Fascinating story. I believe many of us face the issue of setting high expectations for a watch in our minds. When we eventually own it, the experience of wearing it often falls short of the idealized version we had envisioned.

Great review, really enjoyed watching. As for the watch, I love it. Clean dial, good finishing, and excellent tech that gets out of the way.

I've been searching for a red dial like this and this is my list - Mont Blanc Iced Sea MB132291 - Zelos Thresher WT - Certina DS2 C024.407.17.421.00 - Orient Kamasu - Rado Captain Cook R32105353 - Mont Blanc Star Legacy - Phoibos Eagle Ray/Argo

I’m in California and received my green helix dial watch last week. It’s a great watch and I agree 100 percent with this review! Couldn’t be happier with the watch. You get MORE than you pay for with this watch.

San Martin quality at twice the price!

Many thanks for your response

Hey mate! Thank you so much for buying the Ascent and delighted to ehar that you are enjoying it so far. I'm pretty happy for the watch to be mentioned in the same breath as a Rolex. Cheers, Jody

It's beyond me how anyone can compare the Ascent with a 9015 movement to a Ghost Martin. And then add the import tax as an argument. It's like people don't understand that all goods imported from China are financed by our tax money, due to China falling under the third world protection of shipping fees. Anyone thinking there is something called free shipping, need to get their mind checked. San Martin is acting under the protection of the Chinese Communist Party trade war with the rest of the world. If you are OK with that, fine, but please don't compare apples with rotten bananas.

Before I purchased my ranger & pelagos 39 I bough the homage versions to see how I felt about them before making a big outlay

The problem with auto-adjusting bracelets is that people who like a looser fit can't get the bracelet to be at the perfect size most of the time. Providing a manual adjustment system gives us looser fit preferers the ability to get the perfect size most of the time.

Beautiful watch! I have a Forstner “O” bracelet on my BB58 that has a spring “comfort link”. It works really well!

you know erebus and san martin came from the same workshop right? it's more of a partnership between a youtuber and a chinese watch manufacturer, the latter gets a deal on bulk purchase and the former gets the middleman profit. It is just a hyped up chinese watch. There's tons of these on aliexpress under different brand names.

Have you ever tried vintage? I have a Longines from 1969. 10mm thick, 34mm case, weight of 40 grams (including the leather strap).. watches like that truly do feel like a part of your wrist... like a casio does

Honestly, just get a Sinn, Nomos, Hamilton... I'm not a big fan of these cash grabs.. to be fair, this one does seem very nice. Enjoy

This is a Chinese watch with a price surcharge of approximately $150 or $200 for ’’celebrity’’ ststus of the guy who sells it.

Brand history is the reason why I have purchased every Erebus made to date. I have no personal knowledge of anyone in the corporate watch universe. I have been collecting watches for almost 50 years. I followed Jody since nearly his beginning and 90+% of watch content I consume is from JOMW. Concerning big-watch brand and history: As far as I can tell, it is just another big business conglomerate full of corporate turds. As the luxury and prestige of a brand increases, there is likely an increase in cash-grabbers and corporate fat-cats. No one alive today was altruistically cranking out watches 100 years ago. History from that perspective is a subjective illusion - I am on the ground floor of watch history: purchasing a person’s passionate dream; I really relate to and admire his story. Plus: I used to care what everyone around me thought of what was hanging off of my wrist, then I graduated from high school. Nice video!

Looks amazing, never considered that colour but do now. Only negatives I can see (not in hand btw) are a slightly thick and gappy (they all seem gappy to me so perhaps it's because it's no bevel at the clasp ends) clasp and +100 quid tax and shipping fee to UK. It opens up a few more options, especially UK microbrands with that bump up. If I lived in Australia it would be an absolute no brainer!

I love the design but it needs an otf clasp

It’s a damn good watch and you are supporting the micro brand community. You can also flaunt it in micro brand groups with pride for your fellow watch nerds to enjoy! Ali brands also have a place amongst us online watch nerds. They are not horrible fashion brands that you encounter in the real world. So don’t bash and just appreciate

Nicely done. My advice to anyone on Casios....don't do it ! Casio are devious! On my break I bought the legendary F91w just to get away from the watch thing really...but couldn't read it at night. So I then bought a Metal Casio re release which I could...but it rained on my hols and it wasn't water resistant...so I then bought a G-Shock....which lead to another 6. Devious those guys at Casio 🤕

Holly crap how many wicked bad comments and hate! I got green helix on J style and watch is absolutely fantastic. For reference, I also own Seiko's, Citizen, Orient's, Tissot and Ascent looks by far the most premium of the bunch. I like Jody and I like this review and find it accurate to the detail since I have the very same watch. To me, it was worth the full price including shipping and crazy expensive import tax. Good and accurate review mate! 👍 For the rest who are concerned about servicing and broken crystals and broken hands...buy a G-Shock...or take the risk...or get a hold of some real adult money and buy whatever you like without concern of your retirement funds...

My watchmaker friend is Swiss Rolex trained and taught at their watch making school. I stand by my statement. The micro brands offer no service. Try and find an OEM crown or crystal.

