OceanicTime (best of 2010)

By TLex 2010 has been a great year for dive watches. OceanicTime has presented no less than 150 new divers models and introduced some 25 new watch companies. I hope you have had as much enjoyment seeing them all as I have had sharing them with you.

Covering such a broad spectrum of dive watches that has included models from pretty much every sector of the market; Boutique, and Private Label to High End and Manufacture; the obscure Artisan watchmakers to the mainstream, the mass-produced and everything in-between; highlighting and summarizing them all has been no mean feat.

What were the watches that were presented on OceanicTime in 2010 that were the best received and the most desirable? And which were my personal favorites? I have selected 5 divers from the luxury watch market and 5 from the rest, that for me stood out from the crowd and were not only interesting, but inspirational material and the muses for some of my most enjoyable blogs of 2010.

TOP 5 LUXURY SECTOR



CORUM Admiral’s Cup Deep Hull 48 CORUM’s first attempt at a professional divers watch asserted themselves as a luxury watchmaker, who are every bit as capable of producing high-end professional divers watches as any of the other houses that have been producing them for the last 50 years or more. They delivered a diver that not only stayed true to its heritage, but has begun a new and exciting era in CORUM dive watches.



ETERNA Super KonTiki 1973 Heritage Limited Edition. No re-edition has been made with as much as integrity as the Super KonTiki 1973 Heritage LE.



AUDEMARS PIGUET Royal Oak Offshore Diver The Successor to Royal Oak Offshore Scuba models that were traditionally only released as limited editions. The ROO Diver, which is now a part of Audemars Piguet's collection benefits from improved functionality and AP's latest in house Caliber. It’s the most coveted and arguably the most desirable diver released this year.



PORSCHE DESIGN P’6780 Diver Porsche Design’s first dive watch in more 25 years; the P’6780 is a highly engineered watch. It utilizes a special case housing. The first seen real world images were posted on OceanicTime. Stay tuned for an in depth review in June of 2011.



LINDE WERDELIN Oktopus Moonphase Complication. The first ever watch to use a photo-realistic moon-phase, LW continue to surprise and innovate.

TOP 5 of THE REST An eclectic selection of divers there is not, they probably make little sense to the average man on the street, but were watches that for me presented a rare and refreshing departure from the typical divers watches that we see released year in year out.



MOLA 923 This rare gem from Germany has a distinct point of view and great story.



HELSON Sharkmaster Boutique release of the year! A tribute to a dive watch icon. HELSON, working only form pictures masterfully pulled off an almost exact recreation of the OMEGA Seamaster 1000m; doing more than justice to the original. [Shown image from Hounddoggie of the Homage Forum].



AZIMUTH Deep Diver Avant garde designs intended for the deep. I am yet to see a production model, but if the prototype was anything to go by the production Deep Diver will be an amazing watch.



Vintage Daily Beater VDB I Artisan watch making at its best, handcrafted cases, vintage movements and a rugged sensibility that quickly found favor among connoisseurs.



LOWIN Cologne No Limits More Artisan watchmaking; this time mixing things up with a contemporary 2'000m depth rating and a not so contemporary dial complete with Roman numerals.

Wishing you all the very best for 2011! Stay glued to your screens and tuned to OceanicTime for it will bring you in the new year . . .

FIORILLO Diver (first look)

By TLex It's a long and interesting story, so please give me a few days to get back to you with full details. But what I can tell you for now is; despite its wholly contemporary looks the watch will be made using traditional artisan watchmaking techniques. Precious metals will be used for its hands and there will be a choice dials, bezels, movements and personalized case back engravings. Time to enjoy the renderings . . .

BT 25 Tactical Divers Watch (new)

By TLex Presenting the new BT 25 Tactical Divers Watch. The Bt 25 comes with a choice of 5 emblems; Bombfrog, EOD, Minentaucher, Kampfschwimmer, GSG9. Price 349USD, available late January.



* Case - 316L stainless steel (Black IP coating), 44mm X 51mm, drilled lug holes
* Movement - Seiko NH15 Automatic (21 Jewels)
* Crystal - Sapphire
* Lume - Swiss made Tritium tubes (Blue and Orange)
* Crown - Screw-down with textured finish
* Water resistance - 300 meters
* Lug size - 22mm
* Strap - NATO with black IP coated buckle
* Warranty - 2 Years manufacturer
* Dial choices - Bombfrog, EOD, Minentaucher, Kampfschwimmer, GSG9

LACO Squad Watch 1000 Meter Automaic (new)

By TLex Great to see the Laco name's still going strong! Laco have just released a new Squad Watch, the Squad Watch 1000 Meter Automatic, which say Laco was developed in close collaboration with the German Army. Its 45mm, 100atm case (also available in PVD) features a 4 o'clock HEV and 9.30 crown position; looks like a Fricker to me.

And what else could be powering the new Squad Watch 1000 Meter than the ubiquitous ETA 2824-2. The Squad Watch 1000 meter can be bought from Laco's new online store (click icon below); Price 1'748 EUR or 1'798 EUR (pvd). PS Remember, you saw it here first!

Happy Holidays

From TLex I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays! Many thanks for all your kind support!

MAGRETTE Regattare (coming soon)

By TLex I'm delighted to finally be able to share these exclusive images of the new MAGRETTE Regattare with you! The 1950s case taking like a duck to water with its new internal bezel. For more details and full specs click here . . .

