'Swiss Auto' Diver For $199? What's The Catch?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
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A whole watch for $10 more than the price of the movement? Hmmmmm. What's the catch? Well, I think iffy QC is the cathc, but there is still a lot to like here if you are looking for a big and chunky diver. Cheers, Jody
![[TH] 2024 PMSL SEA W1D5 | Fall | เก็บแต้มของจริง คือวันนี้](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EciIAlCXg5k/mqdefault.jpg)
Deep Blue is underrated. I own many Deep blue divers and have not had one single issue. These are quality built timepieces.
I had a deep blue for scuba diving and it did what I needed it to do. People look down on the brand but take it from someone who actually use dive watches for their intended purposes, they do the job and are cheap. No one who dives uses a Seamaster or a Submariner, at least in my circles.
I started diving 30 years ago and even then dive watches were redundant. I always had one as back up though.
Buy this for $200, swap the Swiss movement with the NH35 in your favorite micro from your collection, the one they charged you $600 for.
or keep this watch. this is nice too
Or buy a new dial for it. You can buy that movement for less then $200 I have found them new for $80.
I have one of their Day Night tritium divers. With 500m of water resistance it's a chonk, but it's built extremely well. My only complaint has been the bracelet clasp having sharp edges.
My DayNight Tritdiver provides excellent value, even if I wish I would have waited for the 41mm version.
My new Stealth Ops carbon Daynight with the T100 flat Tritium tubes just arrived today, love it!
Never clicked a notification so fast in my life 🤣 unfortunately for me the rear case view is by far the best view. The dial is ok but it seems lacking something.
Ha! Let me know at the end what you think of the watch!
I have had several Deep Blues over the years. My favorite was a chunky Deep Blue Master 2000 Day Date LE 75/1000. It had an ETA 2836 auto movement that was always bang on. Sold it over a year ago, but I do miss it from time to time.
If you had the wherewithal, you could buy the watch for the movement to put in an existing watch, for an upgrade and use the case and a kit, to build yourself a custom mod out of it. Just a thought.
I have several Deep Blue watches. I’ve had zero issues with them. My top one is the Marine Diver 500. Sapphire Crystal front and back, ETA 2824-2, waffle dial, 500M WR, milled stainless steel bezel, SS bracelet with divers ext. I think they’re awesome.
I bought a Deep Blue Defender 1000 a couple years ago (NH35) and it's been rock solid. Good looks, keeps great time, and it has no alignment issues. I used their code BLUE (at the time) and it came in at about US$150. Not bad for a 300M dive watch with sapphire front and back.
Thanks for this review. The design isn't my taste and the alignment would bug me to the point I probably wouldn't wear it much. I hope you just got one that missed QC checks and they're not like this now.
One of their goofier looking models this one but they do have several to choose from that are much better. I bought a Juggernaut IV with an SW 200 a few tears ago for around the same price and it's been solid as a rock. Very happy with it. They used to have a 40 percent off code that you could find if you did a bit of digging. It looks like they're using mostly NH35s now and the code is no longer a thing. Times they are a changin'!
@Harry Balls 😂
Thank you Mister Balls, 'Pac and Biggie got nuttin' on me!
Definitely One of if not the best beater dive watch’s in the game
A friend of mine grabbed one a while back and two bills and it’s a solidly built diver, performs the way it’s expected that you can take with you snorkelling to Cozumel or some other sweet spot and not worry At All whether it’s gets ripped off or lost. I’ve be scoping these out for yrs and almost grabbed an Orange NATO diver w/ Nh-35 & sapphire for a little over a 150 bucks on bracelet.
I always knew there’d come a day when you’d review these budget divers. It’s nice to have a few decent looking beaters especially with a SW-200 that’s nicely finished. I have already bought my solid as rock beater divers that look pretty sweet from Mark’s Islander Series and their are many models to choose from, built smaller
Thanks Jody for the consistently good videos!
