Hello! Time for another review.
Its been about a week since i received my second Tecnochas digital watch.
![15571094]( "15571094")
It is the black/red Technochas elektronika 1190 with the CHN-01 module. A month ago i had received the red/white variant, the 1194 CHN-01.
![15571097]( "15571097")
I was quite pleased (and somewhat impressed) so i decided to order the black/red version. These two watches are identical. Their only difference is their dial color. So this review refers to both of them.
First things first. These watches are sold by the technochas website. Their price is 2635rub each. Which means about 29.24eu. The technochas site is exclusively in Russian language with no option for an english version! So you have to use the google translation (works fine). Also the orders for outside Russia are placed by email. All this stuff is not exactly costumer-friendly. But despite my initial worries they proved to be reliable and responsive, so everything worked without problems.
Technochas elektronika 1190 CHN-01 is a digital watch with metal case. This case has an attractive - elegant design and reasonable size.
![15571117]( "15571117")
Elegant design is NOT a very common thing for modern digital watches. They usually are huge plastic chunks that are not complimenting anyone that wears them (all gshocks and abcs are included here). So this case is made of brass and it is chrome plated. The case size is 33.5mm wide without buttons.
![15571120]( "15571120")
Lug to lug height is 39.5mm. Lug to lug width (strap size) is 18mm. Thickness is 8.4mm. It is obvious that there was a great deal of effort put to the creation of the case. Just look at the lines.
![15571122]( "15571122")
The caseback is snap on type.
![15571123]( "15571123")
I tried to picture the dial colors as faithfuly as i could. Many of the photos you see in the technochas site are misleading cause they re quite bad photos (excuse me guys). At first they made me thought that most of their digitals was all black plated, not silver-chrome! Fortunately they have videos on youtube where the image quality is much better. Just search with the model number.
As you can see the dial design is also nice. But as you also can see there are some imperfections. The printing is not quite perfect. These imperfections are totally invisible to the naked eye even under the sun or even an X4 magnifier. I didnt noticed them untill i took the photos.
![15571125]( "15571125")
As long as these imperfections are not visible to the eye, for me its an acceptable condition.
The watches are sold without a bracelet or strap. So be prepared to find one that suits them. Because a suitable bracelet highlights the aesthetic qualities of a watch.
The module is the CHN-01 and it is a very sophisticated one. It has time, min, secs, day, date, month all in one screen.
Time can be displayed in 12 or 24h form (beware that other elektronika models display the time only in 24h)
-Date can be displayed in two languages (russian-english).
-It has an alarm with 5 melodies to select from (some are russian melodies and some are classicals) plus a beep tone. Melodies are quite short, unfortunately. There is also the hourly signal. The watch beeper is loud. It is louder than any other watch i have owned untill now since the 70s!
-It can also display a second time zone.
![15571129]( "15571129")
-There is a stopwatch with 1/100sec resolution and two modes. The LAP and SPL modes.
-There are three countdown timers.
The first timer is the typical and most useful one. You can set it to countdown from 1min to 1h:30mins. No repeat. When it reaches zero the beeper beeps for ... just 3 seconds! Come on guys, you can easily miss it! We need at least 30 seconds of beeping. Fortunately the beeper is loud, as i mentioned before, so you probably will notice it when it beeps.
The other two timers are an alarm countdown (you can set an alarm time and watch it countdown), and a date countdown. It beeps when a given date comes. The maximum possible countdown value for the third timer is 1100 days. In the meanwhile you can sit down and watch it counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Personally i cannot see any practical use of these two timers. What is the point of a six second alarm to beep after three years? And without an option to display a text note.
Beside all these, there are two more functions that is the most unique for a digital watch. And very useful too.
-This module has an automatic transition to summertime and wintertime (the user can enable or disable it). I confirm that it works. At the last Sunday of October2020 the watch automatically switched back to the winter time. Without needing wifi or gps or radio control bull***.
