Invicta Speedway 9211 Review

[JimmyK]

This is a review of Invicta Speedway. This watch is a homage to Rolex Daytona. I believe Speedway series has being around many years now. Since I didn't find that much info on the web, I thought I share my brief experience with this watch. There several watches in this series with different color. 9211 is the one with white dial, 9223 is the black dial, 9212 is the dual tone watch.




The watch built quality is decent. The watch case and bracelet links feels solid. The watch and bracelet weigh 155g. However, Invicta did cut some corners. The current movement is not a true chronograph (more details below). The crown is really flimsy. Crown feels like a sponge and I cannot feel the screw down engage at all. I suspect this can easily cause cross threading. Or maybe the unit I got was already cross threaded. The movement and crown are major issues in my opinion. In addition, no solid end links and thin buckle or clasp, which are not dealbreaker but just represent the low cost/quality.

Additional feature is screw-down for chrono/timer pushers. This slows down use of the timer feature, but adds to the 200m WR.

As for the watch size, it can be a bit small for some. Really depends on personal preference. I will provide the detailed measurements here. The case measures 39.5mm without the crown; this is not large by today's standard. With crown, it measures 42.5mm. And because the watch has wide bezel taken up by tachymeter marking, the crystal and dial only measures 30.5mm in diameter. Because of the small crystal/dial size, 9211 appears smaller than it's almost 40mm case would suggest.

The biggest issue I find with this watch is the movement. There are 2 different movements used in Speedway models. Unfortunately Invicta doesn't help the buyer separate the two. They are all sold under single model number.

The old version of 9211 uses Miyota OS20 movement. This is a chronograph movement with true tachymeter function. The large second hand is used only for chronograph function. The small second subdial at 6 o'clock is used for counting seconds.

The new version of 9211 uses a different movement. As far as I can tell, it does not match any of the Miyota movement. It is very similar to JS20, except JS20 has 30 minute total counter while 9211 has 60 minutes. The large second hand is used for normal second counting. The subdial at 6 o'clock is used for timing. The tachymeter is not usable. So this really defeats the purpose of the 9211 bevel design.

If you look closely, you can tell the difference on the dial. On the old OS20 mode, the subdials are closer together. There is room for small indeces at 3, 6, 9 o'clock, just outside of the subdials. With the new movement, the subdials are further apart and closer to the dial's edges. There is no room between the subdial and the dial's corner. So there are no index at 3, 6, 9 o'clock.

Here are 2 stock photos of 9211. On the left is old version; right is new version. Note the difference in indices at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions.


Miyota OS20 is a very common generic chronograph movement. When you reset the chronograph after using it, the second hand will flyback to the 12 o'clock zero position. On the new 9211, the second and minute hands will wind backwards (at a high speed) to the zero position. It is not just single rotation, it will rotate as many turns as the timer was used. So if you had the timer running for 10 minutes (10 rotations), it will take couple minutes for the timer to wind around and around and around (10 turns in high speed) back to zero. It is pretty weird and yet interesting to watch, but this is not my expectation of how a chrono/timer should function.

I purchase 9211 from Amazon in Nov 2010. I was hoping I would get lucky and get the old version. No such luck. I didn't keep the watch as I wanted the chronograph/tachymeter function, which is how the watch was designed originally.

[goodwolfe]

I don't disagree with your evaluation, but I can live with it's shortcomings for looks alone. I have loved the Rolex Daytona for some time but knew that I would never be able to afford or be able to justify spending almost $14,000.00 for a watch. I briefly considered a replica, but that sick feeling in my gut from doing such a thing wouldn't allow that option. I then saw the 9212 Speedway, the two-tone version and my heart skipped a couple of beats at how closely it compared to the overall general presence of the Daytona. In person, it's obviously not a Daytona, but for $70.00 on sale, it was an easy guilty pleasure buy. It's ironic that Invicta (of whom I'm a fan) makes better watches with better movements, and better build quality in even less expensive watches (if you're patience and watch the daily deal sites). Still, these homage watches do provide some satisfaction for those of us who realize we'll never have the real thing.

[chefluigi]

One invicta was enough for me, Seiko , thier cool all on thier own,they even have replica's if you can believe that.

[regnaD kciN]

I fail to see why it's necessary to throw in a cliched "Invicta sucks, Seiko is great" comment on this review. For the record, the only two genuine "lemon" watches I've ever owned have been Seikos, while every one of several Invictas I've owned have been flawless.

Having said that -- this is a very weird Invicta watch, in that you pay your money and take your chance as to whether it will be a real chrono or not. I bought two of the two-tone version of these from "deal of the day" sites; each time, it was the faux-chrono, so back they went. I finally found a model 3518 Speedway II on eBay, which came with a proper Swiss Ronda chrono movement. the 3518 is a larger watch than this, so it might not suit those with smaller wrists, but the chrono functionality is there.