STEELDIVE 1000m Homage Dive Watch.
Is it any good?
This is almost a crocodile proof watch and certainly Bull Shark proof! (Bull sharks in this river- no swimming LOL or diving!).
Build quality: Excellent! Why?
Attention to detail is excellent. The crown screws smoothly into place (even smoother than my Seiko Prospex 200m!), the ceramic faced bezel rotates uni-directionally
perfectly and the 12 O'clock marker aligns perfectly with every second/minute marks. The motion of the bezel is smooth and positive.
Closer examination at X4 magnification reveals accurately painted hands and dial markings (including all text).
Note: all images showing phosphors glowing are NOT cheat images, ie images created by zapping the phosphors with a UV light before photographing them- these are just taken from the watch being exposed to natural sunlight!
Milling marks kept to a minimum (seen here X4 magnification)
Excellent attention to detail for ALL graphics
Dial face markings made with high precision using BGW9 & C3 Super Luminova Phosphors
BGW9 Phosphors on ceramic bezel (It glows bright turquoise and is very persistent, about 3% less bright than C3 phosphors). The way in which STEELDIVE bond the the phosphors to the bezel is very resistant to physical degradation, ie chipping .Attention to detail with polishing of parts
No "sloppy paint jobs"
Funky Crown (STEELDIVE Logo)
Centering of crown within shroud is perfect-Or centering of shroud around crown is symmetric.
I removed the metal band (I just don't like metal bands) and put a super lightweight, super strong Velcro band-which by default is infinitely adjustable too.
Yep my dirty paw marks on the Sapphire crystal!
Like the Seiko, it also has Big Aesthetics!
Parts and specs at a glance.
Flat Sapphire crystal
Seiko (Time Module Inc, which os now called TMI Movement) NH 35 movement 24 jewels (date only).
Ceramic insert bezel with luminous markers- proven design featured on most STEELDIVE dive watches. My constantly worn SteelDive watch "Honeycomb" 300m diver, shows zero signs of wear even after multiple caving trips!
Phosphor is BGW9 (B=Blue G= green and W=white (during daylight illumination)/C3 Swiss Super Luminova.
C3 on the hands and hour markers BGW9 on everything else.
As you can see BGW9 is actually a Blue green kind of turquoise color and is second in brightness to C3 phosphors.
316L construction cf Seiko similar but with Titanium at more than X10 the cost.
Stainless steel band, comes with a de-linker to adjust the band.
The band, has a good locking system whereby there needs to be 2 steps involved in order to open the clasp to prevent accidental release.
22mm lugs
Black dial
Screw in crown
Mono bloc case (mechanism is serviced through crystal)
Comparison to the the original Seiko S23631J
Steel Dive 1000m Seiko 1000m
Crystal Sapphire Crystal Sapphire
(Anti reflection) Not mentioned
Screw in crown Screw in crown
316L Mono bloc Titanium mono bloc
Swiss Super Luminova Lumibrite Phosphors
2 year warranty 3 year warranty
NH35 Movement Quartz/battery 7 jewels
24 jewels
2 O-rings sealing the O-ring number unknown
crystal.
Shroud 316L Shroud Ceramic
Ceramic insert Bezel Ceramic insert Bezel.
Case length 53.6mm Case "width" 49.4mm
lug to lug. Shroud diameter.
Shroud diameter
52mm
Retain price Retail price
$375-00 AUS $3750-00 AUS
Place of manufacture Place of manufacture China
China Movement (Japan)
I guess the question is, is the Seiko Emperor Tuna Quartz worth X10 the price? As stated above, unless the watch actually says "Made in Japan" then it isn't, full stop! It will be assembled in China. That's a fact.
BTW note the 3 year warranty of the Seiko watch, because let me tell you the watch will need a new battery in it within or close to the 3 years definitely if you use it for diving and thus after your first battery change no warranty and that's a bit crazy for such a retail price of almost 4 grand!
A note on the engineering
It's clear to me that the quality of engineering of such watches in China is top notch. It's not in the business plan of STEELDIVE to be producing sub standard watches because that will not encourage people to buy them. They produce a very well made homage watches with similar features to the originals at very affordable prices.
But what is this homage thing? Well, it's where the big companies have failed in their business models by not listening to or watching what their watch fans want; their failure to release models which are slightly different to the big standard models they have been producing for year after year, eg Seiko is totally guilty of this. Now because of the lack of insight, smaller "boutique" watch companies have emerged (who knows maybe they are also produced in the same "No name" -that's no name to Westerners not reading Chinese) companies who also produce for the big names like Citizen and Seiko? So these smaller watch companies along with their skilled engineers are producing homage watches, watches which differ in appearance to the original but a resemblance can still be seen. Obviously not enough to legally close them down because they are not producing an exact copy or even trying to copy the originals, take for example my STEELDIVE Honeycomb 300m diver, there is NO Seiko equivalent watch but the Honey comb diver at first glance looks like a Seiko however, different lume, different face, markings etc etc. and even better constructed with more care to the milling of the case (see my previous blogs on the Seiko Tuna Prospex 200m diver). One could say, hey but Seiko says that my 200m Prospex is an ISO certified diver and therefore you can have confidence in it's integrity as a SCUBA diving watch? I say sure but only until it has been opened for a service, because any of that ISO stuff goes out the window unless whoever services it guarantees it definitely water proof to that 200m (even if one doesn't dive to such depths-except some saturation divers) and is ALSO ISO certified. I doubt it!
