[tony20009]

Like many folks, I have a special place in my heart for dive/dive style watches. I just really love the sportiness of them. Like many folks I have a Sub and a Seamaster and I am quite happy with both. If I buy another high-end one, it'll be a Bathyscaphe or a rare Ingy, but I don't feel any urgency to do so right now.

Recently, I ordered and received a Deep Blue dive watch. The watch I chose is the Daynight T100 Opps Tritium Flat Tubes (Lord, what name). I had some years back encountered a Deep blue (not that specific model) on the wrist of a fellow vacationer and we'd discussed it a bit over some drinks on the beach, and I was rather taken with it, but I'd refrained from buying one, mostly because I have the two aforementioned divers.

The reason why I ordered the watch was to have a first hand experience with a big watch and to have a watch with really great lume. Even though I buy HEWs, I didn't want to spend that much money on a large watch just to see if my feelings -- based on test drives in stores -- about big watches was indeed going to stay that way. Well, I have to say, at 44.5 mm, the watch is big. It's grown on me, although I'm not sure if it's done so as would a wart or whether it's as have wrinkles. Either way, I don't mind it and I'll keep it. I once ordered a Pam not realizing how big it would be and upon receiving it, put it back in the box and returned it. I think the square design of the Pam also make it feel bigger.

TIMEKEEPING:
So now that you understand the background behind the purchase, I will say that the thing that has impressed me most about the watch is just how darn nice it really is. As a sub-$500 watch, I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I am with it. Now, I know there's nothing noteworthy about the movement -- Miyota -- other than that it gets the job done. I'll say that I wore it while I was on vacation, so paying attention to how many seconds it gained/lost wasn't a priority. (That's actually not something I dwell on even for my pricier watches.)

CASE AND BRACELET CONSTRUCTION:
The thing that is noteworthy about this watch is it's case construction. The case itself could be a deadly weapon if put on the end of a string; it's very literally built like a tank. That includes the weight; it's a heavy watch. I found that's somewhat ameliorated by wearing it snugly rather than slightly lose as I typically do. Indeed, by the end of the vacation, I'd gotten used to the heft. The engraving on the caseback is lasesr sharp in its precision. The edges of everything are perfectly aligned and at once precise and smooth to the touch.

The links of the bracelet are most aptly described as ingots. (I purchased and installed the Defender bracelet, but it comes with one that is part mesh and part Defender-like links.) The ingot-style links have a satin finish and like my Constellation, they will surely acquire small hairline scratches that one will see if one looks closely, but that aren't otherwise apparent to the casual eye. The combined mesh-ingot bracelet that comes standard with the watch is also quite nice, but I felt the heft of the all-ingot bracelet better compliments the bulk of the watch visually and makes it a touch less sporty, although it's still clearly a sport watch.

One note on adding/removing bracelet links on the combo bracelet: because of the structure of the mesh portion of the bracelet, removing links becomes progressively more difficult. This happens because one has less and less grip leverage as one has to rely more on gripping the mesh section of the bracelet rather than griping links, the mesh section being more "wiggly" (for lack of a better term -- the mesh isn't by any means flimsy, quite the contrary in fact) than are the ingots. Even the watchmaker who eventually got them removed found it challenging and had to put some back on in order to have them to hold so he could remove the pin on the one farther up the bracelet.

If one's situation calls for needing to remove more than six of the ingots from the underside of the bracelet, youu're going to need something like a padded, table mounted clamp or something to hold the mesh steady while pressing on the ingot pins to release them. My wrist is between 6.5 and 7 inches around, so I needed to remove a lot of links, the bracelet being large enough to wear over a wetsuit, which is something I'll never wear. Deep Blue also offer an all mesh bracelet; however, it's removable sections appear to be about the width of two of the ingots. The all mesh bracelet uses screws rather than friction pins, so that may affect the ease of adjusting the bracelet. Despite the difficulty, it's something that need only be done once, in my case, so in the end, it's not a major detractor to me.

The size of the case is such that it won't fit under dress shirt cuffs. Then again, the watch isn't designed as a dress watch, so I have no issue with that.

LUME and DIAL:
Lastly, as one would expect, the tritium tubes are outstandingly bright and even the one on the second had is easily legible. I especially like that they are flat for being so, they don't look like cheap little "doo-dads" things applied to the watch dial and hands. They look like any other typical baton markers. For me, that's a good thing as I don't care for the blocky, digital look of tritium tube numerals.

One area where this watch falls down is the date/date aperture. It's so small that it may as well not be there. With my glasses on, I can just barely tell it's there; without them, it's not there. The date aperture on the watch is quite literally the size of a typical pinhead. I imagine the date would be irrelevant to someone while they are wearing the watch in the water. It's irrelevant to me all the time as I don't use any watch to know the date. Also the date numerals aren't lumed. Again, probably irrelevant to me, but worth knowing if the date matters to you.

