This is a 2017 or perhaps slightly earlier release that hadn’t appeared on my radar until now as Zeno as brand for whatever reason has never really been one that I follow.
The Zeno Navy Diver Retro forms two parts of a collection of 6 dive watches that are based on an historic model – 4 Army Divers and these 2 Navy Divers.
I’m not the dive watch design police, so am in no position to cry foul but the similarities between this and a Doxa Sub are not lost on me.
The bezel with its dual markings: no decompression (inner) and dive-time (outer) rings are said to be taken from an original design from 1970. Not sure whose though (insert head scratch)?
I have always viewed the dual diving-scales as a well-known Doxa trademark, so do they really belong on this watch?
BTW earlier iterations of the Zeno Navy Diver Retro even used orange for their no decompression markings! Those bezel teeth are pretty damn similar, too.
The dial of the orange variant is pretty much identical to a Doxa Sub 250 safe for the awkward looking hands set which looks wrong compared to say, a set of black sword hands.
Besides the similarities to Doxa, the Navy Diver Retro looks okay. Actually imho, it probably owes any good looks it may or may not have to those borrowed elements.
Anyway, here’s the spec. for this controversial diver from Zeno Watch Basel: a 40mm Stainless steel case with 300m of water-resistance, an ETA 2824 auto and an acrylic crystal.
Swiss MSRP BTW is 698CHF which is a hundred Swiss Francs more than the other 4 variants that don’t use Doxa design elements.
Thoughts? My initial thoughts are; this is cheeky as f#ck but it’s not really my business and perhaps some might see this as a more affordable Doxa from an otherwise bonafide Swiss watch company.
Final thoughts, though – still cheeky as f#ck (imho, that is)! What do you think?
I have the orange dial and have changed to a plonguer hands set.
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