Deep Blue is one of the original Microbrands, and very underrated. They make all different types of tiers, from cheaper models with Japanese movements, to more higher end expensive swiss models. This particular Swiss model does have its short comings ( purposely done), in order to make it cheaper, but definitely a steal. Take a look at their website, and the different tiers they have, pretty impressive for the price.
I just bought one in yellow and I say, to each his own. Can’t beat it for the price and quality.👍🏼
Been looking at these for ages but thought I'd wait till I saw your review...and here we are
It's that ESP thing again David ;)
I have had a couple of Deep Blue watches and never had a problem. I still own the 3000m Depthmaster, 1st Gen. Nicest bezel action on any watch I have ever seen including high end Swiss watches.
If you go on the website and check out the blue version of this watch, click the picture and zoom in you will notice the dial is more off center than the one Jody reviewed. Another good video, thanks Jody.
Have an older Swiss made SW200 Deep Blue Aqua Expedition which is a chunk. At $199 grabbed this new yellow dial diver…great deal on a robust watch.
I have a different Deep Blue I like very much! Good value and everything is aligned!! Glad you featured ☝🏾
I've owned a Deep Blue, purchased to give to my now wife as she expressed real interest in it. And as you said, compromises were made. That said, I wore it in daily rotation and loved it. It's kinda like rolling a D&D character and being just fine with a 7 Int/6 Wis even though you really want to play a magic user...oh god...I did not just make that reference...
I have six in my collection. They offer great value for money but I find some nits and you have to be careful which model you choose. The speedograph and rally diver are pretty poor designs. Most of the rest are much better. Alpha Marine 500m, Juggernaut, Master 1000 and Diver 300 along with the Tritium options are my favs.
I have the ocean diver 500 and my only problem is that the back of the case it says 300 meters and teh front 500. the excuse they gave me was that they could not get the authorization to put 500 until later .. kind of weak but the whole watch is awesome and it spends a great deal of time on my wrist.
I used to own a Deep Blue with a NH35 and an abalone dial. Great value for money, but it wore large and was far to deep. the bezel on mine Jodi was actually very good. If that watch were smaller and less deep, it would make a good purchase
Just picked up the deep blue mil diver. 44mm is huge but a great watch at $180 to your door on a rubber strap.
Guys, the bezel is aligned perfectly! Take another look. It is the dial that is slightly too close to the 1 and 2 o'clock ( and away from the 7 and 8 ) so the culprit will be the cheap 1 cent plastic movement holder !
Grrrrr! I hate plastic movement holders! Minute makers are lifted from a 70s Rolex 1655 too btw.
The first Milgauss with a rotating bezel had the 1-2-3-4-5, I'm guessing it's an homage to that.
Actually, the bezel is smart. By getting rid of the zeros, you make the important number bigger, and easier to see underwater.
Hey wait that makes great sense!
I have a Deep Blue Master 2000 that I inherited from my dad, who passed last year. Great watch. Certainly over-spec'd for my needs, but the build quality and materials are fantastic. 45mm, ETA 2824/2, 4mm thick sapphire crystal, ceramic bezel, wetsuit extender, He-escape valve, and extremely well lumed. Not necessarily a daily driver...as it is naturally built like a tank and is therefore on the heavier side. I prefer to wear a lighter diver like the Steeldive 1970 or 1954...or my trusty Rolex 16613 (SUB) for special occasions. However, this is a terrific watch for serious diving. Special to me, for obvious reasons.
Rarely do I look at watch reviews and was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this. I own mostly Seikos and Citizens but do have 5 Deep Blue's and have not experienced mis-alignments like yours. I am very much pleased with mine and also gravitate towards rather meaty watches that give enough heft to let you know you got something substantial on your wrist. Their low end Military Divers are a good value and sort of fill the void left by the discontinuation of SKX's.
A proper bargain! I like the dial too tbh. Cheap but good quality beater for far less than an OMEGA X Swatch!!! Cheers mate 👍👍
I just bought the full loom dial great wave I think they called the military diver basically it is the Seiko SKS the way Seiko should have done it
I have three Deep Blue divers. I have no issues except for the size. They are built like a tank.
