When I was travelling throughout Switzerland early last year, my only Victorinox target was their famous Swiss Army folding pocket knives. Although I was vaguely interested in watches then, that brand was never associated with watches in my mind. However, for the past few months, the brand’s professional series looked interesting. So, I got one.
The watch looks very impressive on its cushion. Its specification of having Swiss-made mechanical self-winding movement, Scratch resistant, anti-reflection sapphire crystal with a water resistant to 500M (50ATM, 1650 FT) makes it a very serious contender as a bruiser. Coupled with a 43mm stainless steel case (using the 316L stainless steel block) with black PVD coating, it is one cool looking watch.
It has luminous hands and markers and unidirectional rotating bezel. Swiss Army opts for a solid 60 click bezel that feels good to turn. Dial design is brilliant. It is set deep into the case, and is preceded by the flat gunmetal wall of the bezel and then a sloped flange ring. Each of the hour markers are applied, and contain immense amounts of SuperLumiNova. The night viewing on this watch is excellent if the dial is properly charged with light. As is the custom with Swiss Army watches - you'll see a smaller ring of number for military time. Large sword style hands are easy to see and read.
Attached to the watch is a thick, high-grade rubber strap. The blue strap matches the blue of the dial, and is very comfortable. It is one of the best quality rubber straps I have tried on. The Seiko’s and Citizen’s rubber straps don’t even come close. It is rubbery, but not sticky i.e. your hand moves smoothly over it, and the strap fits easily in the loops when putting the watch on. Because this rubber is made in Switzerland, I still reserve judgment on the quality. After a few months getting it used to the sun and heat of Malaysia, we will see whether it is better than the Japanese offered rubber straps.
The case is quite substantial in weight, but not large in size, just nice if you are average built. It has a very good feel on the wrist even though it is weighty. The large crown guard is purposeful and helps make the piece look quite rugged. Actually the case is quite rugged being water resistant to 500 meters. Despite the high depth rating, the screw-in caseback is a see-through caseback (sapphire crystal, no less)! This is the first watch I owned that have such an option. It isn't too common to see timepieces with exhibition casebacks that are water resistant to 500 meters. This makes the watch looks very sophisticated. Meanwhile, the crown is a screw-down.
Swiss Army uses an AR coated sapphire crystal over the dial as well as over the caseback of the watch. Swiss Army also used a higher-grade ETA 2892-2 automatic as the engine of this watch. This movement features smooth hand-winding (when you want to hand-wind the watch). The 2892 is also a thinner movement. This is one of the least expensive watches around with a 2892 in it.
For more see:
http://watchcollectionhobby.blogspot.com/2012/03/dive-master-500-black-ice-mechanical.html
