In yesterday’s post, I started to give you my impressions on the Ocean7 LM5 – and in today’s post, we’ll wrap up the review.
Now, what about what first grabbed my eye – the sapphire crystal on the bezel? I’m happy to report that it’s just as good-looking in person as it is in the pictures. The bezel gives wonderfully solid-feeling clicks as you turn it, and the lume hiding under the sapphire is great (as shown up above). I think that, other than looking sharp, it also provides an extra layer of protection to the sapphire crystal over the dial.
Speaking of the dial crystal – while it’s domed, I think that it’s only the top-side that’s domed. Reason being that you can actually pick up two reflections in the crystal (AR coating aside), one slightly magnified. While not a show stopper by any means, it can impact readability. Of course, that’s easily remedied by a slight turn of your wrist.
The dial itself is a perfect example of how to keep things clean and readable. You’ve got the big, well-lumed numbers as 12, 3, 6 and 9, lumed indicators in between, and even another dab of lume on the seconds hand. With the seconds hand, it extends to a needle point which is painted red. This makes it’s very simple to tell where it’s pointing, on the dial or the bezel.
Rounding it out you have the date display between 4- and 5-o’clock, which I was pleased to see was black as well, helping it to blend into the dial. Of course, you do have a small chrome ring around it, which I suppose does help you pick it out quickly. If I had my druthers, I’d lose that small bit of chrome. Again, not a major issue, but it does make the dial feel touch unbalanced.
So, what does this leave us with? In my eyes, it’s a great watch. It wears smaller than it’s 42mm case would suggest, and slips easily under just about any shirt cuff. I appreciate the fact that it doesn’t scream DIVE WATCH at you like some other models can (I’m looking at you, Seiko Monster), even though you could use it as one with that awesome sapphire bezel and 600m water resistance.
Match this up with the workhorse ETA 2824-2, and I’m not afraid to say that this watch is a winner. Yes, there are some small details that I wouldn’t mind changing, but none of them were deal breakers in my book. You’re getting a great watch for the price, and it will serve you well in daily duty, as well as any formal occasion or jump in the pool.
Many thanks to Mitch over at Ocean7 for letting us have some time with their watch!
