TERRA CIELO MARE 'Mare Delfino' (intro)

By TLex TerraCieloMare are for all intents and purposes a new watch company, or at least a company who have decided to relaunch themselves with a fresh product line and a new and different point of view. There is another company (the same company maybe, I'm not 100% sure; poor Italian I’m afraid) going by the same name who also use an anchor on their diver, which too is called 'Delfino', but that diver lacks a bezel and has canteen crown protector over its crown. Ok, I can see I’m already starting to lose you. Bare with me if you will as the Mare Delfino has a few nice surprises install. ;)



The Delfino is one of those watches that because of some fairly safe design choices and its somewhat generic styling cues, at first glance can seem a little ordinary, but if you take the time to look at it more carefully you will discover a number of lovely details. So what am I talking about? Firstly I love the dial layout it’s quite sparse and and clean; yes, the anchor is a little clichéd, but it doesn’t worry me any more than one does on a UN diver, I actually quite like it. The Superluminova applied handset isn’t exactly original either, but it really works. I love the additional circular portion of the dwarfed hour hand, always been a fan of those.



On to the crown, nothing wrong here, it’s very nicely proportioned and has some nice detailing, which will make gripping it a pleasure, notice how the crown guard has been treated with PVD, a lovely touch! Next the bezel, its edges a combination of scalloping and teeth, again it promises to be very functional and easily manipulated. Make sure you fully enlarge the image for this next part so that you can see how the light plays on the bezel; if you hadn’t already guessed, that’s a ceramic bezel insert with an elapsed dive time scale marked out in either yellow or red. The yellow / red theme starts with the second hand and continues through to the contrasting stitching on the handmade Italian leather strap.



The caseback, which indicates the watch's # also features a large engraving of a porpoise, hence it’s name ‘delfino’ which in English means dolphin. Awe, what a cute guy, what’s not to like a about a friendly cetacean making its way onto the case back of dive watch, very apt me thinks! The watch’s generous 47mm case has been constructed from 316-L stainless steel, it is water-resistant to 20atm or 200m and houses a Swiss ETA 2824 caliber. Each watch is supplied with an additional matching yellow or red strap. Its 960€ MSRP shouldn't break the bank either. I have to say I really quite like this one and appreciate the little details (subtle that they are), they add up to make a pretty cool dive watch.