Another Dive Watch Company has launched a few months ago by the name of Red Sea Watches. Their watches are attractive dive watches machined from 316L Stainless Steel and feature Miyota Automatic Movements. The style of their watches reminds me of Marathon a bit, and the price range is similar as well albeit with a Japanese instead of Swiss movement.
Both watches they are currently accepting pre-orders for are $565 in stainless steel and $595 in PVD steel. 44mm Cases are also standard for both the Holystone and Six Poinder models. On the upside, each watch includes Bracelet, Rubber and Nato straps.
Nice looking pieces, but maybe a bit pricey IMO. Only the market will tell, however!
Dievas (pronounced “D-Ah-Vas”) is a Singapore based watch company that produces Military inspired timepieces which are mostly mechanical automatics. Some of the models such as the Vortex are made in Germany and I’ve been told uses the same cases that Kobold uses in their watches. They probably came to fame because of their Panerai Homage watches, especially the California dial ones.
The one I’m looking at today is the Dievas [Z]eta watch, which uses a Japanese movement, unlike most of their models which use Swiss movements. The Zeta is a cheaper model, but gives outstanding value, given the multitude of features. I ended up disliking the Camo-green dial, so ended up selling this one.
The large military-style dial measures a healthy 44mm in diameter, 52mm lug to lug, and is approximately 14.5mm thick. The dial has a criss-cross texture to it. Notice the Tritium tubes mounted on the dial, which are all manufactured by MB Microtec in Switzerland. These are the same tubs you will see on Ball Watches.
The chunky 22mm bracelet is solid stainless steel and has no taper, making it a bit uncomfortable but not unreasonably so. It has the standard flip-lock stamped clasp, and works well. The movement is the Japanese-made Miyota 8215, which has about 42hr power reserve and 21 jewels. Rather unremarkable, but at this pricepoint, the watch is very nicely made. The only downsize is the lack of hacking.
Here’s the head-on wrist shot. It fits my 6 3/4″ wrist quite well, I think. I find that 44mm watches work really well for my wrist size, and this Dievas [Z]eta is no exception. The watch lugs curve, and while it is a well made and sturdy watch, the case finish is much less refined than most Swiss and German made pieces.
Signed crown, with a deep machined “Dievas” printed on it. Screw down as well, with holes in the lugs for releasing the pins. Nothing to complain about here. Water Resistance is an impressive 300m.
And finally, the angle wrist shot. Elaborating more on the features, the watch also has the requisite Sapphire Crystal, abeit without AR coating. The bezel, believe it or not, is Ceramic too! Quite the bulletproof array of features if you ask me. Overall an outstanding value, but I would stick to the more conservative dial colors as the Green/Yellow started to bug me after a while.
I’ve posted my video review of the D&B Aerodyn Big Date on Youtube, so I hope you guys enjoy it. Most people tend to say that this watch looks like a Franck Muller, but its got distinct differences and has a style of its own. While this watch has a unique charm that not everyone can appreciate, I really do enjoy this watch and many of Dubey & Schaldenbrand’s designs.
When I started seeing Linde Werdelin watches show up on Timezone, I was quite eager to learn more about them so checked out the website. I’d heard of the brand and saw a few of their pieces, but felt they were quite pricey for what they were… now that I see them trickle into the sub $5000 range, they are interesting ot me again.
The brand was created by Morten Linde and Jorn Werdelin, one a designer and the other the entrepreneur – a common story. They formed the brand in 2002, and their focus is absolutel precision in case design and execution. This is a rather stark difference to many who feel the craft of watchmaking is all in the movement. These fellows appreciate the movements, but also make no bones about the fact that they use relatively stock ETA movements.
They put an enormous amount of effort into creating their cases, spending as much time and energy perfecting the case as many watchmakers spend designing a movement.
The company has rock climbing and skiing instrument digital watches as well as videos on many of their pieces. The even have a graphic novel! Talk about unconventional.
At any rate.. really like the designs, and one of these days I can see myself picking up one of them.
The new Panerai Luminor Marina PAM366 appeals to their Chinese market with the Chinese Character “Fu” printed on the dial at 6 o’clock. The watch features the tried and true Panerai OP II Movement, and will be limited to 1500 pieces. The watch will retail for $4400US.
Only time will tell, but it will be interesting to see how well received this watch is by the Chinese buying public. With such a small run of 1500 pieces, it shouldn’t be difficult to sell, however.
While I can appreciate the watch, I think they should have made it with a sandwich dial instead. Kudos to Panerai for taking this step, however.
