The value king, and I'm tired of pretending otherwise
By Dave Kowalski, Chicago ยท
I keep bringing this watch up in other posts, so it might as well get its own. And a long one, because people ask me about it more than anything else on this site.
Start with the boring stuff. 43 mm wide, 12.7 mm thick, 21 mm lugs. Blue dial, date, rotating bezel, steel bracelet, sapphire. 300 m. Display caseback, which you don't usually get on a diver at this money. Inside, the Powermatic 80.111 with 80 hours of reserve.
Now the price. $750 to $825.
Here's how I think about it. I line up the Swiss dive watches under a grand that friends ask me about. The Certina DS Action Diver: same movement, same 300 m, about a hundred more. The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba: same money, cooler look, but only 100 m. The Christopher Ward Trident Pro 300: nicer case, better size at 40 mm, but 38 hours and a couple hundred more. The Glycine Combat Sub: cheaper on sale, but 200 m, 38 hours, and that bracelet. Every single one of them gives something up compared to the Seastar. The Seastar gives up nothing on paper.
So what does it give up off paper? Personality, mostly. It looks like a dive watch. Like the idea of a dive watch, the one you'd draw if somebody asked. Nobody's going to stop you at a party. The wave pattern on the dial is nice, but this isn't a watch you buy because you fell in love with it across a room.
Size is the other one. 43 mm is about an inch and seven-tenths, and the case is on the tall side. My wrist handles it. If you're closer to 6.5 inches, it'll look like a lot, and the lugs might hang off. Go try one on before you click buy.
And yeah, those 21 mm lugs. I've complained about this on the Certina and the Gentleman too. It's a Swatch Group thing apparently. The bracelet's decent so you might never care, but if you're a strap guy, your options shrink.
Real-life angle. 80 hours means I can wear something else all weekend and grab this Monday at 5:40 a.m. and it's still running with the right date. On a winter morning in the dark, that matters more than any finishing detail. My buddy Tom would tell you it's good in the water. I'll tell you it's good on dry land, too, and in a truck, and at a Bears game in November.
Who should skip it? Anybody who wants their watch to be interesting. Get a Squale or a Baltic. Everybody else, it's the safe bet that doesn't feel like settling.