-The other unique function is the precision compensation. If the watch is slow or fast you can adjust its precision using the buttons (you do not have to open the backcase). The compensation resolution is 0.05 seconds, the range of
values is from -6.35 to +6.35 seconds per day.
![15571135]( "15571135")
![15571138]( "15571138")
As you can see the display has good viewing angle. Will not turn into 88:88:88 when you look at it from a lower angle (like most Skmeis do).
![15571141]( "15571141")
Casio has a slightly worse viewing angle but here the angle is extreme.
![15571156]( "15571156")
You also can notice that the reflective grey background is darker for the Technochas. Which means the Technochas has lower contrast. Which means that it is less readable in low light conditions than the Casio.
But it has bigger digits. So they have about the same readability. Not much of a problem here. Could be better, though.
I remind you that the Casio in the photos above is plastic. The Technochas is metal.
There is also a backlight which illuminates all the display. Not only the first digit on the left side. Looks like it uses only one incadescent bulb (retro vibe). Unlike older watches from the 70s the bulb stays automatically on for 3 secs even if you release the button. Never found this little utility in old digitals using incadescent bulbs.
So is everything fine? Arent there any things that i really disliked? Of course there are.
The user interface and buttons pressing are both quite irritating at first touch! That is because the buttons are narrow and hard to push. So easily you can get your fingers hurt. You have to use your fingernails. Not very convenient. Plus that the buttons have a completely different function assignment than the one you are used of the standard casios through the years. E.g. the basic mode button to scroll through various functions (alarm, stwatch, timer) is the upper right. Not the down left as you would expect! Surely you can get used to it after a lot of practice, but why? The result is that i am discouraged of using most of the other functions. Which is a pity.
Pros:
Cons:
I would happily pay some more money for exactly the same watch in a stainless steel case, with a screwback, more comfortable buttons and a brighter reflective background. And better water resistance.
Its been about a week since i received my second Tecnochas digital watch.
It is the black/red Technochas elektronika 1190 with the CHN-01 module. A month ago i had received the red/white variant, the 1194 CHN-01.
I was quite pleased (and somewhat impressed) so i decided to order the black/red version. These two watches are identical. Their only difference is their dial color. So this review refers to both of them.
First things first. These watches are sold by the technochas website. Their price is 2635rub each. Which means about 29.24eu. The technochas site is exclusively in Russian language with no option for an english version! So you have to use the google translation (works fine). Also the orders for outside Russia are placed by email. All this stuff is not exactly costumer-friendly. But despite my initial worries they proved to be reliable and responsive, so everything worked without problems.
Technochas elektronika 1190 CHN-01 is a digital watch with metal case. This case has an attractive - elegant design and reasonable size.
Elegant design is NOT a very common thing for modern digital watches. They usually are huge plastic chunks that are not complimenting anyone that wears them (all gshocks and abcs are included here). So this case is made of brass and it is chrome plated. The case size is 33.5mm wide without buttons.
Lug to lug height is 39.5mm. Lug to lug width (strap size) is 18mm. Thickness is 8.4mm. It is obvious that there was a great deal of effort put to the creation of the case. Just look at the lines.
The caseback is snap on type.
I tried to picture the dial colors as faithfuly as i could. Many of the photos you see in the technochas site are misleading cause they re quite bad photos (excuse me guys). At first they made me thought that most of their digitals was all black plated, not silver-chrome! Fortunately they have videos on youtube where the image quality is much better. Just search with the model number.
As you can see the dial design is also nice. But as you also can see there are some imperfections. The printing is not quite perfect. These imperfections are totally invisible to the naked eye even under the sun or even an X4 magnifier. I didnt noticed them untill i took the photos.
As long as these imperfections are not visible to the eye, for me its an acceptable condition.
The watches are sold without a bracelet or strap. So be prepared to find one that suits them. Because a suitable bracelet highlights the aesthetic qualities of a watch.
