The $249 Alpinist Alternative? Axios Pathfinder Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2024
- A Huge Thankyou to Axios for letting me borrow these two watches.
axioswatches.com/collections/...
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
For More Pics: www.relative-time.com/the-249-...
----Straps Used
Ritche Black Leather Nylon Strap (on Amazon): geni.us/S4gp
Ritche Black Sailcloth (on Amazon): geni.us/4N3iMK7
Tan Leather Strap (on Amazon): geni.us/mB1BW
Silicone Strap (on Amazon): geni.us/mB1BW
Rally Leather Strap (on Amazon): geni.us/1X7N8c
----Other Watches Shown
Hamilton Khaki King: • It's Good to Be the Ki...
Seiko Alpinist: • Giving Into The Ghost ...
Axios Flagship: • Every Fleet Needs A Fl...
Axios Ironclad: • A View Into the Northe...
Orion Hellcat: • A Smoking Red Hot Orig...
SWC Bunker: • Hard To Beat The Bunke...
Vario Trench: • World War I Homage : V...
RZE Resolute: • Rise of the Resolute! ...
Today we are taking a look at a new field watch from Axios. This time they have gone back to kickstarter, and have made it relatively affordable. It's a pretty intersting design, and in some ways makes it an affordable alternative to the Seiko Alpinist.
Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, I am an Amazon affiliate so I would earn a small commission on qualified purchases. But most of the time Amazon is just the best source to link something just to get a look. I always encourage you to shop around and find the best price.
In Addition, I'm also an affiliate with AVI-8, Armilla, Aliexpress, Spinnaker, eBay, Jomashop, Meranom, and Phoibos.
00:00 Intro
01:15 Specs
01:50 On The Wrist
02:19 Case
04:14 Dial
05:50 Design
07:55 Lume
08:45 Movement
09:00 Bracelet
09:59 Value
10:45 Final Thoughts - บันเทิง
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Oh man we should have tried for a double review! I'm editing mine now, hopefully be able to release it tonight. I got the white and black dials.
Oh yah we should of. When you get it posted let me know, I'll add a link. Which colors did you get?
Always look forward to these reviews, honest with a dash of refined knowledge
These are very very tempting.
I think it looks great. Love my teal Flagship, looks like they did great again. The grey is stunning...so is the black...
Great stuff Shane
Another great production man! This is a very attractive watch!
What a nice watch! A very good all round offering, nice proportions with compact lug 2 lug and intricate case finishing, they did their best to make the watch a flat as they could with the NH35 which by the way I am totally fine with, at a very attractive price! I think I'm on board.
Indeed, the grey dial looks awesome..theres a quiet strength quality about it.
Nice watch. Will take the grey one. I like it most from the very begining.
After watching this review, and several others on TH-cam, I backed this on Kickstarter, and I’ve had the copper dial for 2 months now. It’s really great. Comfortable and the polished chamfers on the brushed midlinks really give it a classy vibe. Best of all, the dial is a vintage style of gold with fumee gradation. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m considering buying the crimson at the full price of $329. I think it’s still good value. Thanks for another great review.
Awesome to hear! Glad I could help.
I really like the design of this Pathfinder and the price is very good if you can have it with the first price on Kickstarter. Probably I would choose the salmon dial version.
Nice watch. Good vid. Keep at it!
Beautiful photo and vid -ography, and very professional
review. I got in on the super early bird!
Thanks. Which color you going to go for?
@@RelativeTime Well I was going to get the black, because of the contrast I guess, but seeing your work here, I might just get the gray and pair it with a brown band. Maybe a tad darker than the one you used here. The lume stuff on the numbers and markers are kind of beige, which goes nice with a brown band.
@@RelativeTime I also like the black webbing band you put with the Copper dial, but I won't go with Copper.
The slate grey with a black band gives me a diesel punk vibe.
Another great review, Shane. This is one I would most certainly buy. It's uncomplicated, yet uniquely attractive, imo. Personally, I like that copper look a lot. I see a lot of value at this price point. It simply has everything I look for in a watch for my collection.
