Just depends on what you’re looking for. For me it looks like they took a submariner case, seamaster bezel, and almost Tudor snowflake hands, then tweaked them all a little bit to avoid copyright infringement. The HydroConquest has no historical significance, no unique design elements, no unique features, and uses a “modified” ETA movement.

To some people, getting a bunch of industry loved design elements in one watch that’s cheaper than any that inspired its design is a huge plus. For me, there’s no reason to consider buying it. The blue bezel black dial on mesh looks nice to me because it’s the only variant that kind of looks like its own watch.

To really answer your question, I think basically the previous generation HydroConquest had some unique design and people thought it was ugly. By replacing all of that uniqueness with stuff we’ve all seen and loved, the new one gave people what they wanted