Test Special: Replica Divers' Watches

[Seadweller4000]

Test-Special: Replica Divers’ Watches

Part 1: three handed watches

Somehow, I have always been attracted to divers’ watches. Their simple but functional design, their professional appearance and sturdiness make them perfect daily beaters as they usually fit every outfit. There are quite a lot of very nice and reliable replicas out there and I will try to find out how they will compete against each other. Of course I cannot get all of them as there are way too many out there (some are discontinued anyway), but I think I did a good job collecting a nice choice for this test. All of the tested watches are the so called “swiss” versions with ETA movements, with exception of the Panerai Luminor Marina which uses a high-tech asian movement.

In this first part I will have a thoroughgoing look at three handed watches only, while the chronographs will be tested in a second part.

How will I test?

First of all I will try to point out all flaws, advantages and disadvantages of the regarded replica. After that I will check out the movement and its running rates on a professional Witschi timing machine. Of course I will try to include all posts that have been made about the regarded watch as well.

After that, I will simulate a diving test.

Here in Germany, a watch may call itself water resistant or even a divers’watch only if it meets certain requirements. A watch is water resistant due to DIN-standard 8310 (DIN means “Deutsche Industrie Norm”), if it withstands sweat, rain and a 30 minute bath in 1m deep water. To call itself legally “divers’ watch”, it has to bear a little bit more than this: No less than 13 inspections have to be fulfilled to meet the German DIN-standard 8306. I will not test all 13 inspections, but most of them. First of all, it has to be at least waterproof to 100m, the more the better. Further it has to be legible from 25cm under water, the bezel has to show continous minutesteps and the bracelet or strap has to meet special requirements, too. Also, the dial may show depths-rates only in 100m steps. The bezel has to remain operable after some serious dirt contact, which I am going to simulate by pushing the bezel into fine sand under water. After that I will check how good it will operate while being still wet.

I will make a pressure test for at least 50m with a professional leak checker (yes, the one you have already seen in my previous tests). It is working by creating a 5 bar strong vacuum inside a chamber where the watch is placed between two measurement and control devices. This will pull out the watch’s crystal for around 0.001mm and check if it will go out any further in 20 seconds. It also checks if air is escaping the watch case. The idea is that if something is able to escape the case, it will obviously invade it as well.

After that all watches will be checked in a container that is filled 1/2 with water. At first, the watch will hang loose in the air above the water, while we will manually pump more air into the container. This will create a pressure atmosphere of around 6 bar (Damn, this is exhausting…). Then we will wait one minute, so the watch can be invaded by the air – if it is leaky.

After that, we dump the watch into the water and open a valve at the container. The pressure will now escape it and if it is inside the watchcase, the watch as well. The cool thing is, if there is pressure inside the watch and we release it too fast, it will pop out the crystal for sure… WatchTime gives 1 minute to decompress, but I think they are sissys. We will do it in 30 seconds, as we do not have all day long to test. This means the watches have to stand more than the genuines in the WatchTime tests. There is a very nice article describing thoroughly how this works on RWG. Read it here!

As a divers’ watch obviously might get in contact with salt water, I will make check how the watches behave when they stay in a salty bath at room temperature for around 12 hours. Seawater has an average salinity of 3.5%(DIN8306), I will test with a salinity of 5% to be sure. Some metals corrode in saltwater and of course, the seals will be attacked as well. This is supposed to simulate a longer lasting dive.

Legibility is an important factor for divers, so I will check if the watches are readable in direct sunlight, in the dark and in 25cm under water.

I am also going to check if the bracelet or diving strap will fit over a diving suit if it can be extended and if it is tough enough to withstand a weight of 200N (~20.4kg) for 1 minute (again DIN8306). Note that my weights are “only” 18.9kg, so the force will be a little bit less than DIN standard.

The grand final will be a visit at an AD who is able to check the participants up to 100m. For all who want to pull out the red flag now, don’t worry, he is obviously one of the cool guys. He will AT NO CHANCE give me any proof or allow any pictures of this – as this would risk his authorisation. I am sure you can understand this.

How will I rate?

I am going to rate the design of the watch strictly in regard to the purpose of a diver. This will get 10 points max.

The first leakchecker test will get 10p max.

The water-chamber test will get 10p max.

The movement rate will get 10p max.

The strap/bracelet will get 10p max. If a watch is tested with both, I will make a combined result.

The dirt test will get 10p max.

The salinity test will get 10p max.

The legibility will be rated by 10p max, as well.

The final 100m test at the AD will receive 20p.

This makes a total possible score of 100p!

However, even if one replica watch passes my tests perfectly, I will not guarantee that your personal watch of the same kind will do the same. If you wanna use it underwter I hardly suggest you to have your watch pressure checked individually. Make sure that all gaskets are sealed.

I know that it would be smarter to get a 150 usd Seiko for diving but this is the rep-game and I am attempting to proof that you actually can go for a dive with our replicas, as long as they are properly sealed.

The Breitling participants:

If you are interested in Breitling replicas and you want to learn more on them in general, I strongly suggest you to read Bytor’s community guide on best Breitling replicas.