Those dumb spammer comments are getting everywhere. I keep removing them, but the bots keep coming back.
Anyway, I think Axios has a home run with this one. Fully funded in a few min. Gives everyone what they need at a pretty great price.
@@RelativeTime "Home Run" is a good description. BTW, I loved your comment about Seiko's pricing of the new Alpinist. Hehe....
Great review!Good job
hope Axios can make minute hand and second hand longer.I think its the only drawback of this watch
Thanks! If enough people on the kickstarter ask, they might.
I jumped in, I've been looking for another field watch without date, I'll probably end up choosing the black dial, since the white dial Vaer is my daily watch.
Great review Shane. My preference is the grey, last week it was the salmon pink.
Same!
They chose some great colors. So I guess it's not surprising they got fully funded in a couple of min. Right now they are almost at $160,000. Pretty amazing.
Like for the review. The watch is not thrilling, however that gold dial looks impressive
Love the grey one, but with a smaller wrist....would have preferred 38mm.
I love the look of t he grey version! From a distance it looks like Starfleet issue!😁 The $250 auto wIth that basic movement is in a crowded field, though.
It really does. There is a quote on the back that says "And How can Man Die Better". I almost made a joke that it should of been "Today is a good day to Die" in Klingon, but wasn't sure how many people would get it.
Watch looks great. Wish they had chosen a better movement.
Agreed on the hands. As soon as you even mentioned hands, I wondered how it would've looked with cathedral hands... and you went there.
I'm a bit torn on the presence of the 200m/660ft on the dial. Did it really need both? It adds visual clutter. Just 200m would've been fine, or even 20 ATM for simplicity.
Oddly enough I like the copper because it takes attention away from the bloody faux lume. Thanks for the review!
I love the copper dial too!
Great looking watch. The white or grey ones are my favorit. Bracelet very nice, but the clasp design.... I don't know. It doesn't fit the design. Further more, why put a NH35 movement in it when there is no date window? Great video again Shane!
I like both colours. It's good to see a microbrand not thinking that just because they're a microbrand they can charge $500 ++++ for a $200-$250 watch. Definitely agree on the colours. Grey looks better but the other one grows on you. Possibly if they make the numbers dark grey it might compliment the lighter background more.
It's actually a nice watch. But like a lot of microbrand offering these days it will probably become lost in the midst of the multitude of other nice but not spectacular watches out there. Looking on the positive side however if your happy to keep spending your money it's always nice to have options 👍
White one looks great, black and grey are okay, copper and salmon are meh.
Shane reviews are so awesome. I've seen 3 reviews of this watch, but I waited for Shane, he has the last word.
Thanks, I appreciate it. Did you jump on this one?
@@RelativeTime No, I've been on a buying spree, and had to slow my roll!
@@JulioMo Yah... LOL that's one of the reasons I didn't either. Great value, but I recently ordered a Vario Trench. So probably shouldn't have both.
Cool man.
Well I've pre ordered the Vario Trench watch and if I can get the early bird price, I'll be ordering one of the Pathfinders
So yeah, a good time to be a fan of field watches 😁
Which Trench did you order? I keep thinking about it, might order a grey one.
@@RelativeTime I ordered the cream dial with orange lume but it was a tough decision as they all look attractive
The pathfinder name relates to the British Royal Pathfinder unit of the parachute regiment. Specifically the 16th Air Assault Brigade.
That makes a lot more sense now.
@@RelativeTime I was showing a guy from my unit (huge history nerd) this watch as a possible option for him, and he goes "oh it's because of the 16th Air Assault" because we were just talking about the pathfinders yesterday.
Funny how it goes.
@@allegedkurd True. That's sometimes why I leave little comments like that in the video. If I don't know. Someone else might.
@@RelativeTime I love your stuff, and I'm definitely considering this one.
I like it, wouldn't mind the salmon dial
I think Jody got to look at the Salmon dial. Looked pretty good.
I went with the very similar G M Lang Trailseeker with the Miyota 9039 for $295.00.