There is a stainless steel (secondhand) version of the marine master and it is still well over $1000 USD! on average on EBay.
Certainly Titanium is harder to machine than 316L stainless steel and more expensive. The cost of the quartz movement is nothing as is the NH 35 movement in the STEELDIVE.
One is paying for the construction and materials of the case essentially.
The water resistance for both watches is solely dependent upon the integrity of the crown seals and the crystal seals as both cases are mono bloc, ie one piece construction. Whether the Seiko has a case tube as part of the mono bloc titanium case in not stated.
Certainly since the Seiko has a Quartz movement it should be far more accurate than the STEELDIVE?
Personally the STEELDIVE, I have only "tested" it to approx 75m (High pressure 80psi water jet into the crown) and basically very few people could test the 1000m water resistance features of both watches.
Both watches, if used for diving, will need some sort of regular testing, however the Seiko will need a new battery every 3 years (approximately) and also a pressure test if used for diving.
I know when I was getting my Seiko Dive watch (Quartz) pressure tested it was difficult to find someone other than Seiko to pressure test it to 150m (it's rated depth) and it was still expensive to do this, so after many years of scuba diving with that watch, I retired it, as the battery costs had far exceeded the cost of the watch combined with parallel pressure tests, that's why I went solar in the end.
Ok back to the 1000m SteelDive Emperor Tuna SD1978 homage watch.
Practicalities: The Sleep Test and others!
How about comfort for such a largish watch.
Ok I've done the sleep test. What is the sleep test?
It's simply sleeping with your watch on your wrist. Can you do this? Well many a manufacturer will advise not to do this especially for large dive watches and the reason is because, not only will they be uncomfortable, they can pose a slight health risk by pinching nerves etc.
Another reason is that if they are like the Citizen Aqualand's (outstanding scuba diving watches-too big for a daily wearer*), which have multiple knobs sticking out from the case; these protrusions grab at sheets and blankets creating unnecessary drag upon the wrist of the person sleeping and the next minute that band is cutting off the circulation in your arm! No these types of watches, there is a reason why they are not recommend to be worn to bed.
* I learnt the hard way!
However, what was the result of the 1000m STEELDIVE? Well due to the fact that the outside of the case is relatively smooth and tapered (it tapers inwards from the base of the case upwards) then this watch did not impede my normal sleeping pattern at all and in fact I never even noticed I even was wearing it! (maybe I really tired???).
What kinds of vibration can this watch handle?
Well, light, eg using a garden hoe to chip away at weeds, there is certainly some impact here however, my experience with NH35 movements is that if one drops their watch from about a metres height to the ground (concrete) then there is a significant risk of damage to the movement - regardless of who makes the watch. Generally Quartz watches are immune to this (due to fewer mechanical parts) and also the GSHOCKs of course because they ARE GShocks LOL!
Weight considerations
The weight of ANY Dive watch/es are pretty much insignificant when it comes to diving-after all it is a dive watch!
I did indeed replace the metal band which came with my watch because I have never liked metal bands (wrists are too skinny) and they pinch hairs and are totally unsuitable IMHO for SCUBA or snorkel diving (rubber and velcro are far better).
The velcro band is super low profile so its like I don't have a band on at all and if you think it's not strong enough, well then think again, ever try breaking Velcro? It's super strong (see my videos).
Some crazy fun facts
Automatic watches are great for:
Astronauts in the vacuum of space or inside the ISS etc.
Miners and other underground workers
Graveyard shift workers
Anyone working inside all day.
Artic explorers
All Antartica personal on their winter tour of duty/expeditions
Mountaineer's
Desert explorers
Submariners
Military? (my cousin wore a GSHOCK when he was enlisted)
People who have to wear a suit to work and their wrists are covered (no light for solar).
Radiation workers and scientists (yes low level gamma rays can indeed screw up electronic watches (and mobile phones) at KeV's not dangerous (for short periods) to human adults.
They are NOT good for:
People who don't like wearing a watch 24/7
People who operate high vibration equipment
Playing racquet sports
Punching people (unless watch is weaponized).
Summary
There is no chance that unless there is a divorce involved that I'm going to blow almost 4K on a Seiko Emperor Tuna Quartz. MAYBE if it was solar??? Maybe? No seriously NO because I just can not afford to bust a watch with my active lifestyle that costs as much as a, well, a lot of things.