Breitling Avenger Seawolf ti

This rare collector’s timepiece is now discontinued and the only titanium watch in this test. It can still be purchased in a fantasy stainless steel design as far as I know. This oldskool piece, however is made of real titanium, which is really corrode-resistant which might give it a bonus in the saltwater test. When it arrived, it was as water-resistant as a strainer. That was because of the HeV that really let water get into the case without any kind of resistance. When I started to write this test, my watchsmith had fixed this issue – but it proofed to be no good. This is why you can see only the empty case on the cover.

The case is made extraordinary good, with correct dimensions. The week points are the thinner fantasy caseback (1.3mm) and the crystal which is also too thin (2.2mm) in regards to the genuine item.

As I put a genuine dial and rehaut in, you can clearly spot the gap between the rehaut ring and the crystal, which is AR’ed by my friend K2222 by the way.

The good thing about this watch is of course that it is really made out of titanium which makes it a lightweight for its size and really comfortable to wear. It feels soft and warm on the skin. The HeV looks exactly like on the genuine and the ridertap-style bezel is the best I have ever seen on a Breitling repica. It has a very good pearl and functional screws and is with the Steelfish bezel the only one that fulfils the DIN-standard for Divers’ watches.

Inside ticks a reliable ETA 2824-2, just like inside the gen, but undecorated.

On the timing machine it received average results even though it is a few years old and did not get a service for quite some time. It showed an average going rate of +17 secs and an amplitude of 257

[Seadweller4000]

Omega:

Again, Bytor managed to write a thoroughgoing guide on best Omega replicas out there. A mandatory reading for every rep collector, not only in my opinion.

Omega Planet Ocean “4th generation” 42mm

As I have not tested this watch before, I think it is okay if I write a little more on this watch than on the other participants that I have already written something about.

Omega was always good in product placement, they sponsor the Olympic Games, or prominent (and mostly good looking) people like Nicole Kidman, George Clooney or Michael Phelps to wear their current collection. And of course, having sent the first mechanical wristwatch to the moon, hasn’t damaged their image neither. However, their biggest commercial success is obviously to place their current sportsline in the billion dollar rainmaking James Bond machinery. Pierce Brosnan wearing a Seamaster Professional 300 in his four assignments for his majesty wasn’t bad. But after having seen badass Daniel Craig rocking the new model of the Planet Ocean through a show-jumping course chase in the first part of the last movie, the sale-numbers have exploded on this particular model.

WatchTime hyped this watch to be a professional divingtool with roots to Omega’s divingwatch history.

Even though it’s a very nice watch, I really don’t agree on this statement. Being a mixture of several elements from different Omega watches, is the case is taken from the speedmaster series with no protection for the crown. Even though it winds in smoothly, even on our replicas and does not push into the hand, the lack of a crownguard for design purpose is dangerous for a diving watch.

Let me explain why this is not a good idea: the crown is usually wound into the tube, so it presses constantly against the hopefully greased gasket. This is what makes it waterproof. Now imagine you have to do physical work with it under water and knock the crown against a rock. There are good chances that the crown gets into a tilt and water can invade.

There is a reason why the producers of real diving watches are placing the most sensible part of every watch sometimes on the left side of a case, like Sinn and Oris for example or at least protect it by a crownguard like Breitling and Rolex. Oh, almost forgot, Omega does it too – at least on their inferior SMP 300 line.

The bezel has a Rolex-style aluminium inlay. Rolex invented this system in the nineteen-fifties, in order to make a replacement not so expensive for the owner. The bezel inlay is the part of the watch that needs to be exchanged the most as it is easily scratched during use. Omega, however, does not supply service-watchmakers with the inlays. They charge the owner for a full, expensive (!) new bezel system.

The inlay has an innermost third with a matte-silver surface that serves no purpose at all; the outer two-thirds are coloured black (or orange on the “pumpkin”) with slim numerals matching the inner third in colour. They are placed in the usual 10minutes steps from numeral 20 on. There are Indexes displaying the first 15 minutes and from then on between the numerals. Interestingly, Omega made cut backs in terms of function in favour to the design again: there are no continuously minute indexes between the numerals. This does not only go against the common diving norm for watches (DIN-standard 8306), it would’ve also given the inner third part of the bezel a sense.

The pearl is glowing nicely on the gen, while it looked so bad on the rep that I simply broke it out. Bond-style.

The bezel nevertheless aligns perfectly with the crystal, which was AR coated by K2222. The dial underneath isn’t really nice, some markers are crooked and I am thinking of buying a genuine dial for it. The lume however is of the better replica standart. It is applied on dial and hands equally, not near genuine luminosity, but good enough to read the time still after a few hours in the dark.

The hands are taken from the Railmaster- or Broad Arrow line, but now hour, minute and second hand are somewhat arrow-headed. They do look nice, but they fail to read out the time at a first glance, really. They are too easily misread. The second hand’s tip is coloured in bright orange and it is luminous so you can check the watch is working properly at a glance.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not rant at the PO as a sports- or outdoor watch. But it is not the professional diving device as Omega advertises.

