Eberhard Has A New Diver For You

Eberhard isn’t a brand we’ve featured too often here, but we’re certainly no strangers to dive watches. Eberhard’s latest, the Scafodat, has some interesting twists that make it worth a closer look.

I was going to start with the most prominent feature (design-wise), but I couldn’t decide if that would end up being the dial, or the large crown at 4 o’clock. So, toss of the coin, and the crown it is. As you might guess with this layout, the presence of the locking crown at 4 o’clock is indicating that the inner bezel (under the sapphire crystal) can be rotated to time a dive (much as we saw with the Magrette Regattare 2011 right here). What you might not expect is the fact that it is also hiding the helium escape valve (as we saw on the Omega ETNZ here).

While I’m all for clever ways of tucking functionality in different places (and putting the HEV in a crown certainly qualifies as such), I wonder if it wouldn’t cause the crown to dig into your wrist. Putting it over, say, at 8 o’clock would prevent that, but would create an odd diagonal visual, I suppose. Speaking of visuals, lets jump to taking a look at the dial. While I’m used to watches incorporating a triangle of some sort at the 12 o’clock mark (see most divers and aviators), this is the first time I can recall seeing them in all four cardinal positions.

Per the marketing materials, this is to give easy legibility to the watch on a dive – and I suppose it would. For me, it looks almost like we’re supposed to use the watch as a compass of sorts (and you can do that with any watch, see here.) I can’t speak as to the impact on a dive (as I’m not a diver), but I do appreciate the bold flair it puts into an otherwise fairly dark dial. Of course, should you want to lighten things up even further, you could opt for the white rubber strap (black is also an option).

Frankly, though, the bracelet on this watch is where it’s at. It’s presented as a three-link with the center links brushed, and the outer polished, tucked into the 22mm lugs. So far, pretty standard stuff. However, the mechanism that they use on the deployant (which Eberhard labels as the Déclic deployment clasp) is intriguing. Basically, there’s a little lever that releases the lock on the deployant to take it off. There is a potential of this getting caught on something, I suppose, but it looks like the height is inline with the bracelet thickness, so that should be minimal (if at all).

The bracelet also has a built in divers extension, should you want to head to the waves – which, with the 44mm case (15mm thick) offering up a 500m water resistance rating (theoretically, you could actually make use of the HEV with that), the ETA 2824 automatic movement will stay nice and dry. Pricing for the Scafodat comes in at $5,220 (on rubber) or $6,560 (on the bracelet). It’s an intriguing entry to the luxury diver segment, for certain. For me, though, it’s a crowded segment (regardless of design) when you jump up into the four-figure mark (or above), and isn’t something I’d personally look to add to my collection. As with any design, though, it’s ultimately up to the eye of the wearer -so if this is right up your alley, enjoy! Just make sure to get the watch wet now and again, alright?