the watch for under $300 shipped, it was just a matter of regaining my watch funds. As it turns out I never had to contact this seller as one popped up on eBay, much to my surprise, from a seller in Florida. When the auction ended the winning bid of $199 was mine. Shipping brought the total to $208.

This automatic movement, however, at times has the least smooth sweep to its second hand. At certain times it will actually jump in three or four second intervals for a few seconds before it returns to its normal sweep. I do not know if it is indicative of this movement or not. When I was writing this I had the watch setting on the desk on its side, crown up, and I could see it herk and jerk around the dial. When I tipped the watch face up it began to sweep normally. This is not a continuous activity, however. Normally when I view the watch it sweeps as expected; it occasionally performs this “jumping” action. I have not observed any impact to actual time-keeping as a result of this jumping motion. It seems to be similar, perhaps, to the effect that occurs on some Invicta 8926 watches.
Overall, I am most pleased. It’s a nice big watch (which helps stave off the Panerai lust).

You can read my review of this watch in the Archive at the Poor Man's Watch Forum. Sold as it was just too big. If the lugs had curved down, perhaps, it might have stayed.