This is going to my first review following a trip to my regular spot by Aegan Sea. The watch in this review is
Here are some of its technical specs for the watch;
The watch is using Ball 9018 (base ETA 2892-A2) movement with mechanical thermometer, power reserve of 42 hours. The watch case is 42mm excluding the crowns. DLC titanium used on the main part of the case, with regular mate titanium on the case back. The watch has a 300m water resistance feature.
During my use of the watch for diving purposes this weekend, here are some points that I observed about this watch;
In terms of movement accuracy, it gains 3.5 seconds/day on average. If you think about the mechanical thermometer placed on the movement this may not seem bad. However the performance of the thermometer is little confusing. The main part for the heat measurement seems to be the case back which is also in contact with your skin/suit mostly. The temperature difference was around 1-2 Degrees Celsius compared to actual current temperature, tested without swim suit. Also the thermometer is more for the long term temperatures than sudden increases and decrease that you can catch with a digital one. It is a fast mechanical piece but not nearly as fast as digital thermometers. However the thermometer is still effective, the measurements seem to be successful enough using the homogeneous water in the environment.
The dial is easy to read. There is the date on the 1 o'clock position which does not create confusion underwater, an inner rotating bezel, temperature gauge. Sometimes silver hands/markers create confusion reading the time, as I get deeper this was not the issue. The thermometer however is hard to read. It does not have lume application and the writings are small. In order to give you an idea, you can see the difference on the view of the dial. The first 2 pictures were very close to surface and the last picture, based on my measurement last year, should be somewhere around 53 feet. The reflection of the sapphire glass over the dial is not disturbing but as expected.
The watch comes with a rotating bezel. In order to adjust this, you first need to unscrew the crown on the 1 o'clock position. The bezel can be rotated both clock wise or counter clock wise. The ticking indication for the bezel is missing. However the starting point indication of the bezel is very close to the minute hand therefore the readings are very clear and adjusting the bezel is also very easy. The bezel does not turn like a butter which is good to avoid missing the origin while screwing back the crown. The screw crown is also used on the 3 o'clock position for adjusting time. Both are easy to rotate and accurate.
As I mentioned the case is DLC coated Titanium. During the 2 days period after nearly 11 hours in salt water, the coating is still as perfect as before. The fit of the case is very comfortable and as it is titanium the weight is just right. The thickness of the watch is 14.9mm therefore it will not bother you with the
Ball Diver TMT comes with rubber strap with buckle. In reality the fit of the strap is excellent, definitely not one you should be afraid to use. I have tested the same rubber material with a deployant buckle on the Ball Engineer II Diver GMT last year and it was comfortable to wear as well durable. This time however I used a PVD coated Hadley-Roma bracelet. The result was as good as the watches case. The coating does not have a damage in terms of pealing off or loosing color and the bracelet is rust free. It is a 20mm bracelet which has a fine fit to this watch without gaps in between.
This is a very nice mechanical watch with a unique feature that would recommend to any one. Although it is a limited watch, it should not be hard to find one through a ball dealer to get one of the 2006 pieces.
Here are some other shots from the trip.
On a different note, came close with a cuttlefish which than double after starting to follow them. After the first meeting and placing the watch in attempt for it to catch and swim away, I have spend another 3-4 mins with the big one under water. It is one of the extraordinary animal you can see underwater. It is very smart and have different characteristics compared to other fish.
This was after I cut in the middle between the big and the small cuttle fish trying to put the watch down on the send. The big one came very fast from behind me in order to protect the little one with a warning as seen in the picture. This was a reaction I did not expect to see.
A very smart way of camouflage. after these shots I had to go back up for breath and lost him afterwards.
- teomeh