Today we are gonna take a look at another Spinnaker watch, but this one is an interesting one. The watch we are looking at today is called Wreck. As the name suggests the watch itself looks like a beaten up and very used piece. The whole case, bezel and dial are scratched and looks like it was left on the road and car drove over it. I wouldn’t say that I don’t like these fake patina watches, but this particular one is not my cup of tea, but there is something appealing about it in a way. Spinnaker says this about the inspiration behind this model: “Fallen ships, aircraft and other land-based remains are for the wreck diver exhilarating and spectacular and yet sombre reminders of wars, accidents or other natural disasters. Such relics, in time, have become part of the sea body. Slowly but surely metal, steel and iron disintegrate but not before becoming a reef or base for the surrounding eco-system. The Wreck Automatic Diver from Spinnaker attempts to echo some of this fascinating part of the Scuba universe through design cues and techniques.”

I won’t show the box of the watch as you all already know how Spinnaker ships their watches and let’s concentrate on the watch itself. My first impressions were good! The watch at first looked strange to me as I don’t know how to feel about that fake patina on it and that it looks like roadkill. And also I noticed that the aluminium bezel insert isn’t aligned properly, usually all the watch I get from Spinnaker have been very good and the quality control has been good, but I guess mistakes happen.

The case of the Wreck is made of 316L stainless steel. Case of the Wreck mimics a watch that would have been in a shipwreck and found many years later. It has a forced age process so the case looks like a used one. The diameter of the case is 43mm while the thickness is 14,5mm and from lug to lug it is 50mm. The watch is big on paper, but in real life, it wears a bit smaller due to its curved profile. The case has these round sides which I haven’t seen on any other Spinnaker watch and there are no very sharp lines. At 3 o’clock we have a screw in signed crown. On the top, you will find a 120 click uni-directional bezel with aluminium bezel insert. The bezel action is very sharp and precise. It has a very nice grip due to those sharp teeth on the edge. But as I said previously the bezel insert is misaligned, but I’m sure that the problem is only with my watch as no other reviewer had this problem. The screw in exhibition case back has a flat mineral crystal with some specifications engraved around it. The case back is the only part of the watch which looks new and has no forced age process applied. On top, we have a boxed sapphire crystal. The water resistance is only 100m (10ATM) which is strange for a dive watch, but sometimes Spinnaker does that to some models to have lower WR rating than others. As it has a screw in crown and despite the low water resistance rating I can surely say that you can swim with it, but not deeper than 10m.

The dial of the Wreck also has that forced aged process applied although here it is scratched pretty ugly. Looks like someone took a screwdriver and just scratched the dial with it. The dial is matte black, but I guess due to the forced age process it has a slight brown colouring to it. The hour markers/numerals are applied and fully lumed. Around the edge of the dial, we have a minute track printed on the dial in white colour. At 3 o’clock we have a date window with a silver frame and finally, a colour matched date wheel in black! At 12 o’clock we have an applied Spinnaker logo in polished silver colour. The hour hand has index shape and the minute hand is much longer with arrow pointer on the end. Both hands are lumed. The red lollipop style seconds hand has a bit lume too on the dot. The lume is pretty bright and lasts around 3-4 hours fully charged.

The movement that is inside the watch is Japan made Seiko NH35, which is reasonably well regulated at +15 to +18 seconds a day. This movement is pretty popular in the microbrand world as 50% of watches that are coming out have this movement inside them. It has proven it’s reliability and easiness to service within many years. You just can’t go wrong with Japan made movements from Seiko. It is an automatic 24 jewel movement with 41-hour power reserve and beating away with 21,600 BPH. Spinnaker also throws on top of the movement a customized rotor in black colour.

The strap, as usual, is very nice. The dark brown strap works very well with that forced aged case, it just works so well! The strap is very soft and supple. The top is very soft, it feels like suede, but not exactly like it. The underline is black leather. The whole strap actually is water resistant, I don’t know what exactly that means, but I’ve read on their website that you can easily take it in water, but I’d better use silicone strap for it if you want to go swimming. The tang-style buckle is signed and made from stainless steel and features the same force aged process just like the case. The strap width is 22mm and tapers to 20mm at the buckle.

Overall the watch is very well made and everything, but looks wise I don’t think that many people will like it. It is just a strange look in my opinion and I think everyone needs to wear down their watch on their own as each scratch, ding or anything is a memory. I have some watches where I can tell the story for almost every scratch it has. Also, what’s up with that very low water resistance? I think it is too low, they should at least increase it to 150m (15ATM). But nonetheless, the watch is pretty cheap for the specs. For 280$ you get a well-made watch, nice bezel with great action and grip, automatic japan made movement, sapphire crystal, great strap and nice packaging overall.

Price: 280$ @ spinnaker-watches.com