Berny AM158M Review

In the modern world of manufacturing, regardless of industry, compromises are often made in order to meet targeted price points. For example, in my Volkswagen Jetta GLI, the driver's seat has automatic controls while the passenger seat does not. The door wells in my car are bare plastic vs the fabric lining of the GTI. These small details, and many others all add up to the reason why my car was several thousand dollars cheaper than the GTI. In my instance, all the compromises result in a well balanced economy car with a bit of pep and a nice interior. However, sometimes it seems like the mad scientists in engineering manage to slip something by accounting and take all the money saved via compromises and dump it into one basket. To keep my car analogy going, this would be something like the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, where every penny saved went into making a cheap car into a rowdy track monster that shattered lap records.

This, I believe, is what happened with the Berny AM158M. Roughly, this watch is a homage of the Mondaine Classic - I say roughly because this is the closest watch in the lineup that shares similar dimensions and looks. Because I love cars as much as I love analogies, if Mondaine is a GLI, the Berny AM158M is the Cobalt SS lapping it on the Nurburgring. I bought it new from eBay offering the seller $45, but they are frequently on sale in the $50 range.

Before I get further into the review, I don’t care that the Berny is a complete rip of the Mondaine design. The iconic Swiss Railway clocks Mondaine watches are all modeled after were designed in 1944 by Hans Hilfiker. Mondaine was founded in 1951. They obtained the license to produce watches using the from the Swiss Railways in 1986. They’ve been doing very little innovation in the almost 40 years they have been building watches using a design they didn’t create that is  over 80 years old. Do with that information what you will.

The Berny AM158M is an automatic watch, powered by the noisy but ever reliable Miyota 8205. The case is 40mm wide, the lug to lug is 47.5mm and the lugs are 22mm wide. The case is 11.9mm in height, topped by a flat sapphire crystal. The handset, indices, and minute tracks are identical to those of the Mondaine, with lots of black rectangles and a pop of color with the red lollipop hand. There is a date window above the 6:00 marker. There is a thin bezel that slants into a flat sided case with an exhibition caseback. Similar to the Mondaine, the narrow lugs jut out at an angle. Every expense has been spared in the finishing of the case; all metal surfaces are brushed, and many of them are sharp. 

It is beyond me that in almost 40 years, it never occurred to Mondaine to make their white dials glow in the dark. So Berny did - and it is absurd how bright this watch glows. It's been mistaken by my coworker for Timex Indiglo. It is that bright. For every corner that was cut in the manufacturing of this watch, the savings were put into making this dial glow almost comically bright. It outperforms lume in watches 10x its price, and although I don't rub shoulders with anyone who likes expensive watches, I’d put it up against watches 100x its price in terms of lume quality. The official Berny website describes it as “Luminous Level: Super” and elaborates no further. This watch is off the charts on the “Cheap Heat” scale and is the benchmark for lume at any price point, let alone $50.

When I started writing this piece, I wasn't sure if it belonged in the regular review section or with the “Cheap Heat” watches - after all, it does qualify based on price. However, I was inspired to write this review after visiting a model train museum with my family while wearing this watch.  I’ve spoken before in other reviews about how much of my watch collection and purchasing is guided by making my inner child happy - seeing my children react with joy to the tiny trains reinforced the importance of embracing and nurturing that feeling. So with that air of sentimentality about it, this stays a regular review just as the watch will stay in my regular rotation, because things that glow in the dark and tell time make me happy.