CONCLUSIONS:
I would buy and/or recommend the watch to anyone seeking a sport diver. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how well built the watch is as it's billed as a professional grade dive watch. It's comfortable to wear and is great in the dark. If actually using the date feature matters, look elsewhere, unless you have unusually good vision.

This is the first Miyota moved watch I've owned and that was a factor in why I chose this model over Deep Blues ETA-driven ones. I have several ETA-inside watches so seeing how a competing brand's offering compares was something of a curiosity I had. So far, at least as far as the two weeks I wore the watch go, I don't see any difference. I haven't looked at the movement, nor will I, but as far as keeping good time, it does. Whether it will hold up as well as an ETA remains to be seen. I have one watch with 15+ year old ETA movement that has never been serviced inside and on the rare occasions I wear it, it works just fine. The DB T-100 will never be a daily wear watch for me either, so we'll see what happens. Having paid less than $500 for it, I'm not terribly concerned one way or the other.

And that's the big plus for this watch. It's awesome considering what I paid for it. No matter what one spends for a watch, there are always things one can, as I did above, nit-pick about. Fancy/pricey watches like the Bathy or Sub also aren't often 100% perfect, even if the only complaint one has is having paid so much for them and knowing that the only person who'll benefit from one's having done so is the person to whom one bequeaths the watch and then sells it at a profit (or close to profit).

I've bought other affordable watches, mostly ones intended to be dress or general use watches. Although I like them and enjoy wearing them, they really don't come close to being as nice as my high end dress watches in the same category. The T-100 comes more than close enough to a Sub -- so far at least -- that anyone not wanting to spend Sub-money on a dive watch and who buys the DB should feel that they are giving up nothing other than the date legibility, the ease of bracelet adjustment (the new Rolex Glide Lock bracelets are a treat to adjust) and "ooh la la" of brand status.

Pic and Practical Notes:

• I took a pic and it's all but pointless, which is proof that I'm just not part of the social media, Instagramming, pic taking younger generations. LOL That said, I've asked my kids to take pics of the thing, including the engraved image on the caseback, whenever they are back at home. I'll upload one once one of them has done so. Alternately, I'll drag out my 35mm and do so if I get home again before one of them does. In the interim, here's the stock photo from DB's website just so you know what the thing and the bracelet looks like.
• The tritium tubes shown hands in the stock photo, particularly the minute hand, are nowhere as near as pronounced and looking like they stand up from the hand as shown in the pic. If one looks closely under 10x magnification, one can see that they are indeed three-dimensional rather than painted on as is superluminova.
• Deep Blue have altered the date somewhat. The date on mine is done in white numerals against a black background. (...and I want you to know I went to great effort to see that that is the case. LOL)
• The little round thingy shown at the top of the bezel is easily felt by one's fingertips, but not nearly so easily seen when I don't have my glasses on and it's not dark. Where it is is apparent by the large span of space between the triangles on either side of it. With glasses on, it's no problem to see it. Ditto in the dark because it glows. The tritium that makes it glow is below the surface of the bezel. That little circular mark you see is actually a hole through which the glowing tritium embedded below can be seen.
• The bezel markings are silver colored and match the steel of the watch case. The model I chose doesn't have a lumed bezel, but other DB models do.
• The bracelets have a deployment clasp with safety. They all are the same color -- typical stainless steel.
• The links on the combo bracelet come up to about the edge of where the side of my wrist becomes the bottom of my wrist. They aren't visible as one looks down at the watch when it's being worn.
• Looking at the watch on my wrist from any angle but a full on profile view from the side, the watch doesn't look as deep/tall as the 16mm dimension suggests. That's because the case back has a curved design that allows the case to sit so that the bottom edge of the main case lies flat against one's wrist. As a result, when on my wrist, something on the order of three or four millimeters of the watch's stated height disappear.
• The end links on the ingot bracelet appear to be solid (SEL). The ones on the mesh bracelet are somehow welded/soldered to the mesh; one cannot slip anything between/underneath the end link and the mesh, not even the point of a tiny straight pin.
• The sapphire crystal is flat.
• The tritium tubes glow green, except for the one at noon, which glows yellow.

All the best.

[turd]

Wow, what a great write up. I have been looking at Deep Blue for about a year now and am fairly certain that you have helped me make up my mind whether or not to buy one.

Do you have a recommendation for a good place to purchase one?

Thx

[tony20009]

Originally Posted by turd

Wow, what a great write up. I have been looking at Deep Blue for about a year now and am fairly certain that you have helped me make up my mind whether or not to buy one.

Do you have a recommendation for a good place to purchase one?

Thx

I did it directly on their website. I don't know of another place that sells them, but if you Google "Deep Blue watch price," some alternatives might come up.

Minor update:
I had a friend wear the watch for a week to figure out how many seconds the watch gained/lost in that time. It lost about 20 seconds a day, which is about normal for a Citizen/Miyota movement. (It's also about normal for a similar grade Seiko movement such as one might find on just about any Seiko Monster or Tuna model.)

All the best.

PS
Now you see why I rarely write a full on watch review. It's a lot to do. LOL.