The company that we are looking at today is called Crafter Blue. The company actually started with very high-quality rubber straps for Seikos, then the founder of the company Steve Chan created a watch company Undive watches. The Undive watches looked pretty good, the design was a bit similar to Seiko Turtle, but after some time he decided that everything should be under one name “Crafter Blue” and he designed a completely new and stunning dive watch called Mechanic Ocean.

Mechanic Ocean comes in 3 colour variations. Orange and grey (which we have here), Pepsi colours (blue and red) and black. And each variation comes with a stainless steel bracelet or rubber strap. So the version we are looking at today is the Orange and grey colour scheme variation with a rubber strap. And I got to say it is a very stunning dive watch. It somehow resembles Rolex Deep Sea with that tough macho look and size of course. So let’s start the review.

The Mechanic Ocean case is made of 316L stainless steel. The case shape is round with bold crown guards and lugs. The machine work is exceptional, and it looks more like a production piece than the prototype. I have seen many watch prototypes and each of them had some flaw that would be solved in production pieces, but this one is just perfect and I can’t find any flaw. There is a mix of finishing on the case. The brushed finishing is on the top of the lugs, side of the bezel where the grip is and the whole underside of the watch including the case back. The rest has a polished finishing which actually looks pretty good. I’m usually aren’t a fan of polished finishing on a tool watch, but here it works pretty well. The case diameter is 45mm, the thickness is 16,3mm, from lug to lug it measures at 51,7mm and the lug width is 22mm. Yes, the watch is very big for an average watch user, but on the wrist, it feels very comfortable due to that rubber strap and how it wraps your wrist. I wore it for a couple of days to work and I hardly noticed it was on my wrist. On the right side of the watch you usually would find a crown, but on the Crafter Blue watch we have no crown on that side, on the right side you will only find a helium escape valve. The crown is positioned on the left side, and I got to say, I kind of like it. I know only a couple of companies who do that. I don’t know why it is put there, maybe just for looks or for function as sometimes crown can scratch your skin if it is on the right side, any case I think it gives a uniqueness to the watch. The crown itself is a screw down with a very nice deep engraving on the side with the Crafter Blue logo in black. The crown is very big and easy to manipulate. All the lugs are drilled, and that makes a ton of difference when changing straps, I wish more companies would do that. The uni-directional 120 click bezel is very well made too with a very nice action to it. The aluminium bezel insert in orange and grey colours looks very well in my opinion. At 12 o’clock it has a lume pip. Between the dial and bezel we have this stainless steel solid bezel with writing on it “Helium Escape Valve and Professional Diver’s 300m”. The solid screw in case back has a very nice deeply stamped kind of a wave with a hand and fork that somehow rembles the one that the sea god Poseidon has.

The dial is kept very traditional to dive watch style. The whole dial is this matte light grey colour but with very interesting “frosted” pattern. The hour markers are very bold and they are lumed. At 3’clock we have the date wheel with a black background which actually looks great and I this is the first watch where I don’t mind that it is in a different colour than the dial. I also like that at 6 o’clock hour marker we have the “H K” letters which means Hong Kong as the company is based there and the watches are made there. I like that companies don’t hide that behind some stupid Swiss philosophy story or something, I like when companies are proud when their watches are made in Hong Kong or China and Singapore as it shows what they can do and sometimes they can do it even better than brands that have long established history and they come from Switzerland or Japan. The tapered hour and minutes hands have a black outline with white inside which is filled with lume. The lollipop style seconds hand is also black with lumed circle.

The watch is powered by the Crafter Blue Calibre 3531. It is based on a Seiko movement, modified and decorated by Crafter Blue. The movement beats at 21,600 vibrations, 24 jewels and has a hacking seconds function. The movement for me was running from +6 to +8 seconds a day. I actually don’t know what they customized movement wise, as many people doubted that statement that Crafter Blue can call it their own calibre, at least from what I saw in microbrand watch group on facebook.

If you’ve heard about Crafter Blue before, you already know that they focused on developing the curved end rubber strap for both Seiko and Tudor dive watches. Now, this technology also comes with their new watches. Each Mechanic Ocean is fitted on a Crafter Blue bi-colour rubber strap. Each of them is made from vulcanized rubber that offers softness and toughness in use. Moreover, the strap linked to the lug features a curved end design that enhances the character of the watch. As a specialist of rubber straps, Crafter Blue produces the functional rubber strap truly designed for professional divers. It features 15 holes to offer flexibility in length. It also allows divers to adjust the length under the condition of wearing a wetsuit. Everything is good until it comes to the stainless steel keeper that is on this strap, it is rubbing against my hand and irritating the wrist. But yeah, other than that, the strap is really well made and the comfortability wearing it is close to the Rolex rubber straps.

Overall the watch is really good for the price! Definitely, one of the best divers I have reviewed so far. All the machine work, materials and design just work so well with this one! If you are looking for a tough, well-built diver with great design, this is the way to go. As I said the only flaw is the metal keeper, but maybe it just doesn’t work for my wrist. Anycase I highly suggest looking more into Crafter Blue watches and getting one!

The price for Mechanic Ocean on rubber strap is $499.00 $425.00 (15% off for PRE ORDER) with free worldwide delivery. The watches will be shipping out in December. The price for Mechanic Ocean on stainless steel bracelet is $599.00 $510.00 (15% off for PRE ORDER). Each watch will come with an extra mono black rubber strap as a gift!