Monday, April 9, 2018

My Favorite Ignored Divers

I spend a decent amount of time perusing watch forums, doing image searches for watches, scrolling through Pinterest watch feeds, and talking about watches. It is safe to say I have a passing interest in them. If you follow my articles at all you know I enjoy all kinds of watches. I have a cllection of cool looking 'space age' watches. Sadly some of them only LOOK cool. cool half of them are sitting dead due to insanely rapid battery depletion, or dead dead - apparently due to rusted contacts. But they look like they came out of yesterday's future.
Ultimately, however, dive watches are my one true watch love. There are other styles I like, but nothing like dive watches. I have a couple Citizen dive watches, and they are beautiful. Nearly every Citizen I've ever seen is really good looking. But my current taste is classic and minimal. I am constantly looking around for great minimal classic dive watches.
I love the look of some of the older Submariners.
Minimal face, dot indicators, minimal hands (I prefer sword hands to the Mercedes hands), clean bezel, flat sapphire  crystal (A nice bevelled edge is cool), date optional, no cyclops.
This love of traditional divers started with the first topic of this article. While it isn't entirely ignored, plenty of articles mention it, but I think it coupd always use more exposure:
The 007. This was is classic. Sure it's no Submariner, but it's just as traditional. It is affordable, mine was less than $200. It's tough and handsome. The face is properly minimal, the lume is decent, the second hand is beautiful. It is reasonably accorate. The movement is a workhorse. And it's ISO certified! The only gripes I have with the 007:
I prefer minimal hands. The arrows bother me a bit.
I also prefer watches on the larger end of the standard sizes spectrum, and the 007 is a bit small for me.
My issue with the 007's size is what brought me to the last topic of this article. This watch truly is ignored. I have seen numerous, articles mentioning Orients, Steinharts, even Invictas, when discussing traditional and homage divers. I've only seen this next watch in a couple places. It was compared to the Steinhart Ocean, and it got a mention in a Watchuseek thread...
The Armida I own is their lower end model. 200m resistance, NH35 movement, no drilled lugs. But it holds its own, in fact I have a difficult time choosing between the Armida and my Marathon GSAR (Which is at a much higher price point). It is everything I was looking for in a minimalist traditional diver. Armida's really deserve more mention. I love the way my Armida looks, and feels. The only gripes I have with the Armida is:
I would prefer 300m resistance.
I wish it had drilled lugs like its higher end relatives.
While I do like Seiko movements - they have reputations of being tough workhorses - the higher end movements ARE more accurate.

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