John, I find everything in your statement highly reflective of my own views and thoughts on Horology, though, as I get older, I really appreciate the smaller-sized watches and the way they ride on the old wristaroo! I have ALSO gone 'round & round where Invicter is concerned, and have come to the conclusion that, while their QC and customer service really DO need some serious work, they STILL manufacture a very nice, well-made timepiece that, for the MOST part, operates well and looks terrific. Exceptions to this rule for me - and again, ONLY me -- are models like the "Bolt Zeus" (or, as I refer to it, much to the chagrin of a former member/bully here who had a permanent IV LINE of Invicter Kool-Aide fixed into his artery, the "Boilt Zoosk") and some of the other 55-and-up pieces they produce. And, unlike my former colleagues at my former home watch website, a place that has become an absolutely amazing "Home for Watch Crazies" over the last few years (due in large part to their clinically insane 'man-child in-chief' leader, who has, since my departure, become my very own personal stalker), I do NOT believe Invicter nor its owner are eeeeevil criminals, out to suck the last dollar from the poor and downtrodden. I just think that they're routinely a bit on the "ham-fisted" side, making some silly, unforced errors that lead to some equally-bad "optics," as today's media likes to say.
At any rate, a very dear old friend of mine (whom I miss terribly), the last owner of the late, great BDWF (Best Damned Watch Forum) website, once told me HIS simple formula for viewing Invicta through a brutally honest lens: Invicta = crapshoot. Or, as that great and wise philosopher, Forrest Gump's Momma might opine in the case of this very busy watch company,"Invicta is like a box of chocolates, etc." Either way, I personally have NOT given up on Invicta -- or Croton, or SWI, or Renato -- and I refuse to toe the "watchhoards' " 'sensibilities line' when it comes to these sometimes hapless companies or any others...And the funniest thing about THEM is they ALL think they're a great bunch of 'crusaders' for horological honesty, the destruction of eeeeevil Invicter, and so on, and so on, and Scooby-dooby-dew...it's truly a shame that we've "de-institutionalized" the mental health system, as some people just need to be put away somewhere until they demonstrate an ability to live peacefully within society.
And I've gone on long enough, mon ami. Many thanks for you your note, and keep enjoying all them there awesome-as-a-possum-with-steak-SAUCEM WARTCHES!!