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I received my new dive watch this week, and I thought some folks might enjoy photos since it's not a super-common watch. Note: if you don't consider no-timing-bezel watches to be "divers" then move along now
Last September, my best buddy and favorite dog Jake got very sick. He fought his disease for months, but early this year he lost his battle and went to the big doghouse in the sky. I miss him terribly, and decided that I'd like to buy a watch that commemorated his time on this earth, so that every time I wore it I would have fond memories of my best friend.
I knew this end was coming, so I had been doing lots of research. I wanted something that "spoke to me" and reminded me of Jake. My research led me to UTS: Jake was a German Shepherd Dog mix (mommy was a Shep, daddy was... unknown!!), so I wanted something German. It had to be a diver because he absolutely LOVED water; if I allowed him in for a swim, it was a sure thing that I'd be going in after himas he wouldn't come back out! It had to be a very strong, sporting watch as he lived for sport and worked hard all his life. The watch had to be bold, as Jake had a personality that would light up a room, even when there were many other dogs around everyone would gravitate to him! I wanted the watch to have some strong round elements, as Jake always carried around a ball (or bone, kong, rope, whatever... But he loved to fetch!). I wanted the watch to be simple, yet have complex depth; for this was Jake's personality. And finally, I decided a manually-winding watch would be the best choice, as Jake was a LOT of work every day of my life... But that work was always rewarded a hundredfold by his loving nature. Here's a quick photo of my best friend before I launch into the watch discussion:
All of this led me to the UTS Adventure. I contacted Stephen Newman of UTS, and exchanged many emails discussing UTS and the company. I love knowing the watch came from Muenchen, one of my favorite cities on earth, and the only one that I count the days until I get a chance to return... And the fastidious engineering and simple, strong design from Herr Spinner really spoke to the German in me. The watch was a perfect "fit" and I placed the order.
So without further ado, here it is!
The watch comes in a nice Pelican case, with extra screws, extra springbars, a driver, and a nice vanilla-smelling rubber strap for those days you want to swim. An instruction book is included, as a rate printout (mine shows +6 s/day on the rate sheet):
Love the crown on this watch!!
The thick, chunky strap is extremely well made, looks great, and is comfortable out of the gate. I hope it has good longevity.
The movement is a Unitas 6497, nothing fancy. No additional adornments are added by Herr Spinner, although he does adjust the watch in 5 positions which is quite nice.
Lume shot comparison with a Bathys 100Fa:
It's hard to photo the dial of this watch; it is a deep black, satin finish, that picks up stray light and often looks between charcoal and black. The flat crystal is AR coated on the inside only, as UTS believes that AR outside leads to eventually dissatisfied sport watch customers.
And, the obligatory wrist shot... I shouldn't have been at such a wide focal length, as its a bit distorted... But anyway:
So there it is! My initial impressions of this watch are EXTREMELY favorable. It is certainly one of the most unique and neat watches I've had the pleasure of owning. The watch looks far better in person than my amatuer photos are able to show; I was actually quite taken aback when I opened the Pelican case for the first time. The casework of Herr Spinner is ASTOUNDINGLY good. You really must see one of these things in person to appreciate it.
One of the most surprising things to me about the Adventure is its wearing comfort. From the minute I slid it onto my wrist, it felt like a worn old pair of blue jeans--absolutely comfortable and at home. Usually, it takes me a week or two to feel comfortable with a watch... But not this one. It's comfortable from the first minute.
I love the bold design, and it has a ton of wrist presence. Yes, it's large. I like that, though
The only negatives I can find are small. The lume is decent, but not outstanding. I thought this would be blue lume, so I was initially a little disappointed when I saw it the first evening... But that was my mistake, as I received a sweet blue lume shot of a 500m from Stephen and assumed when he mentioned the Adventure had the new, better lume than the Commander that it would also be blue. My bad there, no biggie. I love the fact that it's hand-applied; this gives a nice depth to the dial, and the little tick-marks for the seconds track are really fun to look at; they have just a little of hand-touch-unevenness on them. The lume on the hands is a little uneven, as you can see in the photos, which may bother some. It's not the brightest lume; you can see in the photo above that my Bathys 100Fa lume is significantly brighter (both were held in overcast daylight for 30 sec before snapping the photo inside). Lume lovers may need to look elsewhere. I do see a speck of dirt in the lume on one or two of the indices; they look embedded in the lume so I suspect they won't be "floaters." Again, probably a result of hand-application. You really have to have good eyes to see this.
Other than that, nothing. The watch is fabulous. The watch is keeping good time so far; I track rate daily of all my watches, so I am very interested to see if this one (adjusted to 5 positions) is a bit more stable than some of mine. In any case, I know it will be reliable, as Herr Spinner makes sure of that with his adjustment procedure.
I just can't pry this thing off my wrist. It's a super comfortable, bold, really unique watch that was an absolutely wonderful choice, a great addition to my collection, and a fitting tribute to my now-departed best friend.
RIP, Jake. July 4th, 1999 - January 12, 2008. You are sorely missed.
Thanks for looking.
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