Today we are looking at another watch from Aquatico. About more than a year ago I looked at their pilot’s watch called Blue Angels which was, in my opinion, one of the best pilot’s watches for under 300$. After that watch, I really wanted to check out their Sea Star collection which is a dive watch inspired by the Tudor watches. Plus I really like the snowflake hour hand (isn’t it weird that it is called snowflake despite it beeing a square? haha).
They have a lot of variations in the Sea Star collection, from steel to bronze with ceramic bezel insert or just bare bronze bezel and of course the many colour choices for the dials and bezel inserts. I chose the probably most underrated colour combo which is a military green dial with green ceramic bezel insert with a bronze case. But I chose it as I recently started to like green dial watches a lot.
When the watch arrived I was actually surprised how good it looked in real life. The case looks really sharp, the ceramic insert is nice! The bezel has a very nice action to it, not maybe the best, but for a bronze watch, it is really good! Plus it comes with an extra black rubber strap. And the best part? It costs just 299$ which is probably the best price for a dive watch out there in microbrand market, of course, other choices may be beeing Phoibos! The watch was very neatly boxed in a nice square box signed by Aquatico.
The case of the Sea Star is made of Bronze CuSn8. The case is very well machined actually. But the only thing that maybe scares me a bit for bronze watches is that it is a very soft material and the sharp edges in just a year become round, so what happens after 10-20 years? Will it hold the same water resistance or not? We will see! The case originally was finished in the satin-brushed finish, but as you can see it has gained a lot of patina in the “last month”. I just like my bronze watches with patina! The case diameter is 42mm, the thickness is 14mm and from top to bottom the case measures at 49,5mm. The uni-directional 120 click bezel is pretty good for a bronze watch, it has no play, the clicks are precise and it works really good! The ceramic bezel insert is pretty good and I like that red triangle at 12 o’clock and all markers on the insert are lumed with Superluminova BG W9 which glows in this blueish colour. At 3 o’clock we have a bronze screw-down crown which is signed on top. The crown action is pretty good! The one thing I like about this particular watch is that the lugs are drilled, it makes changing the straps very easy. The watch is also limited to only 88 examples for each colour, you get your case number between the lugs. The solid screw-in stainless steel case back is signed with Aquatico logo and around the edge, there are some specifications. On top of the watch, we have boxed sapphire crystal with AR coating. The water resistance is 300m (30ATM) which more than enough to swim with the watch without a problem!
The dial is basically a homage to the Tudor. The dial is a matte green maxi style. All the hands and details are in bronze/gold colour. At 3 o’clock we have a date window with a frame. The date wheel here is in white, and I always say it should match the dial colour, but here t actually looks better in white and makes everything symmetrical. Another thing I like about the dial is the snowflake hour hand. Actually, I don’t know why is it called like that because it is square and there are no square snowflakes. All the hour markers and hands are lumed with the same Superluminova BG W9 which glows in this blueish colour. The lume is pretty strong and lasts for about 3-4 hours.
The movement that is inside the watch is Japan made Seiko NH35, which is running at +7 to +10 seconds a day, at least for me. 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.
The strap that the watch comes on is a dark brown leather strap with contrasting white stitching around it. The strap feels very nice and well made, definitely feels like it belongs on a watch that costs 4 figures. Aquatico I guess really takes a lot of time on QC. The leather strap has a straight cut, 22mm wide from lug to buckle. The buckle is a divers tang style buckle with Aquatico logo engraved on the top. At first the leather is pretty stiff, but after some time it gets supple and wears very comfy on your hand. Also with the watch we get an additional black rubber divers strap which is really good. It is soft and very comfortable, but I just left the leather one because it suits the bronze better than the rubber one.
Overall the watch is really good! It is very well made, nice materials, sapphire crystal, ceramic bezel insert, Seiko automatic movement, nice leather strap and extra rubber strap and all that for under 300$? I would say it is a steal! Definitely consider this as a good option if you are looking for a bronze diver!
Price: 299$ @ aquaticowatch.com
- 3H/Screw Down
- Bronze CuSn8 satined
- Diameter 42 mm
- Lug to Lug 50mm
- Height 14.0 mm
- Weight 120 g
- Lug width 22 mm
- Sapphire glass , with double anti-reflecting coatings on the interior side
- Bezel Bronze CuSn8
- Bezel Insert Ceramic Applied BG W9
- Super luminova BGW9 applied on Ceramic insert
- Back Stainless steel 316 L screwed
- Dial Matt Green, Superluminova BG W9
- Superluminova BG W9
- Handsets applied Superluminova BG W9
- Quality Horween Leather Strap&Bronze buckle
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