Slow Jo 06

The overall build quality and workmanship is excellent. It feels very solid and has kept accurate time. The black dial with white print and silver hand has good visibility and readability. The leather band is incredibly soft and supple. It does have a tendency to stretch a little over time, so if one notch is a little tight and the next is a little loose, just stick with the tight notch for a couple days. Having only the one hand took some getting used to but now I'm able to get a time estimate of +/- 3 minutes. The packaging is quite clever. The watch is well isolated from the shocks and bumps of < pick your favorite postal service > drop kicking it around the warehouse. Slow were also kind enough to include the tools necessary to remove the band and remove links (if you get the stainless steel band).

Sometimes you feel compelled to write a review because you'd like to save someone from making the mistake of purchasing something that you found to be a great disappointment. And sometimes, you feel obligated to post a positive review for those products that met your expectations, but did not otherwise make a significant impact on your life. But I'm writing this review because this product (and the support team, which I'll get to later) have not only met and exceeded my expectations, but because the ownership experience of this watch has been nothing short of astounding. First and foremost - the quality. There are videos online that show many different configurations of Slow Watches, including different case and face color, and band combinations. These videos do an OK job of showing the kind of craftsmanship that has gone into these products, but I'm here to say that I was *still* impressed when I unpacked my watch for the first time. As you can tell from the pictures, the case is geometrically symmetrical, with many chamfers and angles, but there is not a single sharp edge anywhere on the watch, and it is therefore extremely comfortable to wear, all day long (as is the leather band that came with it). I've read that the mineral crystal has an anti-glare coating on it, which is supposed to make it extremely easy to read the watch face. This is a welcomed "feature," as I do recall on a number of occasions, having to work a bit to read the time on some of my other watches in bright, glaring sunlight, and I particularly appreciate it on the Slow Jo since reading the time with a (relatively) high degree of accuracy, requires a very "straight-on" viewing angle without any glare to interfere with the process. This is a good time to address reading the time on the Slow Jo. This is the first one-handed watch I have ever owned. If you have never spent time with a watch like this, be prepared to go through an adjustment period. After about a week or so, if I spend a few seconds glancing at the dial, I can reliably tell the time to within plus or minus two minutes or so, and you will too (and you absolutely MUST follow their advice to set the time *exactly* on the hour or quarter hour, if you're going to have any chance). But that isn't the point of this watch. In fact, more than the beautiful design, swiss craftsmanship, and exceedingly reasonable price, it is the philosophy behind the Slow Jo that I was drawn to. It is pure bliss, glancing at the dial, getting a sense of which quarter hour I'm in, and going about my busy day in a more leisurely manner. Ironically, not having a down to the second level of time accuracy (we can all pull out our cell phones as needed if we need that level of detail), has actually led to me managing my time better, and being less likely to be late for a train, meeting, or appointment, and yet simultaneously less stressed about all of it. Prior to relying on this watch as my primary source of time, I would slice up my day into very fine intervals, and almost always find myself running from point A to point B, sweating, and not always arriving on time where I needed to be. Lastly, I'd like to recount the interactions I had with their customer support team that I alluded to earlier. When I purchased my watch here on Amazon, I paid for an additional band, so that I could swap between them as my mood, or the occasion, demanded. Within days, I discovered that they were running a promotion (on their website), where an additional band would be provided FOR FREE with each watch purchase, for a limited time. Naturally, I was upset, as I would have been eligible for this promotion had I elected to buy from them directly. I emailed them to express my disappointment, and not only did they refund my purchase price for the extra band, they were willing to send me yet ANOTHER one of my choosing (I now have three)! Amazing. This kind of desire to ensure that a customer is 1000% (yes, one-thousand percent) happy, not just with a product, but with the company behind it, is exceedingly rare these days. I couldn't be happier with my Slow Jo watch! I look forward to their future products, as I have no doubt that this will not be my only one.