A truly affordable, rotary engine themed mechanical watch.

Earlier this year, I discussed a pair of very interesting, rotary themed mechanical watches. You can read it here: https://jimchungblog.com/2024/03/31/wankel-engine-themed-watches-for-rotorheads/ But even for a watch enthusiast, the price of either offering was very high. Improbably high for those who also have to budget for maintaining their rotary engined car in peak condition. I’m happy to announce that there is a very recent and affordable new option that can be had for about $300 USD – or the price of a good dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant.

OBLVLO is a relatively new microband with design origins in Paris but production in Hong Kong. Long time readers will know that I refuse to buy anything made in China, if possible, but HK used to be a semi autonomous region of China governed by its own rule of law. The idea back in 1997 was that after 50 years, HK might emerge as an independent city state like Taiwan or Singapore. However I was able to circumvent this personal rule of mine by buying this watch second hand on eBay.

Lumes — The watch bears a passing resemblance to the Behrens Rotary watch with a retrograde movement of the hour indicator as it transitions from Noon to 1 PM or Midnight to 1 AM. The lumes are better applied here than on the Behrens watch. However, as shown on the video below, the inset rotor does not trace a true peritrochoidal path but simply spins in a circle. Disappointing but not unexpected given the low price point of the watch.

dial — Fit and finish are what you would expect for such an inexpensive watch. The major engineering issue is that the hands cannot be made to go backwards in time. When you set the time, if you happen to overshoot it you have to advance 12 hours to correct it. You simply get what you pay for here.

The watch uses a 21 jewel, 21,600 bph automatic movement with a 48 hour power reserve. Cracking open the back confirms that this is indeed the venerable Miyota 8215. Much like Behrens, OBLVLO has designed and fabricated a custom stack of geared components to place on second/minutes/hours posts.

I don’t buy from China because doing so supports a regime that is intent on provoking a terrible war with the West over Taiwan’s sovereignty. Nobody doubts that Taiwan is a democratically governed independent country with an incredible economy and standard of living – except China. Like Russia and its perception of Ukraine, China feels that Taiwan is a part of China.

This is China ruled by Premier Xi, a regime that lies with clumsy transparency. China will declare war on anybody preventing them from invading Taiwan because Taiwan is part of China. But if Taiwan is part of China …. why does China need to invade it at all? See the craven hypocrisy?

Here’s another example of China’s ugly behavior. The Paris Olympics just ended a month ago and China won 12 medals in the swimming competitions. But did you know that six of those medals was won by Zhang Yufei, who was one of 23 Chinese swimmers found to have TMZ in their system before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics by WADA (World Anti Doping Association). TMZ is a heart medication that can enhance performance by increasing cardiac endurance and recovery time. China conducted its own internal investigation and concluded the athletes ate contaminated meat from a Beijing restaurant, meat imported from Australia and NZ. So it was either an accident or some Western plot to disqualify their superior athletes. Somehow, China has leverage on WADA such that they never publicly reported the doping (as they are supposed to in every eventuality) as well as accepting this ridiculous Chinese claim.

But this is NOT the first time. In 2016 and 2017, three of the athletes from this group tested positive for clenbuterol, another banned substance, but nothing happened. In 2022 two other athletes tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid metandienone, and again nothing happened.

Each time, China blamed the consumption of contaminated meat from Australia and NZ. Strangely, no Australian or NZ athlete has ever tested positive for metandienone, this is not a chemical used in agriculture and both countries have strict food regulations preventing the use of such chemicals in raising livestock.

Screen Shot 2024-09-23 at 12.06.18 AM — If you thought that was an unbelievable scenario, try this example of ridiculous China lies. A zoo in Guangdong province tried to fool visitors with its panda exhibit by painting Chow Chow dogs to look like pandas. Really.

The OBLVLO Rotary watch is available from its website and from Amazon. It’s made in HK which is still not completely a part of China so you get a pass buying this watch. For now.