American watch Hemel Air Defense

Hemel Air Defense Watch

Friends, hello everyone. You are on the channel about Feeltime watches, Stanislav is with you as always, and today there will be an article about American Hemel watches.  

I recently showed you the first Hemel watch. I won’t repeat history, I’ll just remind you that I’m expanding the horizons of my store. In October, I received 3 brands to try. I rejected one for myself. One is in limbo, but I really liked Hemel right away.  

I very quickly decided to work with this manufacturer. And last week the first batch of watches was received. So expect videos for this brand in the near foreseeable future.  

The watch is really cool and has its own tricks up its sleeves.

Equipment

The models are delivered in very ordinary but bright boxes. They literally say "throw away after unpacking." In this way, Hemel, as it were, saves money, does not litter it with excess cardboard and protects nature. Everyone wins. Of course, except for lovers of pretentious boxes.  

Each model comes with a standard booklet with the brand's model range and a huge napkin for caring for the glass and watch case. I assure you, this is a really useful thing.

We have 2 models with different dial colors in our review. One in black, the other in a beige, fully luminescent dial.

I will show both during the review, but I will focus on the beige version, since this color is still rarer.  

First impressions of the watch are very pleasant.  

The name of the Air Defense collection speaks for itself. This is a pilot's watch. And what I like is that Hemel managed to create their own face in a variety of models.  

For example, if I see this watch on another person’s hand, I will immediately understand that it is Hemel.  

Strap

And one of the business cards is a strap made of genuine leather. Very nice, vintage color. Fast replacement system. The strap is not as thick as the model I showed last time. But his quality is, frankly, bomb. It looks expensive and is stitched perfectly. This is definitely the brand's strong point.  

The second point that immediately resonates with me is the case diameter of 40 mm.  

For me today this is the ideal watch size.  

Generally speaking, from lug to lug - 47 mm, thickness - 13.2 mm, weight - 85 grams.

316l stainless steel body. Fully polished. The finishing quality is good.  

120 click bezel with ceramic insert. Very smoothly processed, the sound is pleasant and expensive. It's just not convenient to rotate. Just due to the fact that it is smoothly processed. Your hands will sweat and it will slip between your fingers.  

Frame 11

The buttons are convenient. With characteristic clicks, just the way I like it. But the head is small. Visually it looks great, but in reality it is absolutely inconvenient. And you will need to constantly come into contact with it, since it is a manual-winding mechanism only. It’s hard for me, even with my small fingers, to grab hold of it.

But here it all comes down to the fact that size would ruin the design.

Unique mechanism

Turning the watch over, we see exactly the same mechanics. And, to be honest, for me it's a wow effect. Firstly, there is the fact that this is a mechanical watch with a chronograph for $550. You don't see this often. The only people that come to mind are the Chinese Seagull, who made this mechanism.  

Seagull ST19 is the caliber of this watch. And according to information on the Internet, I discovered that this is far from a simple mechanism. Back in the 1960s, the Swiss sold its prototype to the Seagal company, and they have been refining it for many years to the state in which it is now.

The interesting thing is that the chronograph is built in as a separate module, which simplifies watch repair if necessary.  

The mechanism has a power reserve of 42 hours and a good error of 10-15 seconds. per day.  

The mechanism is very nicely finished, there really is something to admire. And for skeptics who are against the Chinese, I immediately want to suggest reading about the Seagull company. In the world of watches, these are very serious guys.

Clock face

In Panda style. Frankly speaking, I really love this format.  

The main seconds hand is located in the small window on the left. On the right is a 30-minute chronograph.  

The funny thing is that I didn’t immediately understand whether these small windows were recessed or, on the contrary, raised. There is distortion. They are still seated a little deeper.  

Everything is done as carefully as possible. I like that the arrows of the little cats are of different shapes. These are already pleasant nuances.  

The large hands seem to be varnished, which is also unusual.  

And of course, let's look at the lume.  

The readability of the black dial is definitely better. There is a brighter contrast of white and black here.  

Nevertheless, I still like the beige panda better.  

As for the remaining characteristics, I did not name sapphire crystal with anti-reflection and water resistance - 100 meters. In principle, this is absolutely expected for a watch of this style.  

Results

And now let's go to the results.  

The price today in my online store Felltime is 21175 UAH, which is equivalent to $550.

Frankly speaking, this is absolutely adequate, and the watch has many advantages.  

This is both a unique design and its own face. This is a wonderful quality belt. These are stylish dials with cool detailing and no visible jambs.  

This is a mechanical chronograph. And not just anyhow, but a really interesting mechanism with good characteristics and great processing, which is pleasant to admire through the back cover.  

If I were to nitpick, I can only note the uncomfortable bezel and crown, which is essentially a consequence of the good processing of that same bezel and the need for a small head size in terms of design. Therefore, such things are clearly in the category of trifles.  

I can’t think of anything like this in this budget. If you have options, please write.

Well, you can buy these watches and other models of the brand with an official 2-year warranty in our Feeltime online store. I am the official distributor of the brand in Ukraine.

That's all for me. I hope this was helpful. Stanislav was with you as always. Until next time. Bye