The only criticism is on cosmetics and the fact that it’s conflicting category (not a diver not a chrono). Deep Blue makes excellent quality and durable watches in my experience.
Deep Blue is so underrated. My first auto was an Air Blue Delta from them and then i also bought a Master 1000 which was my favorite watch for years but was sadly stolen from me. The only thing i hate about Deep Blue is that they are CONSTANTLY discontinuing models and they don’t restock certain colors on models they still offer. I miss the old days of Deep Blue when there were countless options and a 40% code. That being said, the watches are EXTREMELY well built for what you pay. I just bought the white enamel dial Pro Sea Diver 1000 from them and its literally some of the best quality ive ever had in a watch. Winding the crown is silky smooth, bezel is tight and clicky, bracelet is well built and fit & finish are superb.
Appears the yellow 'Speedo' has sold out. DB is also selling the 'Rallye Diver 1000' w/ the Sellita SW200 for $189, useful for the UWRC series.
I got this exact watch this week (thanks Jody) and although it suffers the drawbacks as mentioned in the vid I'm very pleased with it. I've been trying to pick up a Deep Blue for a while either a Daynight or a Sea Ram, basically one without a screw down helium valve. It's my first watch with a Swiss movement. I don't think we'll ever know why DB came out with this other than to give cheapskates like me the chance to say we've got a "Swiss" watch.
Aliexpress has more than a handfull of swiss quartz powered watches with sapphyre crystals for much less than 70 bucks.
It's not a dead loss. With that movement you could use it elsewhere or flip the watch for half price and make up the revenue in these valuable you tube views. Thanks for taking one for the team. No one else showed me this.
When you are wearing the watch on your wrist and look at the watch at 45 degrees, all the indices appear in their correct positions. Imo its very thoughtful.
I will chime in, same as many below... I own 3 of this brand and all have very good bezel action, better than many of the others in my collection in fact. Mine are the 40mm and 41mm size watches and all have the nh35 movement and all of them are straight with no alignment issues. I paid less than $200 for each of mine and I am super happy with them for what they are. But I think the point of your video hit the nail on the head precisely... you cannot get a sw200 Swiss movement in a watch for that price without some major sacrifices. Perhaps there were some known QC issues in this batch from the factory so they decided to put sw200's in them then lowered the price to help move them out quickly?
Christopher Ward Aquitaine review please! Looks like the sweet spot for value and quality in a vintage diver, they removed the name too!
I agree !
@@poppad1187 one of the very few watches ive ever seen that ticks nearly every box i wanted lol.
I have the DayNight Comander T-100 (NH35A but with tritium) -- Happy with it, and to my eye the alignment seems ok. You are right about some odd design choices on the one you reviewed though...glad mine has normal markers, and an actually useful dive time bezel (which of course I use for the intended purpose, of cooking things on the stove).
A very confusing personality this one with a mix of styles that doesn’t really work. BUT BUT SW200, fitted rubber and domed sapphire actually make it quirkily desirable. The bezel is just bonkers too.
Thanks. I found a Mathey Tissot Homage for abour $240 SW200 - what a deal you found Jody!
I have a couple in the collection all Swiss movement . No issues. I would say often on par with a helm and I have 4 helm.
I have several of these...stopped buying them when one just stopped working and Deep Blue wouldnt help me with it...it wasnt even 6 months old...and my favorite one too!! Moved onto ARAGON...then more Seikos!
But you can center the dial properly yourself. Non-Seiko movements are usually fixed by screws, so just losen, center, & re-tighten.
Wow what great value for money, I've had this brand on my radar but this has to be their best offering.
You won’t be disappointed!
Ordered one for my son as a gift,trying to get him interested in mechanical watches.👍
@@stevegavin3327 that’s good parenting!
I bought a Deep Blue about 2 years ago when I received an email about a deep discount.
I ordered one, and had issues right away. The discount wasn't applied!
A quick call to customer care, and 2 weeks later, my discount was applied correctly, and my partial refund processed.
The watch arrived, and it seemed blocky, and too chunky be be a good dive gauge. Also, the deployant band release kept popping open. This is a fatal design flaw.
