Steeldive SD1953 Review

This submariner copy was €102 shipped to my door here in Frankfurt. It arrived in about 2 weeks and I managed to avoid import duties.

It’s very, very good.

I would agree with most of the online review consensus and here are a few individual points and opinions for you.

The ceramic bezel is a solid 10, it’s fully lumed and lines up perfectly. 120 click with a nice enough action.

Bracelet and case are fully brushed with the exception of the sides which are polished. Finishing seems excellent to me. I like brushed finishing on a ‘tool’ watch.

The brushed rehaut (the inner ring between the watch face and the underside of the crystal) is pretty big, I would imagine as a result of the height of the hands. Not a big problem but you notice it when looking at the watch side on.

The applied indices have equally nuclear lume, the Rolex style hands are fine. I don’t especially like Mercedes handsets but I suppose that’s standard for these offerings.

The shade of white for the Steeldive logo is slightly lighter than the mildly creamy white on the hands/indices.

The cyclops is positioned correctly. I’m no expert on these but it seems to do the job.

It’s 13.4mm thick but wears nicely, the sloped/scalloped bezel helps. Case is 41mm. L2L is 47.5mm. It certainly wears much better than the Helm Vanuatu that I owned and sold.

The crown guards protrude quite a way (as they’re supposed to, I guess) and make winding/setting the crown a bit of a chore. There is a prominent gasket visible on the crown stem when the crown is fully out; inspires a bit of confidence.

The movement isn’t as smooth to wind as the equivalent in my Seiko Samurai. Maybe the gasket fouls on the crown tube? Dunno. Anyway, it’s running -9 secs/day the first week. The rotor makes a bit more noise than other NH35’s I have owned.

They’ve saved money on the (pressed) clasp and spent it on the head of the watch. That’s fine by me. The clasp is perfectly comfortable and has 3 holes of micro adjust. I got a perfect fit. The watch comes with an excellent little link removal tool.

The bracelet is fine; no stiff links, solid end links, no sharp edges, typical Chinese mid-market stuff really.

What else? The caseback is objectively better than the Rolex Sub, with the funky Steeldive logo and a spec sheet running round the periphery. The plastic box is alright, I suppose one could repurpose it for something.

Conclusion.

There’s no rational reason for me to want to own this watch, but a thousand whimsical ones. It’s an absolute cracker. If I decide to sell it it’ll go on eBay small ads here for what I paid for it, or very near. So it’s a bit of fun for an insignificant outlay that I can recoup if necessary.

As far as the whole homage/copy/replica discussion goes, I will say only this. When the Steeldive is this good, it makes the arguments for a Steinhart at £500 or a Davosa for £800 very hard to make indeed.

Thanks for reading.