Hi looks great did you have to pay extra coming into the UK.

They didn't take care of our guy WatchLab, so they're dead to me.

I bought one Origin 41 on launch and flipped it. The brushing and material quality overall was good and the bezel alignment was ok. My issue was with the bracelet and clasp (got stuck and I needed to disassemble to fix). The bracelet had sharp edges and pulled my arm hair like no other watch I ever owned. I have some Casios known to be hair pullers and never had any issue. With the Erebus was unbeareable and it was the main reason I sold it. I consider this underdevelopment of your project or, in other words, releasing the product unfinished. I also think their design lacks identity and cohesion between the models. I was annoyed to discover that the watch is VERY similar to the RZE Endeavor and the Ascent looks like it was made by another company. Overall I think their watches have value, but I don't intend to buy another.

Mine arrived 4 days ago. I have the malachite dial. The dial is very beautiful. I am satisfied with the finish and quality and i agree with everything you say in your video. With shipping and import costs i paid 515 euro pre order to belgium. I don't think that's too mutch for fhis quality and finish and the Miyota 9015. I would think it's too much if it had a Miyota 8000 series in it or a seiko NH35

All the Swiss watches are ridiculously overpriced, overrated and overvalued. For example, a tourbillon must be $600 to 800 within the price range at the best but they make it 100 times higher. With digital watches increasing and decreased popularity of high priced traditional timepieces, people are increasingly more in favor of micro brands of affordable prices for their accessories and it is a very satisfactory trend. To be fair, tourbillon is ever useless in atomic-accuracy era.

I think they look amazing, but anything smaller than 42mm looks like a woman's watch on my arm.

Controversial headline to grab our attention and make us think that this is an honest review, but in effect is a disguised ad or promotion for that watch!

I bought the Origin and find that model to be an homage of sorts but an homage that manages to be subtle. This Ascent however screams homage. The Rolex oyster bracelet is unacceptable to me. The case is, to use your words, a copy and paste between an OP and Aqua Terra. I mention the same on Jody’s site and he snipped back at me when I criticized the bracelet especially.

I am torn between an Erebus Ascent or a titanium small seconds Citezin . Any one who can recommend which one ?

It's an OP rip off .

You obviously haven`t bought Sanda Tank <3

This watch is Hot Chinese Garbage. On top of that, it's bland, uninspired, and hideous; much like the guy who owns the "company." Jody is NOT the nice guy you think he is. He made a rage bait video about BOLDR's Un-Dark Radium Girls tribute watch, totally shitting all over another microbrand (a much better brand than Erebus, btw). This caused BOLDR to release a clarification statement, and to finally stop selling the limited edition timepiece -- which was fully supported by relatives of actual Radium Girls, btw. Still, to this day, Jody has yet to release a statement of his own about the whole episode. He took down the video and never mentioned it again. I for one would never buy a watch from a brand whose owner acts like a vindictive 8th grade mean girl just to get likes - even if the watches were amazing, which these aren't, IMHO. I'd rather have a Steeldive, at least that Chinese company doesn't claim to be any more than what it is, and they aren't out there trying to "take down" other brands for the fun of it. 2 thumbs way down.

I agree its a watch that is really nice and for the money it's a great buy. Like you mentioned about fans and hype around things that cloud things is why I did not buy the origin watch plus sometime the fanboys can do more harm to a brand than good when they attack anyone that has any opinion other than a glowing one but thankfully the watch really is as promised so I look forward to what they come out with next. I'll just stay away from the fanboys and collect in silence though.

I nearly bought one, but I think even after remove all removable links it’s still too loose for my smaller than average 15cm wrist after I watch one of the you tuber review.. I was hoping they come out a 36mm one for this with 1 more removable link 😂

It’s a fine watch. Not any better than a San Martin at $100 cheaper. And no better than an islander which is also cheaper. I’ve held this in hand - it feels ok, dial is cheap looking - don’t believe these ‘reviewers’ and their nepotism bull. Saying I’m not praising this because it is Jody before praising it doesn’t mean anything.

It's a San Martin mate, literally made by them

Ah, confirmation bias at its finest. The Erebus Ascent is a good watch. The Henry Archer Vesterhav is better. Look at the specs, look at the options.

Hey buddy really interesting take and a good first impression. I mirror a lot of what you say but I have to differ on the price of the watch and the value for money aspect. A lot of fans of Jody and his channel are from the UK...me of course being from Scotland. The biggie is the price after import duties and Tax. I had to stump up £29 for delivery and £65 for import / tax. That was quite a smack in the mouth. It's a good watch but value for money....hmm a lot of folks are saying exactly what I am. It's a very expensive San Martin. But of course that is just my tuppence. Great stuff as always.

Love the watch, the design is pretty much perfect, the team have done a fantastic job. My only concern in hindsight is with the warranty/customer service should anything go wrong, would obvs not be as straightforward as taking it back to the shop or returning to a UK based brand

What was the cost to import one to the UK?

It is a cheap poor quality watch, the bracelet stretches quickly and becomes very loose. 0 waterproofing, nothing new in design just another homage piece.

Not for $500 maybe $300