Not great for a dive watch! If it pops open at depth, I would have to chase a costly timepiece to the ocean floor.
Another call to customer care to arrange for a return, and then several more because there were issues with my full refund.
Somehow, they felt I needed to pay a restocking fee for a poorly designed watch that couldn't be used for it's stated purpose.
Eventually, after multiple calls, everything was straightened out, but it was very frustrating, and left me with no desire to deal with Deep Blue, ever again.
There are too many other choices out there to deal with this level of poor service.
Best of luck to you if you deal with this company.
I got mine a few weeks ago and it's +3/s a day so I was very impressed. Guess I got lucky cuz there's no way they regulated these for that price. Lol
Positively surprised - I really like the case- and dial-design! Thanks for this nice review 😁👍🏻
A very very nice watch! I really like it's aesthetics! If it was a 40 mm, it would be a no brainer. But this watch is too big, full stop.
Yeah the view from the side and lug front view is chuuuuunky.
Even their 40mm Model is a chunky block of steel.
I like mine though, it has a nice blue mop dial.
But I hope for something thinner from them in the future.
I have a Deep Blue NATO diver you can have for review, Jody. You don't even have to send it back. If it's too big you can give it to a fan. It's a good watch for the money, but it's a thick boy.
If it's 5000 units per colour way, they are buying at least 30000 movements. If the colour ways with the bracelet also have 5000 units, that means they are buying 60000 movements. All in all, the movement is not costing them the single unit price on eBay. That being said, the compromises are still evident as you pointed out Jodi.
I'd check Alibaba to get an idea of how much these movements cost in bulk. A few suppliers list 300+ units at around 104USD a pop.
Just took receipt of my new Deep Blue Master 1000 40mm today - after seeing your review. Thankfully there are no bezel alignment issues on mine.
I like it. Its different. So what if is has Seiko's "Quality & Control" when it comes to the bezel and the dial alignment. At least the minute hand actually hits the seconds markers. Its a steal at $200.
I have 2 Master 1000 2 watches. One with a pale yellow full lume daily and one with a red abalone dial... Both are excellent
It looks very similar actually to the Yema Meangraf, which has a similar style bezel insert, although I’m not exactly sure what it is useful for
I had referenced the Yema, but edited it out! 🤣
Soooo... Could you mod it? Swap the dial, hands and bezel insert? For that price you have a bit of headroom to buy parts and get something more pleasing, maybe.
Hmmm, I think I'll do the reverse and put the movement into something else. Ha!
Great review as always Jody. Swiss Automatic on the dial is so tacky. Heard some bad qc about Deep Blue, so even at such a crazy deal, pass.
Totally agree man, that alignment is off and I dunno why on earth you'd have a dive bezel that reads 1 to 7. However I have two Deep Blues. One of them is a 46mm GMT 2000m that has amazing BWG9 LUME that is just as bright as my NTH which has X1 lume. And it lasts and lasts. The other is a full lume Dial 7750 chronograph 1000m, also excellent. Build quality is great and all lines up
Freaky watch!
You mentioned that you are just back from Cairns? How about a watch roll retrospective?! You told us what you went out with, well how did it go? Any worn less or more than expected? Anything you missed from the watch box? Inquiring minds want to know! 👍😊
Thanks as always!
Hi have 6 of these, two of them being the newer models Selita movements. Best bang for your buck, mine came with extra white straps as part of promo. Think in time will swap out the chunky rubber strap for a nice 22mm stainless steel bracelet. As always love the Chanel.
Thats funny, my dad got that email too and bought the bright red dial of this watch. Its okay, its not the greatest thing ever but damn it specs out. Good solid watch.
