Techne Harrier 363 Automatic – $480 – $490
How much? Nice watch. Not quite sure why someone would drop $500 on it, unless they’re a gear-head that’s really into the specifics of the movement. You can easily get a Hamilton at that price point. But, maybe it really is all about the movement?
Three months ago, clear back in February, a press release from the not extremely well known watch brand Techne landed in the inbox about the upcoming debut of the Harrier. It would be an automatic, it looked great, and they were offering a few “press samples” for review. No mention of price, but since other Techne automatics (Miyota even) and mechanicals (Seagull chrono) run in the mid $300s, I threw Dappered’s hat in the ring for a review/giveaway. Techne quickly responded kindly affirming that they’d send one along. Annnnnnnnd it then slipped off the ol’ personal radar.
Last week a box showed up from Switzerland. This was inside.
It’s a sturdy mid-size 41mm in diameter with 20 mm lugs. An Aviator style that avoids the “I’m wearing instrumentation on my wrist” issue. Maybe it’s the slim 20mm band, but it looks and wears a bit smaller than the diameter. All Harriers come with a sapphire crystal and exhibition caseback, and for an extra $10 you get the black PVD coating. Screw down crown, water resistance is 50m, and the altimeter styling is right on. Gotta hand it to Techne (sorry, Techné). Their sweeping logo is one of the best in the business, and that red “Opus Manufactum” right underneath is a nice bit of color.
So what’s that “Opus Manufactum” bit mean? The movement inside is the new Miyota 9015, which hacks and can be hand wound. Techne has also done some tweaking to try and get a higher level of performance out of it. From Techne:
“All 9015 movements used by Techné are manually fine-tuned in three positions to run within COSC rates (-4 to +6 seconds per day), which entitles the watches to bear the “Opus Manufactum” label (Latin for “hand-worked”).”
Okay. COSC is the Swiss Institute in charge of certifying the accuracy of Swiss watches. Lots of hoops to jump through to get that certification, and Techne seems to be saying the Harrier is accurate enough that they could pass the COSC test.
But how important is all that to you? If your answer is: “not really, I’m even plenty fine with Quartz“… then know they’ve dropped the prices on their terrific looking Merlin collection, starting now at $84.
Enter here to win this Harrier from Techne. One entry per person. Deadline for entering the random drawing is 11:59 pm ET 5/30/13. Good luck!
UPDATE: Congrats to Kurt M. who won the drawing for the Techne Harrier.
Yes! I want this. I want this very much. I’ve never had an Auto, but I totally geek out on mechanical watches. It’s just an amazing elegant mechanism, and I would love to wear one on my wrist daily. Sure, quartz is more practical, but if all I wore a watch for was to tell time, I might as well wear a digital watch. I know some watch snobs wouldn’t want to be seen with a quartz on their wrist, but for me it’s more like wearing nice undies. I don’t expect anyone else to notice, but I know it’s there.
That said I can’t afford it. I would almost jump on one of the Quartz watches, they look really good and are definitely a good value, but somehow 38mm always looks too small on my wrist.
That is a great looking watch. Really like the slimmer strap on the wider dial.
Great looking watch! Love the black face on brown strap! Fingers crossed on winning it! Thanks for the giveaway Dappered!
Auto is a plus. Even bigger plus, hacking and also can be manually wound. Really nice touches.
Oh boy, oh boy!! That’s a beautiful watch!
Bet it would even look great on my smaller wrist!! *wink*
My quartz watch hacks, that’s how I know it’s lost 2 seconds in the last week, but it can’t be manually wound, so that’s sad…
Seriously though I want an auto, just ’cause.
At $500 bucks, they could’ve put a nicer band on it. Genuine leather? Boo. The ones in the Merlin collection look great though and the price is right at $84 and slightly above.
wth is that zebra square for next to the date?
Yeah. They should’ve skipped that and the date altogether and just have a “3” there. Would give the watch a much cleaner look.
I love the look of the watch. Thanks for the giveaway!
Nice!
A little too much of a Sinn copy for me. I’d rather encourage originality than plagiarism.
I’m at a loss on the hacking and hand-wind fanaticism. I’ve never needed to be that precise… and if I did I have quartz watches.
Love me a Techne watch. Big fan of their Sparrowhawk
I do agree that a “3” would’ve been much cleaner but I haven’t thrown in on a giveaway in a while, so I’m due. I’d love to finally have more than one watch for the first time in my life.
Thanks for doing this Techne and Joe, it’s a beautiful looking watch I can only hope to add to my 1 watch Skagen collection!
I wouldn’t drop five big ones on it, but for free I’d wear the hell out of it. Sharp.
this is the review I’ve been looking forward to. thanks dappered!
That is a great looking timepiece, and would make a nice addition to my collection.
Anybody know where I could find a leather strap like this?
Congrats to Kurt M for winning the watch. Wear it in good health sir
“Techne seems to be saying the Harrier is accurate enough that they could pass the COSC test.”
Correct. Japanese movements are not eligible to be COSC certified.