Hope you guys all enjoy the Doxa 5000T Automatic Watch review I uploaded to Youtube yesterday. Sorry again about the Mic, I am trying to buffer it mechanically since my camera doesn’t have a way for me to edit it. Hopefully I can figure it out and get it more resolved over the next little while. For now, turn the volume down and try to enjoy! Thanks. The Doxa 5000T is an awesome limited edition diver from one of the world’s most popular boutique Swiss Dive Watch companies.

Posted this on Youtube last week, and forgot to share it on here. Hope you guys enjoy the video review guys! Haven’t posted one in a while since all my time is taken up with work and family! But still trying to keep things afloat here. Very cool watch from Crepas, and I felt they got a lot of things right for a watch of this price point.

An oldie but goodie. The Oris TT1 series of watches are some of the best bang-for-buck Swiss Automatic Divers on the market – and yes, that includes all those boutique divers out there that everyone gets all giddy about too. Oris watches are bonafide, reliable and reputable Swiss Timepieces, and they’re much better made than brands like Hamilton.

Got this great shot of the dial, which really does the watch justice. It captures all the detail and colors just right, except I left some fingerprints on the edge of the bezel between 10 and 11 o’clock. Great dual-crown look, with the offset small seconds at 10 o’clock and the actual crown at 4 o’clock with the manually operated helium escape valve at 2 o’clock. The dial is a beautiful slate blue, with waves on it as you can see, with the date located at 6 o’clock.

An angle shot, so you can appreciate the shape of the stainless steel case, and see the signed crown and blue dot on the helium escape valve. The case has the familiar Oris ProDiver “bubble” shape, which makes the 47mm case wear more like 44mm. It is nice and thick, however, and feels substantial on the wrist.

A nice close-up of the dial, showing off the fine-printing and gel-applied waves of the dial in detail. The crystal is double-AR coated, and gives off a blue tinge. Lume is excellent, and works well when charged, though the luminous markers are not especially big.

Another better shot showing the “bubble” cushion shape of the case, with the screwed-in end links that hold the stainless steel bracelet on. Those screws can be hard to remove and require two screwdrivers and a vise to remove! I prefer this stainless version of the Oris TT1 ProDiver over the Titanium one that I had owned before, because I found that the finish looks nicer and its a better weight.

The nice, substantial button-lock deployant clasp is shown above, and its pretty darn good looking for a watch in this price range. They’re almost as nice as the Omega Seamaster buckles – almost. I can’t tell for sure if they are thick stamped buckles or machined, but my guess would be stamped.

The caseback is a solid stainless steel affair, with the general watch features on it such as the 1000m water resistance, stainless steel case, sapphire crystal and Swiss Made designation. It also has the model and serial number on it.

As you can see, the 47mm diameter doesn’t look imposing at all on my 6.75″ wrist. In fact, its no bigger looking that my Chronomat 44, though it is a bit thicker. I really like this watch, and for the amount you can snag these on the secondary market, they are a bargain. With the new Sapphire bezel Oris models now available, these can be picked up for a song. If they’re in your wheelhouse, I think they’re well worth considering.

Oris TT1 ProDiver 1000m Watch Specs:
-Scratch Resistant Sapphire Crystal
-1000 Meters / 3281 Feet Water Resistant
-47mm case diameter
-Stainless Bracelet with Deployment Buckle
-Luminescent Hands & Markers
-Screw Down Crown & Back Case
-Helium Escape Valve

Just posted this video review on youtube of my Seiko Superior 200m Shrouded Diver. A very cool diver from Seiko that is just a cut above the Monster Diver, for those that are looking for something a bit nicer. Great watch, great price. What else can I say! Seiko is the true king of affordable Dive Watches.

Hexa Watches is another boutique watch company with its roots founded in the online watch forums. I do like the marketing and style that Hexa brings to the table, however, and feel like it brings something a bit more unique and out of the ordinary than your run of the mill boutique Dive watch.

Here’s the K500, with its beautiful tool-like bead-blasted 44mm stainless steel case. Its a meticulously crafted piece of kit, and very well engineered. The flat sapphire crystal is AR coated in the inside and 3mm thick. It almost disappears in the right light. I’ve got the Hexa K500 mounted on a DaLuca Chromexcel NATO strap, and I think it looks fantastic!

The unidirectional dive bezel has chunky sprocket-like knobs around it and has 60 clicks. The only complaint I would have about the bezel is that it moves accidentally all the time… while I’m not a diver, I do like keeping my bezels centered because I’m just OCD like that so when it moves a few clicks by accident almost every time I wear it It kind bugs me.

The screw-down crown is uniquely placed at the 10:30 position and looks pretty cool, but because it has very chunky crown guards around it its somewhat difficult to use. However, you’re not often changing the time, so its not a huge deal. The sharp, angular lines that surround it make it look really cool and more than worth the trouble.

I couldn’t get a shot of the whole back because the NATO strap covered most of it, and it doesn’t move easily without removing the pins because they’re very tight to the watch case. I think certain thicker watch straps might not fit on the Hexa K500 because of this. The movement within this awesome dive watch is a Sii NE15/Seiko 6R15 Automatic Movement which features handwinding and hacking ability. They’ve also adjusted it to 5 positions in-house for maximum accuracy. All Hexa K500’s are also assembled by hand in the USA.

Overall this is an incredible watch, and at $625US for the strap model, its not too badly priced. While I won’t say this is the bargain of the century, its affordable but offers a very unique and identifiable design that is distinctly Hexa. Throw in the kick-ass Lume by Lum-Tec and the very reliable Seiko 6R15 automatic movement in a bomb-proof bead-blasted case, you have one of the coolest looking military styled dive watches on the market.