The movement is a nickel-plated ETA 2824-2, gaining average 16secs in 24h, with a difference of 10 seconds between fastest and slowest position this could be better but keep in mind it has been unserviced for more than 3 years now.

Please note the ugly plastic spacing-ring.

The gen is powered by a 2500 C, which is based on a strongly modified ETA 2892 with a coaxial escapement, Omega’s latest marketing gag. They say it now will need less-long service intervals. At the same time they do not state any exact periods, so the owner will have to bring it to his AD just like any other watch. Anyway, to receive best results, the balance’s frequency has been reduced from 28.800bph to 25.200bph. This means that anybody with a little knowledge of this stuff will notice the second hand sweep to be too fluently.

As for the visual flaws of the replica, I strongly suggest you to read Bytor’s mandatory read on the PO 4th gen.

The genuine diver’s strap I bought for mine, however, is very comfortable. It is vulcanised so it will not collect any dust and long enough to fit over a dry suit worn by Jabba the Hut.

It has a little play when attached to the replica case, but nothing which would be noticed.

1. Pressuretest.

It failed at first. We don’t know if it was because of the old gaskets or because of the senseless HeV, it could’ve been because of a too thick crystal as well…

We dissembled it and put new and greased gaskets in. The gasket inside the crown was already fully destroyed. Another example that you will have to replace these after some time, especially if you let them get in contact with saltwater.

The HeV, which is totally unnecessary for the genuine as well, was already broken off when I received this watch from another member. My friend and I decided to glue it on for eternity. Again, no saturation diving with replica watches.

2. Waterpressure test

This prepared, it was allowed to sink into the container. This time without the movement and dial, a precautionary measure that proved unnecessary. The watch resisted the 6bars without a problem.

3. Dirt test

Some dirt made it between bezel and case and with its slippery design it was really a pain to operate it afterwards in wet condition. It got stuck every now and then and moved too far after overcoming the obstacle. I honestly could not imagine how to do this with gloves…

4. Legibility test

Confusing hands design make it hard to read out at a glance, even though the K2222 AR works like a charm. Average rep-lume make it sort of visible in the dark.

5. Bracelet test

Unlike all other bracelets in the test, I was not able to put it back on. The holes in the case simply do not match the bracelet pin position! I did the only thing I could do and test it with the bracelet wedget between the lugs.

It did not open, nor did the extension come out.

The genuine diverstrap did not behave as good as the genuine Breitling strap. In fact I am glad it did not rupture. It could stand the test but it was scary, guys!

Everything for the community!

Result

It surprisingly passed the AD 100m test. Still, the bad HeV and the above mentioned design-issues weigh into the rating. It also showed – just like the H

[Corgi]

Extraordinary post. Thank you for the effort.

[Dizzy]

holy [censored] that was a GREAT writeup!!

awesome!

[By-Tor]

Amazing writeup, as usual. I think your articles are so legendary that you should receive entirely your own section for them.

[jkerouac]

Totally impressive. Anyone who is into diving, or plans to get into diving in the future, should study your review. I am not, but even I ended up looking at all of these models in a new light. Thanks very much.

By the way, both pieces should be in the same thread rather than in separate threads.

[mrandazzo]

Amazing writeup! We appreciate the effort! Thanks for spending your time! :good:

P.S. SSD is made of win

[phaedo]

With such a thorough review and great write-up, we should have all pitched in to buy you the watches you didn't have to fully complete the test! Well done.

[rocky78]

Perfect job again, Thank You SD !!!

[Cats]

I enjoyed reading it.

When is the next review ??

Carpe Diem

Cats

[freddy333]

Excellent work & well worth the read.

I think it bears repeating that, when it comes to rep watches, the results shown here may have no relation to the way YOUR particular copy of any of these watches will behave. The ONLY way to be sure any watch is safe to go in the water is to have it properly pressure tested on a regular basis.

[Shundi]

Thanks so much for going out of your way for the forum SD !!!

[rogerwine]

Amazing and informative review. Thank you for the effort and this shines a big ray of reality on the build of some reps.

Rogerwine

[chubbchubb]

Whow.

[TeeJay]

A fascinating read, thanks for taking the time to make it so

[Seadweller4000]

Guys, this is just the first half of the post... please reply in the second half.

The post was unfortunately too long for one thread.

Glad you all like it and thanks for the nice comments!

[EDIT]: Posts are merged now. Thanks T!

[FxrAndy]

Your legal back ground is starting to come through in the writing, you realy did start this excelent test as i would expect a barister to define how he will prove the case.

Great work mate.

[b16a2]

A very intricate review, the best post I have read for a long time!!!

[FxrAndy]

Thank you, Ben great work keep it up!

[Ylfig]

great job, and thanks alot for all the work.

[k2222]

I can't find words, amazing job. THANK YOU!!!!

[emuozz]

That was great. If i get another diver rep, it would be the SSD.

Edited May 25, 2008 by emuozz

[Admin]

Topics merged

[ratchpot]

That was a really great post. Thanks for taking the time to put it together so well.

[Spy]

Fantastic work and a great write up

You are a credit to teh RWG community