I haven't seen that one before. How do you like it?
@@RelativeTime Don’t have it yet; I went with the blue dial, to be delivered mid-summer. Love your channel, by the way.
Needs a date complex to be an alpinist contender watch. It’s a tool watch.
You seemed to avoid commenting on the partial quote inscribed on the caseback----"And how can man die better?", which Jody gave historical context to in his review. Shifting the context to the present day, it seems like a slightly callous inscription to have on a watch being sold during a global pandemic. On second thought, maybe it's strangely appropriate (?)
I was thinking about saying something but ultimately left it out. Almost made a joke about their logo looking like something out of Star Trek, so they should have put "Today is a good day to die" in Klingon. Although I thought that was going to be way too geeky.
@@RelativeTime That logo prevented me from picking up the Flagship in the blue colorway. I must've tried to look past the logo a thousand times, but I just couldn't do it. With respect to all things geeky, you should take a look at these pieces--I'd love it if you reviewed one or both of them (I've seen the Falcon creeping in your background shots).
www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/JG2108-52W.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjIaIyreG8AIVYmxvBB1FUwf2EAQYASABEgIX3fD_BwE
www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/JG2109-50W.html
@@jayeyesacks1604 Those are cool. I've seen a few of the other Citizen Star Wars watches, but not those. If I find a good deal on one, I'll pick it up.
Got in on the Kickstarter early bird deal👍 Now to decide, salmon or gray dial? ....
That's a hard choice. I Just checked the Kickstarter page. Holy Crap, they have almost raised $140k already. Any idea how quickly they got fully funded?
@@RelativeTime First tier ($249 - 400 slots) called for inside 30 minutes!
Funded in under 2 minutes!
Great review as always, Shane. I notice that you keep "sneeking" in some peeks of your knives every once in a while. Would it ever happen that you might do a couple of knife reviews or even a knife and watch "pairing" review. Would be something different and interesting to us watch and knife collector nerds.
I've been thinking about it, although at this point I've already got a ton of watches lined up to review. So have to free up some time first.
@@RelativeTime So maybe you can keep letting us "peek" at different knives that might match the "mood" of the watches you will be reviewing. At any rate, I will keep tuning in to the smooth talkin' delivery and well organized reviews. BTW. Your Vaer review led me to buy the Miyota 9015 Auto with the blue dial. A real value play!!!
Really nice, classy and utilitarian at the same time.
Shane, field watch fan? what about the Newmark 52, I love mine.
I've never really looked at one before, but look great. I"ll have to look into getting one.
I really like field watches. For a while, I was obsessed with the Swiss Watch Company's Bunker, because I really like the even numbers style, the color choices and look of the watch. But the more I looked at them, the more the HUGE "Swiss Watch Company" text on the face of the dial started to really bug me. Too much text! The new Pathfinder's dressier look with the bracelet is very tempting, and the clean, minimalist text on the face is a much better look. I guess I need to make my mind up quickly before the Kickstarter ends.
I really think Swiss Watch Company would be better off if they just shortened everything to SWC. Half the time I refer or write their name out like that anyway.
You should get the bunker, amazing watch
Yeah, those hands are a deal breaker for me. Also, I get that the watch is (relatively) thin but there's something about NH35 powered watches in this size class - 40mm with relatively short L2L - that just look pudgy. It's not so much the overall thickness of the watch as it is the ratio of thickness to diameter and length. As for the underside of the lugs being somewhat sharp, I own a Pelagos, which costs more than 10x what this watch does and guess what? The underside of the lugs are somewhat sharp as well. I don't love it but I'm willing to look past it given that the rest of the watch is 157 grams of awesome. Thanks for the review.
I guess Tudor figures that if you are paying for Titanium, you paying for all the titanium. Why waste some smoothing it out. 😎
I'm a fan of the Nodus Sector series, but this Axios , along with the RZE and the SWC, makes the Sector's price of $425 kind of tough to swallow.
Noduses (or maybe Nodi?) are great. They pay a lot of extra attention to their cases and bracelet, but you are right. $425 for a NH35A is a bit much.
