The history of Underwood goes back to 1926 when the Italian Rustioni founded the company. In the beginning Underwood was a company specialized in producing high quality leather products in the tradition of Italian craftmanship. In the 90's the company started to develop and produce watchwinders to wind automatic watches.

Quality inside the Underwood watchwinders

Everybody know that a good watchwinder has a good motor. Underwood uses the high end motors of Maxon, a Swiss company specialized in motors for many purposes. These motors are used by more leading watchwinder brands.

Next to the motors, the gearing is very important too. The gearing is between the motor and the turntable and makes sure the power of the motors is transfered, to turn around the turntable.

Design and exterior

The design of the Underwood watchwinders can be described as modern and functional. The designs are compact which makes the smaller models attractive for use during travels or holiday.

The exteriour materials are wood or leather. Especially the orange leather does attract us! But you can also choose for a wooden watchwinder which has a more classic look. The Underwood watchwinders can be used with batteries and a power adapter. Therefore these watchwinders are extremely handy and easy in use.

We will keep an eye on this brand, and will make sure you will read all news here on Watchwinder Blog.

Brands as Buben & Zörweg do have our special interest as they are one of the market leaders regarding watchwinders. Their innovations, craftmanship and design are appreciated by celebrities as Michael Schumacher, Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Beckham.

Buben & Zörweg is not a brand which produces watchwinders for the mass market, they produce high end watchwinders which do have firm prices. Therefore this Austrian brand tries to attract the consumers who have the finances to buy a beautiful watchwinder. The capital of Russia, Moscow, is a place where they have a great sense for luxury goods. Therefore Buben & Zörweg decided to open a VIP lounge in the "Zhukoffka Plaza" where you can see, touch and feel the masterpieces produced by Buben & Zörweg.

Among the best watchwinder brands worldwide, is certainly Orbita from the USA. Orbita is a high end brand which produces beautiful watchwinders with the best materials and reliable technique. We did contact Orbita and soon we received a full package with information about Orbita and the nice watchwinders they produce. 

High end materials - pure quality.

The Orbita website says the company aims for the best. This results in watchwinders with natural materials als wood and leather. They also claim that they focus on leading edge winding technology based on fresh ideas, innovative systems and superior drives, gears and control components. When we take a look at the collection we must say Orbita did a great job. The watchwinders combine quality with a classical design. The Orbita watchwinders are handmade and therefore quite exclusive.

Orbita competes with other high end brands.

In Europe Orbita is less known than in the USA. But with a new strategy Orbita will try to gain marketshare in Europe to present and promote their watchwinders. Of course there is a lot of competition from brands as Elma Motion, Büben & Zorweg and Underwood London and some others. But Orbita has an important advantage; their reputation is very good in the USA and they already proved they produce perfect watchwinders for the real watch collector. Orbita watchwinders are not for the average owner of an automatic watch, they are not cheap and standard. On the other hand, if you prefer quality and a high end watchwinder brand, Orbita is certainly a brand worth considering. It offers supreme watchwinders to wind automatic watches.

We will follow Orbita in their "battle" to conquer Europe. We expect we will hear more about Orbita soon, as they have big plans and great watchwinders.

Last three weeks we did test the Scatola del Tempo Rotor One DHG watchwinder. We were very excited to test a watchwinder from an Italian brand which claims they produce high end watchwinders.

During the first week our excitement changed into slight disappointment. Why? Read the complete review about this expensive Italian watchwinder here.

Here is our latest review about the Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG, in black color. Scatola del Tempo is an Italian brand which does produce watchwinders for a long time. They focus on high end materials and are in the same price segment as Buben & Zörweg and Elma. They claim that they did produce the first watchwinder.

We decided to test this single watchwinder from Scatola del Tempo because most models are quite big and less populair. The Rotor One models are priced reasonable which makes a high end watchwinder attractive for many consumers.

But is the Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG as good as the Italians say? Is the watchwinder offering a good price/quality ratio? We did find out…..

Design

Italians are famous because of their great feeling for design. We can say that brands as Ferrari, Gucci, Versace and Ducati produce really beautiful things. If we take a look at the current collection of Scatola del Tempo watchwinders we see many nice models but not that different from other brands. It doesn’t look like they spent a lot of time to develop new and different designs.

The Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG is a small and compact watchwinder. It has a special form with many curves. The front has a plastic cover which protects the watch against dust and other influences. It’s a pity that the cover is not made of real glass, what you might expect at this price level. Therefore the front feels a bit cheap.

The backside is sober and is only worth mentioning because the batteries do go in here.

When we take a look at the outside material of the watchwinder we see a nice leather finishing. It feels good and does look nice.

Originality

The Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG has a special “clock” design and therefore does look special compared to watchwinders from other brands.

Because it’s quite a simple and sober watchwinder there is not very much to say about it originality. It’s different than other watchwinders but has no “wow-factor”. It’s not a design which attracts consumers just because of it’s looks.

Quality

Scatola del Tempo watchwinders are known because of their good quality. We tested this watchwinder for 3 weeks. The first week there was no sound, but in the second week the watchwinder started to make more sound. The third week the sound was stabile but you could hear the watchwinder winding at 20cm distance from the watchwinder. We expected a better result from the motor Scatola del Tempo uses. Maybe it’s because the watchwinder construction which makes sounds resonate inside the watchwinder.

A big difference with a brand as Swiss Kubik is that the Scatola del Tempo Rotor One uses two big LR-20 alkaline batteries. This makes the watchwinder quite heavy related to it’s design and not very suitable to travel with. Swiss Kubik uses AA batteries which are smaller (and therefore more eco-friendly).

Maybe it’s a bit strange but when we lift the watchwinder a strange sound appears, we think it’s a spiral spring inside (for the batteries?) or the gearing. It’s not disturbing but details make or break a watchwinder in this price segment.

The watchwinder does wind up all automatic watches (Tag Heuer Carrera, Omega Seamaster and Certina Valgranges) we tried without any problem.

Finishing

The finishing of the Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG is of a good level. The materials and details are well choosen. There is nothing bad to tell about the design, finishing or materials used. But we expected a high level of these elements, as Scatola del Tempo places itself among the famous watchwinder brands.

Price level

The Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG is available for +-  570 Euro = 750 USD. The watchwinder is presented in a nice box (ours had little stains) and comes with a serial number and international manual. Thereby is a little booklet with other Scatola del Tempo products.

The watchwinder comes with 2 years warranty. Because the motor is from Maxon you may expect a much longer lifetime. In fact Scatola del Tempo is a mix between Italian craftmanship and Swiss technology.

Is it a fair price? In this segment it’s more about , brand loyalty, marketing and image than being better than other brands, as they all use the same technology (Maxon motors) and the finishing is of a good level.

Conclusion

A watchwinder from a brand which claims they make high end watchwinders must be perfect. And that’s exactly what this Scatola del Tempo Rotor One HDG isn’t……It’s a sober watchwinder with lack of functions and a plastic cover. Okay, it has a Maxon motor, but does this justify the 570 Euro? No, in our opinion you pay a lot of money for a very simple watchwinder with a good motor. You pay for the brand name, not for high end quality and handy functions to use winding your automatic watch.

When we pay 570 Euro for a single watchwinder we expect a silent motor, nice functions (as adjustable TPD, sleeping mode, power winding, inside LED light etc etc), brillant finishing and good solid materials. Scatola del Tempo offers good finishing and nice materials, but did forget the rest.

In our opinion Scatola del Tempo isn’t the best innovating watchwinder brand. They believe in their traditional view but forget to improve to meet the current standards other brands offer, for less money.