Seiko Champion

There are so many examples of watch “brands” that are just a different take on how to package a standard ETA movement, and somehow figure out how to get people to pay high prices for them.

Today’s example is a want brand by the name of “Cuervo y Sobrinos”, whose watches, cased in fine cigar humidor boxes, retail from $3,000 to $15,000 at Jura.

They recently released limited edition chronograph versions of their Torpedo line, commemorating “Classique Espagne-Portugal” classic car auto race, which I find a very interesting look.



The original brand seems to have a real history, having started in Cuba in the late 1800s, but is now another brand owned and run out of Switzerland.

The concept of the brand message is good, and I actually really like the look of some of their watches. They have designed watches to impart the feeling of late 19th century Havana … a time when smoking an expensive cigar was considered a gentlemanly thing to do, when life was slower and richer (at least for those who had money!), with good Cuban music playing in the background.






Reading their website, you get the very strong impression that CyS make their own watches, that they are indeed a “manufacture”.

… Cuervo y Sobrinos still uses manual skills, each item being produced individually and numbered, in their continuous search for the most demanding public, people with refined tastes…

… Each phase of manufacture passes through continuous and strict quality controls; as in all the components, they are methodically prepared in all the phases of production, up to the final control, before the watch leaves the production line. These conditions allow Cuervo y Sobrinos to guarantee that each watch has indeed been built like “a work of art” …

After searching their website for some time to determine for sure what their movements were, and not being able to find any firm information, I went elsewhere and easily determined from several sources that they use standard ETA and other Swiss calibers.

Some brands that use ETA movements, like Christopher Ward, are up-front and say what they really are, and price accordingly, to attract new entrants to watch collecting, lower-end spenders, and mid-level collectors who have gotten tired of “false brands”. Others however still hide the mundane origins of their watches behind a facade of fancy brand labeling. Unfortunately these people fit the latter case, I think they’ve not only gone beyond the boundaries of truthful branding, but that their marketing is actually coming dangerously close to being misleading.

In today’s world, truthful branding is paramount. Some of these brands attempting to hide what they really are, are struggling to succeed when anybody with an online connection can easily find out the real story.

Despite finding the styling of these watches very true to their brand message, and liking several of them, I will never buy a watch from this brand . Too bad for them, but a good lesson that most people today look into what they’re buying, and if your brand is not truthful, you will suffer.