Hands-on with MeisterSinger's No3 - PVD

For a company that has only been in existence since 2001, MeisterSinger has managed to do quite well, picking up awards here and there for their designs, and becoming arguably the most well known modern proponent of single-handed watches, also known as the watch to have when being accurate to the minute really isn’t a priority.

I shan’t go down the Wagnerian reference route, suffice to say the company’s name  and musical influence is dealt with on their website as follows :

"The harmony reflected in a well-balanced piece of music, the fine drama of a good act and the ability of music to set aside time, these are all as well inherent qualities of a MeisterSinger watch. Therefore the MeisterSinger logo carries the fermata - the sign of silence in music.”

2010 has seen a special sporty addition to MeisterSinger’s No.3 line.  The No.3 AM911 has only just hit the retailers in Australia, and is not even on their website yet. An all black PVD affair, the five minute markers are in red, the colour theme continuing onto the ‘No.3’ and the stitching in the leather strap.

TECHNICAL SPECS :

Movement: ETA 2824-2, automatic

Case : 43 mm (11.5 mm height), stainless steel with black PVD coating.

Water resistance: 5 bar

Power reserve: 48 hours

Features: sapphire glass, glass back secured with 6 screws, black dial

Flip it over and the No.3’s open caseback is visible.  Nothing terribly exciting has been done to the movement.

This is not a 'serious' watch, it is a bit of PVD fun marketed as 'sporty', but  with the No.3 dial, I think that it somehow still manages to still be just a little bit dressy.

One of the appealing features for me of the No.1 line is that they are manual wind – it takes a considerable number of rotations to wind up one of the No.1s, but there’s a certain amount of enjoyment to be had in doing this. I like the PVD No.3 a lot, but would have liked it more as a manual wind rather than automatic; however I admit that this is a very personal preference.

What I do like is the packaging.  In an age where we seem to pay for increasingly large boxes made of increasingly elaborate types of material or rare woods at the upper price point end of the spectrum, or on at the other end, we receive rather nonedescript boxes, I am quite taken with this, though I'm really not sure why MS chose such a design.  It appeals to the bookish side of me, and reminds me that buying books is actually a cheaper proposition than buying watches…

[AP]