I can add my data point on the topic of Deep Blue’s quality. I got one a few years back and after about 2 months the crown would no longer catch the threads on the case and you couldn’t screw it down. I sent it back to them and they fixed it. Until it happened again about 2 weeks later. I asked them to send me a new watch, and they did. The new watch out of the box had one of the lume plots fell off an index and was floating around the dial AND there was a massive gash on the case. I sent that back and asked for another one. It looked fine and so I posted it for sale without ever peeling the stickers. The kicker is that their warranty process is you have to pay for shipping, and include a $20 check for return shipping. I included the check the first time, but didn’t for the 2nd and 3rd returns and they never said anything. If I had I would have paid $90 in shipping to get my $200 watch repaired/replaced under warranty
This happened to me with their NATO diver. The first one had stripped-down crown threads. They replaced it and all of the indices were detached. They refunded my money. On the flip side, I own three other Deep Blues, all of which are solid tool watches, two Master 1000, and the Day Nite Trit. Solid.
@@karmicneurot9829 mine was also a nato diver. Maybe their manufacturer for that specific model had a bad production run? Glad you are happy with their other models though!
@@ajgross67 I wonder if this why it is no longer on their site? It was a bummer because it was like a seiko007 that looked good and was available in black! And yes, the other DBs I have are wonderful.
I have 2 old deep blue dive watches, very chunky, but I love them. But, I have to say that I don't look at the details so much :-). I also have the flieger cousin of deep blue, the Air Blue. Also OK, all with the NH35. ALL about 6 a 7 years old.
Here's an idea--- if you have a San Martin or other quality watch with a PT5000 movement you could buy this watch and swap the movements. Changing movements isn't hard.
I have one Deep Blue - the Daynite Tritdiver. It is about the same size as this one, but no escape valve and 500M water resistance. It uses an NH35 movement and features T100 tritium indices and hands. It is essentially a budget Marathon SAR, which is what got me interested in it. I owned the watch 10 months before the crown stripped its threads. They replaced the watch for free, which I was very happy about. Unfortunately, 8 months later, the REPLACEMENT watch also stripped its threads. This time they wanted a $50 payment just to diagnose the issue and that wouldn't cover shipping or the actual cost of the repair. Clearly this was a design error. None of my other screw down crowns have ever stripped their threads like this.
Now the watch sits in the case, never to be worn again. I don't know of they fixed the threaded crown issues in newer watches (the crowns themselves appear to have been redesigned, so I hope they also fixed this issue). This was a very frustrating purchase for me, because I do need a mechanical, antimagnetic tritium watch for work. This would have been perfect.
I have two deep blues and I love them both. They have great Lume, love your show. Keep on keeping on.
Unfortunately, the fees are nightmarishly high. In Poland, the price will be around 350 USD, including shipping as much as 80 USD, plus taxes.
I have seen the Invicta 9937 on Amazon for $170 with the SW200, but a Flame Fusion crystal (not solid sapphire).
I own 4 Deep Blue's, I think they are just as good as a Seiko. Maybe not the lume. Good quality anyway!
My biggest concern with deep Blue is very bad customer service. About a year or two ago I needed a new bezel spring for one of their divers, they said they would only sell me an entirely new bezel for $100 for a $200 watch. So instead of a $1 bezel spring (which zelos would send 5 for free if needed) they wanted to sell me a bezel for $100 that probably cost them $15 to make. No good
You can definitely see where the corners have been cut... But overall for the price they are charging and with that movement, you can't really complain too much. I'd love to see them make some slightly smaller and thinner watches... I think they'd appeal to more people then.
The 3 o'clock marker is offset from the crown centerline.
Love the design but just too big for me. Shame about the wonkyness too. If it was smaller and aligned better I'd definitely consider it.
Definitely a downgrade from my Deep Blue Daynight T-100 Commander Tritium. That one is a perfect specimen and built like a tank. Powered by an NH35 though.
Plenty of discussion on forums about their lack of customer support but I've never bought from them, so it's all anecdotal to me. Still, $200 with a SW200 would make me pause at an Ali Express NH35 watch for $150-$250.
I bought a Deep Blue a few years ago, the crown stem broke not long after I got it. I contacted them and they gave me a US address to send it to for repairs. I got it back about a month later and it was still the same, wouldn't wind when i tried. I didn't bother to contact them again. I opened the cade back and sure enough, the stem was never replaced. I only recently got it repaired at my local jewelry shop for about $15usd. Never again will I buy a watch from them. Once bitten, twice shy.
for the price.. its a ok watch... cheers
It has potential if they replace the bezel, the chapter ring and better QC. Then it would be a winner.
