Just posted a new video review of the Ball Engineer Master Diver II. This is a great value watch from Ball, and features a very nice internal rotating bezel with Tritium tubes. Nice 42mm Diver, and great features sure to pique the interest of any techy watch enthusiast. Swiss made precision, and well crafted case and dial.

Color me a Doxa fan, but recently, much of the re-issue pieces are absolutely atrocious. However, this Shark Ceramica line is absolutely outstanding, and the XL limited edition model even more so. The watch is a limited edition of 1200 pieces, and features a Shark Motif on the dial. The style of the watch case more closely resembles an Omega Seamaster to me than a Doxa however. The ceramic bezel and gigantic 46.5mm case diameter really make a showstopper out of this watch!!

The watch was announced in March, and was only mentioned on the Asia site and appears to be an Asia model. I’m not familiar with how the Doxa brand is marketed in Asia, as it does seem to have significantly more models available there than they do in the USA.

The watch comes in all black as well as an orange and black version as you can see. The basic specs are as follows:

Movement: ETA 2824
Outer Case Diameter: 46.50mm
Crystal Diameter: 35.00mm
Thickness: 14.27mm
Details: Black Ceramic Bezel Ring Insert, Worldwide Limited to 1200 pcs., with Certificate
Crystal: Scratch Resistant Sapphire
Case: Stainless Steel
Buckle: Stainless Steel Pushers folded buckle
Water Resistant: 300M

Overall an outstanding watch from Doxa that has some design cues taken from Omega’s Seamaster and perhaps a little bit of Oris thrown in there as well. I would really like to own one of these!

I realized after searching through my posts that I had never gotten around to posting my impressions of the Rolex GMT-IIc diver! I have had this diver for a year or two now and I really like it. Rolex has grown on me as a brand, especially with their releases in the last couple of years. I’m not going to go into a full review of the watch, since there are so many competent reviews out there already, but I will post about my impressions. Unfortunately I only took three photos of the watch before I put it into safety deposit so I can’t take any more until I grab it out again!

We’ll start with the wrist shot. The watch is perfect sized for my 6 3/4″ wrist, and still manages to look bigger than previous versions while maintaining its 40mm diameter. Rolex accomplishes this by widening the lugs to give the watch a chunkier appearance. I really like what Rolex did when they redesigned these diver cases – to me the previous ones were just a touch too small. Now they are perfect. The new green GMT also sets off the dial perfectly.

You can see the new Ceramic bezel in the close up above quite well. The GMT numbers are cut out of the polished surface of the ceramic and have a sort of blasted rough finish on the inside, which is a very nice contrast. Props to Rolex for making such a beautiful ceramic bezel. Of course the typical authenticity security features such as the etched crown in the sapphire crystal, rolexrolexrolex wording around the chapter ring and serial located in the chapter ring all exist on this model.

The GMT Bezel is a bidirectional bezel, like most GMT bezels out there. The movement in the GMT Master IIc is the Rolex Caliber 3186, which has been upgraded from the previous Caliber 3185 by adding a Parachrom-Blu Hairspring.

Some other improvements int he GMT II Ceramic are the new machined clasp and solid oyster bracelet as well as the maxi-dial. I’m glad they finally included all of these features on one watch, which is why I bought the GMTIIc. One of my criticisms of Rolex has always been their differences from high end to lower end models like the Maxi Dial and Date “complication”. Addition of a date wheel for a thousand dollars seems quite excessive. But whatever they are doing it is working, because they are still THE brand, when one talks about luxury wristwatches.

Video review of the sweet Omega Chronodiver with the tri-compax layout. Posted this in Youtube but didn’t get a chance to pop it on here til now just to make sure you guys see it. This is the one that uses the Omega Calibre 3301 movement, not the 7750 based movement in the Bond Style Chronodiver. Enjoy.

The MontresGB, or MGB Diver, is a German Made watch made for BMS Jewelry in Scottsdale, AZ. Interestingly, their website has less info about them than their eBay site. They also sell other watches by brands such as Tag Heuer and Breitling.

The MontresGB watch is a 1000m Diver designed by BMS Jewelry, and is actually a pretty nice watch. They are currently selling them for $600 on their eBay site, and claim the retail pice is $1500. Given the specs of the watch, there are many others out there selling for that kind of price with similar features, but stronger pedigree.

As you can see, the watch is fairly attractive as Divers are concerned, and features similar minimalistic design as Kobold watches, the arctic diver in particular. The MontresGB is actually quite feature rich for its $600 price tag:

1000m Water Resistance
Swiss ETA 2824-2
Sapphire Crystal
41.2mm Case Diamter
German-Made 316L Stainless Steel Case
SuperLuminova

Nice matte black dial with what looks to me like a Kobold-inspired look, with a bit of Rolex Sub thrown in. Of course everything these days seems like a derivative work, but so I’ll just leave it at that, but it is a nice looking, balanced dial with great lume. Easy-to-read, and nothing to distract you from telling the time.

The German-Crafted case is indeed very nice, and exceeds the quality of more entry level luxury Swiss watches such as Hamilton. The “GB” signed crown is rather uninspired, but I suppose is better than nothing. Unidirectional bezel is easy to turn and use. Sapphire Crystal is flat and no AR coating is present.

Case back is quite nice, with everything deeply laser etched into it, giving it a quality look and feel. The lugs are interestingly only 20mm, which to me looks a bit odd sometimes. Its probably my biggest complaint with the watch as I would really have liked to see 22mm lugs, especially since the lugs themselves are somewhat puny. The watch would look much more substantial with a bit more lug width.

Bracelet is very nice for the price point and appears to be a variation on the all-popular Watchadoo bracelet.

Finally the money-shot. Great wrist presence and in the end what I would call a poor-mans Kobold. Very happy to keep mine as a beater, and will probably use it for a while at least. The 1000m water resistance and quality German and Swiss craftmanship sold me on this watch and I was not disappointed.