I have never owned a Steinhart, nor have I had the chance to check one out in person, but the general reputation of the brand is that they produce well made timepieces that are affordable. Based on what I am seeing with the Steinhart Ocean Titanium 500, you can add a host of premium features to the mix of quality and affordability. Clocking in at just over $550 (based on exchange rates and no VAT), this is a classic diver that will not break the bank.
Overbuilt dive watches are not very rare. Inexpensive dive watches, even ones with automatic movements are not super hard to come across. But an overbuilt diver for less than $250 (currently on sale), those are not all that common. But this is what we find with the Deep Blue Sun Diver 1K dive watch. Patrick has looked at a couple of Deep Blue watches previously, but all have been north of $500.
It was not all that long ago that a dive watch from the Netherlands seemed like a rarity. As it turns out, there is a new brand starting up that also wants to offer you a Dutch dive watch. While the previous one we wrote about was firmly in the realm of luxury watches, the Van Speyk Dutch Diver is definitely of the more affordable variety.
The Mako lineup from Orient has been a popular one for a long time, due to its diver styling (and capabilities, one assumes) combined with a very attractive pricepoint. It has been so popular that there have actually been three iterations so far – the original, the Ray, and the Mako XL. While I am not intimately familiar with those three prior models, it seems that this latest – the Orient Mako USA – takes bits and pieces from the earlier models and comes up with a sort of superteam of styling.
For all you fledgling watchmakers out there who want to get their project off the ground, you could save yourself a little work and study what Redux & Co. have done with their first watch offering. First off, make an attractive watch. Second, make it a good value. Third, engage the press and build up supporters ready to jump as soon as the gun goes off. In less than 24 hours on Kickstarter, the Redux & Co Courg titanium watch already has over 400 backers and is over triple their funding goal of $30,000.
It has been some time since we have had a Historical Horology post, so I would say we are long overdue. For whatever reason, I was just not running across a lot of interesting material about watches of the past. That is, until I came across a recent three-part series that dug into the watches that Cousteau and his Calypso team wore.
If there is one watch style that is more popular than others, at least amongst enthusiasts, it would seem that the dive watch would be a top contender, if not king of the mountain. This is based on my extensive research of thinking back over what I have seen newer brands creating, so take the assertion with a grain of salt. Let’s take a look to see what makes the Pellikaan Diving Dutchman-1 stand out.
Tool watch, dress watch, dress watch tool watch; what to wear, what to wear? H2O Watch has an idea that maybe you don’t need to decide any more, you can get a nice tool watch that is elegant enough to wear as a dress watch, and does not have the price tag of a Panerai attached. The H2O Watch Hydra is currently open for pre-order, letting you pick from case finish/material, dial color, bezel design, and even crown to create a watch that fits your style, from the boardroom to the beach.
The Megalodon was a prehistoric shark, the biggest and (presumably) baddest shark to live on Earth. Not too long ago, I saw an article which asked if any of these cold still be alive in the deep ocean (no), but one is definitely back. The Benarus Megalodon dive watch is now available for pre-order, and it is still the beast it has always been.
Fresh of the heels of their first crowdfunded success, ManchesterWatchWorks is back at it again, with a modern looking diver recharged by the sun (really any light). These quartz driven, photovoltaic recharged watches are not new, companies have been making them for decades, but the ManchesterWatchWorks Armada is the first crowd funded dive watch I have seen with this technology, and it looks to be an attractive package.
