I must admit I hadn’t heard of the Precista brand until joining TZ-UK earlier this year. However, these watches form part of the Time Factors stable owned by TZ’s host Eddie Platts and they have a fantastic reputation both for quality and for value for money.

I’m no expert on the subject, but it seems that the intention was (and is) to produce a series of military-style homages (think Omega, Blancpain, IWC, etc) wherever possible upgrading the specification such that they were an improvement on the original inspiration. Judging by the reputation Eddie’s built for himself I’d say he’s succeeded as he has a loyal fan base that seems to be growing with each new acquisition.

You can check out the full range here, but I recently dipped by toe in the water by getting my hands on a PRS17Q; my first quartz watch for some time, and really comfortable to wear. In Eddie’s own words: “This model was issued in 1988 and 1989 only with the ordnance numbers 6645-99, 75733 14 and interestingly, was fitted with a different dial for each of the two years of issue. The dial on this model is in the style of that fitted to the 1989 original.

The original had a mineral crystal and was fitted with the ETA 955.114 seven jewel quartz movement. In keeping with my policy of updating the specification, the PRS-17Q is fitted with a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the underside and a Ronda 715Li 5 jewel quartz movement with a 10 year battery life. This watch is made in Germany by Walter Fricker GmbH & Co KG, the company which made the Dreadnought.”

Anyway, enough of that – it looks nice, doesn’t it?