@@RelativeTime They even give the movement some extra tlc through 4 (or 5) position regulation. Assembled and QC'd in the USA too. I'm usually NOT the guy who says, "I won't pay $x for a watch with a y movement", but there are limits and seeing what the competition is doing at lower price points...
I'll still probably end up getting the Nodus at some point, in spite of that. I'd rather spend an extra $100-$200 and get something I really like, rather than settle for a watch which I know is a better value but don't like as much.
A Star Trek retro field.watch. I guess somehow that makes sense. It does look nice.
When they made the Flagship, they named the different colorways after famous ships. I'm hoping they eventually have an Enterprise.
The new Sad face Cyclops, Pathfinder. Not to be confused with the Nissan Pathfinder or the Casio Pathfinder, both of which I have and had.😁
The font drives me nuts.
A green dial option is missing.
This is true. maybe the green doesn't look quite right with a textured dial.
@@RelativeTime they added green dial at the end.
I wish they'd not used the faux patina - could have at least done one colour way without it with silver hands ☹️☹️
I think the white dial might of looked better with white lume.
Looks like the Alpinist has some competition.
Damn it, lovely watch.... But kickstarter so nope. Shame.
Cheers mate 👍🏻
They skipped Kickstarter with the Flagship, but I guess it didn't do as well as they thought. So they are back to Kickstarter. Eventually they should sell it direct, but price will probably go up.
So predictable - A microbrand is pushing his product to the youtubers reviewing watches and, one after another, issue their own review of the same watch within a few days difference between each other.
This time is Axios who is paying for the party - eventually will be the consumers who will pay for all.
You make it sound like there is some grand conspiracy at play here. Typically it works out that way as the first round of reviewers receive prototypes about the same time. Or as in this case, the brand asks that we wait until a few days before launch before publishing the review.
Any thoughts on the watch itself?
@@RelativeTime not a conspiracy but marketing budgets and commercial strategies at full display.
Your video is nothing more than a commercial for the brand - same as the other reviewers videos.
Nothing wrong with it - you produced a good one.
@@educarmar Well that's not much different than what happens in other industries. If you review movies/cars / video games typically the company has a press embargo that just asks that you don't publish anything until a certain date. So when that date has come multiple sources, all publish at once.
Now you seem to already have your mind made up, but I assure you everything here is 100% my opinion. Which includes both positive and a few negative points as well. Especially about the copper colorway. I'm not sure if you have seen my reviews before, but I treat every watch to the same analytical analysis. Regardless of how I came about it.
In fact, I've had few comments on my last video asking me how it can be one of my grail watches when there are so many things I don't like about it. Like I said there, if I'd nitpick that point on any other watch, I'd do it here as well. The only way to be fair and consistent.
@@RelativeTime I see the value you add to your channel - a lot of work and quality building your own style and differentiation from others. Well done.
It will be utopic to think that all this work and value wouldnt develop into a form of business-like structure that eventually leads to a form of monetization to reimburse you from the effort.
However, I preferred much more your early videos when you started the channel and there wasnt any sign of brand support/commercial interest behind.
@@educarmar
Thanks, I appreciate it, and if it helps with this particular review I'm not getting anything out of it. I noticed a few of the other reviewers mentioned that they will get sent a watch later on if the Kickstarter is succesfull, but it was never mentioned to me. This means they either forgot to mention that, or the other reviewers asked / required it. While I always appreciate getting to keep something, it's never required and my general rule is I don't bring it up unless they do. Now later on if they contact me about it, I'll be sure to update the description, but as far as I know, right now, I only got the experience.
That said, I can understand where you are coming from. Ideally I want to have a nice balance on the channel. Different types of watches, different brands, and different prices. So while I always want to have room for the occasional microbrand, I think there has been a few times this year where I've had too many on in a row. So I've actually been turning down a lot of requests lately.
Anyway, thanks again.
Cheers!
How is it an Alpinist alternative? Alpinist aren't ugly.
Which part do you think is ugly?