Can the SteelDive 1000m SD 1978 Emperor Tuna Homage watch do the trick for me? Of course. It will be more than watertight (provided I screw up the crown properly- and the manual does in fact stress this). It's a 1/10th of the cost of the Seiko too. But seriously, for me I would never spend such money on a watch as it is more of a tool for me rather than to show off an expensive piece of bling on my wrist and the fact that it too sports a sapphire crystal (with some ok anti reflective coating) and a mono bloc case albeit NOT titanium and nor does it have probably a PSZ (or something like it) ceramic shroud.
I believe it (the SD 1978 Emperor Tuna 1000m) to be a great watch, time will tell, no pun intended.
Suffice it to say my Honeycomb 300m diver from SteelDive has not let me down so far in the past 2 years of wearing it both UW and during caving trips and working around the farms etc.
Negatives
The ONLY negative I could find is that the watch is supplied with ordinary dual shouldered 22mm watch pins. These are in no way good enough to secure a watch of this weight. They should be "shoulder-less" 22mm pins to take advantage of the fact that this watch features lugs which are drilled all the way through and thus with shoulder-less pins, they (the pins) will penetrate a greater distance within the lug for a super secure fitting of the bracelet or ANY other watch band for that matter to this watch.
In this respect I have actually ordered some 22mm shoulder-less pins- thy look like this.
Compared to the dual shouldered pins supplied, which look like this shown below:
(Note these are not the actual watch pins supplied (there were of course only 2, the ones that were installed) but these are of the same type. With the doubled shouldered pins (easier for unskilled hands to remove them with tweezers) they will NOT provide adequate retention for ANY heavy watches* and the SD 1978 Emperor Tuna 1000m diver is a "heavy watch" (as to why explained above). One MUST employ the use of shoulder-less watch pins, which by default are generally MORE expensive. This is my ONLY gripe about this watch.
Ok so this is how I fixed the "negative" involved "A slight mod" I would not recommend ANYONE perform this!
One of the shroud screws prepared for reinsertion with some Permatex Low strength (Purple) So I removed 3 of the 3 shroud screws to loosen the shroud and this enabled me to more carefully insert a 0.9mm drill into the lug holes to make sure they would definitely receive a Marathon Swiss made 22mm shoulder-less watch band pins. As mentioned these pins almost fully engage the holes of the lugs making it near impossible for such a heavy watch to be detached from ANY band.New 22mm Shoulder-less pins inserted. There is now no way ANY band will come off this watch even during vigorous arm movement/work.
Fun fact: How did one of my original pins come out? Well fooling around practicing Judo outside of the dojo, that's how and the lesson is don't practice Judo throws and grip work outside of the dojo! However, none the less if the watch band had been installed with shoulder-less pins then it would have been secure!
* exceptions are the Citizen ECO DRIVE 200mm aqualand and professional 300m and 1000m dive watches with a proprietary method of securing a heavy bulky watch to a band in a super secure way. (see my watch reviews on these watches for all of those details.
You be the judge!
For those who are still saying this SteelDive is not a homage watch then you should look closely at the images below and compare them with the SteelDive and you will see it is clearly NOT a copy.
Let's look at the Seiko in question ie the Marine Master 1000m diver in automatic movement. It's still well over $1000 bucks secondhand but the question is, is the SD1978 Emperor Tuna 1000m a "copy" or Fake Seiko? Well it should be obvious, of course it isn't otherwise it would have Seiko written all over it including on the back of the case.
The above Black and Gold Seiko might be said to slightly resemble the SD 1978 Emperor Tuna 1000m, the minute and hour hands look identical however, they aren't, as there is no extension of either hand past the central pivot point as seen in the Seiko's. The shape of the luminous markers is similar but on the SteelDive watch, the luminous markers all have a silver surrounding (clearly visible to the naked eye), this is absent from the Seiko Marine Master. The size of the luminous markers on the Seiko's dial are much larger than that of the SteelDive watch as well.
The minute numbers on the Seiko bezel are NOT lumed as in the 1000m SteelDive watch.
The font and style of the bezel lettering is entirely different on the SteelDive watch. The dial text is entirely different, as it the case construction, including the shroud (titanium for the Seiko or ceramic for the Seiko Marine Master with the Quartz movement)
Finally:
PS, NO, STEELDIVE did NOT give me this watch, I bought it from a legit STEELDIVE authorised dealer at the same price you will buy it at.
Thanks for taking the time to read my watch review. i hope you like it, please leave a comment below even if you think the review sucked LOL, Although more constructive comments are always welcome!
@BushCampingTools
Here we see (or rather don't see) the Citizen 200m Eco Drive dive watch a super companion for over 20 years! with the bezel missing; lost in action in the surf one day. This watch was constantly getting grit in the ratchet mechanism of the bezel (even with care) since I was wearing it all the time for diving EVEN in crap conditions as I just had to go diving and this was the result after some years! Oh well!