I have a couple of Deep Blues and I really like them. The bracelets are nice. the case backs are nice. The ceramic bezels are really cool looking the room is great.
I've been through a few Deep Blues but always sell them because of the girth of the watch is always around 15mm
Is there an actual use of that 1-2-3-4-5 marked bezel? I'm genuinely curious
They represent minutes elapsed, although they are missing 0 behind them. Traditionally you would use a dive watch for diving. Set the dot to the minute hand, complete the dive and write down how long you were under, and what the max depth you went to was. From that you can calculate how much nitrogen has built up in your bloodstream and find out how long you can dive for or how long you have to wait for the next dive.
You could wear it as a homage to the Gloria Estefan track of the same name!
@@TomPls Yeah I know the use of a regular dive bezel with the normal minute markings. So I suppose they eliminated the zeroes coz zeroes don't mean anything anyway! 😛
@@chuffmeister1130 Ah, fair! Just wanted to cover all the bases 😅
Deep blue is pretty cool. Sold a watch I got from the a few years ago. They're based out of coney Island. I spent a lot of time out there as a kid, so there's a lot of appeal for me. Might give them another look.
Hi, there is a tactical frog solar chronograph I think it's a speedtimer homage that looks very interesting and seems nobody has a video about on TH-cam
Got a Deep Blue Alpha Marine 500 Sellita SW-200-1 with a full superluminova backlit dial and superluminova bezel and T-100 tritium tubes. It's awesome bang for your buck. Only complaints is the chunky unrefined bracelet, the screws are tiny. Just ordered a daynight patriot with a NH35, because it comes with rainbow tritium tubes for 319$. 😍
14 degrees brrrr..... your Scottish man !
I have a memory of being in Fort William one June afternoon in hot motorbike leathers n the locals were shirtless (and turning red)... By 0200 it was 2 degrees..
Thank Jody for answering questions I had about this one.
At 8 min 39 secs, all indices and also bezel markers seem fine APART from at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock points.
Can your close up vertical camera shot be sitting slightly too far north and pointed slightly backwards towards 6 o'clock, which combined would cause this (or the watch was not lying flat, with same effect) - the CHROME of the chapter ring visible at 12 o'clock certainly seems narrower than at 6 o'clock to prove this.
Sharp but I do like the bezel insert looks like an abbreviated 10, 20, 30 etc
They had a memorial day sale. Got a flat blue tritium tube commander for $199. The only issue I have is with the crown, kind of gritty. Otherwise, keeps great time..
What the hecks going on with that bezel? A rael dealbreaker, otherwise a really good value proposition, a modders dream too....
Bonkers eh James??
@@JustOneMoreWatch just crazy, not a bad piece for a value diver, looks quite cool, tough, swiss. Madness
I have a deep blue ocean diver. problaly one of my favortie watches . it is shinny .,runs well, a bit fast but not too bad.
The strap is made of simple silicone, not rubber. Hence the dust and shi_.
Every one is griping about the looks. Mod it! For $209 shipped to your door you get a decent case with a SW200 in the back. Find a face and hands you like and mod it!
UPDATE: Got the blue/black, it is less squinted but still has a little.
It is a cool-looking watch I like the splash of yellow on the dial and hands and it is cheap a watch with a Swiss movement for only $200 smackers now that a good deal
I actually like the dial a lot. The bezel insert is goofy.
I’ve seen this one around as well. Not sure if it’s for me but great to have that movement
Would love to see what you think of their alpha marine 500 fully lumed watches.
One of the oddest dials I think you hav reviewed, I thought it was out to and when you said so I thought good my eyes don't need checking. bit big for me but as you said Swiss movement for that price.
For someone with OCD, this date window is bothering me so much! 1 mm more toward the center of the watch would make it comfortably in the right spot.