Jorg Gray is best known for being the brand of watches which President Obama was wearing when he took office. The JG6500 watch Obama has been known for wearing, which is also worn by the Secret Service, wasn’t actually an automatic but a quartz. When creating its new line of watches, Jorg Gray felt that the most powerful person in the world should have the option of wearing an automatic version of his watch, and now you can too.
Jorg Gray has upgraded the line to include a high precision Japanese Miyota 9120 multifunction movement that’s automatic and self-winding. Jorg Gray was kind enough to send Examiner a review unit of its JG6500-83, and after wearing it for over a month we quickly fell in love with this timepiece.
Looking through the ani-reflective coating on the flat sapphire crystal on the front, you can immediately notice the small details such as the red triangle on the front of the second hand and the rose gold JG on the end of the second hand which help to make the multi-layered matte dial with a luminous index stand out. Unlike previous versions of the JG6500, the JG6500-83 isn’t actually a chronograph but a multi-function watch. It displays the time, day of the week, month, and has a easy to read date. A small JG is embossed on the crown. The green lume on the JG6500-83 was surprisingly bright, especially on the minute and hour hands where this matters the most.
The JG6500 features a 41 mm case that is 13.6 mm thick and made from stainless steel. While we wouldn’t say it’s heavy, it isn’t exactly on the lighter side either. Regardless, we had no problems wearing it through full workdays and our wrist didn’t begin to fatigue until after around 12 hours. Turning the watch over you’ll see six screws in the case back and another sapphire crystal which allows you to see the Japanese Miyota 9120 movement. Two of the 26 rubies can be seen through the back of the case, but not the power reserve. The self-winding mechanism of the JG6500 automatic watch was super efficient in our testing. A quick flick of the wrist would spin the winder 18+ times, and with a total power reserve of 40 hours we never found ourselves actually using the crown to wind the JG6500 during everyday use, even when taking it off for a day to wear another timepiece.
The JG6500-83 boasts a burgandy Italian leather strap with white stitching. It features the words “Jorg Gray” with a JG underneath on the matching rose gold buckle. The Italian leather strap was very stiff upon arrival and it took us three weeks to break it in. It’s actually curved on the end where it meets the watch case, as supposed to just straight. This makes it so that there’s no noticeable gap between where the Italian leather strap and the case meet. It’s the small details like this one which add to the overall sophistication to this timepiece. While the JG6500 is water resistant to 100 meters you wouldn’t want to take it swimming without swapping the Italian leather strap out, as either chlorine or salt water would quickly ruin it (we wouldn’t advice taking it in the shower without changing the strap either).
The automatic versions of the JG6500 are currently available in three styles. The JG6500-81 has a silver bezel on a black dial with black Italian leather strap. The JG6500-82 has a silver bezel on silver dial with a blue Italian leather strap. The JG6500-83 (the one which we received) has rose gold bezel on a silver dial and burgandy Italian leather strap. All three automatics retail for $895. Jorg Gray is also offering both commemorative and non-commemorative versions of the JG6500 line from the Presidential Collection from $395 and up. Although we don’t like to focus on cases the JG6500-83 came with a nice high-quality one which not only serves great for unboxing when given as a gift, but it’s also rugged enough to be used as storage when not in use.
The commemorative versions of the JG6500 feature a special engraving on their back, and all of the watches in the Presidential Collection have their own individual serial number engraved on them too. That’s just something you really don’t see on watches in the $400 price range, and yet another little detail which makes the Jorg Gray brand as a whole stand out from its competitors. Jorg Gray is offering an unprecedented amount of quality and craftsmanship for at this price point. When it comes to the sub $1,000 category we simply haven’t seen another automatic watch to rival the JG6500. If you’re looking for a bargain priced automatic timepiece which doesn’t sacrifice on excellence for either yourself or a loved one, you could do no better.