O&W Cobra / Cougar II... Any experience with them?

[Eraserhead]

Hi WIS,

Since a couple of days, I have been thinking about "maybe" selling my Bluering (very hesitant I must say), the reason behind that is to put a few bucks in my pocket and spend the rest on a watch that has some visual similarities. I found the O&W Cobra and Cougar II and find them pleasing to look at but there is very few review of them. I would like to hear from people who own them or had experience with those specific models.

How's the time keeping of those? Built quality? Are they reliable? What about the bracelet, I read that is it somewhat flimsy? Lume is also important to me, based on the pictures from Gnomon website, the lume, especially the indices seem to be quite poor. I was also wondering where to buy them? The cobra model is sold out on Gnomon website, the cougar II is available. I think I prefer the cobra look except for the bezel, on the picture it appears to be purple but based on the specs sheet, it says black bezel insert...a bit confusing.

Best,
Jon

[tyreman]

I had the O & W model known as just "Cougar".

This model had all bead blasted case and bracelet.

Additionally the the tritium markers\indices, real plus, nice watch.

Glowed really good at night.

Build quality and finish were quite good.
Came from Gnomon Watch.

[tcheshire]

I would hang on to that Bluering. They are difficult to come by these days. Think long and hard.

[Crazy Cajun]

My O&W's had a grainy crown screw down, very noisy rotor and I could swear the crown stem wiggled in the case to the point where the dial moved.

I've since sold both of them. IMHO, there are better options.

[Drop of a Hat]

Keep the bluering.

Sent via Tapatalk

[Eraserhead]

Hi guys,

Well so far only one positive comment about the O&W, I am thinking real hard about this, will probably stick to my Bluering, that is the little voice inside me telling to stop playing with fire.

[Eraserhead]

My O&W's had a grainy crown screw down, very noisy rotor and I could swear the crown stem wiggled in the case to the point where the dial moved.

I've since sold both of them. IMHO, there are better options.

I've came to select the O&W because of the case design which is similar to the Bluering in terms of lugs shape and the black dial, black bezel insert etc.. when you say better options? Which one, Do you now another brand with a similar design?

Thanks
Jon

[Chronopolis]

Not to compare apples and... olives, but as an owner of several O&Ws, including the COUGAR II, I cannot recommend the brand highly enough, and especially that model.
What a looker! Brushed to perfection. Looks like it has a slight titanium/bronze-like hue to it. A lot of "light" inside the metal, it appears.
And the pale blue on the second hand on that dial is to-die-fer. Very unusual, and sophisticated use of color.
One word: in a sea of Submariners, this one is Unique.

The bezel is tight - very tight - but works fine. I almost never turn mine, so not an issue for me.
As for time-keeping, mine runs +7/day.

[JayVeeez]

They look nice & keep good time with the ETA.

But, it does have a loud rotor & a klinkety-klanck bracelet. The bezel is neat, but nowhere near any Marathon Ive owned. It's really small too, almost cute. Not a big kid watch. No offense to owners, I used to have one and moved on. These are merely my observations and Ive owned many, many watches at a lot of different price points. Either sell the Bluering and go all the way for a while so you can get ahead, or keep it & white knuckle it for a while.

You will be extraordinarily pissed between the difference if you move to an O&W. Save your loot & recover to buy a Laguna or Marathon down the road.

[Eraserhead]

Not to compare apples and... olives, but as an owner of several O&Ws, including the COUGAR II, I cannot recommend the brand highly enough, and especially that model.
What a looker! Brushed to perfection. Looks like it has a slight titanium/bronze-like hue to it. A lot of "light" inside the metal, it appears.
And the pale blue on the second hand on that dial is to-die-fer. Very unusual, and sophisticated use of color.
One word: in a sea of Submariners, this one is Unique.

The bezel is tight - very tight - but works fine. I almost never turn mine, so not an issue for me.
As for time-keeping, mine runs +7/day.

Which one is the olive? I agree, it looks good, I know what you mean by titanium bronze hue...I have seen other pictures today reflecting exactly what you said. The baby blue second hand is what drew me to the Bluering so the cougar gets another point. About the bezel, my bluering had a tight bezel action because the gasket had expanded over time but I changed it and it's fine now, do you think your cougar is suffering from the same condition?

In my case, I do use the bezel very often, if I have to fight all the time with it...not sure I'm going to enjoy this. How do you find the bracelet quality and the lume? From the picture, the hands are powerful but the rest is very weak in comparison.