I own a Deep Blue 1k diver watch. For the price that I pay, I am got a very sophisticated piece of engineering for cheap. I was intrigued by the technology of a 3,000 meter diver watch that is priced at only USD799.00 (suggested retail price USD999.00).
Knowing my passion for unique watches, I decided to take the plunge and order one.
Unfortunately, Deep Blue US' website cannot process any orders to Malaysia. The option to choose Malaysia as a destination was not available. I emailed the website and they were nice enough to answer my email request.
Instead of going through their ordering system, I should pay via PayPal and follow up with an email. Although I know there are some risk to this method, I felt confident that PayPal's mediation process will help me in case problems arises later. Moreover, the payment goes to Deep Blue US' corporate account anyway. With an additional USD50 for the courier charges, the transaction was initiated and within 6 working days, I received it.
I could have received it earlier but the package got stuck at Malaysian Customs. Deep Blue US did not indicate that the product is a wristwatch. They only stated the value. Of course with a brand called Deep Blue, the package was immediately stopped for inspection!!
The Pelican case that comes standard with the watch.
I choose the green dial as I think is the most unique of colours available for this watch.
This watch is rated to withstand a water resistance of 3,000 m or 10,000ft. These are numbers that are very difficult to fathom. At 3,000 m, the pressure is 4,410 lb per square inch or to put it more loosely, it is like an elephant standing on a grapefruit i.e. 6 tons on 50 millimeters of a grapefruit.
For such an affordable saturation diving watch, I was very surprised the fact the Deep Blue provides sapphire crystal for the glass cover. The crystal is domed.
Meanwhile, the bezel is stainless steel, unidirectional, with 120 clicks. This too comes with sapphire inserts.
To sustained such pressures, the case material is made from a solid piece of 316L stainless steel block. Similar material is used for the bracelet. Due to the size of the casing, the bracelet is 26 mm in width. The end-piece of the bracelet is 26 mm and so is the first link. It also comes with solid pin and tube system for adjustable links (with solid deployment clasp and solid diver extension.) The crown is at the 3 o'clock position and uses the triple O-ring screw type technology.
The movement for this watch is the time-tested Miyota 9015 with date function.
The picture above does not lie. This watch is huge. It has a case size with a thickness of 19.50 mm. This is the thickest watch currently in my collection. Equally impressive is its width. Excluding the crown and bezel guards, it measures 49.00 mm (if with the bezel guard, its 53 mm). Meanwhile, its length is 55.00 mm and weighs in at a staggering 300 gm (or 10.5 oz)!
The watch on my wrist. Surprisingly, it does not look overwhelming. The wide and thick bracelets complements the watch nicely.
More comments and pictures, please visit:
http://watchcollectionhobby.blogspot.com/2012/04/deep-blue-depthmaster-3000m-review.html