The module is the CHN-01 and it is a very sophisticated one. It has time, min, secs, day, date, month all in one screen.
Time can be displayed in 12 or 24h form (beware that other elektronika models display the time only in 24h)
-Date can be displayed in two languages (russian-english).
-It has an alarm with 5 melodies to select from (some are russian melodies and some are classicals) plus a beep tone. Melodies are quite short, unfortunately. There is also the hourly signal. The watch beeper is loud. It is louder than any other watch i have owned untill now since the 70s!
-It can also display a second time zone.
-There is a stopwatch with 1/100sec resolution and two modes. The LAP and SPL modes.
-There are three countdown timers.
The first timer is the typical and most useful one. You can set it to countdown from 1min to 1h:30mins. No repeat. When it reaches zero the beeper beeps for ... just 3 seconds! Come on guys, you can easily miss it! We need at least 30 seconds of beeping. Fortunately the beeper is loud, as i mentioned before, so you probably will notice it when it beeps.
The other two timers are an alarm countdown (you can set an alarm time and watch it countdown), and a date countdown. It beeps when a given date comes. The maximum possible countdown value for the third timer is 1100 days. In the meanwhile you can sit down and watch it counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Personally i cannot see any practical use of these two timers. What is the point of a six second alarm to beep after three years? And without an option to display a text note.
Beside all these, there are two more functions that is the most unique for a digital watch. And very useful too.
-This module has an automatic transition to summertime and wintertime (the user can enable or disable it). I confirm that it works. At the last Sunday of October2020 the watch automatically switched back to the winter time. Without needing wifi or gps or radio control bull***.
-The other unique function is the precision compensation. If the watch is slow or fast you can adjust its precision using the buttons (you do not have to open the backcase). The compensation resolution is 0.05 seconds, the range of
values is from -6.35 to +6.35 seconds per day.
As you can see the display has good viewing angle. Will not turn into 88:88:88 when you look at it from a lower angle (like most Skmeis do).
Casio has a slightly worse viewing angle but here the angle is extreme.
You also can notice that the reflective grey background is darker for the Technochas. Which means the Technochas has lower contrast. Which means that it is less readable in low light conditions than the Casio.
But it has bigger digits.
So they have about the same readability. Not much of a problem here. Could be better, though.I remind you that the Casio in the photos above is plastic. The Technochas is metal.
There is also a backlight which illuminates all the display. Not only the first digit on the left side. Looks like it uses only one incadescent bulb (retro vibe). Unlike older watches from the 70s the bulb stays automatically on for 3 secs even if you release the button. Never found this little utility in old digitals using incadescent bulbs.
So is everything fine? Arent there any things that i really disliked? Of course there are.
The user interface and buttons pressing are both quite irritating at first touch! That is because the buttons are narrow and hard to push. So easily you can get your fingers hurt. You have to use your fingernails. Not very convenient. Plus that the buttons have a completely different function assignment than the one you are used of the standard casios through the years. E.g. the basic mode button to scroll through various functions (alarm, stwatch, timer) is the upper right.
Not the down left as you would expect! Surely you can get used to it after a lot of practice, but why? The result is that i am discouraged of using most of the other functions. Which is a pity.Pros:
- Metal (brass) case, elegant lines, reasonable size, really good looking
- Nice retro-elegant dial design
- Display, with good viewing angles
- Unique and useful functions (auto dst, precision compensation)
- Rich set of other functions
- Loud beeper
- Best incadescent backlight i ve ever seen till now
- Reasonable price
Cons:
- Unusual, not friendly interface. Needs practice to get used to it.
- Buttons are hard to push
- Some imperfections on the dials, practically invisible
- 3 seconds of beeping for the countdown timer are not enough !
- Little use for some functions (like the 1100 days countdown timer)
I would happily pay some more money for exactly the same watch in a stainless steel case, with a screwback, more comfortable buttons and a brighter reflective background. And better water resistance.