Alessandro Baldieri PALOMBARI GMT (image is everything)

By TLex Alessandro Baldieri has just recently finished shooting his entire collection for his 2011 catalog. The watches look gorgeous, but none more so than these 53mm Palombari GMTs. Please don't forget our Alessandro Baldieri PALOMBARI GMT Giveaway, where you can enter to win anyone of these big beauties for free . . .

moVas Diver (prototype update)

By TLex Here are the GMT DLC prototypes of the upcoming moVas Diver. Things are shaping very nicely, but with Sean Wai being the perfectionist he is a few more details are being re-reworked, one of which is the way in which the DLC plating is being done. moVas have decided to use double DLC plating, even though this is more costly to do. Notice the custom made moVas rubber divers strap.





© moVas

OceanicTime (luxury xmas)

By TLex A few festive heavy weights that were released in 2010. For further details on each of them click on the cute lil snowflakes at the end of their names ;)


CLERC Hydroscaph Big Date Power Reserve *


LINDE WERDELIN Oktopus Moonphase *


CORUM Admiral's Cup DEEP HULL 48 *


PORSCHE DESIGN P'6780 Diver *


BREITLING Superocean *


EDOX Iceman I LE *

NFW Viper Fish (orders being taken)

By TLex Long awaited, highly anticipated the new NFW Viper Fish is just two weeks away. As far as I know the majority have already been reserved, but there a couple of hundred or so left if you're quick. For pricing and ordering information click on the Viper Fish logo at the bottom of the post . . .

MARCELLO C Hydrox (new)

By TLex The Marcello C Hydrox was released earlier this month. Here are all four versions of it. If they were just a tad larger I'd be all over them. The blue PVD is really lovely! There's a hint of the new IWC Aquatimer about the hands and markers, but I'm OK with that. The overall look is clean and contemporary. For details click on the icon at the bottom of the post.

H2O Kalmar CUSTOMIZATION Academy (part 2)

By TLex Not just content with producing what could possibly be the most customizable dive watch on the planet; H2O are also determined to innovate and pioneer on manufacturing technologies and pricing strategies. They will be among the first to produce an affordable mechanical Titanium dive watch, they will be the first to offer fully interchangeable case parts such as bezels, crown guards and casebacks, they will also be the first to offer their special case finish of bead blasted amorphous DLC.

And, I know for a fact that they will be the very first to offer a dive watch constructed from a unique case material, which as far as I know has yet to have been used in watch case construction.



The H2O Kalmar will use all custom parts; apart from modified ETA movements nothing is pre-manufactured. Cases, crystals, hands, dials, exterior titanium components such as interchangeable bezels, crown guards, crowns and CNC machined buckles have all been made according to H2O’s own and exacting specifications.

The first prototypes of the H2O Kalmar are being manufactured as we speak; I expect to be able to show pictures of them in the New Year and will preview all of them on OceanicTime sometime shortly after. Below is breakdown of pricing and configuration options. Please bear in mind that nothing has been finalized and as such everything is subject to change. Stay tuned for much more . . .



DIALS H2O will offer a total of 12 different dials for the Kalmar: [from left to right] Black (full lume), Metallic Silver, Florescent Yellow, Florescent Orange, White (full BGW9 lume), Black,



Black GMT, Blue, Black Stealth, Cool Grey, Orange and Black Carbon.

HANDS At the moment there is only one set of hands for the Kalmar (more are planned). These are custom made hands, which will be offered in three colors black hour / black minute / black second, black hour / orange minute / black second or silver hour / silver minute / silver second . As well as the standard handset a yellow GMT hand will be supplied for the GMT version.

MOVEMENTS Two Swiss made movements will be made available for the Kalmar. Either a modified ETA 2824 or 2836 with GMT function.

CASE FINISHES H2O will initially offer just two case finishes. A fine brushed / satin finished case or highly scratch resistant amorphous black DLC coating over a bead blasted surface.

ABOUT DLC DLC [Diamond Like Carbon] is an extremely tough and highly scratch resistant black coating, which was first developed by the Russian Military to protect the tips of their helicopter blades. It has been adopted by the motor racing, aerospace and other high-tech industries for its ultra-tough qualities. The Vickers hardness of H2O amorphous DLC coating is about 5000 Vickers of hardness compared to 150-190 of 316L Stainless steel.



HEX SCREWS The H2O Kalmar will use a simple yet effective system of Hex / Allen Screws for all its interchangeable parts; allowing for the owners to easily switch between different components themselves giving them complete freedom to experiment with any number of configurations.



BEZELS Dependent on the movement type of the Kalmar there will be a number of interchangeable bezels;

2824 three bezels: Standard layout, optional 12-hour GMT, optional 60 sec.

2836 three bezels: Standard layout, optional 24-hour GMT, optional 60 sec.

All H2O Kalmar bezels will be applied with Swiss Super-LumiNova.









CROWN GUARDS Three interchangeable crown guards; one standard and two optional. The H2O Kalmar will be the first dive watch to offer this particular customization option.

CASEBACKS How many dive watches give you the flexibility of switching between two casebacks? Can't decide whether you want to gaze up an engraving of a Giant Squid or study the mechanical movement complete with custom DLC rotor, then get both.



STRAPS H2O Will offer a total of 5 handmade leather straps; one standard and four optional straps. The H2O Kalmar will be supplied with an additional Italian rubber strap and a black gray Bond NATO strap. All straps will be compatible with H2O's custom Titanium buckle.

INITIAL PRICE INDICTATION
H2O Kalmar /Swiss ETA 2824/ Brushed Titanium: 900USD
H2O Kalmar GMT/ Swiss ETA 2836-GMT / Brushed Titanium: 1000USD

H2O Kalmar / Swiss ETA 2824/ Black DLC on bead blasted Titanium: 1000USD

H2O Kalmar GMT/ Swiss ETA 2836-GMT / Black DLC on bead blasted Titanium: 1100USD