Hi P4GTR
I found your post through the search because I've had my Noobmariner for 2 weeks and have had a very similar experience, and I've been trying to work out what's wrong with it, because it tends to keep stopping.
On receipt I gave it a few slow winds and strapped it on - usual automatic procedure. It ran fine, but stopped overnight. I wound it more fully the next day and it started straight away so wore it again, although it randomly lost 10 minutes here and there, so I concluded it kept stopping and starting during wear. I wound it again and put it on my watch winder for a few days. It still kept stopping, increasingly often. I had sussed out that it winds only in one direction, so had the winder set accordingly so thought I'd be OK, but eventually it was obvious that the spring had simply run down. Yesterday I took the back off to look at the movement.
The rotor is exactly as you described: it is almost frictionless in the non-winding direction, but seems very stiff in the winding direction, it almost needs a jerk to wind it rather than just gravity, so my theory is that it simply isn't winding in normal use. That is still my theory, since I wound it manually last night, and it ran overnight so I wore it today and apart from losing a couple of minutes, it's been OK.
I also have the problem with date change position slipping, and the hack is a bit dodgy too: it will stop the watch, but when you turn the hands you have to maintain outward pressure to stop it slipping back to the date setting position, then it clicks out the last little bit and hacks fully.
Does anybody have any thoughts on the validity of my theory, and how I might free up the auto winding? If not, and it continues to perform this way I can always wear it by winding it manually once (or twice?) a day.
I have other reps which were sold as having ETA movements and have never a problem, so I'm feeling like you get what you pay for with reps, as with so much in life. Shame about this one though: for the price it's great, but the movement is the weak point, and in the end, there's nothing more annoying than an unreliable watch.